Verifying DMI Pool Data freeze

[Mike.Rigsby]

I know, a pretty regularly posted problem online and one I've fixed on computers in the past. The issue this time is I've tried every fix I can find in forums and nothing is working so I figured I'd see if anyone had any tricks I haven't tried.

Situation: Attempted a BIOS upgrade from the mobo manufacturer's website. Correct bios, proper upgrade procedure. Got an error half way through stating that the motherboard was not set to allow bios upgrade so I backed out. Now it's stuck at the Verifying DMI Pool Data step.
My only conclusion is that Acer has somehow locked down the ability to upgrade to any BIOS version that is not approved by them. Now that it's stuck at this step I can't even return to computer to the previous saved BIOS.

Hardware: Acer Aspire AST180-EA381M w/Foxconn MCP61SM-AM motherboard. AMD Athlon 3800+, 2GB RAM, 250GB sata hard drive.

Things I've tried: Pulled power and cmos battery and let sit over night. Reset bios using motherboard jumper. Reset BIOS back to factory defaults. Pulled everything except RAM, and tried to boot. Pulled a reseated RAM. Forced PCI settings in BIOS to redetect.
Set hard drive to none, saved, restarted, then redetected.

Can't try using any sort of recovery cd or any Acer BIOS utility because the boot device step, i.e. booting from cd-rom, happens after the DMI verification step.

Next thing I'm going to try is to pull the sata hard drive and temporarily replace with an IDE drive to see if I can get past the DMI step.

Does anyone have any tricks that I'm not aware of to force the BIOS past this step to continue to boot. I'm not a beginning user, I do this stuff for a living, so no need to go 'non-geek speak' on me.

[keintpoos]

Hi,

I have precisely the same problem. Were you able to solve it?

[Mike.Rigsby]

Unfortunately, no.
With some more research I found out that the specific revision of motherboard used in the Acer desktop has a fatal manufacturer's defect. Basically it will run fine, unless you try and upgrade the BIOS, in which case it then 'bricks' the entire system because the onboard BIOS flashing utility is defective.
The only fix is to return the motherboard to the manufacturer and have them pull the cmos chip and re-flash it or replace it with a new one.

If you haven't done so already and if your's is not the same motherboard as I mentioned above, then the first thing you should try is to wipe your BIOS settings by unplugging it from AC power, then pull the motherboard battery, and let it sit about 15-20 minutes. Then put the battery back in and plug it back in and see if it boots up. If that doesn't work then try the rest of the steps I mentioned trying.

[tttllc]

Unfortunately, no.
With some more research I found out that the specific revision of motherboard used in the Acer desktop has a fatal manufacturer's defect. Basically it will run fine, unless you try and upgrade the BIOS, in which case it then 'bricks' the entire system because the onboard BIOS flashing utility is defective.
The only fix is to return the motherboard to the manufacturer and have them pull the cmos chip and re-flash it or replace it with a new one.

If you haven't done so already and if your's is not the same motherboard as I mentioned above, then the first thing you should try is to wipe your BIOS settings by unplugging it from AC power, then pull the motherboard battery, and let it sit about 15-20 minutes. Then put the battery back in and plug it back in and see if it boots up. If that doesn't work then try the rest of the steps I mentioned trying.

Looks like I have the same exact problem with a Acer T180 today. I was at my friends shop noticed his bios was way out of date in fact it was the original bios dated 2006. I proceeded to download the latest bios from the Acer-support website. I ran the bios flash utility and first backed up the current bios then proceeded to update. The boot bios updated fine while updating the main bios, it returned a message that it was write protected or unable to continue. I then rebooted the computer and all seemed fine it first posted a message updating the DMI and stated it was successful then continued on the next line with Verifying DMI . . after two periods it just hangs.

As this is the computer for my friends shop I need to get it up and running asap as I feel responsible and this will put his business to a standstill. If there's no fix besides returning it to the Acer factory what do you think about this booting up on bios via usb http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-usb-stick.htm then try to restore the original bios.

What did you end up doing ? Did you ship the MOBO back to Acer? How much for charged ? Shipping?

THanks,

Will

[Mike.Rigsby]

Looks like I have the same exact problem with a Acer T180 today. I was at my friends shop noticed his bios was way out of date in fact it was the original bios dated 2006. I proceeded to download the latest bios from the Acer-support website. I ran the bios flash utility and first backed up the current bios then proceeded to update. The boot bios updated fine while updating the main bios, it returned a message that it was write protected or unable to continue. I then rebooted the computer and all seemed fine it first posted a message updating the DMI and stated it was successful then continued on the next line with Verifying DMI . . after two periods it just hangs.

As this is the computer for my friends shop I need to get it up and running asap as I feel responsible and this will put his business to a standstill. If there's no fix besides returning it to the Acer factory what do you think about this booting up on bios via usb http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-usb-stick.htm then try to restore the original bios.

What did you end up doing ? Did you ship the MOBO back to Acer? How much for charged ? Shipping?

THanks,

Will

It's certainly worth a shot because at this point you can't do any harm in trying.
I ended up giving up and scrapping the system for parts and building a new one so the USB stick option is pretty much your only option outside of contacting them and getting a repair quote.
Since I didn't bother with the option of sending it back I have no idea what it will cost. It shouldn't cost that much because it would only take them like 5 minutes to fix.

[tttllc]

It's certainly worth a shot because at this point you can't do any harm in trying.
I ended up giving up and scrapping the system for parts and building a new one so the USB stick option is pretty much your only option outside of contacting them and getting a repair quote.
Since I didn't bother with the option of sending it back I have no idea what it will cost. It shouldn't cost that much because it would only take them like 5 minutes to fix.

Mike,

Thanks for your quick response after reading through a few more forums it just wasn't worth trying to get the bios fixed... What I did was researched who was the manufacturer of the MOBO of the Acer Aspire T180, Got the answer on Ebay they were selling the MOBO for $79.99 plus $9.99 for shipping I couldn't wait and didn't want to pay that much for an old mobo. So I went over to MicroCenter with the shopowner of the Computer picked up a MSI K9N6PGM2-V 2 AM2/AM2 FOR $44.99 AFTER A $10 REBATE. Popped out the old MOBO and in with the new everything came up fine didn't even have to load new drivers but I did anyway. System came up a bit faster then before. Only complaint I have on the new mobo was there was only two memory slots instead of 4 on the old one other than that it did the trick.... It's not a sexy board with a whole bunch a features but still gave me more control that what Acer left us with. Case resolved and the computer will be up and running for business tomorrow.

Thanks,

Will

[Mike.Rigsby]

Yeah, mine at least was a Foxconn motherboard. Sounds like eBay was definitely the best solution for you. I'm glad it worked out for you with minimal frustration and bloodshed. :)

[elisam]

is there any ides more about this kind of problem mentioned above I have done some of these step below:
1. reset a bios by removing out a cmos battery placed inside a motherboard and placed it out about 15 to 20 minutes.
2. entering a computer setting and trying to boot it first from a cd rom for re installing a new OS.

I doesn't reach a booting system because the problem always blocked it.

thank

Elisam

[jrodrigo]

Hello friends, a couple of days I decided to install Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire M1100.
Once you install the whole operating system, appears on the screen ruling: "Verifying DMI Pool Data".
I've been looking for forums about 5 days and I give the solution, if it finally can not install Windows 7, I hope that at least you can install Windows Vista or Windows XP without problems. Do you know the final solution for this? I am desperate. Would greatly appreciate your help or collaboration.
A greeting from Spain.
Javi

[Mike.Rigsby]

If you guys have tried all of the above steps I mentioned initially without success, then chances are very good your BIOS chip is fried. In which case, there is nothing you can do, short of contacting the motherboard manufacturer.

[JeffMock]

Hello Mike. Did you ever get anywhere with the BIOS below? I had the exact same problem, same machine! Now stuck. Can I get the BIOS back to where it was?
Thanks. Jeff Mockridge

I know, a pretty regularly posted problem online and one I've fixed on computers in the past. The issue this time is I've tried every fix I can find in forums and nothing is working so I figured I'd see if anyone had any tricks I haven't tried.

Situation: Attempted a BIOS upgrade from the mobo manufacturer's website. Correct bios, proper upgrade procedure. Got an error half way through stating that the motherboard was not set to allow bios upgrade so I backed out. Now it's stuck at the Verifying DMI Pool Data step.
My only conclusion is that Acer has somehow locked down the ability to upgrade to any BIOS version that is not approved by them. Now that it's stuck at this step I can't even return to computer to the previous saved BIOS.

Hardware: Acer Aspire AST180-EA381M w/Foxconn MCP61SM-AM motherboard. AMD Athlon 3800+, 2GB RAM, 250GB sata hard drive.

Things I've tried: Pulled power and cmos battery and let sit over night. Reset bios using motherboard jumper. Reset BIOS back to factory defaults. Pulled everything except RAM, and tried to boot. Pulled a reseated RAM. Forced PCI settings in BIOS to redetect.
Set hard drive to none, saved, restarted, then redetected.

Can't try using any sort of recovery cd or any Acer BIOS utility because the boot device step, i.e. booting from cd-rom, happens after the DMI verification step.

Next thing I'm going to try is to pull the sata hard drive and temporarily replace with an IDE drive to see if I can get past the DMI step.

Does anyone have any tricks that I'm not aware of to force the BIOS past this step to continue to boot. I'm not a beginning user, I do this stuff for a living, so no need to go 'non-geek speak' on me.

[Mike.Rigsby]

Hello Mike. Did you ever get anywhere with the BIOS below? I had the exact same problem, same machine! Now stuck. Can I get the BIOS back to where it was?
Thanks. Jeff Mockridge

Nope. It's a motherboard defect in the BIOS Update Utility. Basically it bricks the computer if you try and upgrade the BIOS. Your only option is to contact Acer and see what they'll charge for replacing the BIOS chip.

[JeffMock]

Bad news! Nice of Acer to post this without the appropriate instructions! Apparently if you unprotect the Boot block first it works!

Thanks for replying, Mike.

Jeff

Nope. It's a motherboard defect in the BIOS Update Utility. Basically it bricks the computer if you try and upgrade the BIOS. Your only option is to contact Acer and see what they'll charge for replacing the BIOS chip.

[sianderson]

I have the same problem after trying to flash to R01-C0

Contacted Acer, they have just replied saying they will charge £54 to get the motherboard collected and for an engineer to assess the problem then give a quote to presumably reflash the bios themselves

all in all, not worth the hassle as its standard ram and an X2 processor ebuyer would probably sell a compatible motherboard for less than £30

[Mike.Rigsby]

Yup, I am definitely sure it's not worth paying them to fix the bios. It would just be nice if they would publish the fact that the whole system will brick if you begin the process without unprotecting the boot block first.

[JeffMock]

I have the same problem after trying to flash to R01-C0

Contacted Acer, they have just replied saying they will charge £54 to get the motherboard collected and for an engineer to assess the problem then give a quote to presumably reflash the bios themselves

all in all, not worth the hassle as its standard ram and an X2 processor ebuyer would probably sell a compatible motherboard for less than £30

I just bought one off eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160431028052&ssPageName=ADME:L:COSI:GB:1123
Make him an offer - I paid £20 but I reckon you could pay less as he's got 10+ of them. Looks in nice condition, but haven't plugged it in yet...

[DavidNC50]

I am a computer technician. I have had this problem with many similar Acer tower models (AM1200-xxxx). When re-installing the operating system I have seen the hanging after Verifying DMI pool data and then nothing.... the computer just freezes. I have then taken the same computer and re-installed it with the factory restore discs created by the E recovery management program that is installed from the factory and the computer will function correctly. I know this solution will not work unless you can get your hands on the recovery media for your model (or similar). I now make it a practice to burn the recovery discs for these Acer machines so I have them onhand for cases like this. I have also used recovery discs from a "similar" model where the last digits after the dash do not match and have had it work on several machines.

This tells me that it is not always a hardware issue. It could be but it seems more likely that there is something installed by the factory disc that is missing from installing with an OEM or RETAIL Windows disc. Possibly a driver??? If I find more details in my research I will post back...

[Liam_3]

I had the same.. very poor info/instructions on the Acer site.
Today I received a bios chip from ebay £7, put it in and all is good again.