Well the Dumbass F@!#$cktards at the power company decided to randomly shut down my main tower today while I was at work.

My main rig came out ok, but my test bed is a hurting unit.

It powers on and posts. I can navigate the bios, but Windows won't load.

It hangs at the "verify DMI pool data" screen. I left it there for 30mins hoping for safe mode to load, but no dice.

F8 no love either.

I am leaving it for an hour or so to load safe mode while I take my kids to Rotten Ronnies....

I guess when I get back,assuming it is still screwed up, I will try to fix it with the WinXp CD.

Any other suggestions?

No Suggestions here sorry, but was curious ; just brcause your power was shutoff it ruined your rig ???

It can happen NoSlak, not had expirience myself, but could be cause of no surge protector present? Suggest you take hard drive, set as slave or equivilant on your rig and chack through it forr errors and make sure you can read files. Otherwise it sounds like a repair install job -you shouldnt loose that much, apart from all the drivers and updates.

If it's stuck at 'verifying DMI poll data' then it's not even getting to the bootstrap...you've got a BIOS error...in other words, time for a new motherboard (or an RMA replacement).

That sux Putwig...sorry to hear that...

I think your motherboard is fuxored, had the same thing happen to me.

Things like this make me increasingly thankful I have a BIOS saviour card. Sorry to hear this putwig.

This is EXACTLY the reason I have a battery backup unit on everything expensive in my house. I can watch TV for 15 mins when the powers out......Ok thats not very useful. I do have a battery backup unit for all 3 rigs I have in my house and a spare to plug the PCs I work on into. With the included utilites my PCs shut down safely..........you can get cheapy ones at Wally World for $40. Remember cheapy is better than nothing.

Pull the CMOS battery for about half an hour.

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita Pull the CMOS battery for about half an hour.

And, power cycle before you pull the battery.

What are the specs...my computer was doing this...although it was something to do with the floppy drive....try unpuging all unneeded hardware...

That is why I hang out here!

It would have taken me forever to get around to clearing the CMOS (I would have got there eventually) ........ I guess I think of CMOS clearing as a P.O.S.T. failure response, rather than a BOOT failure response.

Anyhow, clearing the CMOS fixed it thus saving my incredibly crappy Friday night!

Thanks all.

should of went to comp usa 2 months or so ago, they had free battery backups after rebate...thats how i got mine

Sorry Clown, could have, should have, would have. None of that assisted him in his situation. There are a lot of things that I would have accomplished or done if I had the magical ability of hindsight. Unfortunately, we must learn through experience.

Experience and nice cold beer.

How long can a PC go on a back up battery system?

Depends in the size of the unit and the power draw of the PC.

I have a wee APC from Wal-Mart on my main rig. My PC and monitor will kill it dead in about 5 mins - but I have it set to shutdown within 30 seconds of power failure so no biggie. The point is it gets shutdown correctly. The APC model I have also logs all power fluctuations which was very handy when I was having electrical noise - I could tell the power company exact times when I was having over/under voltage.

I have a Belkin 500va on my DVD Ripper - no monitor on this machine. Only other thing connected is my router and the "whatever they call that thing on the side of my house running Linux" box from my ISP. This can run for like 30 or so minutes no problem - but I also have it set to shut down long before that. I also have one of these same backup units on my TV - it will power my 29" TV and TIVO for 15 mins before shutting down. These were like 45 dollars on sale..........but they dont monitor line noise.

Stop the celebration!

Woke up this am and windows is frozen.

No KB or mouse response. Reset, hangs at the same point as before.

1.4 T-Bird at 10.5 x 133 (stock I think)
Chaintech Apogee NF2 (non-ultra)
256 Generic 3200
PCI GFX 440
20GB WD IDE HDD
Generic CD
XP Pro

Any new thoughts?

Test each component indiviudally, ie hard drive, cd-rom, ram, motherboard, etc. Most likely running memtest and checking the hard drive will let you know whats up.

i would say clear cmos...unplug battery...and unplug everything extra..and just go from there

try testing hdd on anotehr puter...

and btw at staples they have a battery backup for $10...after $20 main in, and $10 instant...would last you about 6 minutes...but more then enuff time to do a good shut down