Each time I start the PC, the system spend a long time at "Verifyin
DMI
pool data..."

Windows hasn't loaded at that point, so it has nothing to do wit
Windows.

I have done a series of test to investigate this symptom.

I have stripped all the peripherals (network card, USB heade
connections at
the motherboard, CR-ROMs and left the system with just the graphic
card and hard disk connected) and the system still spend a long time a
"Verifying
DMI pool data..."

I then compared the Maxtor Hard Disk and my Fujitsu Hard Disk (Model
MPE3173AE) on two different PCs.

Specification of PC1:
Athlon 2000+
256 DDR PC3200
Motherboard GA-7VA

Specification of PC2:
AMD K6(III)
256 SD-RAM
Motherboard FIC PA-2013

Maxtor HDD 5T040H4:
Windows ME version 4.90.3000
ATA-100
3 partitions at 5Gb, 18Gb and 17Gb

Fujitsu MPE3173AE
Windows ME version 4.90.3000
ATA-33
1 single 17Gb partition

These are the test results:
1) Maxtor HDD took 4min 30s to boot up into Windows in PC1 (BIOS showe
HDD correctly and configured as ATA-100)
2) Fujitsu HDD took just under 40s to boot up in Windows in PC1 (BIO
showed HDD correctly and configured as ATA-33)
3) Maxtor HDD took 6min 30s to boot into Windows in PC2
4) Fujitsu HDD took 1min 30s to boot into Windows in PC2

Note: By booting into Windows I mean the time when transition fro
BIOS
screen to you see the Windows Wallpaper Background.

The fact that an older ATA-33 HDD boots faster then the Maxtor ATA-100
drive despite all other parameters being kept the same shows that the
problem lies with the Maxtor HDD. The Maxtor HDD spent a long time in
"Verifying DMI pool data..." but the Fujitsu HDD spent considerabl
less
time despite the same system set up, i.e. all I did was to swap th
HDD
while keeping all other components un-touched.

Can I conclude that my Maxtor HDD is damaged? I have done the Powerma
4.09 test and made sure that it is the only device on the cable and th
cable is a Ultra DMA cable. In its quick 90s test, it recommends ful
test when it stumbled upon SMART test. However, it passed al
subsequent test!

How can I convince Maxtor for an RMA?

Thank you.

Regards,
river_kwa
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river_kwa
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