Hi everyone, i've just completed my first build and i'm starting to regret it. I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get it to boot up but to no avail, it just keeps hanging on "verifying DMI pool data........"

List of components:

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Motherboard
Intel Q6600 Core2 Quad 2.4GHz Processr
Kingston KVR 800Mz HyperX DDR2 4GB Ram
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case
Antec EarthWatts 650Watt PSU
XFX GeFORCE 9600 GSO Profess1onal PCI-E Graphics Card
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 750GB 3.5" SATA HDD
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fatality soundcard
Sony DVD-RW

I've tried loading the BIOS to optimal defaults and once or twice it has said "update success" but does nothing else. 9 times out of 10 though it just hangs on "verifying DMI pool data". I've checked all of the leads, tested the RAM, removed various components but still get the same issue. I've even bought another HDD but the problem still persists.
Any help would be greatly appreciated cos i'm feeling well out of my depth here and starting to wonder whether or not i should have just made a nice bonfire with all the cash that i've spent. I think the phrase rhymes with clucking bell.:mad:

It sounds like you have a bad or incorrectly configured piece of hardware in there somewhere that's hanging it up.

Can you get into the BIOS? If so set the SATA configuration to IDE emulation. Don't use AHCI. I have two Seagate drives that worked fine with AHCI, but with a Samsung and then with a 750 Hitachi drive the system would hang. At first I thought the drives were bad, but I turned off AHCI and haven't had any problems since.

Take your sound card out for now. See if it gets past DMI.

If it still doesn't get past it try unhooking all drives including optical drives.

If still no go try one stick of ram, then the other if needed.

I understand your frustration with it being your first build. My first build was very stressful and didn't go very well at all. But don't worry, we will help you get it figured out. :)

It certainly sounds like 'hardware" even though you can get into the BIOS setup.

See if you get a different error with all ATA/ATAPI devices disconnected. I know you said "I've checked all of the leads" and (especially with SATA devices) this cannot be overstressed - they remain the weak link with this interface. It took me ages and ages on a recent "new build" to realise that a boot failure (following a normal POST beep) was due to a bad cable. I replaced it once with a different cable but no-go. I replaced it with another new SATA data cable and all was "hunky dory" thereafter. The power cables or bad PSU can be another esoteric cause of such errors.

Also double check that you get the same error with only the HDD selected as the boot device in the BIOS setup and that there is no disk in any floppy or CD drive.

Computer stops at verifying dmi pool data. (http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm)

If you look at Sylvander's computerhope page do not do the suggested

Once at the A:\> prompt type "sys c:" and press enter. This should report the message "File system transferred." Once transferred remove the diskette and reboot the computer.

That is only for DOS and Win9x installations and would over-write the partition boot sector of any NT booting systems.

Yes...
To by-pass any corrupted [XP?] boot files on the HDD...
And provided you have a FDD...
Make this Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP or Server 2003 boot floppy disk (http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/) and use it to attempt to get into Windows.

Do you have Windows installed to the HDD? Which version?

I don't think there is any indication that the power-on routines ever get "out of" the BIOS (http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1247123,00.html) and the DMI data is never updated - or else the BIOS never correctly detects the intended boot device. Clearing the CMOS, a bare bones boot and possibly a BIOS flash would be high on my own troubleshooting list.

Clearing the CMOS, a bare bones boot and possibly a BIOS flash would be high on my own troubleshooting list.
Agreed. Also would replace the CMOS battery as a matter of principle. That would probably be the first thing I would do just to eliminate it as a problem.