How to build computer..

[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 cash

WTF who did it for you? Places around here charge like $100