Sitting in a Constant Loop. HELP

[Cluster]

I'm having a problem with an old comp. I just whipped together my old p166mmx. It posts fine, recognizes HDD and all installed components. On the first load it said:

"Updating ESCD... Success"
"Verifying DMI Pool Data"

Then it goes to another screen saying

"PRESS A KEY TO REBOOT"

After a reboot it goes in a constant loop of Verifying DMI Pool Data and REBOOT. I know that the Verifying DMI Pool Data is normal, but then it usually checks the boot sector. Why is it locking up here. I really wanna get this box folding.

Cheers:beer:

BTW, there's no OS, but the HDD is bootable. Copied all the files from a boot disk to the drive. It's been formatted. And there's no floppy, could this be the reason for the loop, no floppy?

[flounder43]

When you set up the time and config in the BIOS, and reboot, does that info stay? I am thinking that a dead CMOS battery sounds like a culprit.

That, or something is up with the HD...

flounder43

[Cluster]

Thx for the quick reply flounder. I don't think it's the battery, when i did the very first boot (first in like 4 months) it still had the correct time. I'll try unhooking both the HDD, and CDROM. I should get a saying "Inster system disk and press enter" Will post results back.

[Cluster]

Unhooked the HDD, got the error message i was lookin for. Gonna try makin a bootable CD and then fdisk/format the drive. Maybe i fried it? It notices it in post.

[CrystalMethod]

You need to fdisk for the Hdd to be recognized as a valid boot drive. It'll assign a drive letter to the drive. After that, then you copy your system files to your Hdd. If it's a 98' boot disk, you're doing it from, once you have "Fdisk" 'ed the drive, you'll have to reboot. Boot off of the floppy and at the command prompt, type "M" , and hit enter. Alternatively, you can also type "sys c:"
You should get a message saying "system transfered". Take out the floppy, and reboot. You should end up at your drive c: command prompt.

[flounder43]

Originally posted by CrystalMethod
You need to fdisk for the Hdd to be recognized as a valid boot drive. It'll assign a drive letter to the drive. After that, then you copy your system files to your Hdd. If it's a 98' boot disk, you're doing it from, once you have "Fdisk" 'ed the drive, you'll have to reboot. Boot off of the floppy and at the command prompt, type "M" , and hit enter. Alternatively, you can also type "sys c:"
You should get a message saying "system transfered". Take out the floppy, and reboot. You should end up at your drive c: command prompt.

Well said, CM. That is some good advice.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/antiqser/smilies/roller2.gif flounder43

[Cluster]

Thx for the advice. One problem. I don't have a floppy in the comp and the PSU doesn't have a floppy connector (modded PSU). The HDD came out of another PC and was formatted in a win2k dos session. It worked just fine in the other comp, copied the files from a win98 boot disk. I have a cdrom in the comp, would gonna try booting form that. I will be setting up a network soon and may make it boot from a network drive.

[Cluster]

I took a different path, since the comp's not hosting windows, i burnt off linux and am going to install from the cdrom, hopefully linux can do something with the drive. Thx for all the help