Just installed K7 Slot A (Athlon 900 Mhz) motherboard.
BIOS goes through boot, monitor shows CPU and attachment info, PCI device listing. Then, the message 'Building DMI Pool ..' and everything hangs. Happens each time. Have checked all cable connections and reset BIOS several times. No Luck.

Can anyone offer anything? Bad MoBo?

Might look at this:

http://www.qdi.nl/support/qanda/dmipool.htm


Have you done a fresh install of the operating
system to go along with the Mboard change?

A fdisk /mbr sure seems to be in order. Master
Boot Record is having problems.


RD.

Thanks for your response.

Can't re-install the system. Cannot use the A-drive, the CD-ROM or the hard drive. The computer never gets past the first stages of the boot-up.

Hello cjackson

I'm using diagnostic charts.
It will be rather long winded but following the thread is worth it.

START UP
1. Is the PC dead? No.
2. Did POST appear to run? Yes.
3. Were there any audible beeps?
I'll assume there was a single beep indicating successful completion of POST.
4. Is the monitor display correct? Yes.
5. Is there an error code? No.
6. This is a boot up problem.

BOOT UP
1. Does the system boot from the hard disk drive? No.
2. This is a hard disk drive problem.

HARD DISK DRIVE
1. Does the system boot from the floppy disk drive? I'll assume first that it does.
2. Run software diagnostics from a floppy to check the HDD. [If you have none do what you can wthout it. e.g. Restore a backup or reinstall Windows and borrow a known good HDD]
3. Assuming an error is reported does it appear to be software or hardware related?
a. If software related: check files, check configuration using software diagnostics.
b. If hardware related: if the signal cable is ok, replace the HDD with a known good drive and re-test with diagnostics.
b1. If the new drive passes the test the original drive was faulty.
b2. If the new [good] drive fails the test then the system board or an adaptor is faulty.

The above suggests:
1. You may have a faulty signal cable, hard drive, system board, or some adaptor.
2. Remove all non-essential peripherals/adaptors leaving only keyboard, monitor and [bad/good] HDD and attempt to boot to check this out.

I notice you appear to be saying you cannot boot from a disk in the A: drive either. The charts imply that this is a most unusual circumstance. i.e. That neither of the two drives will boot!
ok
FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
Floppy disk drive cannot be accessed.
1. Are power supply voltages ok? Test them if you can.
2. Is the signal cable ok? Test and replace if bad.
3. Replace the drive with a known good drive and re-test with diagnostics.
4. Does it test ok?
a. If yes, the original drive is faulty.
b. If no, the system board or an adaptor is faulty.

The above suggests:
Remove all non-essential peripherals/adaptors leaving only keyboard, monitor and [bad/good] floppy disk drive and attempt to boot from it to check it out.

Sylvander:

Thanks for your very detailed flow-chart. It's a good one!

I've removed HDD, CD-ROM. BIOS handles boot-up as far as video card and gives me one beep; PCI device listing shows everything (memory, I/O ports, etc.) and the floppy drive. At this point, everything stops. Sometimes I get the 'Building DMI Pool' message, sometimes not. Since I've checked out the PS voltages, cabling, board jumpering, etc. and all the I/O devices worked on the old board, the problem MUST be board or BIOS. My guess is that it's the board (the IDE circuitry may be NG, since it never accesses floppy, CD-ROM or HDD). The board was purchased from an Internet outfit that says it's 'removed from a machine or customer return' and not tested. They have agreed to give me an RMA and ship me another 'equivalent board.' It's a gamble buying untested stuff. I took it and lost.

I appreciate your help, as well as the good hints and suggestions I"ve gotten on previous problems here on the forum.

Charlie Jackson

Hello cjackson

I assume you tried this with a startup disk in the floppy drive and got no result.

Were the drive parameters all properly specified in the BIOS or alternatively [and better] set to "auto"?
e.g. Was the floppy drive properly specified?
If the drives are set to auto their detection will be shown on screen during the boot and you can check that detection is correct.

I'm just trying to make certain everything is covered.

Can you get into the BIOS setup?

If so try setting everything to the defaults, or resetting the factory defaults.......

Also try using the clear CMOS jumper to clear it if you can't get into the setup.

Thanks again for your responses.

I've reset the CMOS many times, set the BIOS for factory defaults, made sure everything was set to Automatic -- each IO device is recognized but system hangs. Everything points to bad BIOS or MoBo.

Charlie Jackson

Other Forum's I looked at taken all together seem to suggest this is caused by either a corrupted BIOS or an out-of-date one.

From
http://www.vttoth.com/dmipool.htm
QUOTE
"perhaps the BIOS was corrupt. Flashing the BIOS was not an option, since the system never reached the point where it could boot from a floppy containing the Award Flash program. I attempted to reprogram the BIOS chip using a PROM programmer, but it reported a chip failure. So I replaced the chip (a 28F1000P Flash EPROM) with a compatible UV-erasable PROM (27C1001), which I programmed with the latest BIOS update. The motherboard then booted correctly."

See also
http://www.vtel.com/support/Galaxy/DMI_Error.htm