DMI Pool Update

[#1]

Hey folks,
I got me a small problem with a Micro ATX, and would appreciate a little help diagnosing the problem.
Symptoms:
When the computer starts up it shows a message saying

Quote

DMI Pool Update..................

Sometimes it will say "success" after this, most of the time it doesnt!
However no matter whether it says success or not it always immediately restarts.
Tried so far:
- Booting from XP Boot CD and running ChkDsk & DiskPart
both of these say that the Hard Disk does not exist
- Dismantling the computer and checking everything is secured correctly inside.
No different results from this
- Replacing the SATA hard disk with a brand new one (just happened to be lying around).
Interestingly enough ChkDsk and DiskPart produce exactly the same results here saying that the hard Disk does not exist.
- Loading up the BIOS and having a poke around
The BIOS can see the Hard Disk fine, and will even auto detect it.
A strange thing happened whilst i was doing all of this, the point where i change hard disks, or rather put the original one back in, the computer loaded to the point where a message from windows appeared saying that the computer had not been shut down correctly and would i like to start in normal mode or recovery mode, i managed to get this screen twice in a row however no matter which option i choose it immediately restarts.
Now i am back to square one where the computer loads to the point of say DMI Pool Update.... and immediately restarting.
I am going to go and buy 2 new SATA leads for the hard disk at lunch to see if this helps, however any suggestions as to what might help me diagnose and possibly solve the problem would be very much appreciated.
jabb0

[#2]

Found a few pages Googling for your error, may be worth a look....
Linky1
Linky2
Linky3
Also, have you tried changing the CMOS battery?

[#3]

Thanks,
I have tried the options listed on these pages
1)Corrupt boot files on the computer.
2)Settings for hard disk drive are not correct.
3)Boot devices not set properly.
4)BIOS corrupt or misc. setting not set properly.
5)Connections loose or disconnected.
6)Bad Hard disk drive or other bad hardware.
With regard to 1) & 2) I have replaced the drive with a new one, but the fact that DiskPart cannot see "any" drive to partition whether it be the original one or the new one leads me to believe the hard disk itself is not the issue.
regarding 3) Ive been in BIOS and all seems fine at this level, it can see both disks ive tried
4) i have reset the bios to default settings, problem persists
5) This is interesting because when i put the original hard disk back in after trying the test one i had lying around it got past the DMI Pool Update message to a windows message asking me if i wanted to start normally or in a recovery mode, but alas no matter which option it jus restarted.  (this was a temporary moment of success, now at back to restarting after the DMI Pool Message)
6) Im left thinking this is the problem, but would like to get a little more specific.
Thanks for your input.

[#4]

What make of hard disc did you buy?
Have you tried the disk manufacturer's tools (e.g. MaxBlast for Maxtor discs) for setting up new hard drives on a system? 
I've had PCs that won't recognise a hard disc properly until I'd run the hard disc manufacturer's set-up tool.

[#5]

The 2 hard disks i have are Maxtor & Seagate.
However the problem is exactly the same with both hard disks.
Ill try downloading the appropriate tools and running them, however I am still open for suggestions as i am pretty much convinced the problem is not with hard disk itself.
however i hear wot ur saying mate and will give this a blast and see how it goes.
Cheers

[#6]

Just some thoughts for you.
Remember XP when run from the CD cannot always ‘see’ a SATA drive unless you load the SATA drivers by pressing F6 on start up and loading the drivers from a floppy disk.
If the BIOS can see the drive it would seem the drive exists and is OK, I just wonder if the SATA drivers in the installation have become corrupt and XP can no longer ‘see’ the drive. You may have to do a repair installation of XP over the top to fix it.
Regards, P.

[#7]

OK so i completely neglected to notice that the windows setup and both the borked and test SATA drive were incompatible from the boot disk.
I have now tried installing linux on both disks, the original disk fails on install, where as the one i was using as a test installed successfully.
Thus I have got me a serious hard disk issue.
Any recommendations on software tools i can use to resurrect the drive?
Ill need something that can run from a boot CD as loading windows is not really an option right now.
All help welcome!

[#8]

For Seagate and Maxtor drives try Seatools. 
If memory serves correctly, the DOS version is an ISO file which you can burn to CD and then boot directly from it, so you won't need to install it. I believe there is also a Linux version, but I've not looked at that personally.

[#9]

Have you tried booting a "live" Linux distro which runs off a CD, which makes no changes to any hard drives etc?
It is possible to examine the condition of the hardware - no special drivers are needed for SCSI/SATA/IDE or whatever.

[#10]

If I can suggest my preference!
Burn a full ISO CD of Ubuntu Dapper (see Linkhttp://www.ubuntu.com
This will give you a slow operational system - including wired networking
Good luck!

[#11]

Hi,
After scanning the hardisk with seagate disk scanning tool, it passed with no errors, so i zero filled the hard drive using the same tool.
I managed to find an option in the bios to make the SATA emulate an IDE, so windows could pick it up.
I then booted from the windows CD and tried t install, but it fails  with an ambiguous error about dll's not loading.
so i tried chkdsk, and it tells me the hard drive has an unrecoverable error.
I tired installing linux and it fails too.
Which tools does ubuntu have to examine a hard drive, i have got an install cd.
any ideas?
to be honest im not that worried about saving the hard disk anymore, i just want to know what exactly is wrong with it now!!!

[#12]

Don't install the CD - use it as a purely run from CD OS.
Provided you don't need to rebuild any partitions and create filesystems you can just use fsck to check the filesystem in each partition on a disk. Otherwise qtparted (probably) will let you partion and create filesystems. These operations may damage your data - review helpful web sites on correct usage.