"TERIDYING DMI PMOL DATA" - Corrupt BIOS?

[wischneider]

Hello everyone,

First time here, would appreciate some help. Running Vista 32bit on an Acer Aspire E380 4G RAM, been running it for four years now. On Sunday I was playing Civ 5 on Steam and my computer all of a sudden crashed.

When I go to restart, my load screen (the MSDOS or the BIOS... black background white letters) is corrupted, some of the letters are messed up and moved around. Wish I could take a screen shot, but I remember instead of saying "Verifying DMI Pool Data" like it normally did it now says "Teridying DMI PMOL DATA." So I think it's corrupted, but I don't think it's a hardware problem.

I can start in safe mode and have been running every diagnostic I can think of. Thought I fixed this twice but after running full virus scans that came up blank and attempting to play Civ 5 again, it crashed on me both times and did the same thing. I run Kaspersky and it does sometimes tell me that the black list is corrupted, but I have reinstalled that twice too and everything seemed fine...

Anyone got any ideas of how to fix this, besides having to re-install windows vista (of which, I cannot find the disc)? I'm already backing up my files but re-installing and rebooting is the very last thing I want to do.

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Yard Dog]

Have you attempted in the advanced start up by tapping the F8 key on start up to use the " last known working " option ?

 

[wischneider]

yes, of course. I've restored it to time up to a week ago. That's how I got it to work for the first two times, but it always crashed again eventually (after scanning and downloading windows updates)

Maybe the windows updates are causing this?

 

[wischneider]

Also, I have two hard-drives, a C and a D... if I re-install vista will I need to backup my stuff that is on the D drive?

 

[Yard Dog]

Ahhh, well, the windows updates appears to be causing this, re: your last post . How about installing the updates one at a time , the one that causes the issue needs to be marked as hidden and not used. Give that a shot and let us know of results please.

 

[richc46]

See if a system restore done in safe mode helps
Then set automatic updater to notify. Install the updates one at a time.
Hide the one that causes the problem

 

[wischneider]

alright, thanks, I'll try that with the updates... however I've noticed that every time I run a system restore, I can't restore from that point again... I started with the oldest one and then have moved up.

Do you know any way that I can restore from a point last week, multiple times?

 

[richc46]

Cant be done from safe mode

 

[wischneider]

thanks guys, but no dice! the letters on the loading screen are still all messed up... I had to restart multiple times just to get it to let me load Safe Mode with Networking!

I also was reading about using the Acer Recovery Management by using Alt+F10 in the load menu, but that usually doesn't load and when it does it's just a black screen.

I'm out of ideas, besides a clean wipe (but I'm going to have to buy a disc).

You guys got anything? Also, if I wipe my C:/ drive, will the files on my D:/ stay intact?

 

[richc46]

If you wiped C: all other drives should be safe, but surprises happen.
Try to back up with Ubuntu first
Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

 

[wischneider]

I've done some reading on this Ubuntu thing, I had no idea what it was until now. So, it's an operating system like Windows Vista, except it's free?

Can someone explain to me how it works and if it's free why do we all pay hundreds of dollars on shoddy microsoft products?

 

[richc46]

MS has the money to market the product so more people know about it. In addition it does have additional features.

 

[wischneider]

Right now I can't even get it started in Safe Mode, it seems like it's gotten worse... it'll load in the beginning and then I select safe mode (or any one of the 10 other options I get) and it'll load but then stops in transition to windows.

I've tested my motherboard, RAM sticks, and video card and they are all good. I'm convinced that it is my OS and BIOS that are corrupted. You know how I was talking about on the load screen my letters are messed up? It's the same in the BIOS when I hit F12 on start-up... It's a software issue, not a hardware issue... So I've got a perfectly good working computer but Vista has failed me...?

I've downloaded and burned to a CD the Vista Recover Disc from Neosmart Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download — The NeoSmart Files it seems legitimate, but still doesn't let me boot up.

I can't boot it from the CD but I've just recently burned the same image file to a DVD, possibly might have luck with that (but probably not). When I boot from the CD it loads and seems like it's going somewhere but then quits. It actually quits sending a signal to the monitor, but the computer stays on and runs. And I even let it run overnight to see if it needed time, but when I got up in the morning nothing had happened.

So right now, I can't even get it to boot at all... do you know any tricks about that?

 

[richc46]

My only suggestion. Dowload Ubuntu to save your stuff and then try a factory reinstall, if you have the restoration partition.
Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

 

[wischneider]

Thanks Rich,

I'll have to give that a shot. But if I can't boot from the Windows Vista Recovery CD/DVD then how can I assume I can boot from an Ubuntu CD?

I just can't boot anything

 

[richc46]

If it does not boot, it means a hardware problem. You must repair computer or get a new one.