Building my First comp and need help plz.

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chucky2

Lifer
Dec 9, 1999
10,018
37
91
Yeah Soccerman, I couldn't remember if Windows did that or not.

I typed it all out the long way in case it didn't, that way he/she (sorry, don't know which) :) wouldn't be up the creek anymore. I figure a good amount of time's been wasted already, so why waste more?

But your right: It would only take like 2 minutes to find out if you're right or not.

So, ComputerNewbie, if you happen to read this thread again before trying it my way, try Soccerman's first, as it'll probably save you some time.

Good luck!

Chuck

P.S. Let us know how it works.
 

turf

Member
Apr 17, 2000
82
0
0
OK, I just recently built an athlon sys too. Obviously you're computer is trying to boot, so that's good.
But first off: Go back through your owners manual you got with your motherboard and verify that all of your jumpers are correct for your sys. In this case, the defaults or "jumper free/auto detect" options would be best. Next, make sure that if you've connected both your HD and CDRW on the same IDE controller, that you've plugged the primary drive (HD) into the top plug (should be black)on the ribbon cable, and the slave drive (CDRW)into the second (grey)or middle plug. Also be sure that you've set the jumpers on the back of the drives accordingly. These steps insure that your drives aren't conflicting. If you're using seperate IDE controllers, make sure that your HD has use of the primary.

NEXT: Using your OTHER computer, go to your control panel, click on add/remove programs, then click the "create start disk" tab. Insert a blank floppy disk into your drive and make a boot disk. After this is done. Use this disk to boot your NEW computer. Select option 1 to start your computer with cd rom support. [Note: boot disk will create a temporary "RAM DRIVE" where it will store some utilities. this changes your CDROM drive by one letter. (More on this later)].

NOW: After you arrive at the DOS prompt type FDISK (FixDisk, a partitioning utility used in DOS). Make as many partitions as you want. Keep in mind these will have to be formatted later. You can creat either FAT16 or FAT32 (File Allocation Table) partitions. I strongly recommend FAT32, unless you are going to be using some
really old software.

OK,:Now you need to format your drive partitions, once you're finished with that, (assuming all has gone well so far), you should be ready to install your OS from your CDROM. Remember what was said above about the RAMDRIVE. It will relocate your CDROM one more letter. So if you have 4 HD partitions, C,D,E,F, G: would NOT be the CDROM, the bootdisk has made that the RAMDRIVE, where it is temporarily storing "whatever" utilities, could be the recipie for jello, who cares, and H: will be the CDROM. SO, now go find your CDROM, whatever letter it may be and then type in Setup. You'll see Scandisk perform a system check, after it's done, click exit and your computer should begin installing windows, and the rest is history.

Hope this helps, at least that was the way it worked for my system...:):):)
 

chucky2

Lifer
Dec 9, 1999
10,018
37
91
Yeah!, yeah!, was I right too??!!

:)

Soccerman- I guess I know that I don't have a life since I've been waiting all day for ComputerNewbie to respond. :)

Lol:)

Chuck
 

Hyper99

Banned
Jun 14, 2000
776
0
0
I have self taught myself on building my own PC
Would it be better if I to learn from a book, from an expert?
My skill at assembling PC is still lacking.
I had a defective keyboard and didn't even know until a few days later.
I must sucks huh, which I thought I was good.
 

Hyper99

Banned
Jun 14, 2000
776
0
0
Computernewbie I wish you the best of luck.
I have had a few bad one myself, let say all of a sudden the motherboard went dead, take it for an exchange,
same thing happen again.
I had to drive back and forth, back and forth.
It so painful.
Its a nightmare when you don't know what you doing,
and I still don't till these day.
I'm having better luck then I did back then, say few years ago
when I started assembling my first 486, then Pentium,
and K6-2.
I do know alot more now, but I still have a few more to learn myself
let say those trouble shooting things, they're tough aren't they.
Hey if you have any problem just ask me I'll try my best to answer it.