[kaman5066]

Hi, .... help! I realize the obvious answer is to just buy a new computer,
but I really can't.... All of a sudden my pc wont boot? I've tried it with the startup disk (win98) in the floppy and the bios is set to read A then CD-ROM then C. It starts to read it then stops, and ALWAYS hangs up at the same point , right as it says "verifying DMI pool data" whatever that is?
I can get into the bios setup if that helps. And I tried to boot from my cd-rom but with the same results. Can anyone help please?

Thanks Bob

Edited by kaman5066, 09 May 2005 - 04:38 PM.

[Advertisements]

Try removing any pci cards you have in the system. Clear the bios using the Clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard. If you don't know how to do that & you don't have the motherboard manual to find it out, then go into the bios & load fail-safe or default settings for everything.
Depending on your bios, this option should be on the menu screen (if there is one) or on each individual screen/section otherwise.

Try & boot up the system again (change the boot order in the bios if necessary to floppy, CD, IDE 0) .Let me know what happens before we go any further.

[Samm]

Try removing any pci cards you have in the system. Clear the bios using the Clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard. If you don't know how to do that & you don't have the motherboard manual to find it out, then go into the bios & load fail-safe or default settings for everything.
Depending on your bios, this option should be on the menu screen (if there is one) or on each individual screen/section otherwise.

Try & boot up the system again (change the boot order in the bios if necessary to floppy, CD, IDE 0) .Let me know what happens before we go any further.

[kaman5066]

Thank you for the help. But so far no difference...
I cleared the bios using the jumper (found THAT using the old trial and error method) I changed the boot order to "A" - "D" then "C" too.
It wants to read my floppy on most boot attempts but then screen goes to that DMI pool data thing and everything stops still? on a few occasions though it says that I have a "non-systems disk" in the "A" drive. I've used at least 4 different win-98 start up disks in it though, I can't believe they're all bad,
... but who knows.

anyway, thanks for taking the time to try, its appreciated
really.
Bob

p.s. I also removed my PCI cards as you suggested
(except for video card which is PCI)

Edited by kaman5066, 12 May 2005 - 09:59 AM.

[Samm]

You may have a faulty floppy drive in that case. If possible, test the floppy drive & its cable on another system. At least they are a lot cheaper to replace than the entire computer!

The only other thing you could try, is disconnect all the hard drive & CDROM drive cables from the motherboard & disconnect the power from the drives. Then see if the machine wil boot. Altenatively, if you have a bootable CD, try booting from that.

[kaman5066]

Ok I'll try those options in an hour (when I get off work and go home) I have a few different floppy drives and cables I can try too.
I'll do all the diconnecting and booting you advised too. Thanks again (really) Bob

P.S. (Blair is still a sentimental favorite over here though

Edited by kaman5066, 13 May 2005 - 05:11 PM.