So, last night I built my first totally from scratch PC. Now, in the past I've replaced motherboards, power supplies, drives, cards, etc - but never all at once.
For reference, here are the important parts in the machine:
# Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Processor 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache Retail
# ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
# eVGA 01G-P2-N592-AX Geforce 7950GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Dual GPU Video Card - Retail
# CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail
# Corsair HX620w ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 620W Power Supply - Retail
# 2xWestern Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
# ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail
EDIT:
In case it's relevant, The HDDs are connected to SATA1 and SATA2 on the motherboard, and the optical drive is connected to the only IDE port. (I had thought the optical drive I had ordered was SATA, but I guess not)
On my first boot attempt, the machine actually posted (Surprising the hell out of me...) and didn't show any issues. I put my XP Pro install disk in, and had no trouble booting to it. It recognized the hard drives without a hitch, and I formatted one of them (The slow NTFS format) and started to install to it.
That's where I ran into trouble - I got an error message about one of the files (Unfortunately, it was really late, so I have no clear recollection of which file) but after hitting "Retry" it seemed to copy fine. Shortly therafter, though, the machine BSODed.
My own feeble diagnostic attempts:
I doubt there's anything fundamentally wrong with how I set up the parts - the machine posted, all the fans were running, and the video card/optical drive/HDDs all seemed to function. I guess I wouldn't be all that surprised if I had a loose connection somewhere, so that will be the first thing I try when I get home. I also have another XP Pro install disk, so I'll give that a try as well.
I really, really hope that I don't have a defective part in here someplace - especially if it was something like the motherboard which would essentially require putting everything together again.
I was hoping that I have in fact done something stupid, and that what I'm encountering is something easily remedied (or just a loose connection somewhere).
Any help is appreciated,
Thanks!
-Dan
For reference, here are the important parts in the machine:
# Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe Processor 2.4GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 4MB Cache Retail
# ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
# eVGA 01G-P2-N592-AX Geforce 7950GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Dual GPU Video Card - Retail
# CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail
# Corsair HX620w ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 620W Power Supply - Retail
# 2xWestern Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
# ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail
EDIT:
In case it's relevant, The HDDs are connected to SATA1 and SATA2 on the motherboard, and the optical drive is connected to the only IDE port. (I had thought the optical drive I had ordered was SATA, but I guess not)
On my first boot attempt, the machine actually posted (Surprising the hell out of me...) and didn't show any issues. I put my XP Pro install disk in, and had no trouble booting to it. It recognized the hard drives without a hitch, and I formatted one of them (The slow NTFS format) and started to install to it.
That's where I ran into trouble - I got an error message about one of the files (Unfortunately, it was really late, so I have no clear recollection of which file) but after hitting "Retry" it seemed to copy fine. Shortly therafter, though, the machine BSODed.
My own feeble diagnostic attempts:
I doubt there's anything fundamentally wrong with how I set up the parts - the machine posted, all the fans were running, and the video card/optical drive/HDDs all seemed to function. I guess I wouldn't be all that surprised if I had a loose connection somewhere, so that will be the first thing I try when I get home. I also have another XP Pro install disk, so I'll give that a try as well.
I really, really hope that I don't have a defective part in here someplace - especially if it was something like the motherboard which would essentially require putting everything together again.
I was hoping that I have in fact done something stupid, and that what I'm encountering is something easily remedied (or just a loose connection somewhere).
Any help is appreciated,
Thanks!
-Dan