HELP! Building a Computer

[little_golden]

I confess in advance I'm not a techie. Maybe there is someone out there who knows what I'm doing wrong or not doing and can help me out or point me in the right direction.

I'm building a new computer using:

1) Abit LG-95Z Socket 775 Barebone Kit / Intel Celeron D 360 OEM / ATX Mid-Tower Case with a 400 Watt Power Supply (A458-1172 A)

2) Ultra 512MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory (ULT31688)

3) Ultra / Fire / Socket 775 / P4 3.8Ghz / Copper Core / CPU Fan (ULT31797) 2

I've added the memory to the board, installed the CPU, and installed the CPU fan. I've added the power hookups and added a hard drive.

When I power it up it runs through the drive set up, and lets me adjust the CMOS. However, when it goes to start Windows XP (i.e. Start Normal or Start Safe) it crashes again and forces me back to the drive set up and CMOS.

I'm I missing something?



A secondary challenge... I want to install my CD drive (older LG 12x 8x 32x) but my board only has one of the large connectors (blue) and I need it for my hard drive. The board has a smaller connector - can I use that somehow?

(Thanks in advance for any help or advice.)

 

[Starbuck69]

The smaller connector is for a floppy drive, so no you cant use it for your CD rom drive, if you only have one hard drive then you should be able to use the slave connector on the hard drive cable, if it has one, some of the newer system dont have it because they are assuming that you will use the SATA connectors that are on your system board for your hard drive and then the IDE cable for the CD Rom drive.

First see if the system board it ok, dis-connect the hard drive and connect the CD tom drive to it and see if you are able to boot to the CD and see a install screen or any thing like that come up, if it does then the system should be ok.

To better advise how it should be connected with what you have, what kind of hdd do you have, part number and manufacture would work as well, also what cables do you have.

 

[sunandshadow]

You're using a hard drive from a previous machine which already had windows installed on it, or what?

 

[borisk]

Try and under clock the memory in the bios Instead of running at default speeds clock it down. Cheap memory can cause havoc.

Boris

 

[robertearl]

Sounds like you are using the harddrive from an older compueter. The HAL layer ( Hardware Abstraction Layer ) for your latest process and BIOS probably do not match your new board. This will cause the OS to crash before most of it is loaded.

You can do an OS rebuild from the XP cd and that will save all of your data but you will be better off to reformat and install the OS fresh. If you need to save your data, get a new hard drive and install the OS on it. You can then hook up your old hard drive as a slave and copy all of the stuff you want back onto the new drive.

If you want to do a rebuild, but up the XP cd just like you are doing a fresh install. After it gets to the part about which hard drive you want to install the OS on, it will find your old installation and one of the options will be for you to rebuild that instead of formatting the drive.

 

[N_B]

Sounds like you might have a MBR corruption as well, especially if you duel booted an older version of Windows (95 anyone)? Anyway, like said before, best course of action is to wipe your drive and start clean with a fresh Windows install. Of course, you'll loose all your data...

Unless of course, you either A) drop the dime for a second hard drive, or B) take the cheap, easy, and slightly more fun (in my opinion, anyway) option. Bum a friend's machine long enough look up Ubuntu.org They have what's called a linux live CD. Don't panic, it's designed to be user friendly, just like windows. You can boot your machine off the CD you make according to the web site's instructions, and then pull all your data off and back it up on CD or DVD. Hell, you might even be able to fix your windows install that way. It's worth looking into anyway, since you might yet be able to salvage your current data.

Good luck.

 

[Mazuri]

If the Windows install was already on the hard drive and you've changed the motherboard/CPU, it will not recognize it as the one it was set up for and will not launch. You will need your windows xp disk in the drive when you boot up then go into set up. It will detect the Windows already on the drive but choose Installation. It will refresh the things it needs and shouldn't mess with everything else. You will need to reactivate Windows XP, however, as it will consider this a new machine.

I went through this with each hardware upgrade. It's a PitA, but one of the evils of Windows.

 

[little_golden]

Thank you for all the advice so far between this thread and all the PMs.

There was a suggestion to try to run just the CD-ROM with the XP disk (with no hard drive).

I tried this tonight. The CD-rom worked fine. However, the computer againt went through a long RPL-ROM checks. It didn't boot into XP like I expected (I altered the CMOS settings). At the end of the RPL checks it asked me to insert boot disk (so it didn'r crash like before). It then asks me to insert the boot disk, I re-insert the XP disk but rather than booting it takes me back through the RPL-ROM check thing.

I'm not sure how to check the memory which was another suggestion. It's brand new. For the moment I'm going to assume it's ok.

On Friday I'll try to run it with an old hard drive and using the XP disk to boot it.

There was some encouragement to reformat a hard drive or buy a new HD. I'm terrified to lose data on my old one or to lose settings. I'm tempted to buy a new SATA HD. My problem at the moment is the motherboard only has 1 IDE connector which allows me (I think) to connect either 2 IDE HDs or the CD-ROM. (IF I don't buy a new SATA HD how would I connect the 2 IDE HDs ad 1 CD-ROM?

I'll post info on the HDs on Friday after I take the old computers apart again.

(NB - the old computers have XP on the HDs.)

(Again thank you to all you computer gurus for your kind feedback. The collective brainstorming is enchanting and most helpful.)

 

[Weird Harold]

There was some encouragement to reformat a hard drive or buy a new HD. I'm terrified to lose data on my old one or to lose settings. I'm tempted to buy a new SATA HD. My problem at the moment is the motherboard only has 1 IDE connector which allows me (I think) to connect either 2 IDE HDs or the CD-ROM. (IF I don't buy a new SATA HD how would I connect the 2 IDE HDs ad 1 CD-ROM?

...

(NB - the old computers have XP on the HDs.)

One of the security features introduced with Windows XP is that each installaltion is uniquely keyed to the system hardware -- an installation of Windows XP won't boot in a new system.

With one EIDE connector on the MB, you can install two EIDE devices as long as one is designated a Master and the other is designated a Slave.

What I would do is to take a clean HD with no system installed and the CD Drive and install them together with the HD as Master. That should allow you to install a fresh copy of XP from the CD.

If you still can't boot, find a 3.5" floppy drive and make an emergency boot disk. Install that in your new system and work from there to get everything else working.


Once you have a clean HD that will boot, then remove the CD and install the old drive with your data and copy everything to the new drive, while being careful not to overwrite any of the newly installed system files.

 

[little_golden]

I want to thank everyone for their help. I've been "offline: for a spell but my new computer is up and running though I still have a few challenges.

If anyone has any questions for me I would love to share my experience. (It was a real pain in the rear end. Probably would have been cheaper, easier, and much less of a headache to just buy a built system. But I did learn a lot.)

With the help of a new Windows XP disk, and a new SATA drive I did a clean install and it worked (though it kept crashing at random and putting me back to CMOS). Then I continually got "SHPC32 Port Monitor Error" (which I still get at random).

Once I installed an old IDE drive the system become more stable.

I bought a new monitor assuming that was the monitor problem. (MY new widescreen Acer is great but I still have the "SHPC32 Port Monitor Error").

Some of my software is now screwed up. For some weird reason my Lexmark X63 can't be configured to work (or my digital camera). (That printer is the biggest mistake I ever made! I'll never buy a Lexmark again.) There is some funky USB/LP 1 error.


But the good news is I'm back online and very open to suggestions to solve my next round of problems. Any one with ideas please post or PM me. (Thanks!)

 

[rydia57]

There's a site called "see2learn.com" they sell a dvd that will walk you thru the whole process of building your computer. I had fun!

 

[kindashy]

Wow, sounds like quite an adventure.

I noticed a couple of things in what you wrote.

You have been making changes in BIOS, I thought it was odd. The first thing to do when diagnosing problems is to set the BIOS to either default settings or safe settings.

The second thing. I tried looking up Ultra brand of RAM at Newegg.com and I could not find it. Which tells me that this is shitty RAM. Is there warranty on the RAM? I would get something a bit better known, something like this for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144165

Good luck.

 

[Calvin]

Wow, sounds like quite an adventure.

I noticed a couple of things in what you wrote.

You have been making changes in BIOS, I thought it was odd. The first thing to do when diagnosing problems is to set the BIOS to either default settings or safe settings.

The second thing. I tried looking up Ultra brand of RAM at Newegg.com and I could not find it. Which tells me that this is shitty RAM. Is there warranty on the RAM? I would get something a bit better known, something like this for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144165

Good luck.

actually... the best thing to do with the BIO's is become very familier with each command/setting and custom tailor it to your hardware/drivers....

While I am not familier with "Ultra" brand of RAM either, your response suggests that because you could not find it at Newegg, that it is shitty....
However, I fully believe that in the description "Ultra 512MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory (ULT31688)" "Ultra" refers more to the type of RAM it is versus a brand name.....

While it might be, I can assure you from experience and thousands of dollars spent that Newegg is by far not always a reliable place to get good RAM....

Additionally, Kingston RAM is not really the best in all situations... esp the Value line (long latency times)....

and finally, the information we are missing is the pin numbers... the page you link to has 184, 200 and 240 pin memory on it....

 

[kindashy]

actually... the best thing to do with the BIO's is become very familier with each command/setting and custom tailor it to your hardware/drivers....

While I am not familier with "Ultra" brand of RAM either, your response suggests that because you could not find it at Newegg, that it is shitty....
However, I fully believe that in the description "Ultra 512MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory (ULT31688)" "Ultra" refers more to the type of RAM it is versus a brand name.....

While it might be, I can assure you from experience and thousands of dollars spent that Newegg is by far not always a reliable place to get good RAM....

Additionally, Kingston RAM is not really the best in all situations... esp the Value line (long latency times)....

and finally, the information we are missing is the pin numbers... the page you link to has 184, 200 and 240 pin memory on it....

1) Learning ins and outs of BIOS is something you do after you have your computer up and running stable. For diagnosing problems, you want your BIOS as basic as possible to remove as many variables as possible.

2) You got me there. My opinion is just that, my opinion.

3) They told us the model of the motherboard... Would it surprise you to learn that this motherboard takes only one kind of RAM, the 240 pin kind. See for yourself: http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=336

 

[Calvin]

1) Learning ins and outs of BIOS is something you do after you have your computer up and running stable. For diagnosing problems, you want your BIOS as basic as possible to remove as many variables as possible.

2) You got me there. My opinion is just that, my opinion.

3) They told us the model of the motherboard... Would it surprise you to learn that this motherboard takes only one kind of RAM, the 240 pin kind. See for yourself: http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=336

as for the BIO's, again... not always so.... basic settings may in themselves become the issue... if I use the basic settings in the BIO's on one of my systems I will immediatly lose a 768 Mb RAID 5 drive (4 250's) because the default is to turn the secondary RAID features off.... defaults may or may not help....

yes... and opinion's of course are based on experience. Of course while I have found that Kingston is not only an unreliable RAM (I have had much better luck with Extreme Geil), the fact that she is running only 512 is not helping the cause either.... at least a Gb would be a good start....

and you got me on the pins.... was just to lazy to go look at another link tonight....

 

[kindashy]

and you got me on the pins.... was just to lazy to go look at another link tonight....

Google is your friend!