First home built system, what to do?

[HippyJoe]

I've nearly finished getting in all my new hardware. Abit KT7A-RAID, Duron 650, 128MB PC150 RAM, InWin Q500 w/300W PS two extra 80mm fans, 3.5 floppy, old 36x CD, borrowed TNT AGP vid card - no cash .

Question: Where do I go from here? After I put the proc in the mobo, install the heatsink, then ram, then vid card, what do you do on the first boot up?

I'm guessing enter CMOS and probably go with most of the default/conservative settings. But then, what about driver loading. I remember reading on the forum a while back that the VIA 4in1 drivers are one of the first things installed.

Can anybody provide a list of things that need to be done from the first power up to installing windoze?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dameon]

I don't see a hard drive on the list... is there one?

 

[HippyJoe]

My bad... Western Digital Caviar ATA66 20.5GB 7200RPM.

 

[Pederv]

On a first time run system, what I do is:
1) Put the components in the case (of course).
2) Unplug the system from AC, reset the bios with the cmos reset jumper (5 - 10 seconds)
3) Set bios defaults
4) Install windows
5) via 4 in 1 drivers
6) drivers for your other hardware (sound, network card, modem, video)
7) via 4 in 1 again, just in case. Some video drivers used to install intel agp drivers.
8) Should be set for application software installs.
9) Use installed benchmark software to test stability as you change bios to optimized settings.

 

[4824guy]

Also make sure the CPU fan is spining when your first turn on power. Just a few seconds without it cooling will kill your CPU.

 

[lazyboy]

I second 4824 guy, make sure there is good contact.

 

[josphstalinator]

basically the first power up is just to make sure that everything is working and you can get into the bios. sometimes people dont put the video card correctly in the agp slot or the ram isnt properly seated in its slot. once you have your minimal components in you power up to make sure everything youve done up to that point is correct. then add your remaining components, format the hd if that needs to be done, install windoze, then make sure all drivers have been loaded (windows usually doesnt install everything).

 

[erm]

I think basically for newbies like me and possibly the topic starter, We need the exact commands to execute on dos like how do we use the boot disk etc.
Thanks.

 

[glp1del]

What I do:

First install the hard drive, floppy dirve, cd-rom, cpu with heat sink and fan, memory, and video card. With a boot up disk boot up the system. Parition the hard drive with fdisk, reboot and format all partitions. Then install the operating system, Windows whatever. Install the via drivers, not needed for intel system. Then the video card drivers. Then add each card indivdually with its own drivers. I usually don't mess around with the bios until after everything is in and seems stable.

Hope that helps,

Glp1

 

[TungFree]

insert the floppy boot disk for win98 as it recognizes the CDROM for your windows instalation. then hit return for the combo of CDROM and the shell then type FDisk and partition your disk as u like and then exit Fdisk and type setup int he command line then follow the instructions as asked.
Tugfree