Help! "Verifying DMI Pool Data...."

Message updated Aug 13 1998, 6:35 p.m. EST

wayneb and others, I am unsure how to respond directly to you and "lock" my question with you. That process is nonintuitive and I cannot seem to find the method in the Experts Exchange FAQ and Help. So I will continue to post updates and replies here.

I removed the CMOS battery, and booted without it. As expected, I got a CMOS checksum error. I pressed F1 to continue booting. The Verifying DMI Pool Data message appeared and stayed, as per usual. I shut down, replaced the battery, booted, went to system setup, and reset the BIOS and Chipset defaults. I saved the changes to the CMOS, and rebooted. The CMOS operated properly (no checksum error), but the Verifying DMI Pool Data error persists. Ugh.

More details:
Only one card is in place: a Matrox Mystique 220 PCI video card. Other system configuration details:
* Intel 200 MHz MMX CPU
* 64 MB system ram (brand, unknown; I got this RAM cheaply at Onsale.com a few weeks ago ... this may be the source of the problem, now that I think about it ... could cheap, generic system RAM cause a DMI error?)
* two Maxtor EIDE hard drives
* floppy drive
* IDE internal ZIP drive
* keyboard and serial mouse (connected)
* I have verified at FIC web site that all of my jumper settings (voltage; CPU speed; CPU clock rate) are correctly set

That's my news so far. Any ideas about what I should do next? I am *very* grateful for your advice.

Eric


Message updated, Aug 13 1998, 6:04 p.m. EST

wayneb and others,

      First: thanks for your quick and expert replies. My problems persist. More details:

      I did check out the FIC web site and the PA-2005 support page. I cannot find the CMOS clear
      jumper! The jumper is not specified either on the PA-2005 support page, or in the manual that
      accompanied my PA-2005 board. I have closely inspected this PA-2005 mainboard and I have
      identified all of the jumpers upon it: none are the CMOS clear jumper. Any ideas about that, or
      about how I can clear the CMOS without a jumper? (I think I can just pull out the battery, correct?)
      (Or douse it in water?)

      Also, the sticker attached to my Award CMOS chip is marked 6.16J900, an older BIOS version,
      so I downloaded the latest BIOS. Yet how can I flash my BIOS if I cannot boot my computer, even
      to the A: prompt?

      I am grateful for any assistance.

Original question:
Hi. I have a new FIC PA-2005 AT mainboard. I cannot boot with this mainboard. I am pretty certain that
I have all of the components connected correctly (I have assembled computers many times before). But
when I try to boot with this motherboard, I get a message that reads:

Verifying DMI Pool Data ....

This message simply stays on the screen, and I can never get to a C: or an A: prompt. As the system starts up,
I can see it recognizing all of its drives. Everything seems to work fine, except for this DMI problem. FIC tech
support has ignored my questions. Does anyone have any ideas about how to resolve this problem?

Grateful for any help,

Eric Bourland
eb@hwaet.com