Hangs On "DMI pool data"

We just put together a computer with the hardware found below. The problem is when we went to install the OS it would boot from the CD and would go through the install. When it was done it would say installation would continue after restart. It would restart and boot from cd, then would prompt to install OS as if it hadnt even started. Then if you change the boot order to HDD it will hang on "DMI pool data".

Gigabyte GA-M61PME-S2 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Transcend 2GB 240pin DDR2 800
WD Caviar SE WD800JB HDD
LG GH22NP20 DVD/RW
Rosewill R909SL Case
Rosewill 350w PSU

The dvd drive and HDD are on the same IDE cable and the DVD drive is set to slave and the HDD is set to Master. I have gone over connections several times. Changed options in BIOS. Tried fail safe default. Cleared CMOS. It doesnt hang with the HDD disconected. I have tried both XP and vista.

The motherboard recognizes the HDD and shows the correct model number and specs for it. It also recognizes that the DVD is slave and the HDD is master. It sees the ram is installed and all the fans work.

If you need to know anything else let me know.

Thanks in advance

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

This problem is probably caused by having the HDD and optical drive on the same cable. In addition, performance will suffer as devices on an IDE cable will run at the speed of the slowest device, which will be the optical drive. I would place your HDD on a SATA port and leave your optical drive on the IDE port. For your HDD, there are 2 options. Either replace it with a SATA model (recommended for best performance) or use an adapter: IDE/ATA/SATA Adapter (Google 'ide sata adapter').
If you have no other option than to use your current configuration, check that your IDE devices are configured correctly. I prefer not to use cable select (CS), but to explicitly set the devices to master (MA) and slave (SL). Use an 80-conductor cable, and configure your HDD as MA and optical drive as SL. The IDE cable will be labelled, but as a quick check, it is connected as follows. Firstly, the SL device is connected to the middle connector. This divides the cable roughly 1/3 and 2/3. The MA device is connected to the connector that is closest to the middle connector. The other connector then goes to the motherboard.