New Build/ First Time Installing/ Setup/ Suggestions

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Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
It will power up without the 4-pin (2 yellow, 2 black) ATX12v lead, but it won't turn the CPU on. Yes, you need that one on as well.
To make the system boot you need a CPU, at least one stick of RAM, and a graphics card. You have the 7800GT, use it. It came with a DVI to VGA adapter, use that too. It has a 6-pin power connector, that has to be connected to the power supply.
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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Alrite, thanks.

So i gotta unhook that 4-pin i connected to the 20-pin, and get a 20-24pin adapter then use the 4-pin to plug into the ATX12V to power up the CPU?

(i was wonderin why nothin came on...hopefully that's it)
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
NO! You make your connector 24-pin, then there's ANOTHER 4-pin connector you plug to the motherboard!

Your board uses ONE 24-PIN PLUS ONE 4-PIN CONNECTOR!

OMG, you're looking to fry something!

BECAUSE you don't seem to have any idea what to do, and BECAUSE you have a convertable ATX 20/24 pin connnector, I'll have to give you color codes, grrr...

OK, the 24-pin connector in your situation should have a 20-pin and a 4-pin that snaps onto it. The 4-pin that snaps on should have the following wires:
1-RED
1-ORANGE
1-YELLOW
1-BLACK

THIS MUST STAY CONNECTED TO THE 20-PIN FOR A 24-PIN CONNECTION!!!

You also should have ANOTHER 4-PIN SQUARE CONNECTOR, with 2-yellow and 2-black wires. This connects to the 4-pin connector above the CPU!
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
OK, so now that you have ONE 24-pin CONNECTOR (WE DON'T CARE THAT IT'S 20+4 PINS), and ONE 4-PIN CONNECTOR SEPARATELY, you also need to locate the SIX-PIN connector that fits onto the back of the card.
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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lol, well i bought one (20-24), nothin worked, then i figured it out that it has that black/yellow 4-pin, so i just wasted $8 at Fry's...now its onto BIOS setup, hope i can get this figured out, THANKS for all the help! i'll let you know how it goes
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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ok, i did everything, but it Windows won't load...

I formatted the HD, installed XP to the HD and got all the way up to the end and it said it was restarting. But when it restarted, nothing it went back to a BIOS screen(mentioned later... Now when i try and load up the comp, i can't get to windows startup. wtf?! Is it BIOS error? What do i change? Please help

(i've been tryin to set
Primary
Secondary
and Third Device and switching between HD and the CD-ROM, but still, should i set to "Default" settings? what BIOS setting should i chage?...)

[ i tried setting CD-ROM as primary, so it loads up CD-ROM when i have XP CD, but it asks if i want to override the XP files that i already installed...wtf...]

the farthest it gets is a BIOS screen that displays the date, IDE stuff, memory, floppy disk:fail, and other information. it says press F1 to continue or DEL to go to menu. I looked on the mobo and the Port Code displays 7F which according to the mobo manual is "Special KBC patch". "Set system speed for boot, Setup NumLock status according to Setup." OK, wtf, now what?

BTW, it's Windows XP Home SP1 that I'm installing...that be the problem?
Lemme know ASAP please. thanks for all help so far...hopefully there's a solution so i don't keep buggin all of you
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
8O

First of all, you need to understand Western Digital hard drives and jumper settings.

Do you have another drive on the same cable?

WD drives have TWO settings for Master: The "Master" setting only works right when there's a slave drive on the same cable. The "Single" setting allows the drive to be used by itself. "Single" doesn't need the jumper attached.

The WD drive should be PRIMARY MASTER, which would be "un-jumpered" as SINGLE if you're not using another drive at this time on the same cable.

In BIOS, under the advanced menu, you'll have a setting "Hard Disk Boot Priority" which, if you have more than one hard drive, allows you to pick which one to boot from

Also, you'll want to have your drives set to boot CD-ROM, then Hard Disk.

Finally, since you only have one hard drive and one CD-ROM connected right now, you should connect the hard drive to the blue IDE connector and the CD-ROM drive to the white IDE connector. Jumper the CD-ROM as "Master", this will be your "Secondary Master", and un-jumper the hard drive so it's in "single" mode where the board detects it as "primary master".
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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8O

First of all, you need to understand Western Digital hard drives and jumper settings.

Do you have another drive on the same cable?

WD drives have TWO settings for Master: The "Master" setting only works right when there's a slave drive on the same cable. The "Single" setting allows the drive to be used by itself. "Single" doesn't need the jumper attached.

The WD drive should be PRIMARY MASTER, which would be "un-jumpered" as SINGLE if you're not using another drive at this time on the same cable.

In BIOS, under the advanced menu, you'll have a setting "Hard Disk Boot Priority" which, if you have more than one hard drive, allows you to pick which one to boot from

Also, you'll want to have your drives set to boot CD-ROM, then Hard Disk.

Finally, since you only have one hard drive and one CD-ROM connected right now, you should connect the hard drive to the blue IDE connector and the CD-ROM drive to the white IDE connector. Jumper the CD-ROM as "Master", this will be your "Secondary Master", and un-jumper the hard drive so it's in "single" mode where the board detects it as "primary master".

Ok.

the WD i took of the pin thing so now it's at single. On the HDD cable; Master side is connected to back of drive, slave isn't connected, and the other end is connected to the blue IDE.

the DVD-ROM is the same as what it was, set as Master jumper. On the HDD cable; Master side hooked to back, none for slave, and the end is plugged to white.

In Standard BIOS CMOS:

IDE Channel 0 Master WDC
IDE Channel 0 Slave None
IDE Channel 1 Master MATSHIDVD
IDE Channel 1 Slave None

still goes back to the screen... bottom still says F1 to continue and Del to Setup... if i go to F1, just displays IDE channels and other stuff...wtf...
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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There anything i need to install before i get to MS Word and stuff?

Installed mobo drivers
Installed videocard drivers (installed first on accident, oh well)


How about prior to RAID setup, what do i need to do?
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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Yup! Everything's running, now just installing updates for eVGA mobo and Graphics cards.

Is that all i need for SATA? (previous post i said RAID, but meant SATA). What do i need to do for SATA?

Thanks for all the help!

(Why do i have to press F1 every time i start up computer in order to run it?)
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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k, everything's workin' great. graphics are awesome on Quake4, just wanna get the 74GB so i can install all these games onto it, rather than on the 250GB...

Question; How can i transfer files from my old IDE 60GB [IBM] Hard Drive to my new SATA 250GB [WD] Hard Drive?
-both HD's have XP installed
-want to transfer some mp3's and small files possibly (word)

1.) How would i set it up/jumpers/what connectors/etc?
2.) What do i use to transfer (there like a wizard or just open from My Computer or somethin'?)

Lemme know ASAP if you can, thanks again for all the help. -take care
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Just hook it up. You might want to put it on secondary IDE, in fact that would be the easiest because you would only need to change the jumper on that one drive. Yes, you can make the 60GB drive a slave to your CD-ROM.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
If you slave it to the IDE HD you'll have to change the jumper on the 80GB drive to "master" again, then jumper the second drive as slave. If you'd rather not bother with that, you can slave the 60GB drive to the CD-ROM and they you'd only have to change the jumper on the 60GB drive.

It really doesn't matter either way.
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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that's what i did, set slave to 60GB, thanks a lot for everything. So when i get the new 74GB SATA Raptor, just set that to Master and plugin to SATA1 slot? (250GB SATA is SATA2 slot). Thanks for everything, couldn't of done it without all the help!

oh, by the way, i bought an Internal CD-ROM drive (one mentioned earlier), did i need that to install Windows/Drivers,etc or could i have done that with the external Plextor PX-716UF USB CD and DVD burner?
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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You could have done that with any drive that reads CD's.

LOL. so i went and bought an IDE Drive for nothin, when i could've used the External anyway? (i thought BIOS wouldn't detect the USB drive, therefore i thought i HAD to buy an internal)

Anyway, you don't have to set a Serial ATA drive to master, in fact you can't. Serial ATA is always single.

Ah, gotcha, thanks for the help.
 

xslimmiejimmiex

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I hadn't really looked into the USB boot capacities of this board, many can, some can't. I was thinking of other internal IDE drives, including DVD-ROM, CD-RW, etc.
hmm, dunno whether or not to return it...

What's the best way to backup all the data on my HD? I've had to reformat once (got Virus) and i hate going through the hassle. What's best program/steps/ to backing up all my stuff?

Also, will there be any issues with software/programs, or does it backup everything to where it's just like it was before reformatting?

Thanks for the help, lemme know ASAP if you can please. -take care