Pc Build

Marky1973

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My old PC has been giving me headaches for a while now so I thought I would replace the motherboard - got a bundle from Novatech with an AMD 64 4000 CPU, built in graphics and 512mb ram - built the old computer myself, so thought I would be able to slip it all together with no problem. Took the old one out, put the new one in connected up the chassis fans, power to the MoBo and the monitor - switched it all on.....and it whirrs into life, but nothing else, fans all going and power switch works, but nothing on the monitor.....now I had to rush out of the house this morning to go to work, but couldn't for the life of me see anything obvious that i needed to do. However, I think it was more luck than judgement that got the old computer working, so any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong would be gratefully received.

I did connect up the cd rom and cd writer and they powered up

Did not seem to get much activity from the floppy of the HDD

Cheers

Mark 'fat hands' Walker
 
You getting any post beeps?
You got Bios?
Have you repair installed your O/S assuming it's Win XP, and installed the new motherboard drivers?
New motherboard will need drivers, Windows will be trying to find the old motherboard now residing on your shelf ;)
If hardware is ok boot to cd with XP disk in, go through normal install procedure do not accept the first repair choice but follow the wizard right through the set up until you have to press F8 to accept the licence, press F8 then you should see a page showing your original Windows install and get a message with a repair install as an option, choose this option let XP install, then install drivers for motherboard etc. All your data should be safe but you backed everything up before you swapped everything over anyway right? :)
You should now be able to boot and run ok?
Good luck
 
Maybe I have been a bit heavy handed - I was going from scratch because of the hassle I was having, so took all the stuff I wanted off the HDD and formatted it. When I built the pc I seem to remember booting up on the MS-DOS disks to partition the drive before going on to install the OS - but don't even seem to be able to do this.....

Knowing my luck I have probably @@@@@@ it up big time.....

no post beeps and no bios by the way

I am an amateur though, so you can laugh at me, just don't point at the same time - it'd rude :)
 
Hey mate, no-one is going to laff at you we were all beginners once :smashin: I spent two hours once trying to get a DVD drive to work eventually we discovered I'd forgotten to put the power molex back on the drive :suicide: and I've been doing this a few years :(

Ok if your not getting any posting bleeps or any bios check your processor is seated correctly, check you have connected any extra power supplies to the motherboard, most modern boards have another 4 pin power connector near the processor that has to be plugged in, try to boot, if that fails check your RAM, if you have more than one stick just put one in and try it if it doesn't work swap it with the other one.
Don't worry about the harddrive yet just try to get it to post, and get into the bios.
Is it XP you have to put on it? If not but you use Windows then I suggest you get an OEM copy most of the internet retailers have them available normally you have to buy some hardware to buy OEM but see if you get away without having to. http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/119646
If your installing xp onto a SATA drive you'll need the drivers from floppy, follow the instructions in your motherboard manual, if you have an IDE hard drive you can just boot straight from the disk. You'll tell if the hard drive cable to the motherboard is the same as the cd/dvd drive it's an IDE hard drive if not it's a SATA.
It sounds like in your haste to get it together you may have forgotten to put in the secondary motherboard power supply but check anyway to be sure, post back what you find.
Good luck
 
Cheers mate - the secondary power thing sounds like a strong possibility....the old pc I built is about 6 years old and I suspect it is vastly different to the new one......for instance the on-board graphics processor is about 4 time as powerful as the AGP card I had in the old pc......

I think my wife would just tell me to slow down........I'm a bit keen sometimes.....

:thumbsup:
 
check you have connected any extra power supplies to the motherboard, most modern boards have another 4 pin power connector near the processor that has to be plugged in

Oh yes! I've actually forgot to do that twice on seperate new builds :mad:
 
Think you might be right.....after checking last night there is a 12v four pin power plug by the CPU - unfortunately the PSU in my case is so old it doesn't have such a cable, so a new PSU may be in order now.....probably would have been easier to buy a new PC after all!!!!

The only worrying thing is that connecting up the old motherboard resulted in the same blank screen.......ho hum - it's all a learning experience!:D
 
Think you might be right.....after checking last night there is a 12v four pin power plug by the CPU - unfortunately the PSU in my case is so old it doesn't have such a cable, so a new PSU may be in order now.....probably would have been easier to buy a new PC after all!!!!

The only worrying thing is that connecting up the old motherboard resulted in the same blank screen.......ho hum - it's all a learning experience!:D

Yep it's all learning, you can get a PSU from an online supplier from about £10 although my personal preference is to buy known brand name PSU's, I've blown two motherboards in the past with cheap PSU's that didn't last the distance. PC world sell some if you can't wait. I like the Hiper Type R modular ones and have 3. They're expensive but I like modular and for me they've been reliable.
Good luck :smashin:
 
Yep it's all learning, you can get a PSU from an online supplier from about £10 although my personal preference is to buy known brand name PSU's, I've blown two motherboards in the past with cheap PSU's that didn't last the distance. PC world sell some if you can't wait. I like the Hiper Type R modular ones and have 3. They're expensive but I like modular and for me they've been reliable.
Good luck :smashin:

I think many people underspend on PSUs, after all they are the source of the juice to every component on your PC. The PSU I have now is a Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 and cost the best part of £90.
 
Well it was the four pin 12v plug I needed! Although now I am worried about the PSU having just gone into Maplins and got a 450w X-Power 40 quid psu - expecting it to explode any minute now - (i got it on offer at 25 so thought it was a bargain) - don't generally buy from Maplins as a rule, but I was a little impatient! :D

Thanks for the pointers - will be back with more mundane questions when I get around to upgrading in another 6 years!
 
I'm in the process of rebuild I normally built from scratch but like Marky I took a shortcut with a Mobo assembly from NOVATECH,

3 Sata2 connecters on board, only one IDE, so got a 250gb SATA2 HD.

The case I got had a 400w PSU fitted, needed an adapter for SATA power connection.

Have transfered floppy, 9-1 Card reader(bay fitted), dvd rom drive, leaving dvd writer for rom actions.(IDE's)

So my old one is still working while I'm rebuilding.

Next new Graphics card PCI EXPRESS, old one is AGP.
 

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