CUSL2 Newbie questoions

busmech1

Member
Aug 19, 2000
75
0
0
Hi All,
I'm building my first comp. I have a couple of install questions with this board. These are kind of basic, like I said, this is my first. Are there only 6 mounting holes? Do I need to isolate the screws from the board. In looking at the board it doesn't look like it. My case didn't come with any isolater washers. I'm using the Fong Kai 320 case. Do I need to do any kind of "burn In" if so could someone give me some pointers on how to do this or what to use. I'm using all new componets. One more thing I have the cusl2 rev 1.02 does anyone know which bios and drivers that ships with? thanks, Don
 

AL77

Senior member
Apr 11, 2000
253
0
0
Hi busmech,
Yes, there are 6 holes that are to be used to screw the motherboard into the metal standoffs of the case.

"Isolating Screws": I have heard of people doing this (ie. putting washers between the mb and screws). Here's my take on this.

I have read a lot of so-called 'computer installation' guides on the net, including AMD's guide on their site, and they do not mention anything of using washers. It's just a simple 'screw the mb to the standoffs with the screws'. To the best of my knowledge, this is the proper procedure (isn't it nice that mb manufacturers like MSI & Asus, make no mention in their manual of the actual installation of the mb into the case).

So, go right ahead and install your CUSL2 using your case provided standoffs and screws (6).

Note1: you will notice a silver-coloured solder ring around the 6 standoff holes. Although mboards are probably designed to have screw heads larger than the solder rings installed without problems, the screw head should not be larger than the solder ring, otherwise you could short or damage your mb. Make sure to line up your mb properly in your case to (hopefully) achieve this. This shouldn't be a problem though.

Note2: The holes without the solder ring are meant to be used with 'plastic', not metal spacers. This is to give the mb additional rigidity in areas of high stress on the mb. I've seen a lot of modern cases that do not include the necessary case cutouts to install these spacers. It seems that these type of supports are dying. I don't think it's even part of the ATX specification, but I may be wrong. I wouldn't worry about not having the case cutouts to match these holes. They might have been more of an issue for slot CPUs, but even then you could install the CPU outside the case, not to mention the mb is able to take reasonable stress. One is by the ISA slot, and the other is to the right (corner) of the DIMMs.

Note3: I recommend installing the CPU and memory outside the case. No big deal for the CPU, but DIMMs can be tight/difficult to insert (relative to peripheral cards) and it's nice, but not mandatory (as I said, mboards are designed to handle some/reasonable stress), to have a flat surface for support when installing the memory. Just be careful to not touch the memory with the screwdriver when you install the mb.

Regarding a burn-in: Well, what I would do is run some 'intensive' benchmarks/programs. Examples are Q3A looped timedemo, 3DMark2000, SysMark and many others. You could also run Sisoft Sandra and HDTach to gauge your memory and hard disk performance.

Edit: Just to add one more thing: I'm not entirely sure what role the case screws play in electrically grounding the mb. There are ground pins on the mb ATX connector. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this. Either way, you should be fine using the screws without the washers. Just take note of the screw head width as above.

Regards,
Al
 

AndyHui

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member<br>AT FAQ M
Oct 9, 1999
13,141
16
81
Your CUSL2 should ship with the 1001A BIOS. The latest Final BIOS is 1003; the latest Beta BIOS is 1003.004.

You should get the latest Chipset inf drivers which are newer than the ones on the CD, and you may wish to use the latest ATA Drivers....these are definitely much newer than what you get on the CD.
 

Valvoline6

Senior member
Oct 6, 2000
742
0
0
Sometimes the order you install the drivers / software can be important. Here is the order I used for an absolutely trouble free install.

1. Mobo, cpu, memory, floppy, fans, plugged in the power, booted checked everything out using onboard VGA.
2. Added the Hard drive, partition and format.
3. CD-Rom so I could install windows.
4. Used onboard VGA to install Windows 98.
5. Installed the motherboard drivers from included CD.
6. Installed updated Intel mobo and ATA drivers.
7. Video card, (Radeon) and included drivers, then updated drivers.
8. Modem, network cards.
9. SB Live, then updated drivers w/o Liveware.
10.Later I added the extra usb ports, CDRW, and USB cable modem- had to swap my old ISA cable modem with the cable guy.. Could have installed the cdrw earlier but I needed it on the old puter for a couple days..
11. All of my other Applications and software.

Everything is running rock solid. Make sure you go into the BIOS and hit F5 to restore default settings before updating the BIOS. My first update I did not and I was greeted with a black screen and couldn't get the thing to boot at all. I disconnected the power, pulled out the battery, and video card. Still nothing. Diconnected all the drives too and it finally would boot again. Talk about a few tense moments LOL. Since then I have reset to BIOS defaults with every update and haven't had a problem.

I also had all the updated drivers for all of my components ready on a CDRW disk in advance. Good luck, I think you will be thrilled with this motherboard!
 

realport

Junior Member
Oct 23, 2000
6
0
0
congratulations you just got the best motherboard in the world! Based on my experience.
 
sale-70-410-exam    | Exam-200-125-pdf    | we-sale-70-410-exam    | hot-sale-70-410-exam    | Latest-exam-700-603-Dumps    | Dumps-98-363-exams-date    | Certs-200-125-date    | Dumps-300-075-exams-date    | hot-sale-book-C8010-726-book    | Hot-Sale-200-310-Exam    | Exam-Description-200-310-dumps?    | hot-sale-book-200-125-book    | Latest-Updated-300-209-Exam    | Dumps-210-260-exams-date    | Download-200-125-Exam-PDF    | Exam-Description-300-101-dumps    | Certs-300-101-date    | Hot-Sale-300-075-Exam    | Latest-exam-200-125-Dumps    | Exam-Description-200-125-dumps    | Latest-Updated-300-075-Exam    | hot-sale-book-210-260-book    | Dumps-200-901-exams-date    | Certs-200-901-date    | Latest-exam-1Z0-062-Dumps    | Hot-Sale-1Z0-062-Exam    | Certs-CSSLP-date    | 100%-Pass-70-383-Exams    | Latest-JN0-360-real-exam-questions    | 100%-Pass-4A0-100-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-300-135-exams-date    | Passed-200-105-Tech-Exams    | Latest-Updated-200-310-Exam    | Download-300-070-Exam-PDF    | Hot-Sale-JN0-360-Exam    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Exams    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-JN0-360-exams-date    | Exam-Description-1Z0-876-dumps    | Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps    | Dumps-HPE0-Y53-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-HPE0-Y53-Exam    | 100%-Pass-HPE0-Y53-Real-Exam-Questions    | Pass-4A0-100-Exam    | Latest-4A0-100-Questions    | Dumps-98-365-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-98-365-Exam    | 100%-Pass-VCS-254-Exams    | 2017-Latest-VCS-273-Exam    | Dumps-200-355-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-300-320-Exam    | Pass-300-101-Exam    | 100%-Pass-300-115-Exams    |
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    | http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    |