Fatal error on startup

[pc_gone_wrong]

Hi, I tried tyo install a firewire 800 card and upon getting past bios it gave me an error message. FATAL: NMI due to SERR Cause: PXH System halted. After taking the card out it still gives me this message and I cannot get into Windows. All I can find out is that an NMI is likely to be a hardware error but I have no idea what. Someone please help! Many thanks. Dan.




PC info:
Windows XP sp2
Dual Xeon 3.4ghz
2gb ram
Quadro FX 1300

[Train]

Do you have the Intel® Server Board SE7221BK1-E?
"5.5 PCI Error Handling
The PCI bus defines two error pins, PERR# and SERR#, for reporting PCI parity errors and
system errors, respectively. In the case of PERR#, the PCI bus master has the option to retry
the offending transaction, or to report it using SERR#. All other PCI-related errors are reported
by SERR#. SERR# is routed to NMI if enabled by BIOS."

Try disabling the SERR# is routed to NMI in the BIOS.
http://na48.web.cern.ch/NA48/NA48-3/...221bk1tps1.pdf



I have a feeling that the firewire card may have damaged the pci slot. Sure hope I am wrong.

[SuperSparks]

Try clearing the CMOS in case it got scrambled. There should be a jumper on the motherboard to do that, if there isn't or you can't find it then pulling the motherboard battery out for a few minutes will achieve the same result (unplug the power lead as well).

[pc_gone_wrong]

Thanks for the reply Train. Supersparks I think you helped me a year ago so thanks again. I reseated everything inside (leaving out the firewire card still)and when I booted up all was fine. I will leave the card for now, cant afford to have the pc down so notgoing to risk it again at the moment. Thanks for all the help.

Edit: 25,000 posts each from you two. Thats amazing, do you get paid in any way for this? Keep up the good work!

[SuperSparks]

Edit: 25,000 posts each from you two. Thats amazing, do you get paid in any way for this? Keep up the good work!

Nope, we don't get paid, but I think I can speak for both of us that we find helping people is its own reward

[chazzman]

This error really gets me ticked. I've seen it on 6 PC's in the past 3 months. We always chalk it up to a dust in the PCI slots, but today it happened at my desk in a clean part of the building.
We put a lot of PCI cards in (expensive model 8200) HP workstations. Popping out the cards and reinserting them (standard fix) is a pain (the PC's are wired into a console). It's worked every time. Until today.
Today was the last straw. I got the error, and nothing would make it go away (remove/reinsert cards & RAM after using canned air to blow out the sockets -- twice). I finally took the cards out and put them into another PC. Now both PC's boot fine. Repeatedly. Go figure.
Now what? We'll just wait for one (or both) of them to fail later.
From my simple view of the world, I expect to find a poor solder connection on the bottom of a PCI slot that gets jogged when inserting cards, gets flaky later from heat, vibration, temperature, sunspots, dog breath, etc. There's little else I can imagine. If that's what it turns out to be, just label it "Made in Hurry"

[chazzman]

Many of the PCI cards we use are expensive, limited production models. And they don't always fit perfectly. We've always just pressed everything into place and locked it down. Not any more.
If you can't get your new card to work, and it doesn't fit into the PCI slot and setscrew tab like pure, liquid perfection, then you might try gently bending the silver plate on side (use pliers, bend slowly, test, repeat) to get everything to fit just like it should.
Let us know if this did the trick.

[pc_gone_wrong]

Hey Thanks for the reply but look at the date! It was posted about 15 months ago! ^__^