General installation sequences

[ocmonkeyboy]

Hey dudes, need some wisdom. I'm building a ddr system after stepping away from hardware thrashing for a while. My question is, what is the best sequence for installing parts, drivers, OS, and most importantly flashing the bios? I've always assumed:

- memory, video, floppy, hdd, cdr with no bios tweaks
- go to POST, if good then
- install OS
- add sound, nic, and other PCIs one at a time and get the latest drivers for them
- once stable, flash bios

Or something close to that. One part that is missing that I'm unfamiliar with is when to install the 4-in-1 drivers. Since I'm using an Epox 8kha and it has an AMD northbridge, it looks like I need the AMD agp mini port driver instead of the VIA agp driver. That makes it 3-in-1. Anyways, for simplicity's sake, assume W98SE. If you good folks could take a second and run through the sequence of events (no detail is too trivial), I think it would be a great help to me and others that are a little confused about the best approach. No need to go into step by step instructions on things like flashing, people can go figure that out for themselves. I will compile it and post it from time to time in appropriate threads. Many thanks.

OCMonkeyboy

New Gorilla:
Epox 8KHA
1.2Ghz 266fsb Tbird
NoiseControl Silvarodo HSF (really damn quiet!)
2X256 Crucial DDR 2100 2.5 CAS
IBM 40Gb Deskstar
ATI Radeon LE
SB Live! 5.1
Plextor 16X
Barely ripe bananas

 

[Cainxinth]

i second that request, and which gets installed first- VIA 4-1 or AMD AGP? Does it matter?

 

[bacillus]

<< which gets installed first- VIA 4-1 or AMD AGP? >>


there aren't any hard &amp; fast rules on that one.

suggested order:
Install Windows
Install latest VIA 4in1 (or in this case 3in1)
Install latest VIA USB filter driver
Install latest DirectX
Install latest video drivers
Install latest sound card drivers
Install other latest drivers, e.g. joystick, graphics tablet, etc
Install applications
The basic principal is to work up from the most basic software towards the higher level applications.

 

[eLiu]

When you install your stuff...from top to bottom (or how i've done it/heard others doing it):

1) remove mobo tray and mount the mobo
2) install CPU/HSF
3) RAM
4) depends--if the design on ur case makes it hard to mount drives and stuff after the tray is in...mount them now...Otherwise, put the mobo tray back in, and do a POST test (make sure everything works before you wire it up)
5) mount/connect drives...ONE at a time. first floppy- if u want, pop in a boot disk and power on, see if ur connection is good. then HD...format it if it needs to be formatted...then CD-ROM(s).
6) Install the OS
7) Install drivers--if win2k, install SP2 first. then...AMD AGP miniport (since ur using an AMD northbridge), then install VIA 4in1's, but leave out the AGP driver. Install video drivers/DirectX. Install...other drivers. (i'm pretty sure the order matters...so dont mix and match)
8)Since this is an AMD box...I would strongly recommend getting Motherboard Monitor and Shut Down NOW! (will allow u to monitor temps/shutdown the system if it gets too hot)

As for the BIOS flash...it can be done basically at any time...you dont even need the HD to be installed, just a floppy. Epox's website has instructions...also, look through this thread. It discusses BIOS flashing on an Epox 8K7A...but the info there should still be useful.

edit: typos...doh

hope that helps,
-eric

 

[drewski]

the AMD AGP vs. 4-in-1 order shouldn't matter since they are drivers for mutually exclusive parts (N-bridge vs S-bridge). I doubt the Via AGP driver will load anyway, but when installing the 4-in-1 it presents a menu of the items that it can install. You can deselect the AGP option if it appears.

I would install the mobo drivers (AMD, via) before drivers for other components. In addition if there are updates to the OS (SP2 for win2k, for example. i've never used win98 so i don't know if there is something similar), I would install that even prior to the mobo drivers.

Unless there are certain parts of the bios update that you really really need (the opposite of what you said, it's not stable) or are just a junky for the latest bios (like i am ) you shouldn't need to flash the bios.

hey ocmonkeyboy where did you get the silverado? did you have to order direct from the company or did you find another site carrying it?

 

[eLiu]

Hmmmm...from what I've read...you should install SP2 first (win2k). The IDE drivers in it are MUCH better than those in the VIA 4in1's.

-eric

 

[ocmonkeyboy]

All great info so far folks, the forums have to be the best feature of Anandtech. The more the merrier, add your comments as well.

drewski: ordered them directly from the company in Germany, I haven't seen any US distributors yet (though they were asking for companies in England to reply - maybe there's hope).

 

[ocmonkeyboy]

Figures, I found one of the posts I was looking for before starting this thread. No matter, the more info the better. Check out this here thread and read BraveSirRobin's summation. Thanks to everyone for posting: past, present and future.

OCMB