We also had this problem. It occurred after switching cases from a mini tower to a mid tower. We got a case with a bad power supply. Both boards we used in the new case we guess got fried. When either board was put back in the old case they hung at the verifying dmi pool data. We got an old board(one that was never in the new case), and it booted fine. However we get a PS-2 error now. Anyway....Friends of ours (MCSE's) just bowed their heads when we said our system hung at verifying dmi pool data. Either a bad board or bad HD they said. Good luck to those of you out there with this error...I haven't seen any fixes for it besides buying new parts.

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I to have this damned demon on my puter!! what the hell is this??? all i did was swap my amd k6 166 for an amd k6-2 266, which i found i could'nt do on my dfi 586itbd mobo. my mobo will not support the k6-2's,only the k6's. so i figured i'd just exchange for the correct cpu and in the meantime just put my 166 back in and all would be well WRONG!!! now when i try to boot istart going through POST and BOOOMMM! total freeze at 'verifying dmi crap' PLEEEZEE!!! can anyone HELP???!!! ,o

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I just got this error after installing NT on my P-II 350, AOPEM mobo with 4.4 G HD. NT loaded fine after reformatting the main partition, and then I was going through several restarts as I was loading various software packages and drivers. Then on one "routine" restart, this error appeared out of nowhere. I'm sad to see that no one seems to have a fix. PLEASE respond directly if you have any suggestions.

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My Abit motherboard says DMI stands for "Desktop Management Interface". Have you tried to take out the battery in your CMOS?!? It may reset everything!? I really don't know if that is good or bad, but sounds like it couldn't hurt! Good luck. Pat

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Well, I too have been cursed. This has happened to me before, but never this bad. I have been upgrading my main PC, and setting up a 166 with hand-me-downs. I have sucessfully booted (on my main PC) with a WD 4.3Gig hd, but when I try on the 166 it freezes at building DMI Pool. I have tried everything I know. I have tried booting to the floppy, NOT, I have enabled "report no floppy win95" and unplugged my floppy, nothing. I have even pulled all cards except video, and also all but 8 meg of ram. NOTHING. I am starting to think it is a bad motherboard. The kicker is, this happened all of a sudden, and still isn't fixed. I have tried "I assume" everything in BIOS , cache>no Cache, defaults, whatever, even booting without the HD hooked up. No errors, just a friggin hang from hell. I have let it go to see if it recovers, NOPE. I am at a loss. The only thing I can think of is a bad MB or BIOS chip. Oh, I have removed the battery, and it reset everything in the bios, but still same thing. I would love to try flashing the bios, but the damned thing won't read the floppy drive. I suppose if noone can give any more suggestions it will be a candidate for a shock test. SEVERE shock test. Like from 10 stories!!! Thanks in advance. Fixr

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Could anyone explain why removing the battery to clear cmos fixes the "freeze" What would corrupt it to start with.

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I am having the same very frustrating problem with my Soyo Tek SY-5EMA+ MB (configured with a 450 K6-2, 128 MB PC100 RAM, Award BIOS). It hangs up at the "Verifying DMI Pool Data......" portion of boot up. Everything seems to be working up to this point (no error beeps, messages,etc.)I have also searched in vain for an answer but with no luck. I've noticed that the although it will say it detected the hard dries and floppy drives and there is power to them, the drives are never activated and the drive lights do not come on (nor does the hard dirve/floppy make any sound what so ever). I do know all these component work to begin with. I went as far as removing hard drives altogether to see if the system will error out..and it doesn't! It just says in my BIOS summary portion of the boot up ( the Award Software System Configuration) that there is no primary or secondary drives and it goes to the DMI pooling data and hangs. I have tried many things (some out of desperation)including: swapping drives, swapping drive cables, disconnecting drives altogether, reseating the memory, moving memory to other slots, reseating CPU, changing power cable connections, clearing CMOS through jumpers, reseting BIOS settings from within the BIOS, Resetting setup defaults within BIOS settings, changing hard drive detection modes in BIOS, setting BIOS manually, changing boot up sequences from A,C,SCSI to C only, C, A, scsi, etc. I have also tried the old standby of swearing and screaming at it to work. When I do make a major configuration changes, it updates the ESCD just fine, right before the DMI Pooling, then nothing. Most of these things which I have done have been suggested on various postings around the internet on this subject (maybe not the swearing/screaming part) and nothing works. What else is there to do?? I'm beginning to like Fixr idea of the shock test.

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Aaaarrrggggg!!!! The ONLY solution I have found is to LOW LEVEL the HDD. I have NO IDEA why this worked, but I used the BIOS low-level utility and VOILA!

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I believe the system BIOS remembers specific things about the hardware configuartion, such as where the cards are located, etc. I believe that's part of what DMI does. Once upon a time I was told to use a utility to clear out the DMI Pool. Removing the battery from the BIOS should have the same effect. I don't recall what corrupts the DMI Pool, but I have run into that situation before. Unfortunately at the moment I'm looking for that info I used last time because I seem to be in the same situation again with another machine, but I'm not finding it...that's how I happened upon this thread.

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I just built a AMD-K62-350 mhz computer and I was loading Win 98 up for the operating system and when it started over it came up to the verifying DMI pool data and hung there forever. It never unsticks it self. I have read all of the suggestions and I am not sure what is causing this headache in my machine. If there ever is a solution, will someone e-mail it to me? That would be great.

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I had the Verifying DMI Pool Data problem as well. Tried several things like: Reseting all Default settings BIOS settings to no avail. Finally i took out the battery unpluged it and let it alone without any power what os ever and waited 5 minutes. I restared the 120mhz Premio and it started to detect hardrives, cd-rom,etc.. and best of all, i was able to get to the bootable diskette and format my harddrive.

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I've had the same problem a few times. All I do is go in to the bios and select 'load bios defaults' and 'load setup defaults'. I reset all the drives to 'auto' (god help you if you have a drive that you have to configure manually -- thankfully that's very unlikely unless it's at least 4 or 5 years old). Then save and reboot. That cleared it up for me. Alternately, instead of removing the battery, almost all motherboards have a 'clear cmos' jumper you only have to close once when the power is off. This achieves the same effect as removing the battery. Refer to your manufacturer's manual or website to locate the jumper. I find crossing my fingers helps, too. :)

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Oh and I forgot; before clearing your cmos, you might want to check the status of a couple of things in your bios: 1. See what your com ports are setup for (usually in the 'peripherals' menu). Sometimes modems like to cause headaches if com2 isn't disabled. 2. Check what your parallel port mode is, especially if you have a scanner. Reset these settings after you load your defaults. Ciao

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I now know I am not alone anymore, stuck in a room with a cursed motherboard that for no apparent reason, one day started up with the notorious 'verifying dmi pool data' freeze up. I changed nothing on the system and yet for no reason, one day the demon has been welcomed into my home against my will. All attempts to fix are in vein. there is nothing we can do to stop this curse. Thank you all for the many suggestions, but may I offer one last... Burn your Motherboard. This May be our only hope. Thank you and beware the curse. I I -----\--+---/------ \ I / \/ /\ / \ / \ curse of the DMI witch

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I hope y'all got this fixed, it happened to me today and I fixed it through a solution I found on this very board... Try making a boot disk, booting to the a: prompt, going to the c: drive, and running 'fdisk /mbr' I had problems booting from the a: drive, had to reconfigure the bios to boot in order of a, c, scsi instead of cdrom, a, c. Beats me. If anyone figures out for sure WHAT causes this, let me know.

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I'm having the same problem. No new programs or hardware. It just did it one boot up & has ever since. Swifty, what exactly happens when you run 'fdisk/mbr'?

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I've just had this problem too, i tried lots of things before i gave up and got my main board switched to a new one... A week b4 the computer crashed i bought a SCSI burner, maybe it had something to do with the problem...i dunno.

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I just had a system I was building give me the DMI of death. I was using a new 4.3GB Samsung and I noticed the BIOS was a little slow in detecting it in the 'AUTO DETECTION'. I put in a new 4.3GB Fujitsu, every works perfect now. After reading about this all over the net, I think there are numerous things that can cause this bastard of an error. Good luck.

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DMI seems to be a never ending story ! I'm happy i don't have this problem. Could anyone explain what is "DMI pool data" and what it is used to ? Many thanks

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I have the same problem. Good thing about my case is that I know the source of the problem, MY HARD DRIVE. I had accidentally let Norton Utility do some fix on it at boot up (against the warning of my bios, stupid!). I purchased a new hard drive, and everything works fine. My problem is that i have some very valuable data on my old hard drive, and need to find a way of restoring it. If you know of a way to recover a hard drive from 'veryfying dmi pool data ....... freeze', let me know. I am thinking about looking into a professional hard drive repair service. Thanks

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Dear Fellow Cursed DMI Pool Members, The following is a bulletin I copied and pasted here for your reference. Hope it helps! The Desktop Management Interface (DMI) is a new method of managing computers in an enterprise. The main component of DMI is the Management Information Format Database, or MIFD (the DMI Pool Data). This database contains all the information about the computing system and its components. At times, some systems may experience hang conditions after partitioning, formatting and initial bootup of a hard drive. The message, "Verifying DMI Pool Data" appears and the system hangs. This condition may continue after the drive has been removed. ! WARNING ! ALL SUGGESTIONS LISTED IN THIS INFORMATION BULLETIN ARE BIOS RELATED. FOR A PERMANENT SOLUTION, MAXTOR RECOMMENDS THAT USERS CONSULT THEIR SYSTEM OR MOTHERBOARD MANUFACTURER FOR BIOS UPGRADES. Suggestions to Resolve the Condition: 1.Apply power to the computer. 2.Access the system BIOS. Set the drive type as None or Not Installed. Load BIOS Defaults Load SETUP Defaults 3.Save the BIOS changes and reboot the PC to a System Boot Diskette. 4.Shut down the PC after the memory count is displayed. 5.Reconnect the power and interface cables to the hard drive. 6.Access the System BIOS. 7.Auto-Detect the hard drive. Ensure that the LBA Mode option is enabled. 8.Save the BIOS changes and boot the PC with a System Diskette. 9.Partition and format the hard drive via the operating system. 10.Reboot the system. On bootup, the screen should read: Verifying DMI Pool Data Update Successful The system should continue booting normally. Other Possible Solutions: 1.Apply power to the computer. 2.Access the System BIOS. 3.Disable both the Internal and External CPU Cache. These features are located in either the "BIOS Features" or "Advanced Settings" options of the BIOS Setup. NOTE: Consult the System or Motherboard User's Manual for exact location of the Internal and External CPU Cache settings. 4.Save the BIOS changes and reboot the PC to a System Boot Diskette. On bootup, the screen should read: Verifying DMI Pool Data Update Successful The system should continue booting normally. 5.After the system successfully boots, re-start the PC and access the system BIOS. 6.Enable the External CPU Cache. This feature is located in the "BIOS Features" or "Advanced Settings". NOTE: Consult the System or Motherboard User's Manual for exact location of the External CPU Cache setting. ! WARNING ! User's MUST re-enable this feature for optimal system performance. 7.Save the BIOS changes and reboot the PC to a System Boot Diskette. On bootup, the screen should read: Verifying DMI Pool Data Update Successful The system should continue booting normally. NOTE: If the aforementioned suggestions fail to resolve the issue, contact the system or motherboard manufacturer to: Remove the "Clear CMOS" Jumper and reset the system BIOS Obtain a Flash BIOS Upgrade

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can't believe all this. I had the problem on friday (last min. to go home) - I searched the web and found this page. Fine. I tried resetting the PNP bios at startup as stated earlier (PCI configuration -reset confo data enabled)" --> nothing. I cleared the CMOS by putting out the jumper. Nothing happened. I even put out the battery -->nothing. Put another HD to boot. OK. I then put the "hanging up" HD as slave. cool no problem. And then accessed my slave drive as D: and my old fat drive appeared. Cool. Then I issued this: SYS C: D: and a new Win98 (dos) system files where copied to my slave drive first partition. I think that this was just a simple MBR corruption, that a normal BIOS could have intercepted stating "NO ROM BIOS" or any strange message like that. Like in the happy 386 y and 486 days. The question IS: Why was the MBR corrupted? I only know that I turned the pc on 5:57 (3 mins. to go home from office). That's all folks. ps: If this is the solution to the riddle, email me, just to know if I am right.

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fun eh, I just installed win nt 4, on a partition drive shared with win 98. nt installed ok, but at the point it asks to remove all floppies and cd's, then reboots, it hangs forever at the dmi pool screen. new board, hd, video card, cd-rom, do these fixes apply to a dual boot system, am I using my win98 boot disk to reset bios defaults? different fat system... feel free to email me with any and all help.

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Same thing - I had to go into the BIOS, change the boot sequence to 'C Only' - it worked. Boots up fine. The cause was adding a SCSI scanner...Good Luck!

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Try making a boot disk fron another computer and boot to a:. Then type sys a: c: This has worked for me in the past. compyr

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I had this problem last summer. Installed NT on a formatted drive and when the install rebooted it came up with the "verifying dmi pool data" freeze. The culprit turned out to be the stoned_int virus, a boot sector virus that corrupted the mbr. Cleaned the virus with a cheyenne rescue disk and no further problems.

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These DMI problems CAN be caused by a HD with a hardware defect, but most often the HD just needs to be syssed again (or) the MBR has hosed itself (For whatever reason; don't try to figure out why, there are better things to do with your time, assuming that it wasn't caused by a virus some asshole wrote.). And you don't have to remove the HD or anything... Just keep a CURRENT (assuming you might have upgraded to a new version) Windows 95/98/NT/2000 system or startup floppy disk available and make sure that the sys.exe file from that system is on the FD. Boot to that FD and then enter "sys c:\" at a: after it boots. If it doesn't boot to THAT floppy, try another, and then a third. You know how reliable floppies are. If the HD sysses ok, remove the FD and try to boot to the HD. Often this solves the problem. If it still does not boot, remove/unplug all the devices from the MB except for the FD and video card. If the system now boots to the FD, gradually add the devices you removed, one at a time. The one that it hangs at is likely your problem. If it's the HD, which it usually is, and syssing it does not restore HD boot, try installing that HD in another system and see if it will boot to it. If it does, your first MB is likely the problem. If the HD will not boot in the other system, say CYA to the data on that HD, try to use FDISK to blow off the partition(s), repartition it with FDISK, format, install the O/S and you SHOULD be ready to R n R with the original MB. And by the way, 20 volts of electrostatic discharge can cause intermittent chip-level failures. Raising your arm up and down a few times can generate 500 volts via fabric friction. The threshold of human perception when you get a doorknob shock on a cold, dry day is about 1500 volts. I hope this is sinking in. If you've ever purchased used components without a SEALED silver antistatic bag, you can be assured that the component is damaged to some degree. The bag MUST be silver and not punctured or torn, or there is NO PROTECTION. Unless you get a non-bagged component DIRT CHEAP, walk away from it. The problems it may cause, like DMI hangs, are just not worth it. Richard

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I have one Prevention for this. Try not to boot your PC up as much. I leave my PC on 24/7, and have been for some time (3) years.that is with diff systems that is. Look at it this way. Its like a car. The worse thing you can do with your car is turn it on when its not warm. As far as a CPU/Motherboard, sys what ever; they all produse heat. When shut down it cools off when starts up after being off for some time it heats up fast. I have heard of times when a CPU or chip has cracked from off/on. My PC hanges sometimes when left on all the time but thats ok jsut do a 3 finger solute, ctrl-alt-delete. why do you think servers MB and CPU's rarely go bad. give it a shot, works for me. My A+ cert mentor also rec this to me. "Look at a PC like an Ice cube, when cold its fine, add a lot of heat and it cracks rather than melts."

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I recently upgraded a friend's system using a DFI system board and an AMD DX/2-500. He called me three days later with this DMI problem. I had him change the boot sequence to 'C only' and that got him by the problem. Try it, you'll like it!

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I recently upgraded to a Maxtor 20.4GB drive (or should I say STILL AM upgrading). Yes, the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" curse has struck me too. Maybe someone has a suggestion. Here's the gig: Added new 20.4 Gig Maxtor 6800 Used Maxtor's MaxBlast s/w to install. This included a Disk overlay, on track 0 (now I know better). Added SIIG Ultra ATA/66 controller card. Added new install of Win 98se System would not boot with controller card, even after I disabled the IDE device in system BIOS. Learned that SIIG's onboard BIOS doesn't work with disk overlays - removed MaxBlast DDO. FDISK'd and reformatted drive. Reinstalled Win 98. System still hangs at DMI verification. NOTE: if I re-enable drive (auto detect) in BIOS, I can boot from the system onbaord IDE controller (which doesn't support UDMA 66). This happens only when I connect drive to the controller board. I think that I've tried every combination of settings! Help! Thanx in advance, Mark

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I had this same problem... read this page and began to panic... then tried fdisk/mbr. It worked instantly for me... THANK YOU Swifty!

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My computer freezed to. Pii 233. I have build in new ram (PS/2). Now, i can try everthing, my computer freezed. without any HDDs. I can not boot from floppy. I have only a Graphic Card (S3 PCI) installed. Any idea ?

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I may have a solution for others who were struck by the "Verifying DMI Pool Data" freeze after installing a new hard drive. I was unable to boot to a floppy, due to messing up my installation of a new Quantum 20 Gb HD, until a tech at www.service911.com referred me to Western Digital's Life Guard Tools. Somehow their diskette prevents the computer from hanging when it checks the HD at bootup, and I was able to repartition and reformat the new hard drive. If you also suspect this is due to HD problems, go get the disk at www.westerndigital.com. -JR

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My problem is slighly different froms all of yours but still related. it just started out of the blue. i boot my comp it hangs on the win95 welcome screen , i press escape and see "veryfying dmi pool data" and nothing happens. If i reboot and boot in secure mode then reboot again i can get into windows but it only works when i do it that way.

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Well, I've encountered the same problem after flashing my BIOS. I'm totally stuck I've tried everything on this list to no avail. Even if I remove all hardware and clear the CMOS, it still wont boot!

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Fixed it! I was able to hot-swap the BIOS chip and reprogram it using the universal program available here: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pvanleeuwen/ufhome.htm I used expert mode, and erased the DMI data as well. I was helped by WIM's BIOS page at: http://www.ping.be/bios/ He has details of hot-swapping a BIOS chip, plus heaps of other info and good FAQ's.

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Hi, I just got news from my dealer after having the same problem... Unfortunately he tells me, he has to change the hard-drive, as the actuator doesn't seem to work. So maybe the problem is - as was mentioned in one of the replys - a hardware problem ? The computer is a new one (3 months) with amd k6 and a Western Digital Hard Drive. ... I hope you out there wil never see your computer stuck at 'Verifying Dmi Pool......' So long,

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I had the same problem - I ran a virus check booting from A: and found the FORM.A virus on C:, which is a Boot Sector virus.

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Had the same problem, try a different boot arrangement c,a,cd or something like that. Sorry can't be of more help. If anyone does find a fix please tell me.

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I'm cursed as well... My new PIII-700 Mhz freezes at "verifying DMI pool data" I've tried everything I know, but nothing seems to help. I've had the comp handed in to the place where i bought it, and still, the bloody thing remains... If anyone have a solotion, please let me know If not, I guess i'll just have to keep checking this forum for new ideas! Pray that your computer never goes "verifying DMI pool data" ..... FREEZE

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This error is usually easy to fix, just fdisk and an unconditional format does fine. For the the first time, I am having the issue to the degree where even the floppy is not accessible. That is how I found this page. I would like to thank the individual who mentioned Data Lifegaurd Tools. I had forgotten that Western Digital had the foresight to include a BIOS hook in the boot routine of this program, therefore bypassing the BIOS. I will try this and report back as to whether or not it works. ( complications in my case, have an integrated AIC AHA-7880 Adaptec as well ). I would like to clarify a couple of things that seems to confuse people on this issue. At least to my meager level of expertise. ( I am a tech but still don't have the proper DMI specifications. Best set is at Phoenix but they deny public access to them ). So keep it in mind, I am not exactly an expert, just have seen this problem a few times. DMI is yes, Desktop Management Interface. It is the last ( routine? ) performed by the BIOS, right at the point where the system is being passed to the OS. It consists of some fairly detailed information about the system, information the OS historically needed to take control of the hardware. But remember, this is the age of Plug and Play. A PnP OS will bypass the BIOS and talk directly to the hardware, but it does accept the data from the DMI pool. What might happen if the OS reads the system differently than the BIOS? Remember that Win9x misinterprets drive sizes due to the fat high nibble in the fat 32 scheme. ( which makes it an actual 28 bit ). No details here on the fix, because there doesn't seem to be a definite one. I will say that trying to "clear" the DMI data will not work so quit pulling your hair and read the line right before it. The DMI data pool is not defined until the step right before it is verified!!! I would also like to point out, just as a matter of interest, did anyone catch on to how many people hit this problem when setting up a dual boot system? Thats the way it happened to me this time. And that little piece of information seems to maintain an accurate percentage in most of the web sites I have searched regarding this error, now and previously. Thanks for the DLG tip and good luck!

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I think the nazi computer people made this happen. its a conspricary. Ive tried taking out the battery for 2 mints, dicked with inp/icp what ever its called to auto and enable, i can't get the step by step screen to come up. when pressing control or f8.

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I have this error whatever, I turned off internal cache but it slow the pc speed down. Other than that I do not know what else helps.

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