HELP!!! building a pc....

[RossGr]

Back up, remove the mobo from the case, set it on an insulated surface in front of your case connect the Power supply, video card, necssary mobo cables, (power switch and speakers). Boot the system, check bios make sure everything is go. It is much easier to play with DIP switchs or jumbers with the Mobo on the bench in front of you.

Get the CPU fan you need to get the system running, DO NOT waste time with the trivial details (extra fans, round wires, etc.) these clowns are recomending. Get the system to boot first. Then Install in to the case, be sure the only stand offs installed line up with screw holes in your case. Do NOT leave "extra ones for support" . An extra metalic standoff will ground what ever it touchs on the bottom of your mother board. This can do anything from nothing to fry your mobo.

Now that you can boot to BIOS in the case, connect the HD and do the Fdisk, format. Install your OS. Now begin to populate the PCI slots, start with the sound card (Vid card is already there). Let the OS install them individually. This way when a problem occurs you will know what card is causing it. Now that you have a working system start the extras, ie case fans, round wires etc.

Have fun.

 

[gummiely]

hmm... i'm hooking up the led's now.. how do i know which the positive end is? i don't see any marks on the led cables.. so.. i dunno if i have them plugged in upside down or what... help! =|

 

[gummiely]

ok.. is it the arrow ^ thing that is the ground? is "hdd led" same as "smi lead"? that's the only 1 left that's not plugged in, and there are no references to an "hdd led" within the asus manual.

 

[gummiely]

ohhh noooo.... bad news... i powered on for the first time.. and "no signal input".. doh! i am getting power, b/c fan is going.. but no "beep", and... no bios. =( i have cpu and video card only.. as u suggested, rossgr. i can't seem to power off either. what now?

 

[Cybordolphin]

Did you install your RAM....?? Just checkin.


Also here is an example of what can happen when you don't spend some time on a clean build.
Text

Who's the clown....?

 

[gummiely]

yeah.. i check just about everything.. i think.. the ram is definitely in. hmm. i'll try it again an post results..

 

[gummiely]

ok i'm finally up and running now.. i have win2k installed. floppy, hdd, and cdrom. i'm afraid to install any more devices b/c i still don't have a cpu fan adapter/cable. i don't wanna overheat. =| where can i find one of these (online) besides intel? it's a 3-pin, btw: cpu and fan

 

[Howard]

Is this what you are looking for?

You're welcome

 

[gummiely]

hmm... that's almost it.. but not quite... u see, i need a 3-pin, female to female adapter. the pins on both the fan and the mobo 3-pin male. i'm looking at the other adapters on this site.. and none of them look like what i need. =|

 

[Cybordolphin]

Whoa.... buddy.... shut that thing off! Don't turn on again until you get that cable. You can quickly damage a CPU that way. Can't believe you have not been able to locate that cable yet!?
It is a VERY common item. Where have you tried to locate one from? Post a thread requesting where to go for one..... someone might have a spare or know where "specifically" to go for it.

The Cpu can get hot quickly.... and if you had it running long enough to install windows2k.... well that's too long to run without cooling (heatsink alone is not good enough).

Installing the rest of your periphs... won't matter to the CPU.... The CPU is going to get pretty hot regardless.

Just curious... how did you install WIn2k without a monitor hooked up (and video card)??

 

[gummiely]

hehe... of course i had my monitor and vid card hooked up. i haven't gone thru in install that many times to remember exactly what keys to hit.. haha.. anyhow. Yeah i've looked all over the place for that darn cable. I've gone to compusa, radio shack, as well as local computer shops. NOBODY has it.. oy.. they all tell me to call intel. Wtf.. i need it now! =| Sorry, getting out of hand.. Good idea cybor.. i'll post another thread.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Grumm.... did you ever get with Warrenton on the wire/cable... or make one up for yourself?

What else did you have left to install in your new system.....? Sounds like you had most of the cards in, etc..?

 

[gummiely]

hi again all. cybor, i decided to pay a lil extra and get the cable from intel. actually, they were gonna give me the part for free but i wanted it shipped overnight, so i paid $15 and change.. no biggie. anyhow.. that was yesterday.. so hopefully it should be arriving in the mail today. and i pray that it's the correct part. =)

on another note.. the pc is up and running, b/c i'm temporarily using a different cpu. altho i'm having a few problems...

First, the sound blaster live software is all buggy.. I can't seem to install the playcenter software. And for some reason, after installing Unreal Tourn. and running it for the first time, it crashed, giving me some kinda "wrong audio device" error.. and then when i started it up again.. i got crazy lag. (btw, i'm running a geforce256 vid card). I'm wondering if there is some kinda conflict b/w the sound and video. I dunno..

Next, i have both a defective zip drive and cd-rom. The zip won't even allow me to insert a disk.. the spring mechanism must be broken.. and for the cd-rom... that one is kinda baffling, b/c i used it to install win2k, but after that, it would not read a single cd. weird.. Anyhow... that's how things are now. I need to get some new h/w and then i should be all set.

 

[Cybordolphin]

Well ok.... but both not working ZIP and CDrom sounds fishy. Are you sure they were getting power?

ALso... Soundblaster live! can be a bitch to set up right. The problem that you are describing is sometimes caused by the fact the you might have needed to have the "playcenter" already installed from a previous version of Soundblaster live! I know this sounds really stupid.... but I had it happen to me. Which version of drivers/software are you using with the SoundBlaster LIVE!? Are you using the disk that came with the soundcard? Or are you using the update download from Soundblaster Live!'s website? You may have to download just the "playcenter" from Sounblaster Live!

One other thing you might notice about the Soundblaster Live! software.... is that it changes its settings when you shutdown and restart you computer from time to time. This can be frustrating if you do a lot of different soundcard intensive things ... like telephony... music... games... etc.. It will take some time learning the Sounblaster .... but you will figure it out in time.

You MUST be sure that when you install software.... that you shutdown all running software that is running in the background. This includes viruscan software, etc.. Use the ALt COnt Del method. If you don't do this each time you add software.... you will have problems.

Let us know when you get the new parts in.

Then we can tell you how to quickly check for "conflicts", etc..

Glad you finally were able to get hold of that cable!!