Help New Build Stuck at Verifying DMI Pool Data

[btc2008]

Hello,

I just built the following:

AMD Phenom X4 9950
4 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX All Solid Capacitor AMD Motherboard
Western Digital Caviar GP WD5000AACS 500GB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Radeon 4850 512 MB
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner - OEM
PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

So my problem is this: When I turn it on to boot, I get this long list stating the PCI-E connections, then I get this message, "Verifying DMI Pool Data" and it just hangs there and doesn't do anything. Technically I don't think I got to the POST screen.

I thought it may have been the HDD (it's OEM and it came with no discs for drivers, is that normal?) because when I tried to boot from the Vista DVD to install the operating system, it asked where I wanted to install it, but it didn't recognize the HDD (I couldn't choose it). I have no idea where the drivers would be if the OEM HDD didn't come with a DVD.

I'm kind of freaking out because I have no idea what's going on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[MidianSpawned]

I found this while I was looking around the net. It has a bunch of suggestions. Hope it helps.

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/computer/dmi.html

 

[btc2008]

I found this while I was looking around the net. It has a bunch of suggestions. Hope it helps.

http://www.duxcw.com/faq/computer/dmi.html

Tried those, but to no avail. Thanks though.

I tried reseting the CMOS and putting it to factory settings, but I get this message:
"Verifying DMI data pool...Update new DMI settings!"

Then it just hangs there.

Also, does anyone know where on the Windows Vista the drivers would be located for a HDD? I looked at the manual for my WD hard drive online, I have an OEM one, and it said the drivers would be included with any Windows install DVD.

 

[btc2008]

Also, I should mention that I did NOT hear a beep when I turned it on for the first time. It just stalls at a screen like this, except has no Update Success after the DMI message, it just hangs there:

 

[MidianSpawned]

You could try removing all cables and drives and extra cards. Leave 1 stick of ram, PSU, Graphics card, monitor, keyboard and mouse. That is the minimum to post and enter bios (perhaps you could leave mouse out). If it enters bios, then start adding your drives and extras one at a time til you find the offending part. If it still wont post and get to the bios then it looks like you will need a friends PC or a second one at home to test your parts outside of the motherboard. If all your parts other than the motherboard work in another rig, then there's a good chance your mobo is shot in some fashion. As an extra precaution, if it doesn't post stripped out, try another stick of ram just to be sure the first isn't the dubious part. That's all I have I'm afraid, good luck with it, you might just have to bite the bullet and spend some green or RMA the mobo if it is still under warranty.

 

[Newf]

You could try removing all cables and drives and extra cards. Leave 1 stick of ram, PSU, Graphics card, monitor, keyboard and mouse. That is the minimum to post and enter bios (perhaps you could leave mouse out). If it enters bios, then start adding your drives and extras one at a time til you find the offending part. If it still wont post and get to the bios then it looks like you will need a friends PC or a second one at home to test your parts outside of the motherboard. If all your parts other than the motherboard work in another rig, then there's a good chance your mobo is shot in some fashion. As an extra precaution, if it doesn't post stripped out, try another stick of ram just to be sure the first isn't the dubious part. That's all I have I'm afraid, good luck with it, you might just have to bite the bullet and spend some green or RMA the mobo if it is still under warranty.

Good advice. This issue is NOT related to Vista, hard disk drivers or software in general.
You need to get a POST first. No hard or optical drives need be connected to get to POST and then the message asking where to boot from.

 

[btc2008]

You could try removing all cables and drives and extra cards. Leave 1 stick of ram, PSU, Graphics card, monitor, keyboard and mouse. That is the minimum to post and enter bios (perhaps you could leave mouse out). If it enters bios, then start adding your drives and extras one at a time til you find the offending part. If it still wont post and get to the bios then it looks like you will need a friends PC or a second one at home to test your parts outside of the motherboard. If all your parts other than the motherboard work in another rig, then there's a good chance your mobo is shot in some fashion. As an extra precaution, if it doesn't post stripped out, try another stick of ram just to be sure the first isn't the dubious part. That's all I have I'm afraid, good luck with it, you might just have to bite the bullet and spend some green or RMA the mobo if it is still under warranty.

Thanks; I tried what you said, just having one RAM stick, PSU, CPU, GPU, and keyboard and monitor, but I get the the following message:

"Verifying DMI Pool Data......
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER."

Then nothing happens. At this point, I might just take it to a local computer place and have them figure it out, everything is working, but for some reason it won't post.

 

[Newf]

If you are getting the message:
"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
Your system has posted. Put your Vista cd in the drive and press enter.
Maybe you don't have a speaker in your system to give you a "beep"
If the cd does not start, restart the system and hit delete as it tries to post.
You will then find yourself in the BIOS setup system. From there you can change the boot priority (see the manual on how to do this).

 

[btc2008]

If you are getting the message:
"DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
Your system has posted. Put your Vista cd in the drive and press enter.
Maybe you don't have a speaker in your system to give you a "beep"
If the cd does not start, restart the system and hit delete as it tries to post.
You will then find yourself in the BIOS setup system. From there you can change the boot priority (see the manual on how to do this).

Thank you, but then when I'm the step in the Vista install where it says to select a hard drive onto which to install the OS, my HDD is not recognized.

 

[MidianSpawned]

Newf is right, if you are now getting that message then your system has indeed posted, try what Newf suggests first because I have heard of bad sectors in the reserved portion of your hard disk causing the exact problems you have talked about. If you have a floppy drive you could try HDD Regenerator just to scan for problems as it is file system unaware. Alternatively if you have another hard disk, try to use that. But in combination try everything, the only dumb possibilities are ones you don't look at. Ockhams Razor is always right..lol

Good luck with it.

 

[MidianSpawned]

I forgot to say, check that the hard drive is seen in your bios and that its bootable as opposed to disabled. Also AHCI is known to play hell with hard drives and optical drives vanishing when installing XP and Vista. See if you have a compatibility mode (ide) mode in your bios and enable that, was ACHI mode switched after your last install? This can cause hastles.. reformat or replace your hard drive and then enable ACHI then insert your vista disk as it is natively supported on vista.
Once again good luck.

 

[btc2008]

I forgot to say, check that the hard drive is seen in your bios and that its bootable as opposed to disabled. Also AHCI is known to play hell with hard drives and optical drives vanishing when installing XP and Vista. See if you have a compatibility mode (ide) mode in your bios and enable that, was ACHI mode switched after your last install? This can cause hastles.. reformat or replace your hard drive and then enable ACHI then insert your vista disk as it is natively supported on vista.
Once again good luck.

Thanks for your help, but I have no idea what you just said, about the compatibility mode in the bios. I do know for a fact, however, that ACHI was DISABLED and I had the following settings in bios:

OnChip SATA Controller = Enabled
OnChip SATA Type = Native IDE
X OnChip SATA port 4/5 Type = IDE (grayed out)

So, with that, I don't think that ACHI is set. Also, in regards to the HDD being 'seen,' I am not sure how you define that. When I go CMOS standard features, I see the following:

IDE Channel 0 Slave= SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner
IDE Channel 0 Master= [None]
IDE Channel 1 Slave= WD5000AACS 500GB

So, i think it's being seen. But, um, is the problem that they are in slave SATA ports? I am not sure how to remedy that? My MOBO has 6 SATA connectors, arranged like this, according to PIN value, with the SATAII numbers in parentheses:

7-1 7-1 (1) (3)
1-7 1-7 (0) (4)
7-1 (5)
1-7 (4)

The DVD is in 3 and the HDD is in 4.

 

[Newf]

Thank you, but then when I'm the step in the Vista install where it says to select a hard drive onto which to install the OS, my HDD is not recognized.

OK, at this point in the Vista set-up you have selected a clean install and get a window that says: Where do you want to install Windows? If no disk is shown (even though there should be a selection for Disk 0 Unallocated Space), then there are options to refresh, load driver and advanced options (if I remember right). Try these. If none work then shut down the system and move the hard drive SATA connector to a new position on the motherboard and try again. Remember that so far you build has gone well. You got a POST! You may have gotten a bum hard drive, or maybe your motherboard wants to see the boot drive in the first controllers channel.

 

[btc2008]

OK, at this point in the Vista set-up you have selected a clean install and get a window that says: Where do you want to install Windows? If no disk is shown (even though there should be a selection for Disk 0 Unallocated Space), then there are options to refresh, load driver and advanced options (if I remember right). Try these. If none work then shut down the system and move the hard drive SATA connector to a new position on the motherboard and try again. Remember that so far you build has gone well. You got a POST! You may have gotten a bum hard drive, or maybe your motherboard wants to see the boot drive in the first controllers channel.

I may be jumping the gun on this, but by some serendipitous google magic and Tom's Hardware Forums, I managed to fix the problem. Do not ask me the logic behind it, but there was something up with the partitioning that disabled the HDD from being recognized, but the procedure below, after a restart, fixed it, and Vista installed

From You cannot select or format a hard disk partition when you try to install Windows Vista

Method 8: Use the Diskpart.exe utility to clean the disk, and then run Windows Vista Setup again
If you have tried all the methods that are listed in this section and the problem persists, use the Diskpart.exe utility to clean the disk, and then run Windows Vista Setup again.

Note Use this method only if you want to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista. When you clean the hard disk, it is formatted. All partitions and all data on the hard disk are permanently removed. We strongly recommend that you back up the files on the hard disk before you clean the disk.

To use the Diskpart.exe utility to clean the hard disk, follow these steps:
Insert the DVD into the DVD drive.
On the disk selection screen, press SHIFT+F10. A Command Prompt window opens.
Type diskpart, and then press ENTER to open the diskpart tool.
Type list disk, and then press ENTER. A list of available hard disks is displayed.
Type sel disk number, and then press ENTER. number is the number of the hard disk that you want to clean. The hard disk is now selected.
Type det disk, and then press ENTER. A list of partitions on the hard disk is displayed. Use this information to verify that the correct disk is selected.
Make sure that the disk does not contain required data, type clean all, and then press ENTER to clean the disk. All the partitions and all the data on the disk is permanently removed.
Type exit, and then press ENTER to close the diskpart tool.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the Refresh button to update the disk selection screen. This step lists the disk.
Run Windows Vista Setup to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista.

Again, I am indebted to all of you for all your time and help! It looks like I didn't screw up this first build after all

 

[MidianSpawned]

Congrats, glad everything turned out ok for you!!!