Problem

[The_King]

Hi. I have a problem during bootup. When I start the computer I get to the 'verifying pool data' part and then it stops there. I then restart the computer and it will work fine. So every time I turn the computer on it gets to this stage and so I restart it and all is fine. Its been doing this since I built it. Does anybody know how to fix this problem??
Thanks.

[Wombat]

Sounds like maybe your DPMI tables are either corrupt, or are resetting at every bootup. See what those BIOS settings are set to.

[The PIT]

Also if it persists check to see if theres a bios upgrade available. If could also be faulty hardware as well.

[The_King]

My HDD is showing up as primary slave. Would this be the cause? For some reason I can't manually change it to be primary master in BIOS. There is just no option there.....

[Wombat]

Originally posted by The_King
My HDD is showing up as primary slave. Would this be the cause? For some reason I can't manually change it to be primary master in BIOS. There is just no option there.....

Oh, that's the dead giveaway then. Master/slave is controlled by the jumper on the hard drive. If it's set to slave, it's trying to talk to a Master drive that just isn't there. Also, the motherboard is looking for a master to boot off of.

Switch the jumper on the hard drive, format, and install your OS.

[The_King]

The problem is, when I change the jumpers to primary master, no drive is detected: no CD, no HDD. I'll try again today tho.....

[rylan]

If you have a Western Digital drive, you have to set it to 'single' instead of master. For some reason WD made their drives so they don't show up if you set it to master when its the only drive on the cable. Remove the jumper or put it in a neutral position.
One other thing to check is your IDE cable and make sure the blue or whatever color mobo end is plugged into the board and not a drive, and master is at the end of the cable.

[Guru]

Wombat there should be no reason to format the drive just becouse you change it from master to slave!

[Pace]

I am assuming he was referring to a new drive, not reinstalling the OS Guru

Unless everyone's favourite BIOS expert knows something we do not know

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Guru
Wombat there should be no reason to format the drive just becouse you change it from master to slave!

Yeah, but he said he just built this computer, so I'm assuming that:

1) It's probably never been formatted.

2) Even if it has, the OS has drivers for the old configuration. Not worth the hassle.

[Belwarrior]

The problem is, when I change the jumpers to primary master, no drive is detected: no CD, no HDD. I'll try again today tho.....

hmm.. is your cd on the same cable as your hdd?
if so set your cd to slave and your hdd to master.

normally ppl connect hdd as primary ide master and
the cd as the secondary ide master.

[VJ]

Originally posted by Wombat
Sounds like maybe your DPMI tables are either corrupt, or are resetting at every bootup. See what those BIOS settings are set to.

Any chance this is due to a bad/empty bios-battery ?

(no idea about the master/slave thing though; but doesn't the connector used play a part ? In SCSI, it is best not to leave unused connectors at the end, but have them in the middle)


Jörg

[The_King]

Cheers guys! The first time I tried setting the jumpers on the HD for some reason primary master was turned off in BIOS and I didn't try every possible combo. Oh well, all working properly now...