I HAVE 95% OF THE PARTS,,, HEEEEEEEELP!!!! *** UPDATE!!!!***

[Pghpooh]

HI EVERYONE
IT'S ALIVE!!!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!
AND, IT DIDN'T SMOKE,, SPARK OR DIE!!!!
Yup, I am excited!!!! First home built and it's alive!!!!

So far,, I have most parts in the case. It's will post, and detect the hard drive and cd and memory, etc. Next step is to format the drive and then load the o/s.
After that, update the 4 in 1 drivers and the Promise drivers.
My biggest concern now is getting the bios right. I have a 1.2 gig amd athlon. The mobo is set for jumper free. I got into the bios and just fiddled with a a little and the cpu shows it is running at 1 gig. Next step is to make some changes there.
In all honesty,, I do not understand bios settings and at 4 am this morning,, everything was a blur to me so I gave up. Will picl up on it later.
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REPLIED FOR THE HELP!!! YOU GUYS MADE IR POSSIBLE FOR ME TO GET THIS FAR!!!
Pghpooh



Hi
Well,,, after months of working, saving and buying,,, I have everything I need to build that elusive first home built puter!!!
The case, ps, cpu, ram, inc, fans, mobo, video card, floppy, cd-w-rw, o/s, etc are sitting beside me in new unopened boxes!!!! All I need is a sound card and a analog modem. And, really don't need them to get started.
Ok,, I have the parts,, now, what do I do. Hopefully, if there are no emergency calls from work and other distractions I can get this thing to work this weekend.
I guess to get started, I mount the cpu to the mobo. The mobo is a asus a7v133. IThe mobo had a old bios ver of 1.05. I called Asus and had them ship the latest bios. (I dodn't want to chance messing it up with a flash as I never did it before) I'll also install the new bios. The cpu is a amd 1.2 gig and was bought retail.
I am gonna replace the heat sink with a Taisol CGK760092B. And, gonna use Artic Silver on it after getting rid of the pad on the heat sink.. The ram is Crucial ram. 3 sticks of 256 meg pc133 cl2.
The hd is a Western Digital 30 gig at 7200 rom and the video card is a ATI All In Wonder Radeon. Gonna use WIN98se to start off with. I prefer win98se as I am familiar with it.
Ok,, this is what I am gonna do.
1. Mount cpu and heat sink
2. Add 1 stick of ram.
3. Install video card.
4. Install hard drive.
5. Install floppy
6. PUSH THE POWER BUTTON AND PRAY!!!!!!
If I remember right, the factory jumper settings on the mobo are set for "Jumper Free." I'll leave them that way.
Gonna need lots of help on the bios settings!!!!

I realize the o/s has to be installed along with UPDATED VIA 4 IN 1 DRIVERS. Etc, etc, etc.

I am open to any and all sugestions at this point in time.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[maxSe]

Don't forget to connect a CDRom... If the HD is a blank, you'll need to install that os from somewhere...

Everything looks good, though I don't think you'll be needing 768MB of ram for Win98...

dang, you had Asus SHIP you a bios...? How's that work...? I think it'll be much more daunting task to swap the bios chip than just flashing it...

 

[nam ng]

1._ Do not perform this on a carpet

@._ Pay attention to static discharge.

3._ Slowly but surely will do it every time, check and verify each steps 3 times

4._ Others can add more to this so wait for more good advices before proceeding.

5._ Got to go, BYE

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
Asus is very nice to ya when you say you will pay the price to get a new bios!!! LOLOL At this point in time,, the 25 bucks was a small price for me to pay. And, now, I get a "Spare" bios to play with in the future.
Gonna go "borrow" a antistatic mat from work. Alos,, "borrowed" a static wrist strap. If I work in the kitchen,, the cold water pipe will be my ground for everything. If I work in front of this pc,, the outlet will be check with a volt meter for proper grounding. Yup,, I hearn the hard way that static kills. I killed a 25 grand mux board at work because the static strap was defective!!!
I bought the extra ram because it was cheap. I know it is over kill.
But, since this is the first home build for me,, I wanted to "spoil" it!!! LOL
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Zach]

I'm sure we all do it differently, my order:

plug in case
mount motherboard in case or on tray
put in mobo power
attach CPU
add heatsink/fan
put in ram
add video card

power up, works? POST? Then continue.

add floppy, CDROM, hard drive.

optional time to turn on, check if floppy or HD light is contstant. If so, cables reversed. try booting the Win98 floppy to check if you can use floppy & HD and access CDROM.

Add all other cards.

partition and format (as system disk, format c: /s) if not done alreayd
make win98 directory on HD
copy all /win98 files in cd to /win98 on hard drive
reboot without floppy, no cdrom.
cd win98
setup

 

[circut16]

READ THE MANUAL VARY CAREFULLY
the bios setup is cake!!
you will do fine

 

[Pghpooh]

Hi
Circut 16,,,, Speaking of manuals,,, I thought I read here sometime ago there were several errors in the manual.
I think I better go over to the Asus site and download hopefully a corrected and updated manual.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Midnight Rambler]

I'd recommend that you mount the CPU+HS/Fan (especially) and the RAM on to the mobo first, as you had described earlier. I know of a peep who cracked his mobo in half trying to mount his HS/fan on to the CPU after he had installed the mobo in to his case first.

 

[Xray]

Put power supply in case (lay on side)

Install mobo

Install cpu with stock sink

Insert ram

plug in hard drive and mobo to power supply

Hell I would plug in floppy and cd but remember if you plug in the floppy wrong it will screw ya.

Dont forget to plug power supply in wall (heheh) Boot the bitch. If you have half a brain which you sound like you do you will have the whole damn system puring and up to date tonight before you pass out.

 

[acidtear]

dont forget to hook the jumpers from the case (switch). to the mobo

 

[duragezic]

Looks like everything else was said.

But I hear there is problems with win98 and 512mb+ ram. It won't even utilize it anyway. I don't think anymore than 256mb is needed and even from 128mb to 256mb in win98 isn't much of a jump. Win2k yes yes.

 

[Pghpooh]

Hi
I think I will mount the cpu and ram and heat sink on the mobo before I install it in the case. The hold down spring on the heat sink feels like it is gonna be hard to get under the clips on the socket. I found a screw driver that will fit on the spring clip and I'll use that for leverage.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Hey, it sounds like you have done your homerwork, and lots of good advice here. I would say that putting the CPU/HSF/RAM on the mobo before putting into case is a good idea on a towel or something or maybe that antistatic mat you had, or is that for the floor? anyway, just make sure you're enjoying it or it ain't worth it.

 

[Zach]

<< Looks like everything else was said.

But I hear there is problems with win98 and 512mb+ ram. It won't even utilize it anyway. I don't think anymore than 256mb is needed and even from 128mb to 256mb in win98 isn't much of a jump. Win2k yes yes. >>



It's fine. Not a problem, waste is a better word. And, Pghpooh, you should load up Win2K and learn to dual boot when you've figured out installing/running Win98. Good next step, and a better use of the system's resources (read RAM).

 

[Pghpooh]

HI

Zach One reason I did get the extra ram was for the possible switch to Win2000. Right now,, I agree it is a waste using it under win98se. There is a fix for this low usage by win98 on their web site.
If it does turn out that I won't use the extra stick of ram,, you will probably see me on the &quot;For Sale&quot; board here trying to sell it!!!!

The advice here has been great tonight and I am going to go over all of it and write up a procedure that I will use.

One major concern is the installation of the Via 4 in 1 drivers.
When do I load them??? And, is it best to use what came on the cd with the mobo and then update the drivers??? It looks like the file for the drivers is a large file. Since the burner might not be up and eunning right away,,, I might download the 4 in 1 on my old pc and then do the pc to pc connection with a cable and transfer the file to the new one and update from there.

Any thoughts on that???
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Zach]

<< One major concern is the installation of the Via 4 in 1 drivers.
When do I load them??? And, is it best to use what came on the cd with the mobo and then update the drivers??? It looks like the file for the drivers is a large file. Since the burner might not be up and eunning right away,,, I might download the 4 in 1 on my old pc and then do the pc to pc connection with a cable and transfer the file to the new one and update from there. >>



Load them ASAP after installing the OS. So, if you have the mind to download them ahead of time that's fine. Windows might have your NIC/modem going directly after install anyway, though.

Also, I've noticed that on my older Via based system (MVP3 SS7, still uses 4-in-1) some drivers don't always load. After loading the 4-in-1's, I always check through device manager to make sure they applied. If not, I manually update driver, locate it, say use this one..

 

[Pghpooh]

bump for the update.

 

[swanky]

Building MY first this week - great to hear it worked out for you!