Building first PC

[Makaveli]

Im putting together a PC over the weekend for the first time, ive got plenty of experience in putting bits in but never built a full one.

Anyone got any links to good pages i could read before the parts arrive?

Or any advice?

[ShadowMoses]

push connections in straight, make sure you read the manual for the m/board before doiny anything, to make sure you install it right, if you are used to plugging things in you should be ok. just make sure you earth yerself aswell, to stop static. Some people dont bother with doing this (I didn't untill i nackered a £300 gfx card :grr: ).

Moses

[Tattooed Freak]

Have a look here...

[eblaster101]

i used to worry as well but the more you do it the less you care about static and what not just stick it in.
Everything is pretty much simple but make sure your carefull when you put the CPU heatsink in thats probably the most hardest part for a newbee. my mate fooked his one hes experienced so be carefull, hold the left clip snug pushing it to the right and then bring in the screwdriver push down out and then in.

if u understood that. its pretty comon sence

[Hippie on hill]

Make sure U use enough of the screws U get m8.
It's a lot quicker if U only use the minimum number of screws to hold the mobo and HDDs in place but the system will run quieter with less vibrations and there's less chance of mobo damage if there's no flex in it when U put the cards etc in.

Get some good thermal paste.
If you've gone for a retail box set of chip, heatsink and fan, don't trust the awful thermal pad on the heatsink. Scrape the pesky pad thing off the heatsink and apply a little paste instead - I had a temp change of 40 degrees once from doing this with an AMD chip.

Never touch the copper.
Static will jump from U across the copper on any component so to minimise the risk, don't touch it.

Don't throw everything in in 1 go, be methodical in your approach.
Build the minimum system to install an OS first then add any other components 1 by 1 after, it's easier to spot problem devices this way.

HTH

[Makaveli]

As expected things havent gone quite so well for me.

I put it all together following all the manuals instructions, set the jumpers, put in the cpu, setup the power and reset switches, put in the memory, put in CD rom and HDD.

Didnt connect any of the usb/front panel stuff yet.

But it wont work, when i fire it up, i get about a second of power then it switches itself off, the Motherboard LED stays on but everything else dies.

Any ideas?

PLEASE!

[Tattooed Freak]

Happened to me when I didnt secure the MB correctly or use the correct screws. Check them again m8...

[Makaveli]

Happened to me when I didnt secure the MB correctly or use the correct screws. Check them again m8...

I started again and rebuilt the lot step by step mate, the mobo is definatly secure.

I got around 2 seconds of power followed by a beep then shut down.

What else could this be?

Afterreading the above im hopeing i havent broke the proccessor.

[eblaster101]

this is very destresting on your first PC i know how you feel it could be the Powersupply i dout its anything to do with how u screwed it on or anything like that check ur powersupply swap it with oldi mabee

[easy]

Try reading this site:

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

Check everything twice then once your sure its not a simple problem then try clearing the cmos and troubleshooting the post screen. Does it manage to display anything in the 2 seconds?

To me, it would sound like: Ram, Motherboard or CPU. Yeah, theres quite a few possibilitys there.

Everything is properly installed? Heatsink seated properly? CPU isn't crushed ?

Were you grounded through out installation of everything?

Good luck mate, i know how annoying all this can be , just dont kick it, it wont help :nono

[Little John]

1 thing I have always done when a pc is being a pain and not booting it remove the board from the case sit it on the box it came in with the antictatic between board and box. plug in the power supply, cpu (with cooler) and pc speaker. use a screwdriver or somthing to short the power switch pins and see what beeps you get.

beep beep beep beep
forever is a memory problem, you should get this as there is no memory fitted if you do it is good as the cpu and board are fine. if not try another CPU if you have one available. as the fault is with one of the 2 items board or CPU. you could also look at the power supply try anotehr of those.

stick you memory in

try it now
if the VGA is not onboard you should get a VGA error beep which is 3 short beeps and a normal one. once again this is good as your memory is fine.

stick the video card in and it should now give you just the 1 beep which is a normal POST.

you can now start adding the other components, drives extra memory, pci cards what ever you want but do it 1 at a time you dont need to let it boot just get the single beep and turn it off and add somthing else. leave the front panel LEDS till the end they are the bits that cause the most problems and are easilly got wrong.

when everything is connected you can then try things in the case once again doing it step by step making sure that you only have screw holes for the motherboard under the spots where there are holes in the board.

good luck

[Makaveli]

Thanks for all the advice, i got as far as

1 thing I have always done when a pc is being a pain and not booting it remove the board from the case sit it on the box it came in with the antictatic between board and box. plug in the power supply, cpu (with cooler) and pc speaker. use a screwdriver or somthing to short the power switch pins and see what beeps you get.

I get two long beeps, then power turns itself off.

I cant figure out what that means from that page as im not sure what the bios is.

I got this >> http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=49060 motherboard.

WHilst reading the ebuyer reviews for the XP2500 Barton(i actually bought a 2800 Barton but read the wrong reviews earlier), a couple of people wereahving power supply problems, one said that good power supplies are heavy and mine is as light as a sack of feathers, its 400w but came with a £15 case, would this really stop the CPU working with no other devices connected though?

Also i noticed the CPU seems to have a tiny mark of some sort on one of the edges of the silver bit that meets the heatsink, could this be the problem?

[Makaveli]

I cant figure out what that means from that page as im not sure what the bios is.

Just wanted to clarify this because it sounds really dumb, i meant i dont know which Bios it is.

[Little John]

not sure about it then

you psu and case cost £15 it may be a possible cause of the problem but the mark on the cpu die could be the real cause.

you could do with getting anoter cpu that will work in the board and trying it.

but this time dont fix the heatsink on just sit it on top so you dont risk destroying the cpu.

if you can post a picture of the cpu maybe wee can see if it is ****ed.

[Makaveli]

I havent got a PC with the same socket or any other hardware that i can subsitute unfortunatly.

I havent put the thermal paste on the cpu yet, i wanted to see it boot before i fixed it, i will post a pic of it but im giving up for tonight, been doing my head in all day and it would mean unpacking everything, getting the cam etc etc etc.

[Sanj[UK]]

right m8, this happened to me recently and it wasnt a good result

once you boot your system up is the cpu fan spinning? if not it could be that your cpu is over heating, hence the shutting down. take some bits out of your mothermoard and just leave the bare minimum ie anboard,cpu,fan,ram, graphics card and try again (do not connect harddrives/cdrom drives etc), if it boots then it means your power supply aint big enough

you said that your motherboard light stays on whilst everything else is dead?this happened to my last system and what happened was my motherboard and cpu along with the memory and the harddrives had all gone bye bye, hopefully this wont be the case with you, good luck m8

[Makaveli]

Already tried that mate it still wont start up with only the CPU connected.

I tried to get a pic of the cpu but the mark i was speaking about is so small it wont show up on any pics.

I really really hope what happended to you doesnt happen to me mate because none of these parts are mine, the PC is for my Uncle.

I need a new machine anyway so im going to order the exact same parts from ebuyer, at least that way i will have something to test everything against (or two dead PC's:cartman).

[ShadowMoses]

have you tried just plugging the power supply into the motherboard.... and seeing if it stays on?? I had a similar prob and it was was when my gfx card was plugged in,RADEON 9800 xt which needs an extra power cable plugged into it, it was causing the PSU to cut off, that was a cheap one, i got an expensive heavy bugger and it works fine.

If it still cuts off can you try putting the PSU on another motherboard (yer m8s or something) and seeing what happens, or if u have a PSU u know works put it onto the motherboard (again ONLY m/board attached, no gfx cards or whatever) and switch it on if it cuts off then its the motherboard, but if your m8s m/board cuts off you know its the PSU

Moses

[easy]

How about just returning your parts or just 1 of them to ebuyer, tell them it dont work sorta thing. Atleast if you get a new one then your 95% sure that will be ok.

Have you tried testing your PSU with just a fan?

Try doing this to test your PSU.

[Little John]

the "mark" on te cpu sound like your problem, contact ebuyer and get it replaced.

when you get the new one dont fix the cooler to the board untill you have tested that everything works you will be ok just sitting the heatsink on the cpu for a short time.