Press F1 to Disable NMI, F2 to Reboot

Press F1 to Disable NMI, F2 to Reboot

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Explanation:

Some low-level hardware problems cause the generation of a non-mask able interrupt, or NMI, the most common of which is a parity error. This interrupt causes all processing to immediately cease so the error condition can be handled. Some systems, when this issue is detected, will give you the option of disabling the NMI signal and continuing on, or rebooting the machine. Some will just halt the system and force you to do a hard reset. This error message is almost always preceded by another error message which states what the cause of the NMI was.

All of the regular interrupts normally in use and referred to by number are called maskable interrupts. The processor is able to mask, or temporarily ignore, any interrupt if it needs to, in order to finish something else that it is doing. In addition, however, most BIOS’s have a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) that can be used for serious conditions that demand the processor’s immediate attention. The NMI cannot be ignored by the system unless it is specifically disabled.

When an NMI signal is received, the processor immediately stops all other forms of processing and focuses on the NMI condition. The NMI signal is normally used only for critical problem situations, such as serious hardware errors. The most common use of NMI is to signal a parity error from the memory subsystem. This error must be dealt with immediately to prevent possible data corruption.

Diagnosis: This message is self-explanatory and is not an error message in and of itself, but rather is accompanied by an error message.

Recommendation:

Address the problem by diagnosing the error message that caused the NMI.

Warning: Disabling NMI will cause the system to keep booting, ignoring the error condition. This can lead to unpredictable results and is not recommended.

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