Computer woe.

[Flippy_D]

Well, woe might be a *tad* OTT, but certainly it's giving me some slight cause for agitation. Some of you may know I'm building a PC, and some may also know I'm having a few problems.

My two sticks of RAM don't appear to want to go in. I'm pushing them as hard as I dare, and I've followed the instructions (simple enough) and they ARE compatible (PC3200) with the mobo, put they just don't quite seem to fit. I can only imagine I'm doing it wrong, and maybe I should pull the clips up to normal a bit when pushing the RAM in?

Secondly, although I've done it before, I'm uncertain as to where to apply the coolant for the CPU. Presumably it doesn't matter if it's on the top of the CPU itself or on the base of the cooler, but I'm anxious not to get this wrong, and that makes me unsure.

Lastly, some of the wires are new and unfamiliar to me, especially those stemming from the front of the case, so I'm a little stuck on some of the wiring.

I have a digital camera now, thanks to my sister's birthday, so if there are any pictures that anybody would like taken I can.

Thanks in advance.

[Flippy_D]

OMGBBQ DOUBLE POST.

Success! I just needed a little more pressure on the RAM. They're now both in, so that's solved.

[_T3_ [returned from oblivion]]

What kind of coolant is it?Ã,  A paste, a gel, or a pad?Ã,  If a paste (such as Arctic Silver [which, dare I say, is the best on the market]), there's a great little tutorial on applying it here...  To summarize, it goes on both the heatsink and the cpu.

What do these wires look like?Ã,  A picture of them would be great, to identify them... Are they a whole bunch of thin wires, with little black connectors on the end?Ã,  In that case, those are the power and HD LED, power switch, and related wires... otherwise, they could be motherboard connectors for front USB, FireWire or front audio...Ã,  Or it could be a fan connector from a front-mounted fan.Ã,  Some pictures would really help

[Flippy_D]

Yes, I am using AS. This'll be very helpful, thanks. I'll get a picture of those wires soon.


Edit: Strike two! CPU and cooler fitted!

[Flippy_D]

Another double post, I'm such a bastard.

Anyway, wiring that I haven't done:


One of many of these leads (obviously power leads). Stems from PSU. One black S-ATA, two of these big white block ones (a 'male' and 'female' version), and a small, four-pin white clip one that I am unsure of. I sound like a fool, I know.


Two big white ones (I wish I knew the name for them), stemming from the graphics card. Quite obviously meant to plug into the PSU through another one of the white ones.


Again, two whites, this time from the cooler.


These are from the front of the case. Labels are: Speaker (plus/negative), reset sw, m/b sw, and H.D.D LED (which although is self explainatory... I don't know where to plug it in), Power LED, and one with the power button graphic on (circle with vertical line).


Again from the inside front of the case. The two large wires look more external that internal, though. The small black leads read: Ground, + D, -D, and +5D. It may help to know that my PS2_USB_PWR1 jumper is set to +5VSB


The red and black wires seen beyond connect this short length of wire with the White Blocks to the front of the case.


A 12 pin (6 small, top row, 6 large, bottom row) lead that stems from the PSU.Ã,  I don't recognise it.

Most of this I have ideas about, but someone who knows what they're talking about would be a great help.

Also: If I use my hard drives from this PC, can I just install over the current motherboard/graphics card info? They're not floppies, they're CDs. Graphics card is drivers, of course, so I'm not too worried about that, but when the HDDs find a totally new motherboard... is that okay?

Thanks for all help so far, especially T3, and Iqu in #AGS.

[Flippy_D]

....I suck. Editing...

(I cannot BELIEVE I did that. Brain frazzled, see?)

Edit: Holy crap, those are unexpectedly large! Um. Apologies to 56kers. I'm working on making them smaller, they'll be fixed soon.

[Al_Ninio]

Instead of making them smaller, why not just link to them?

Edit: Er. Nevermind.
They are indeed huge, and a bit blurry.
Make 'em smaller.

[Flippy_D]

Done. That's the last time I ever use a digital camera without bothering to open it in a paint program first...

[_T3_ [returned from oblivion]]

If you could give me the model of your motherboard, that'd be a great help...

1) the little white ones are floppy drive power connectors, simply enough... if you've got a floppy disk drive, you'll need to plug one of those in for it to work.

2) they're generally know as 'Molex' connectors, because that's who originally made them... not that that matters any... yeah, they plug into one of the opposite plugs coming from the power supply.

3) same deal

4) if you tell me the model of your motherboard, I can tell you where to plug them in... otherwise, it's rather hard to say... there's generally a bank of pins in the lower right hand side of the motherboard that these plug into, the motherboard pins probably have similar names to what's on the black plugs

5) The two large wires are most likely for front audio inputs, and should be plugged into the green and pink audio connectors on the back of the motherboard - run them out of the case through a hole (maybe a card slot) and plug them in on the outside.  THe little ones are your front USB connectors, if your motherboard has outputs for front USB, you can plug them into it... again, it's had to say without your motherboard model.

6) That looks to be a power connector from a front-mounted cooling fan... connect it to one of the opposite outputs from the power supply.

7) Don't worry about that one, it's to make the power supply backwards-compatible with older machines... if yours is relatively new, you won't need it, the regular ATX power connector is all you need.

[Flippy_D]

Mobo = Asrock K8S8X.
Case.

I'll scan in the manual, hold tight.

Edit: Already posted. And smaller. And cropped. Humph.

Bong.

[_T3_ [returned from oblivion]]

That it? (Click for bigger version)

[Flippy_D]

Yes.

*sighs* 

[_T3_ [returned from oblivion]]

The wonder of online PDFs, dude.

Anyway, I can explain (for the most part) where stuff gets plugged in...

Generally speaking, the colored wire is positive, and the white is negative... Also generally speaking, Pin 1 of any connector is positive, whereas the other one or two are negative.

Therefore, the colored wire of the Speaker (or the one marked +) should line up with Pin 1 of its header on the bottom of the board (17 in the diagram)...  The Power LED can go one of two places, depending on the number of wires it has.  If it has three, it goes in the #16 header on the bottom of the motherboard, with the negative (black or white) wire farthest from Pin 1 (the other two are positive, for a two-color LED).  If it has two, it goes in the upper left of the System Panel Header (#15), as shown here:



with the colored wire connected to the "PLED+" pin.  H.D.D. LED goes directly below that, in the same orientation.  The one with the power button graphic goes to the right of the Power LED connector, and the Reset Sw goes below that (the orientation of these two don't matter).  Don't worry about the dummy pin.  The m/b switch connector, I don't know about that... I've never encountered one before, actually, and there's no explanation on the case website... it isn't crucial to system operation though, so I say ignore it.

As for the USB connectors...
Two sets of four pins, right?  Well, this diagram should help things out a bit:



This is a diagram of the connector for USB ports 6 and 7 (apparently), #19 on the diagram.  Hooking up front USB is as easy as matching these to the plugs from the front of the case:
For one set of connectors:
-USB_PWR (the top one) = +5D
-P-6 = -D
-P+6 = +D
-GND (the top one) = Ground

For the second set:
-USB_PWR (the bottom one) = +5D
-P-7 = -D
-P+7 = +D
-GND (the bottom one) = Ground

USB_PWR provides the 5 volts that runs some USB devices, hence +5D
P+ and P- are the data connectors
GND is the ground connector for the bus power (the +5 volts above).
Don't mix and match the two sets of connectors between the two banks of pins, as you will get odd results...

Did this help? I can explain further, if need be.

[Evil]

Hurah for TipTop's return to the AGS forums!

[Flippy_D]

It is done! You've been a magnificant help, T3.

There is but one question now:

If I use my hard drives from this PC, can I just install over the current motherboard/graphics card info? They're not floppies, they're CDs. Graphics card is drivers, of course, so I'm not too worried about that, but when the HDDs find a totally new motherboard... is that okay?

[_T3_ [returned from oblivion]]

That depends largely on what kind of software is installed, and how much of it there is... If it was just drivers, stuff that doesn't exist outside the Device Manager, you'll be just fine - the drivers will remain, but it should be able to simply load new ones as devices are added and removed... that's the beauty of windows (as much as I hate to say those three words)... If you've got stuff like (and I'm going to use examples from my own system) Intel Application Accelerator and Giga-Byte System Manager installed, and you drop in a new chipset without these features, you might have a problem.  A good rule of thumb is, if you can get rid of it, do... Before you remove the old drives, check your Add/Remove Programs dialog for anything related to your old system; if there is anything, uninstall it... if you're adventurous, you could Uninstall devices via your Device Manager immediately before removing the drives, cleaning out the old drivers and stuff... but this, of course, is purely optional.

All in all, you shouldn't have too much of a problem, I've done it before on old equipment and not had a problem.  Good luck, tho.

[Chicky]

ohh flippy, it looks like you had the same problem as me with the wires coming from the front power panel. I have a ASSrock (as yOke would say) motherboard aswell, found all the text labeling where the speaker,hddled,pwrled ect really hard to read in the manual. So i also had to look up the net version.

Anyway glad to see your computers up and running (near enough). No more moaning about your framerate when i take your head off with a AK anymore then 

[Flippy_D]

Well, it is NOW.

You know you said to ignore m/b sw?

Heh. It means 'Motherboard switch'. I had to rewire the front panel heading, ut now IT WORKS, w00t.

All I have to do now is restart windows

Edit: Incidentally, anyone give me tips on how to take the plastic off the front of an Optical disk? It won't fit with it on, and it has a facade thingy, so it's fine... I just need to take it off. For example, my CDrom drive is currently balancing on a mug, on a stool.

[Chicky]

Edit: Incidentally, anyone give me tips on how to take the plastic off the front of an Optical disk? It won't fit with it on, and it has a facade thingy, so it's fine... I just need to take it off. For example, my CDrom drive is currently balancing on a mug, on a stool.

hahaHA! one of the strangest things ive heard in a long time. Anyway, give the plastic bit a hard pull ( ) it should come off with a bit of force. There are flat plastic prongs coming out of the front which then clip into the metal. You just have to pull these out of their holes and it should come off.

Heh, i stood on my cdrw cover and snapped all these plastic thingy's off. its still good though, its currently help on with bluetack

[Flippy_D]

Hah. I am quoted. This makes me awesome.

Anyway: I'm loath to break it, CD rom drives aren't the *most* robust of things. I'm thinking I might use my CD-W as a rom drive for a bit. Means I can't play DVDs, but I can live with that, I have a player in the other room...

The CD-rom cover is almost damn impossible, even pressing in all of the studs *sigh*,