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OT -- I need Computer Help

Sorry for asking computer questions here, but you guys seem to know so much more than gears and rocks ...

I got a computer for free that I'm sure had virual enhancements affecting its operation.

It is running WinXP Pro with an AMD K6 processor running at 475 Mhz. I reformatted the HD by installing it as a Slave (moved a jumper) in another machine. Now, I'm trying to put it back into the original machine as the Master (reset the applicable jumper), but the original machine now hangs on Boot with a message that says VERIFYING DMI POOL DATA.

I can get into the BIOS, and I've set the Boot Sequence to CD>A>C but the bootable CD never starts because the Pool Data is not being read. I'm lost here, what should I be doing?

Can I turn the HD into a Slave again, and put anything into it and then reinstall it as a Master into the original machine? If so, what do I put on it?

THE REASON I THINK THE MACHINE WAS VIRUALLY ENHANCED The Task Manager reported in the Performance tab that the processor was running at 100% all of the time. I went into the various settings in Task Manager to set the priorities for runing processes to the minimal settings and smallest possible time slices, but nothing would let the processor take a rest. The result of the processor running at 100% was that any new command (mouse click) would take a considerable delay before it would be processed -- the new command would have to wait for the next available time slice to appear, but this could take several seconds, and it was possible to have several mouse clicks stored in a queue and have them process in a batch.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland
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Check your BIOS setup and see if the motherboard is seeing all drives if not it may be a bad connection on the ribbon cable or an incompatible cable.

If I understand your problem you are trying to install a new HD and it was in another computer? You formatted the drive in one computer and now you want it as a master in another. Was the drive you formatted NTFS or FAT32? If it was NTFS there is a partition on it that formatting does not remove and if it is being used in a FAT 32 machine it won't work. You need to do an FDisk delete all partitions, them do a full format.

You will need to boot from XP pro install disk or

formatting link
download the boot disk for xp and do a clean install' Coasty

Reply to
Coasty

BIOS sees the drive. The drive worked before it formatted it, but I thought it was heavily loaded with viruses (virii). Now, if shows up during boot, but the 'puter hangs with the message, Verifying DMI Pool Data.

Not exactly. I had the drive installed in Computer 1. I put it into Computer

2 as a slave to format it, then put it back into Computer 1. Now I want to load Win XP back on, but I can't get past the boot sequence.

You formatted the drive in one computer and now you

NTFS. Fdisk doesn't work in XP. I think I did a Full Format. The format initially dod a Quick Format that was complete in about 10 seconds. The Full Format took about 10 minutes.

The trouble I'm having is that the Boot Disk (Win XP Install CD) isn't being read from. It appears during Boot, but the message, "Verifying DMI Pool Data" is holding me up. I don't know what DMI Pool Data is ...

I'll try that link and let you know what happened ...

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Are there 2 drives on the same cable(CD and DVD drives included)? If so, make sure the other drive isn't set to cable select. I see that on a lot of machines. Also, this is an older machine, so make sure the BIOS is the latest version for the motherboard. If still no joy, then remove all the hardware you do not need for the machine to boot, i.e. CD drive, sound card, modem, NIC card, etc. I know you won't be able to install anything without the CD drive, but it is just to eliminate the possibility of an older piece of hardware taking an IRQ that is causing a conflict.

If it will boot OK without the CD drive on the same cable as the hard drive, you may just want to run the CD drive as a master on the secondary IDE channel with a second cable. This will boost your throughput a little anyway.

In the end, if it will boot without the CD drive, you can still install XP by putting the hard drive in another machine, and copying the I386 folder from the XP CD to the hard drive. You will need to boot to a floppy disc if you use this method. You can use a Win98 disk.

  1. boot to floppy
  2. at the A:> type cd c:/i386
  3. type winnt to begin the install from the hard drive folder.

Chris

Reply to
c

formatting link
> download the boot disk for xp and do a clean install'> >

Just an FYI for you

formatting link
Chris

Reply to
c

What this is saying is that what hardware is expected is not there. That's because you imaged your hard drive from another machine. That won't work both from a hardware stand point and a windows XP standpoint. You must build a XP drive on the machine it's going to be used in. You need to refdisk the drive and start from scratch with the XP cd on that machine.

JoBo

Reply to
Jo Bo

Why did you have to reformat the HD in another computer? What was the OS of ther other computer that you did this in?

Troy

Reply to
Troy

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

Thanks, this did the trick ...

  1. If you changed the hardware just before this problem occurred (e.g., installed a new hard disk drive), unchange it.

I didn't install a new hard drive as much as I removed the HD and took it to another machine and reformatted it, then put it back in. It probably looks just like new hardware though. I don't quite see how I can "unchange it," because I can't go back to the old format, and the machine won't work with no hard drive at all.

  1. If you installed a new hard disk drive, set the motherboard CMOS Setup to Auto for the drive type. You may have to disconnect the drive first.

I set the HD to None, then let the machine sort out reality.

  1. Enable "Reset Configuration Data" (may be "Force Update ESCD" in some CMOS Setuups) in the motherboard CMOS Setup PNP/PCI configuration. (Rebooting will automatically disabled it after it has done its thing.)

I think this was the real fix that I needed.

I was working with the assumption that the Win XP Pro CD that I have was a suitable boot disk, but this seems to be a false assumption. I can now boot with a floppy that I made from Win XP, but this floppy doesn't have any drivers that let the CD be found by the OS. When I select any drive (input :\), the message returned is, "invalid drive specification."

It looks like all I need now is a bootable CD and I'm home free.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Because XP hasn't got "DOS" in it, and the command set all comes from the disk that needs to be formatted. XP does not allow one to format the same drive that is providing the command set.

The other machine is XP Home, but I plan on ending up with XP Pro on the drive that I'm fussing with. The drive had XP Pro on it when I started.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

My drive uses a jumper if it's a Master, and no jumper if it's a Slave.

And That would throw your "VERIFYING DMI POOL DATA":

I follow that, but it seems my Win XP CD isn't bootable.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

I have a disk image of XP Pro with Service Pack 2 slipstreamed into it already. If you want it, let me know and I will give you a link to download it. I know it is bootable and works properly. If you need XP Home, I have that one also slipstreamed.

Chris

Reply to
c

Shoot the link for XP Pro to jstrickland at ez2 dot net. I've got a broadband connection, so I can download pretty easily.

Before you do that, can I use a New Installation Win 95 CD to get the machine going, then use my Win XP Upgrade CD to get to XP Pro?

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

Jeff Strickland proclaimed:

Typical cause is there are no bootable files on any drives that the BIOS has been set up to attempt to boot from. Or the bootable file is corrupt.

Got a rescue floppy or known bootable CD, with a bios that can boot from a CD?

Reply to
Lon

Jeff Strickland proclaimed:

Dim recollection that XP is almost as bad as Sun Solaris here and you

*might* be able to move a boot disk from one computer to the other only if the two are exactly identical in hardware, right down to the slot number and revisions. Otherwise the dmi hardware interface is gonna bite you and refuse to boot.

Microsoft kindly notes that "this is a hardware problem..."

Try changing your BIOS temporarily to read ONLY from the CD.

Reply to
Lon

Yeah, I know. But my drive is different. The picture on my drive says no jumper if a Slave, and the jumper goes on a set of pins if a Master. This is a drive specific specifcation, they are different.

I'm not arguing the point, I'm only trying to say that I know what you are saying, and I read the directions on my drive, and followed them. The jumper was there and I had to move it, then I moved it back when I was finished.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

I thought I did, but apparently that thought is wrong. Have you got one?

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

I recommend NOT doing this, unless nothing else will work. Normally doing an upgrade installation causes problems. Also, Win95 does not qualify as an upgrade product for XP according to this page:

formatting link
This may be a problem too, because now that I think of it, you're going to need a win98 or newer CD to get the upgrade disk to start installing.

Jeff, your email bounced, so shoot me an email at snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com and I will send you the download link.

While I am at it, if any of you want a gmail invite, let me know, I have at least 100 of them left yet.

Chris

Reply to
c

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