Computer Crisis (Formerly "This Maybe Goodbye...."

Wang Chung · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject:

Good good. Now, explain to me everything you did Smile

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Royal Assassin · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 4:49 pm Post subject:

Now, thats the bad news, I have apsolutely no Idea where I did (I very rarely remember what I did the day before, yeah my memory is THAT short.)
anyway, after yesterday I tried taking everything apart and reconnecting it, but its not even starting up now (it was starting up yesterday, but nothing showed ont he montior.)

and btw I only have a half hour left on this one... its my aunts and I have to go home soon.

Last edited by Royal Assassin on Sun May 29, 2005 5:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

Brutus · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 4:59 pm Post subject:

If you got it to run then I recommend you just start over. Remove partitions and everything. ALSO, I hope you have a vanilla OS disk and not the Dell install disk that came with that hard drive. Rolling Eyes

Proprietary install disks can have erroneous extra info and missing critical info for vanilla systems you build yourself.

What OS are you loading?

Here is what I see you doing assuming you are loading XP OS. Hardly verified for completeness (hence I recommend the laundry list to-do format) but this should work.

1. BIOS - set to boot from CD

2. Turn on-board video off (cuz you have a decent video card I sassume)

3. fdisk.exe to remove previous partitions/formatting (though this may be unnecessary for XP - and I know Wang is opposed to fdisk.exe but I LOVE a fresh slate. Wink

)

4. Install OS (again hopefully vanilla XP CD)

5. Download drivers for your mobo's chipset (I am sure you have many advanced features not loaded by default)

6. Download latest video card drivers

7. Download the rest of your drivers as necessary.

8. Load Pirates, etc Very Happy

9. Defrag your hard drive

10. Play Pirates and surf porn, er... set BIOS to not boot from CD if desired

Voila!

Royal Assassin · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 5:09 pm Post subject:

woah woah brutis, your way ahead of the situation here.

I just said It ran, I didn't say it worked.

1. the hard drive itself was the one from the Dell.

2. when I say "Run" I mean that the fan was running and the lights were on and stuff... but nothing was showing up on the monitor.

3. when I tried to Start over, I only wound up screwing up worse: Now it doesn't even turn on.

and now its doing the same thing on my old one when I tried to reinsert the hard drive, the only thing that was removed.

Brutus · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 5:50 pm Post subject:

Haha!

I dont recommend playing hard drive roulette any more. Get a separate hard drive... Use a Win 98 startup disk to run/test the new PC via the A: drive. If you can read the hard drive and CD contents via DOS then you are probably good to go hardware wise. If you have 2000/NT/XP then you won't be able to read C:... No sweat there though. If you can make the hard drive work on the other machine then you already know how the cabling connects.

If you are having probs then it could be anything - jumpers on your mobo, improper/forgotten connections, etc. There is WAY to much to guess at, use a laundry list recipe approach for completeness: Try these as starter references to check what you have done already:

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/
http://www.buildeasypc.com/
http://www.dansdata.com/buildpc.htm

I am SURE there are MUCH better references out there if you want to search. Very Happy

Royal Assassin · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 5:57 pm Post subject:

I realize now that this is way above my head.....

GOD, I am SO going to kill the people who told me that it was "Not hard"

Now I'm going to have to take it some place, or return all the stuff and get a new computer from a company (NOT DELL. I HATE DELLS) ...

Goddamnit, I just HAD to live in a town with NO Computer stores whatsoever (we used to have one... but it moved out.. DAMN YOU TOTAL COMPUTER SOLUTIONS!!)

Brutus · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 6:45 pm Post subject:

If you got the goods already then at least give it a go. Everyone starts somewhere... True it isn't easy, but it isn't impossible either.

Usually the motherboard documentation gets you 80% of the way there anyway. Try it man! It is especially rewarding and worth the effort. Very Happy

If you get confused on any steps ask for help. Really read though - dont skim or skip steps. It won't take as long if you just do it right the first time. Very Happy

firefox_71 · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 6:52 pm Post subject:

Ok, start at the beginning. You have all that stuff put together right now?

All of it is powered, HD, floppy , CD?

Now, you need to clear the CMOS, there should be a jumper...it has three prongs on it and a little plastic/metal jumper that is arcing two of them. Move the jumper to the other side for 20 seconds or so, then move it back. Try to start it again. J1 should be the label of this jumper, by the way.

Did you move the RAM over as well? and you started it off in slot 0?

Try the above, then repost here...one of us will get you fixed up. Wink

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Wang Chung · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 7:27 pm Post subject:

Yeah, don't worry about the OS or anything yet ... it's obvious that we're having huge problems here.

I think that the PSU/Case are pretty shity. I've never heard of that brand, so I really can't say much.

Try resettng the CMOS as I and FireFox have said - check in the mobo manual for this stuff.

Make sure you are grounded when you do all of this ... were you grounded before?
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is now -=|CT|=- Frothy Mixture

Royal Assassin · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 7:30 pm Post subject:

eh fuck this whole thing, If I can, I think I'll try to refund everything I bought and buy myself a bit better (pre assembled) computer from tigerdirect or some place like that (one thing is for sure... this is the LAST time I buy ANYTHING from dell... DOWN WITH DELL!!)

If that doesn't work, then... its official. I'm doomed.

Wang Chung · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 7:31 pm Post subject:

Why do you hate Dell so much? What, you want an eMachine? A Compaq?
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Royal Assassin · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 7:37 pm Post subject:

Dells are obsolete... I learned that the hard way (I've only had mine one frickin year and its ALREADY vastly behind)

Wang Chung · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject:

Uhh... FYI ... that's the case with every brand - at least if you get a lower -end model.

Okay, here's what we'll do - refund EVERYTHING YOU CAN. How much money will you have? We'll get you off on the right start, those parts aren't very good.
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is now -=|CT|=- Frothy Mixture

CountChocula · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 9:10 pm Post subject:

dude get a gateway... they got some good customer service,pretty cheap for some nice computers... and they're not dell Very Happy

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firefox_71 · Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject:

I don't know why you are hatin' on Dell. As far as a store bought machine, they are the best around. And they pwn teh Gateway for sure
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