After man months when I tried to use my old desktop computer, it could not go beyond the basic hardware checks by the BIOS. No matter how many times I tried to boot, it always got stuck at the line “Stuck on Verifying DMI Pool Data”. This is not only annoying but also frustrating as the screen does not go beyond these words even if you wait for half an hour.
There are many reasons for this problem and all of them have to do with verifying the data related to the hardware components that is stored in the BIOS versus the actual hardware detected. When this message appears for a very long time, it means that BIOS is not able to verify the data somehow on either end – the CMOS memory or the hardware connected.
We can use a number of methods to fix this problem:
1. Clear the CMOS memory
CMOS memory is where all the options for BIOS and related data is stored. The data is stored with the help of a 3V Coin battery. By removing this coin battery for 15-30 minutes, we can wipe the CMOS data. If the problem is occurring because of some corruption in the CMOS data, then this method will fix this problem. We can replace the coin battery in the same place after a few minutes. By the way, this coin cell should be replaced after a few years.
2. Check all the hardware connections
The problem could be due to loose cables because of which BIOS is not able to properly detect the hardware. These include the hard drives, CD/DVD drives, solid state drives, RAM memory sticks, PCI cards, PCIe graphics cards etc. You have to take out the various cables or cards, clean the connectors and plug them back in.
You have to check both the data cables and the power cables because both can cause the problem. If the power cable is loose, it cause spurious signals being sent to the BIOS. On the other hand if data cable is loose, the hardware may not be properly detected.
3. Check for failing power supply unit
Even if your power cables going to the various components and drives are not loose and firmly connected, the problem can be cause by a failing power supply unit. This is because an old and failing power supply does not output the correct voltage or current. For example, when the hard disk drive needs 12V output, it could be supplying only 10V. This is when the hard drive is not detected and then BIOS gets stuck on identifying the hard drives.
One easy way to isolate a bad power supply unit is to check the same system with a known good power supply unit. There are some commercial PSU tester kits available too but they are meant for professionals only. If you have a failing power supply unit, then you can easily procure a new one from Amazon.
4. Isolate faulty components one at a time
This is perhaps the most popular method to close down on the cause of the problem. All you have to do is remove all the components attached to the motherboard except the RAM modules. Then keep attaching one at a time and see if the problem goes away. The component that causes the problem to reappear is the faulty one. Such faulty components should be avoided and replaced with brand new ones.
5. Fix operating system boot issues
One more reason for this problem could be that the boot sector of the hard drive has become corrupt. This can be fixed easily by booting into a live CD or bootable installation media. From there, we can fix the boot using various tools.
In the case of Windows 10, we can use “Boot repair tools” that we can find under Troubleshooting section in the boot menu. For Mint Linux, we can use the “Boot Repair” tool to do everything automatically. Other operating system also give a similar type of tool for fixing the boot related issues.