How to build computer..

[Fear The Wrath]

Ok, so i just got allll the crap i needed to build this monster of a machine... well it may not be considered a monster to you guys but for me its the biggest monster EVER! trust me... anywhoo, anyone know a good site that shows how to build a computer? like detailed... haha thankss!

[Diamndzngunz]

The Power of Google
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/build-a-computer.htm


You know.. My suggestion is get a old ass computer.. Take it apart look at how it all goes together then put it back together. Its better to hands on then to read random BS.Building a computer is simple. Got more questions when it come to building time.. Shoot me a PM I can help you out

[Gallo]

Diamond, I may have some troubleshooting questions for ya heh. Just got all my parts yesterday... assembled, and pushed the power button and got nothing.

I didn't have time to really try anything (working 12 hour shifts this weekend), so I'll try a few things before posting a lengthy whine post. :)

[-silencer-]

Diamond, I may have some troubleshooting questions for ya heh. Just got all my parts yesterday... assembled, and pushed the power button and got nothing.

I didn't have time to really try anything (working 12 hour shifts this weekend), so I'll try a few things before posting a lengthy whine post. :)
Did you connect the case's power button to the 2 pins on the motherboard? Get out the motherboard manual to find out which 2 pins. They will be in a collection of around 10 pins for power, reset, power led, hdd led, speaker, etc.
Building a computer isn't difficult at all, but there are quite a few quirks/tips you learn over the years of building machines - how much thermal paste is most effective, how tight you should screw in hard drives (too tight and they don't work at all!), trying different pci slots if irq conflicts are coming up, getting massive aftermarket heatsinks on without damaging cpus, etc. It'd be much better if you have someone with experience building multiple machines help you along with your first one.

[Diamndzngunz]

Diamond, I may have some troubleshooting questions for ya heh. Just got all my parts yesterday... assembled, and pushed the power button and got nothing.

I didn't have time to really try anything (working 12 hour shifts this weekend), so I'll try a few things before posting a lengthy whine post. :)
Did you connect the case's power button to the 2 pins on the motherboard? Get out the motherboard manual to find out which 2 pins. They will be in a collection of around 10 pins for power, reset, power led, hdd led, speaker, etc.
Building a computer isn't difficult at all, but there are quite a few quirks/tips you learn over the years of building machines - how much thermal paste is most effective, how tight you should screw in hard drives (too tight and they don't work at all!), trying different pci slots if irq conflicts are coming up, getting massive aftermarket heatsinks on without damaging cpus, etc. It'd be much better if you have someone with experience building multiple machines help you along with your first one.Like Silencer said. You got to connect the power and reset switch to the correct switches on the motherboard.

looks like this.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASRock/939SLI32-eSATA2/images/headers.jpg


And yeah having some who knows about computers and building them help you out is also a great idea to learn.

[Gallo]

After searching a bunch of tech forums, I found out about Motherboard "standoffs". The little metal screws that separate the mother board from the case.

I've built a computer before, and never used them. But I read that if you don't, you can short the mother board.

So, I pulled my mobo out of the case, put the standoffs in, screwed the mobo back in... and I was off and going.

I feel like a doof... it was frustrating :)

Just got Vista installed, and am beginning to get all my essential apps on there. By the time we get to Wednesday (when I have a 5 day break from work), I'll be 5-boxing it up.

[Fear The Wrath]

ok.. i need some help.. i got a friend who has built a computer before and he helped me with everything as far as building it.. then he left, but when i booted it up i did the BIOS stuff so i did boot from cd then inserted my Vista installation disk but it can says there is no hard drive... i have the power cable connected to the hard drive and the SATA cable connected.. do i need a driver or something for it? if so, where can i get it? and then just us a CD to install it?

[thinus]

Check in your BIOS that it is set to autodetect HDs. You shouldn't need drivers unless it is a funnynon-standard drive.

[Fear The Wrath]

ok.. i have a 150GB Western Digital Raptor Hard Drive.. that'll work yea?

[thinus]

ok.. i have a 150GB Western Digital Raptor Hard Drive.. that'll work yea?

Yes, your BIOS should pick it up automatically. When you go into the BIOS it should list it, most BIOSes will list it on the front page. If it doesn't show up then somewhere in your BIOS there are settings for the different IDE devices with an autodetect option also available. Make sure the autodetect option is selected for all the IDE devices.

If you still don't pick it up check your motherboard manual on where your primary SATA device should be connected and also listen to the drive to make sure it does have power.

[Knytestorme]

Shouldn't need it with Vista but if it's a newer motherboard and sata chipset Vista may not have drivers for it. If this is the case your motherboard manual should walk you through the steps of creating a driver floppy and when to use that, along with which keys and when to press them during the Vista install to get it to ask you for them.

[EDIT]

To expand on this, if windows doesn't have any drivers for your sata chipset it will not be able to see any drives attached to it thus giving you the error of having no drives you are currently seeing. As an example, the pc I put together on saturday was could have it's sata drives seen by Vista during the install of it but XP needs a driver disc to recognize them.

Your BIOS may also give you the option of having your sata drives run in ide mode which negates the need for the driver disc during install, which was how I worked around having no floppy available to me during the XP install.

[Fear The Wrath]

ok.. so i click the button to turn on the comp... then it goes windows corporation with the little loady bar,
then it does the safe mode or run normally thing
then i click normal
then BLAM!blue screen and it restarts...

[Gallo]

ok.. so i click the button to turn on the comp... then it goes windows corporation with the little loady bar,
then it does the safe mode or run normally thing
then i click normal
then BLAM!blue screen and it restarts...Could be a RAM issue. Try booting with just 1 stick of RAM in the 1st slot.

[Wilbur]

ok.. so i click the button to turn on the comp... then it goes windows corporation with the little loady bar,
then it does the safe mode or run normally thing
then i click normal
then BLAM!blue screen and it restarts...

Write down the error message.

[Diamndzngunz]

ok.. so i click the button to turn on the comp... then it goes windows corporation with the little loady bar,
then it does the safe mode or run normally thing
then i click normal
then BLAM!blue screen and it restarts...If its anything to do with a memory dump. Remove one of your RAM sticks. Load up windows let it do its thing then put it back in. If it dumps again then you have a bad stick or the BIOS timings are off.

[Oswyn]

Try choosing safe mode. If it runs ok in safe mode, then you may have some sort of driver conflict (which would be weird if this is a new install). If it was a new install, did you get any errors while installing windows?

If the drive was from another system and already has windows on it, then it very well may be a driver problem. Go into safe mode and unistall chipset drivers and see if that helps. Then install the drivers that came with the new motherboard.

[-silencer-]

After searching a bunch of tech forums, I found out about Motherboard "standoffs". The little metal screws that separate the mother board from the case.

I've built a computer before, and never used them. But I read that if you don't, you can short the mother board.

So, I pulled my mobo out of the case, put the standoffs in, screwed the mobo back in... and I was off and going.

I feel like a doof... it was frustrating :)

Just got Vista installed, and am beginning to get all my essential apps on there. By the time we get to Wednesday (when I have a 5 day break from work), I'll be 5-boxing it up.
Wow.. and the motherboard's ports in the back lined up with the holes in the port plate? I'm stunned it worked without the standoffs. If you look at the back side of the motherboard, you can see the tips for solder connections. If any are touching the metal of the case without the standoffs, you're likely looking at shorts. Perhaps every single one of your motherboard's didn't have enough contact to break through the thin layer of resin over each of these solder points - craziness.

[opt]

next time just pay 25$ for them to put the gear together, not worth going through the hastle for a little extra cash

[-silencer-]

Exactly what memory did you buy, and what's your motherboard model? Links to newegg/wherever would be nice. It sounds like voltage/timings aren't correct when Windows is trying to copy OS files from the disk to memory. Some memory needs to run at higher voltage (2.0-2.2V from stock 1.8V), and it'll flake out at some point after POST, but during operation. Having aggressive timings at stock voltage can also cause this problem.. so provide the details and we'll try to figure it out.

[Diamndzngunz]

next time just pay 25$ for them to put the gear together, not worth going through the hastle for a little extra cashWTF who did it for you? Places around here charge like $100

[opt]

ohh i better add thats australian dollars.

[Fear The Wrath]

well things have been working fine except for two things when booting up... it wont boot up if.. i have a CD in the drive or if i have the tv hooked up.. i use it as a second monitor... haha but i have to unplug it, turn on the computer, then plug it back in... and CDs just dont seem to work anymore :P it just freezes up... any ideas

[opt]

set your boot sequence in the bios to HDD / HDD2 / CDRom / FDD
as for the tv, fucked if i know

[Ghallo]

How much RAM do you have in your system, and are you doing 64bit or 32 bit? Vista has a known bug where if you have over 2gigs of RAM sometimes it will fail to boot after a clean instal. The fix is to remove the RAM, install Vista, get the patch, then install the extra RAM.