Hello,
I was installing an old computer (made in 1999 according to the BIOS date of build) for a friend and all was going fine except I didn't had a working battery for the CMOS.
In the process, I had installed an AGP graphics card that I found in a “garbage collector”. Surprisingly, this card worked fine.
So, some days later, after I had installed WinXP and finished configuring it, I needed to restart the computer from a CD (a tool to handle partitions). However, since I use an USB keyboard, and my CMOS wasn't configured to use it, my keyboard was unusable in that DOS-mode program, so I restarted in the CMOS setup, enabled “Allow keyboard on USB” and saved my change (I had already configured that setting earlier, but it was lost because of the lack of battery).
The boot resumed but the computer hanged at “Verifying DMI pool data” (even the cursor ceased to blink). I restarted it and, unexpectedly, the speaker made two followed tones (I'd say the second is one octave below the first; however, without the user's manual, how do I figure out what they mean?), and the screen stayed black. I thought it was the “new” AGP graphics card that ceased to function, so I seated the previous one back (a PCI card), removed the AGP one and restarted the PC. However, the sound played again, meaning the problem is somewhere else, but this time I saw text on screen, and it doesn't sound good. I don't see the usual logo shown in the beginning (“Eco star”, or something like that) nor the option to go in the CMOS editor (pressing Delete doesn't load it either).
The text mention these thing:
<BIOS version>
BIOS ROM checksum error
No keyboard present
No bootable disk in drive A:
Ok for the keyboard being not present (there's none). However, (1) why does it only try to boot from A: (the hard disk is working correctly and a bootable CD won't work either; but if the computer can't find boot medias, then why does it find A:?) and (2) why would the BIOS ROM become corrupted at the “Verifying DMI pool data” line?
So, I've tried restarting without the hard disk and CD drive (just disconnected the IDE cable) and removed all the PCI cards (except the graphics card, of course), to no avail. I don't think it's a CPU problem, because I doubt such a fault would produce any sound nor show diagnostic infos as it currently does (but I've not seen enough CPU faults to be sure). I plan to check the RAM soon. I can't believe the BIOS is just corrupt, because I did nothing special (no BIOS update). Also, if just changing the “Allow USB keyboard” setting would cause a BIOS corruption, I'd call the BIOS a “really weak component”.
I've searched in various forums, but the posts I've found either only mention hangs at the “Verifying DMI pool data” line (where the solution may be to go into the CMOS setup, but I don't have that choice) or are about BIOS corruptions, which they solved by booting from a firmware update CD (here, my computer doesn't even seems to know it has some kind of CD drive, and I can't go into the CMOS setup, did I mention?).
Now, I'm puzzled; I know PCs less than Macs, so BIOS-related things aren't what I know most. I'm seeking for advices…
I'd like to tell the brand of the computer, but the only text I can read, on the front panel, is “NT et SA Silver”, which doesn't sound familiar to me; nothing useful found in cards nor on screen.
I was installing an old computer (made in 1999 according to the BIOS date of build) for a friend and all was going fine except I didn't had a working battery for the CMOS.
In the process, I had installed an AGP graphics card that I found in a “garbage collector”. Surprisingly, this card worked fine.
So, some days later, after I had installed WinXP and finished configuring it, I needed to restart the computer from a CD (a tool to handle partitions). However, since I use an USB keyboard, and my CMOS wasn't configured to use it, my keyboard was unusable in that DOS-mode program, so I restarted in the CMOS setup, enabled “Allow keyboard on USB” and saved my change (I had already configured that setting earlier, but it was lost because of the lack of battery).
The boot resumed but the computer hanged at “Verifying DMI pool data” (even the cursor ceased to blink). I restarted it and, unexpectedly, the speaker made two followed tones (I'd say the second is one octave below the first; however, without the user's manual, how do I figure out what they mean?), and the screen stayed black. I thought it was the “new” AGP graphics card that ceased to function, so I seated the previous one back (a PCI card), removed the AGP one and restarted the PC. However, the sound played again, meaning the problem is somewhere else, but this time I saw text on screen, and it doesn't sound good. I don't see the usual logo shown in the beginning (“Eco star”, or something like that) nor the option to go in the CMOS editor (pressing Delete doesn't load it either).
The text mention these thing:
<BIOS version>
BIOS ROM checksum error
No keyboard present
No bootable disk in drive A:
Ok for the keyboard being not present (there's none). However, (1) why does it only try to boot from A: (the hard disk is working correctly and a bootable CD won't work either; but if the computer can't find boot medias, then why does it find A:?) and (2) why would the BIOS ROM become corrupted at the “Verifying DMI pool data” line?
So, I've tried restarting without the hard disk and CD drive (just disconnected the IDE cable) and removed all the PCI cards (except the graphics card, of course), to no avail. I don't think it's a CPU problem, because I doubt such a fault would produce any sound nor show diagnostic infos as it currently does (but I've not seen enough CPU faults to be sure). I plan to check the RAM soon. I can't believe the BIOS is just corrupt, because I did nothing special (no BIOS update). Also, if just changing the “Allow USB keyboard” setting would cause a BIOS corruption, I'd call the BIOS a “really weak component”.
I've searched in various forums, but the posts I've found either only mention hangs at the “Verifying DMI pool data” line (where the solution may be to go into the CMOS setup, but I don't have that choice) or are about BIOS corruptions, which they solved by booting from a firmware update CD (here, my computer doesn't even seems to know it has some kind of CD drive, and I can't go into the CMOS setup, did I mention?).
Now, I'm puzzled; I know PCs less than Macs, so BIOS-related things aren't what I know most. I'm seeking for advices…
I'd like to tell the brand of the computer, but the only text I can read, on the front panel, is “NT et SA Silver”, which doesn't sound familiar to me; nothing useful found in cards nor on screen.
