PC not booting

  • Thread starter Thread starter gregf
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gregf

So I have winXP PC, only a year or so old, and now it won't boot all
the way. Some think it's overheating, temp says 83, it's a AMD Athlon
XP.
The first screen comes up saying it found all 4 hard drives and lists
them in order, then the next screen says Scan Devices
Serial_CH0 Master : No Device
Serial_CH1 Master : No Device

it then flashes to another screen very quickly where at the bottom it
says Verifying DMI Pool Data.... and then it starts all over again.
I can make arrangements to get the thing cooling off better if that's
the issue, but my concern is, what do I do now to get it to boot at all?
 
If your temp is 83C, you are way too hot. You may have already sustained
damage to your CPU. What may the temps have been when you weren't observing
them? Higher yet?

Cool down your CPU and then try booting again.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
Before spending any money on cooling (unless you can remove the case
and blow air in with a desk fan) then try underclocking the CPU in the
BIOS by reducing the FSB and lowering the CPU core voltage slightly.
This will reduce the CPU temperature but at the expense of losing CPU
performance. It should allow you to see if heat is the cause of the
problem. I have previously seen a system which hung at the verifying
DMI pool and the fault was tracked to the motherboard.

Andy
 
According to one web site, it seems that most AMD Athlon CPUs are OK up
to around 90 degrees.
 
I did take out the main hard drive, which I suspect is the problem, it
was too hot to even touch, that seems very wrong to me. I tried to
reinstall XP and it says the drive is corrupt and cannot be fixed.
 
You could try running the drive manufacturers diagnostic on it as a
double check, but it does sound like you may have cooked the drive.
 
Well now I put in a good HD, but it won't even boot from the CD, so I
can't even try to install windows or the MB disc. Strange, the CD drive
worked before. I'm just getting the same error screen, and the choice
to install a RAID drive, which I don't think I want, and even in that
screen the only command that works is ESC to exit.
 
FYI, here is another reason why system might hang at verifying DMI pool
- You are overclocking and/or you enabled Game Acceleration (GAT) or
Performance Mode (PAT) in the BIOS, and your memory is "Value RAM" that does
not have high enough quality or fast enough timings to handle it.
- Feel free to use MemTest to check your RAM and make sure that bad memory
is not contributing to the problem
- A heat problem could also be caused not only by failing fans but by a
failing power supply
 
I found MemTest online and it says it's for x86 architecture computers.
I'm sure what that means or if that's what I have or not. Is there a
way to find out?
Something else strange- after I put the new HD in, I saw that the BIOS
under Health had the shutdown temp set to 85. I changed it to 90 since
that's what it should be able to take, and that seemed to fix it, so I
think it was getting up to 85. But when the problem first started there
was no shutdown temp set.
 
That means its for PC's not Mac's or SUN's

I found MemTest online and it says it's for x86 architecture computers.
I'm sure what that means or if that's what I have or not. Is there a
way to find out?
Something else strange- after I put the new HD in, I saw that the BIOS
under Health had the shutdown temp set to 85. I changed it to 90 since
that's what it should be able to take, and that seemed to fix it, so I
think it was getting up to 85. But when the problem first started there
was no shutdown temp set.
Click to expand...
 
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