PC Building in process 1st question...

[chewie8008]

What happens if I get it wrong(plugged in backwards)? ...

Ok, last of the questions, I think. I do use the IDE cable labled 'CD-ROM' even though it's running to both a DVDRW and CDROM, right?

[redwudz]

If you get it backwards, the right and left channel will just be reversed, no harm done.

If that video card runs hot, you can always use a PCI slot fan. That's what I did. It's a 80mm fan that mounts in a card space below the video card and the fan plugs into a 4 pin Molex connector from the power supply. That's what you can plug into your unused connector from the case fans.

Those cards sometimes need fans. If you have good case airflow, you may be alright. I could never figure out why they mount the heatsinks on the bottom of the card where it traps all the heat.

EDIT: Yes, that cable is fine. The blue plug into the MB, the middle plug is for the Slave drive, the end plug is the Master. I usually set the RW to Master and the ROM to Slave, but it doesn't make much difference. Just make sure the drive jumpers are set right for their position on the cable. Both from the factory are probably set to Slave.

[ROF]

Backwards audio cables can be determined by using the volume control panel in windows. if your right channel is your left channel, you've got them reversed. Put an audio CD in the drive and play with this windows setting. The volume control in XP is found under All Programs/Accessories/Entertainment in your Start Menu. No harm beyond confusing your audio senses will come from a reversed cable.

For IDE Cabling, you may want to Master/Slave your CD-Rom with your Hard drive and put the DVD Burner on it's own cable with cable select or master as it's position. This will allow you to reliably copy CD's on the fly.

[chewie8008]

Ok, I think i'm ready to boot this thing up. *crossing finger, hope hope*

One last question, sorry...just don't want to screw something up that can be changed so easily. On my SATA drive I ran the SATA cable to SATA 1 on the MOBO. There is SATA 1, 2, 3, and 4, is this right, does it matter?

[ROF]

You are correct. SATA 1 is where you want to make that connection. When your MoBo POSTs you will see the drive listed on the SATA connections.

[chewie8008]

Actually, let me ask this. Since i'm using the same monitor/keyboard/mouse from my old computer, it will be difficult for me to be switching back and forth with the internet to ask questions, so i'll ask now.

Is there anything I should know about setting all this up. I see I get to setup BIOS via the instructions I have that came w/ the MOBO. Then from there I would install XP. I am able to install the GFX after installing XP, right?

What is the process of having XP run on my 80GB harddrive and then linking them together so that I can use the 200GB for games/files etc...

[redwudz]

Just what I mentioned earlier. Check your temps, voltages in BIOS first thing after you turn it on. If everything on the drives and indicators and fans are alright, check your drives in BIOS to see if everything is there. Make whatever BIOS adjustments you need, put in your XP disc and partition, format and install.

When you have windows up and running, install your drivers, MB and video card. As long as the SATA is not the boot drive, it should show up and work fine without any special drivers installed.

ASUS has a program on the setup disc called 'Probe' that can monitor voltages, fan speeds and temps. Load that and run the machine for a while while monitoring.

The SATA drive should show up in 'My computer', and you are done, except for program installs.

[chewie8008]

Ok, I plugged it up and ran it for a little bit. Good results so far, I think.

It read all both the CDROM and DVDRW drives, read both harddrives, read the memory.

Here are the voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds I got. Let me know if these seem normal or above/below:

CPU Temp: 38-39c
M/B Temp: 36-37c
CPU Fan Speed: 3125-3183 RPM
Chip Fan Speed: 5273-5443 RPM
CPU Target Temp: 72c

CPU Fan Speed Warning: 1200 RPM(which i'm assuming is, I get a warning if it drops to or below 1200RPM)

Q Fan Controller; Disabled(not sure if that should be enabled or not)
Vcore Voltage: 1.39V
3.3V Voltage: 3.26V
5V Voltage: 4.81V-4.91V
12V Voltage: 11.71V

It shows a little above 1GB of RAM, and 203 GB for my Maxtor HDD.

One thing I did get was, on boot up(w/o hitting del to enter BIOS) I get a 'disk error' message. Says to insert system disk and hit enter. Wasn't sure if that meant OS disc, MOBO disk or what. So I put in the MOBO disk and got a bunch of errors(such as, no partitions and things). Should I just put in the OS disc and install it, or is there something else I have to do. I looked around in BIOS and checked every menu/option. Tried to make sense out of it all best I could.

Not sure how to partition and format HDD w/o a boot disk. I don't have a 3.5 drive installed on the PC. Is there another way to do it? I guess I could get a 3.5 drive, but not today.

Still need to know how to put the OS(what other progs do ppl put on the smaller HDD w/ the OS when they have two?) on the 80 GB and then have everything else on the 200GB drive.

Sorry for all the questions, I am just lost on a lot of this stuff.

I understand you guys can't constantly(nor do you want to) read and reply to my 1 million questions. Just take your time, answer them if/when you feel like it. I am in no rush and don't want to annoy anyone too bad.

I appreciate all help!

[KBeee]

Sounds like you're doing fine, and congratulations.
On boot up it's asking for "System Disk" because you haven't got an operating system installed on your new hard drives yet. I don't know what operating system you're planning to install, but guessing it's WinXP SR2 you can load this straight from the CD - no 3.5" floppy required. You might have to go into your bios and set your Boot Sequence order to boot from CD first.
BTW - the wires marked EAR you mentioned earlier in your post are probably Earphones.

[chewie8008]

Ok cool. One thing that did kind of worry me was the noise level of the Liteon DVDRW drive I have. It is by far the loudest drive i've ever heard. I put in that MOBO install disc and I thought the drive was going to blow up. I don't know if it's just the drive or what... but it kinda freaked me out.

[redwudz]

Some drives are a little noisy like that; If it blows, jump back.

What KBeee said. You want to partition, then format your HD to NTFS. The XP OS disc will do all that, pretty much automatically. Then when Windows is up and running, install your other drivers.

You SATA drive will probably need to be formatted also. You can do that in Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management. You should see it there. The OS may ask to format it before that, but if you get there, right click on the SATA drive and then click format.

All the temps and voltages look good. CPU is a little warm, but so is your case temp. They should both drop down a couple of C's after the OS is installed and everything runs a while. You can use the Asus Probe program to check them from Windows.

The Q fan option will probably only work if you are using the CPU cooler/CPU combo from AMD. Mine does nothing with a aftermarket cooler. (It supposed to throttle down the fans if they're not needed)

EDIT: Looks like you do have the Heatsink/CPU package. You enable Q-fan in BIOS, then load the Q-fan program from the MB setup disc. You need both.

[chewie8008]

Ok, got a few problems going on. Got Windows XP installed, got the drivers installed. Everything is running fairly normal. Whenever I try to install the NVIDIA nforce4 ADMA Controller and Network Controller it gives me a message saying that some file can't be found and that continuing installation could disable to operation of the computer either now or in the future. So I didn't install it. Keep in mind this is files coming from the MOBO disc that came w/ the MOBO.

So then, I realize I can't use control+alt+delete. Do I have to enable that somewhere in BIOS mode? I looked for it forever. It also won't let me go to add/remove programs. It just freezes up. I have a program called Zonealarm(sure you guys have heard of it). It's a firewall. I was trying to install that and it just froze. So I try to control+alt+delete it and wouldn't come up. It froze up. So i had to soft-reset, computer was completey unresponsive. So it came back up and I tried to uninstall it and it froze up again. So then I soft-reset and came back and tried to go straight to add/remove programs and it froze again.

I'd appreciate any and all help.

[budz]

did you install the sp2 after you installed xp? if not download and install it from the windows update site.

[redwudz]

That's strange, but you probably already figured that out.

It sounds like a corrupt install of XP. That's too many problems. Sounds like they are all related to the OS.

You could put your XP disc back in after setting BIOS to boot from the CDROM and try a reinstall of XP. This should reset any drivers to XP default. Try that and see if you can get into the control panel, add remove programs, also see if Alt/Ctrl/Del work. Don't load anything from the MB disc yet. If that works, then the problem may be with the MB disc. As budz asked, have you installed SP2 or is it on your XP disc? Also, did the MB disc autorun? I wondering if the wrong files were selected, though that seems unlikely.

I'm also assuming your BIOS settings are default? If not set them to default. Plenty of time to tune them later.

That's about all I can think of for now. If you can get it to run without the MB disc, check the ASUS website and DL the drivers from there.

Good news is it doesn't seem to be anything to do with the assembly, unless there is something really obscure happening with the MB, but I doubt it.

[ROF]

The NVIDIA nforce4 ADMA Controller should already be installed and operational with Windows XP. Installing from the disc has probably installed drivers which are incompatible or not certified by Microsoft. The key to installing a new machine is to look at the shipped CDs as a sort of last resort. Always download the latest drivers from the manufacturer even if the disc is labeled with identical drivers. You will find your installs are much smoother by doing so.

My suggestion is to open your BIOS and select "restore default" or other similiar setting. This default is sometimes referred to as restore optimized. Either way, by doing so you will restore the BIOS to a default setting which will be optimized for your hardware installed.

As to not being able to add/remove programs without lockup, that's a software issue. If you have installed old software such as an old version of Zone Alarm, try uninstalling those older software programs. If you can't use add/remove, use windows explorer and locate the uninstall .exe for those programs.

Because you are experiencing several issues at once, if you can't resolve them or at least pinpoint a root cause, I'd recommend re-inserting your windows XP CD and attempt a repair or a re-install. If re-installing, PLEASE, use the re-format option. You will save yourself alot of OS headaches by doing so.

[chewie8008]

Ok, i'll have to try all that later once I get a chance. But let me ask about the PS/2 KVM Switch I just bought. Obviously it's the cords to run two computers off of one moniter/KB/mouse. I am not sure if that is intended to run the computers at the same time or what(not sure how that would be possible), but that's not what I want to do. Just wanting to have them both plugged up to the KB/Mouse/Monitor at the same time so I don't have to constantly change out cords. The thing I wonder about this is, my older computer isn't exactly spyware free, possibly has virus's. Don't know, don't really care. But i'm wondering if in linking the PC's like this, will viruses/spyware be able to transfer from PC to PC, either now or in the future? I don't want any sort of bad items on this new PC. So i'm really cautious about this.

I figured probably not since it's just moniter and kb/mouse cables, but want to confirm. Or are there any other issues caused by using this PS/2 KVM switch. I don't want to risk harming or slowing down this new PC at all.

Thanks again.

[redwudz]

No, they can't transfer files that way. Should be perfectly safe.

Haven't used a KVM switch, but you should be able to run both at the same time. They use a version of them in server farms to access multiple servers, all on at the same time.

[chewie8008]

Ok, i'm so close. I went back and reinstalled & reformatted the OS HDD and have XP running on there perfect. cntrl alt delete is working. I can access add/remove progs. So i'm trying to get my 2nd HDD formatted. You said I should be able to do it w/ the OS disc. But it won't let me. There is no option for just partitioning and reformatting. I have to click install XP, then create partition, then reformat. But once I hit reformat it automatically installs XP and there is no way to cancel it. So I have the 2nd HDD formatted but two instances of XP. I know how to delete the partition but then my 2nd HDD is still unpartitioned and unformatted.

How else can I do it? Keep in mind, I don't have a 3.5 drive so can't use a boot disk.

Oh, and is it ok to go ahead and install the drivers and utilites for the GFX card before the drivers for the MOBO? Cause in order to download the drivers for the MOBO from their website, I have to have a modem, and I don't at the moment...

[budz]

go to settings/control panel / administative tools/ computer management/ storage/ disk management....you should now see all the drives installed on your computer....that second hard drive will be seen on there...whatever the letter for that drive just click on it....then right click on it and select format.....by selecting format you will lose all information on that second hard drive......from there you should be okay...I've never installed another OS on a second hard drive.....for the drivers on your mobo check device manager to see if you need to install them .....since you're using XP it usually has all the drivers for the mobo, video, etc. I had a old dell pc that was given to me with no drivers no nothing....I installed a new XP on there with all the drivers installing on their own from XP......hope this helps you out......

[redwudz]

If you mean your SATA HD, you can format that in Windows. I gave the directions a few posts ago using Disk Management.

You can install the drivers for the video card and the modem if you have it. You may have to install the modem a second time, mostly because of the sound card works with the modem sometimes, but no big deal.

I would stay away from the MB install disc until you know what happened before. (If it was caused by the MB disc.) XP has enough native drivers to run most anything. That's why your monitor is working with the video card at present.

Of course the proper drivers should make it all work better.

If you get your modem up and running, you can DL the newest drivers from the Asus site. May take a while over dialup for some of them. If they are the same version as you have on your MB disc, then you wouldn't need to DL all of them.

Those MB discs are sometimes generic with incompatible drivers included. I would be good to make sure you have the right ones.

[chewie8008]

Yeah, I remember you telling me how to do that before, sorry. Should have went back and looked it over.

I'm gonna do that and install the video card drivers/utilities and then once I get my modem install the drivers for the MOBO from the Asus website.

Thanks a lot.

[chewie8008]

Ok, so maybe I can't get rid of the 2nd XP. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I have one XP installed on the 80GB HDD and one installed on the200GB HDD. So I went to disk management>storage> etc and reformatted the 200GB drive. So this would have cleaned it out right? Nope, it's still asking me which XP I want to run at startup. So then I just put in the XP cd and deleted the whole partition on the 200GB HDD, created a brand new partition. Went back to diskmanagement>storage>etc and formatted. Still, asking me which XP to start with. It's like there is XP installed twice on the 80GB HDD, but I know I didn't do that. Am I doing something wrong? I really don't want to delete both partitions and reformat both, but if that's what I have to do...I guess that's what i'll do.

Everything else is working though. I got my modem today and installed it w/o any errors. Got my flash drive today too, kind of a modern day subsitute for the 3.5 drive.

[redwudz]

There was a post a while back with the problem of XP looking for another version to boot with. But I can't recall the solution. Was pretty easy to fix I think. You might post the question as a separate thead and somebody should be able to tell you.

[chewie8008]

So it's possible that there is only one XP installed but it's just still asking which one, when really there is not two? Because I had the 200GB HDD formatted and it was showing completely blank, no program files, windows folder etc. So unless there is 2 XPs on the 80GB...which i'm not sure how to confirm.

[redwudz]

Yes, I think you got it right. Your OS just thinks there's another boot partition. I looked around, remembering that same problem being discussed, I think this is the one:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=269281

Sounds like everything else is going well.