Welcome to Topmost-Tech's Blog: 2009

HOW TO BUILD A PC

Hello My Fellow Nigerians.

You can all always Build Up PC Yourself instead of You Buy a PC.

Build of a PC is easy and You can always build it to sweet your personal use. If u buy and New or fairly Use PC You need to Upgrade The memory or the hard disk.

In 23 Step Build You PC Now.

Step 1: Material Needed

This tutorial is intended to assist you in building a basic PC. There are obviously a plethora of possible PC configurations and hardware that you could put into your new PC if you choose. But, what we are trying to do here is help you put together a basic PC. For this reason, we are only requiring the basic components and tools to get you up and running.

Tools Required

Screwdriver - A Phillips-head (cross-point) screwdriver is what is used in most PCs.
Screw Extractor - If you have surgeon’s fingers you may not need this. But, if you’re human, it is likely you might drop a screw into your PC during this procedure and be too big-thumbed to get it out. A screw extractor can help you grab those screws and get them out without messing with the hardware. You definitely do not want to run your PC with loose screws in there. It could cause a short circuit.
Flashlight - Unless you are in a fantastic lighting situation, you will likely need a flashlight to get a look of the landscape in your PC while you’re working.
Tweezers - May be helpful for you in switching jumpers later in the tutorial.

Hardware Required

PC Case
Floppy Disk Drive
Hard Drive
CD-ROM Drive
Processor
Processor Cooling Fan
Motherboard
Memory Modules
Power Supply
Video Card
Keyboard & Mouse

To build a basic PC, you will need at least a motherboard, a memory module, a processor with cooling fan, a power supply, a hard drive, a floppy drive, a video card and a CD-ROM.

Most electrically sensitive hardware comes in a static bag which is designed to protect the electronics from static electricity shock. Leave your hardware in these bags until you are ready to install them.

Software Required

System Disk
Device Drivers (these usually come with the hardware above)
Operating System (for the purposes of this tutorial, we will assume you are choosing Microsoft Windows as your operating system – PC Mechanic has lots of great information on Linux and other alternatives)

Cables and Miscellaneous

Drive cables
Motherboard spacers (usually come with the motherboard, but are used to space the motherboard up off the mounting plate)
Screws (usually a whole pile of screws will come with your PC’s case, but if you are using a case you happened to have around, you will need to collect some screws)
Power cords (for both your PC and your monitor. They usually come with the hardware when you buy it, of course)
CPU Cooling Compound

Step 2: Remove Case Cover

This is a very easy step. Basically, you are just taking the cover off your new case. If you have a standard case, you take a screwdriver and remove the four or six screws located around the edge on the back of your case. Hang on to these screws and put them in a place where they will not be scattered and can be easily found later in this procedure. Once they are removed, the entire case cover comes off in one piece. With this design, the front of the case (also known as the bezel) does not move. Only the top and sides come off as a single cover.

Some cases (such as the one being used in making this tutorial) use thumb screws rather than standard screws. It works the same way, obviously, except that you do not need to use a screwdriver to loosen and remove them. Simply twist them loose using your fingers.

Still other cases come apart differently. Some manufacturers have developed cases using a “screwless” design. These cases are designed such that you can remove the cover simply by un-latching the parts from the chassis. With this design, you usually take hold of the bottom of the front bezel of the case and give it a nice solid yank. The front then pulls off. It is my experience that this usually requires a few tries and some muscle. These cases are usually pretty durable so you really don’t have to worry about hurting them. The sides then lift and slide off as does the top. Your case, in essence, comes apart in four pieces. Other cases come apart in a similar way, but after you take the front off, the top and sides come off together.

Each case is a little different in how it comes apart. There are almost as many designs as there are companies that make them. You may find some where you don’t even have to remove the front, and rather you just slide the sides off. With others, you can remove the whole motherboard mounting plate and card rack combo from the case by sliding it out the back. This is convenient for making quick changes to the system, although you still have to disconnect the various cables to get it out all the way. Whatever case style you have, remember to look it all over before you attempt to gain entry. You don’t want to force it and break anything - take your time.

Now that this is done, you are ready to move on.

Step 3: Case Preparation

At this point, you should have the new case in front of you with the cover removed. Before you can use it for a new system, you must prepare it for use. Go through the following checklist to make sure it is prepared. Not all of this may be necessary on your case, and if you’re using a case you already had, much or all it has likely been done already. Nonetheless, this is a useful guideline.

Now that the case is open, now is a good time to go through the screw supply provided with the case. These are usually held in a small plastic bag nestled inside the case. Inside this bag you should find:

Chassis screws - this is the type used to tighten down cards, etc.
Smaller screws - just like the chassis screws, just with a smaller diameter. It is used to fasten the motherboard in.
Standoffs - these are screws that are used to hold the motherboard about 1/8″ from the motherboard mounting plate. Their ends have a threaded opening in them that accept the smaller chassis screws. If you have an AT case, you may find small white standoffs. These serve the same function as the metal standoff, but are simply punched through the board and slid into slots on the case. They are rather clumsy to use compared to the metal standoffs, but they get the job done. Lastly, some cases use small metal clip-looking stand-offs. They are pinched together and slipped into small rectangular holes in the motherboard mounting plate and they snap in. These are, too, a bit awkward.
Washers. These are typically small, loose washers, not the metal kind you’ve seen in your toolbox. These will be used to cushion your motherboard from the screws you will be using to hold it in. Some motherboards have metal plates around the holes to keep the screws from shorting the circuitry, and in this case, washers are not necessary and may not be included.

Now, verify a few things have been done, if they need to be done.

Clean Case - If the case is new, this should be no big deal. But, if the case has been used before, it could probably stand a cleaning. Clean out the inside with a rag or compressed air. Make sure the fan in the power supply is free of furry dust. Also take a rag and wipe it off.
Inspect the Power Supply - Make sure it is tightly attached to the case, make sure it is free of dust, and make sure it is set to the proper voltage of your area- 110V for U.S. and 220V for outside countries.
Inspect Power Switch - Make sure the power switch is securely tightened and correctly connected to the power supply. In ATX cases, the power switch will have one loose wire coming off of it. This wire will then connect to the Power Switch connector on the motherboard.
Install Feet - These are little tabs inserted into holes at the bottom of the case. The case sits on these tabs when on your desk. If the case has been used before or it is a more expensive case, this may not need to be done.
Install Case Fan - Sometimes, you may want to install a separate fan that screws onto a rack next to the vent on the front of the case. This helps increase circulation of air through the system. Many cases already have this installed, so you may not need to worry about it. Some like to put a little filter over the hole so as to prevent dust from being drawn in. An ideal and simple setup for proper airflow is to set the front, lower fan to pull air in, and have the higher, rear fan exhaust.
Free Up the Drive Bays - Brand new (cheaper) cases sometimes have the drive bays sealed with metal plates. It’s the most annoying thing. If you want to install any drives, and you probably do, you’ll need to remove these. Choose the drive bays you want to use (usually the ones at the top on tower cases) and remove the metal plates. These are attached by metal, so they take some cutting, prying and twisting to break them free. Be careful not to hurt the case or yourself. The plate will likely have sharp edges once removed. Better cases have these bays covered with plastic, replaceable plates which are a lot easier and make infinitely more sense.
Replace I/O Shield. The Input/Output shield is a piece of metal with various holes punched in it that allow for the motherboard connections, such as mouse and keyboard, USB and LAN to poke out the rear of your case. All cases will come with one but since all motherboards are laid out differently, you’ll need to install the one that came with your board. Remove the old one simply by pushing it from the rear of the case inward. It usually will pop out easily, if not use a flat-head screwdriver to pry the edges so it comes loose. Push the new one in from the inside of the case and allow it to pop into place. Check to be sure it is secure.

Step 4: Install Power Supply

Some cases come with power supply unit pre-installed for you. Likewise, if the case you are using has been used before, it may have a power supply already installed. In that case, you only need to make sure it is an adequate unit for the computer you intend to build. Also, if you are building an ATX machine, you must make sure that the power supply is an ATX power supply.

If the power supply is not already installed, you will need to install it now. Here’s how:

Take the power supply unit and line it up for placement into the PC case. The fan should blow toward the rear and the wires should face forward.
Insert the PSU into the case. Sometimes this takes a little maneuvering to get it into position.
Once the unit is in place, check the back of the case and make sure the holes on the rear of the PSU line up with the screw holes on the case. If they do not, you may need to turn the power supply over.
Using your screwdriver, tighten the PSU down using standard chassis screws.
Make sure the voltage is set correctly. There is a little switch on the back that lets you switch between 120 or 220 volts. In the United States, its 120. If you are in a country overseas, its most likely 220. If you use 220, make sure the cord is rated for it. It should say on the side of the cord. Its easiest to just check this now while you.

Step 5: Install the CPU

The next step is to install the processor onto the motherboard. Now, at this point, the motherboard should just be sitting on your work space, preferably inside of the static protection bag in which it came. Over the next few steps, we will be installing some hardware onto the motherboard before it is installed into the case. The reason is that, in most cases, it is a LOT easier to do this with the motherboard out the case than with the motherboard in the case. The chief reason being room to maneuver your big hands.

Installing the CPU is a pretty straight-forward process. The real risk is to the CPU. Doing this step too fast or carelessly can result in damage to the processor. Therefore, don’t get nervous. It is an easy step, but do it with care.

There are several common interfaces for CPU’s today: Intel currently uses Socket T (775) and AMD uses Socket 939. The older generation of boards uses Socket 478 for Intel and Socket 754 or Socket A (462) for AMD. The numbers correspond to the number of pins on the CPU. But, they all boil down to two basic types: The Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) socket and the slot. Most processors in use today use a socket to connect to the motherboard, and the type of socket in use is typically the ZIF socket. The ZIF socket opens and closes using a small lever. When the lever is down, the CPU is locked into place. When in the upright position, the processor is loose and can either be installed or removed.

All modern systems make use of the zero-insertion force (ZIF) socket. Therefore, this procedure is relevant with that setup. To install a processor using this type of interface, follow this procedure:

Check the pins. Turn the chip over and inspect the pins. Are they bent? They should all stick straight up. If many of them are bent, then it is best to request a replacement processor. If only a couple are bent and the bend is not that much, then you may be able to use a screwdriver to gently bend the pins back into place. Do so VERY carefully.
Open ZIF Socket. This is done by grabbing the lever on one side of the socket and opening it. Pull the lever from the closed, level position, to the open, vertical position. You may need to pull the lever out a bit before it will open. Do this slowly and don’t force it. You don’t want to break the socket. On the way up, you may experience a little more force. This is normal. The top part of the ZIF socket will slide over a bit.
Orient The Chip. This involves locating Pin 1 on both the chip and the socket. This is easy to do. The chip is always marked at Pin 1. The mark may be a little dot on one corner, a slightly notched corner, or a mark at one of the pins under the chip. On the socket, there is usually a notch on one corner, or a big “1″. These corners will be matched up for correct installation.
Insert Processor. Bearing in mind the orientation determined in Step 3, insert the chip into the socket. With a ZIF socket, the chip should install very easily. It should almost fall into the socket with all pins lining up. That’s why they call it the Zero Insertion Force socket. If not, the socket is probably not open all the way. If you do not have a ZIF socket (God forbid!), you need to exercise extreme care. Lay the chip on the socket. Make sure all pins line up. Then, slowly push the chip into the socket. Use your thumb and push on one side of the chip until it starts to go in. Then proceed to another side and repeat. Do this around the chip several times until it is completely installed.
When done, there should be basically no gap between the bottom of the processor and the socket.
Close ZIF Socket. Just close the lever. You will probably feel some resistance. This is normal and it should close anyway. If you really need to lean on it, though, check to be sure the chip is installed correctly. When down, make sure the lever snaps into place.
Some retail processors come with the heat sink and fan already attached to the CPU, in which case you will need to attach the CPU fan to the socket at the same time as you close the ZIF socket. After you lock the CPU into place, take the retention clips on either side of the CPU fan (which should line up automatically for you if you inserted the processor correctly in step 4 above) and push them down until each side clips over the tabs on either side of the socket. Sometimes it takes using a screwdriver as leverage to be able to get the retention clips out and over the tabs, but if you do this be very careful not to slip and jab your motherboard with the screwdriver.

Step 6: Install the fan/Heat sink

Today’s processors are running quite hot. Advancements are being made to make them run cooler at higher speeds, but the importance of a high quality heat sink and fan cannot be overstated. PCs that are not properly cooled can be quite unstable, or at its worse, it may not even boot properly.

It used to be that you could attach a heat sink and fan to your processor directly and not worry about it. Today, though, processors run too hot to do this and expect a reliable PC. One must use heat sink compound to seal the gap between the heat sink and the top of the processor.

Some heat sinks have a rubber heat pad on the bottom of them. In these cases, you don’t really need to use heat sink compound because the rubber pad will create the seal. It should be kept in mind, though, that if you are using a heat sink which has been used before and had a heat pad, that heat pad is now likely melted in the spot where the previous processor contacted it. In these cases, you cannot use the heat pad again as it will be ineffective. Instead, you need to clean the old rubber pad off of the heat sink using a non-abrasive cleaning compound. Many people use isopropyl alcohol and a broken old credit card to scrape the rubber off without damaging the heat sink. When the pad is removed, you can use the heat sink again using heat sink compound.

Attach the fan to the heat sink. This step is almost always already done for you, but if not, you must do it yourself. This is done using the four screws that came with the CPU fan.
Clean the top of the processor. Using a lint-free cloth and isopropyl alcohol (or some other non-abrasive cleaning solution), ensure that the surface of the processor is clean and free of dust and finger oil. Do the same to the bottom of the heat sink. Pay attention to the note above on heat pads if your heat sink had or has a rubber heat pad.
If you are using a cooling shim, place it onto the top of the processor now. Not all processors require shims. In fact, no processors require shims; they are completely optional. But, some people like to use them because they help to increase the surface area of the top of the ship and spread the weight around evenly. See, some processors (such as the Athlon XP) actually have the core sticking up slightly from the rest of the processor. So, when the heat sink is placed on top, all of its weight comes down on the core. If the fan is a real tight fit for the motherboard, it could really create a weight load on the processor core, and some people have actually crushed their CPU core by accident. A shim is simply a thin piece of metal, especially designed for a particular processor, which fits over the processor and evens out the height and helps to alleviate the crushed core problem. When installing a shim, be extra sure you are aligning it correctly. They often have holes in them exactly placed so that the cache bridges on top of the processor can poke through. If the shim is not properly aligned, you could short out these bridges and actually burn out your processor if you run your PC that way. Additionally, a mis-aligned shim could cause the heat sink to not actually have full content with the CPU core, leading to overheating.
Apply the Heat Sink Compound. Assuming you are not using a heat pad on your heat sink, apply a very thin layer of heat sink compound to the top of the processor core. If, as is the case with Pentium IV processors, the top of the processor is totally flat, then apply the compound to the entire top surface of the processor. Many heat sinks come with heat sink compound in a small little package, usually just enough for a one-time install. You can pick up better quality compound online. Arctic Silver is a very popular choice. Be careful not to get compound on any motherboard electronics. Apply only a very small portion to the processor. Only a very thin layer is required. The compound must be spread out evenly across the top of the chip, forming that very thin layer. When spreading the heat sink compound, do not use your finger. Use the edge of a credit card, or you can use a rubber glove or even just a plastic bag over your hand. Do not apply any heat sink compound if you plan to use a heat pad.
Attach The Heat Sink. Place the heat sink/fan combo squarely on top of the processor, pressing down lightly. Do not do any twisting as you install the heat sink. Press down firmly, but straight down so as to preserve the heat sink compound layer you just applied.
Secure the heat sink. Most newer heat sinks use a set of clips on each side to fasten itself down. These clips attach to a pair of tabs on each side of the socket. It will probably take a little bit of force to bend the clip down over the tab. Other heat sinks wrap around the processor, then just sit on top, the compound being the only real attachment. Pentium IV motherboards have a heat sink retention bracket around the processor socket. When you install the P4 heat sink, you will fasten each of the four retention clips into the retention bracket and then close the clip levers on top of the heat sink to fasten the heat sink down onto the Pentium IV processor.
Double-Check. No compound should have oozed out from the sides. If it did then you applied too much and need to remove the HSF, clean both the heatsink and CPU and start over.
Attach fan to power source. Unless your CPU fan is powered via a standard power supply plug, it is probably powered by a wire attached to a 3-pin power lead on the motherboard itself. You can attach this now. The CPU_FAN power lead is located near the CPU interface somewhere. The lead will have two small pins on each side, and these pins surround the power plug and the pins are inserted into the holes in the plug. It should be pretty easy and obvious.

Step 7: Install Memory

You should now install your memory modules. For the purposes of this step, we are assuming that you have already chosen the appropriate memory for your PC in Step 1. So, we will jump right into installing the memory.

It is important that you consult the manual for your motherboard to see about any particular sequences in which memory should be installed on your board. Some boards require particular sequences of memory installation, usually depending on the memory capacity, type, etc. Other boards have no required sequence at all, and you can choose any slot you wish to install your memory. Most new boards support Dual Channel RAM. This is a technology that allows a performance increase when using 2 or 4 matched sticks of RAM. Consult your motherboard manual on which slots to use for dual-channel. It is not always slots 1 & 2.

The installation of module modules is basically the same regardless of type, even though each module type looks a little different.

Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal object. This will discharge any built up static electricity in your body.
Pick up the memory module by its edges.
Decide which slots you are going to use and orient the memory module over it. The module slot will have a small plastic bridge which will be off-center in the socket. This matches up with a notch in the pin array of the memory module itself and ensures that you insert the module in the proper alignment.
Insert the memory module. With DIMMs (SDRAM or DDR RAM), they go straight in. Make sure the notches in the RAM line up with the little bumps in the slot.
Lock the module in place. With DIMMs and RIMMs, all you have to do is continue to press the memory module down until the ejector clips on either side of the memory slot automatically get pushed into the closed position. Sometimes, you may need to help the ejector clips close, but the idea here is that those clips need to close so as to lock the module into place. If they do not close, it is because the module is not inserted all the way into the slot.
Repeat this procedure for any other memory modules you are going to install.
If you are using DIMMs (and most are), then you are done. If you are using RIMM modules, then you need to fill each remaining RIMM slot with a continuity module. A continuity module does not contain any actual memory, but its purpose is to simply act as a pass-through circuit so as to provide for a continuous channel for the memory signal. The installation of a C-RIMM is exactly like that of a normal RIMM module.

Step 8: Configure the Motherboard

At this point, your have your processor, heat sink and fan and your memory installed onto your motherboard. In most cases you are now ready to install your motherboard into the case. In some cases, however, it is necessary to do a little configuration on your motherboard beforehand. It is easier to do this with the motherboard sitting outside of the case.

The settings that may need to be configured are:

CPU Speed
Bus Speed
CPU Voltage Setting

Most motherboards in use today make use of the CMOS settings to configure these options. In this case, you can skip this step because you will need to wait until your new PC is powered up in order to configure these options. If, though, you are using an older motherboard in which these settings are controlled via the use of jumpers, then we need to tackle this here.

Configuring a Board Which Uses Jumpers

You need to have the manual for your board available. If you do not have the manual, log on to the manufacturer’s web site and see if you can find this info there. You can also try their tech support via phone. In some cases, too, some of the jumper settings are printed onto the surface of the motherboard. If you don’t have any of this info, you are just out of luck. Unfortunately, you must have some form of documentation available simply because motherboards have so many settings to adjust. If you’re dealing with an older board, you may need to spend some time trying to identify the manufacturer so that you can see if they do support it. You can many times use the BIOS ID numbers to identify the board online.

Motherboard manuals come in two main formats. Some are friendly for hardware buffs by listing a separate jumper or DIP switch for CPU core voltage, I/O voltage, multiplier, and system bus speed. They then tell you the settings for each of these. This format is better because of the increased control. Other manuals list the settings next to a list of commonly used CPU’s, showing the common settings for each. While this format is easier for the end user for easy setup, it is tougher if you like increased control of the settings, for overclocking for example. The best manuals do both: list the jumper settings individually as well as provide a list of processors and the jumper settings for each.

When playing with the board, be careful with it. Avoid placing the board on the static bag it came in, as this can cause an electro-static shock to build up, which may very well fry the motherboard. Always place the board on a flat surface, wooden desks work best, not carpet or anything like that. And always ground yourself before handling the board. When handling the board, handle it by the edges only when at all possible.

Now, here is the basic procedure for motherboard configuration:

Read the Manual. Always. Read the listings for settings and locate all jumpers on the motherboard itself and what settings they control.
Set the voltage settings. Most older chips use one single voltage. The newer chips we use today use a split voltage. Most of these motherboards provide jumpers for the core voltage and I/O voltage. Set them to match your intended CPU. If you are using an older chip with one voltage, just set both voltages to be the same. Your best bet to choose the correct voltage is to see what is printed on the CPU itself. Most CPUs will have “core voltage” printed somewhere on it. That is your voltage. Some jumpered boards are designed to detect the voltage automatically and then use the correct voltage. In this case, you will not have to worry about it.
Set the processor speed. This is not usually done with a single jumper. It is, instead, done by setting the system bus speed and a multiplier. The multiplier is the number which when multiplied by the system bus speed gives the processor speed. There is a separate jumper for each of these settings. Configure these to match the intended CPU. If you know what you’re doing and would like to overclock the chip a tad, set these jumpers a little differently. Generally, though, I would recommend actually getting the system working before trying to overclock it. If your manual lists settings by CPU, just do what it says. You can sometimes infer from the manual which switches control voltage, multiplier, etc. Generally, if your board is jumper-controlled, you will need to consult the manual for the proper jumper arrangement, use the motherboard layout in the manual to find the jumper on the board itself, and use either your finger or tweezers to adjust the jumper to look like the diagram in your manual. When the jumpers in question look like they should in the diagrams, then you’re set. And, again, if your CPU settings are NOT jumper-controlled, you will be taking care of all this later on.

Some old boards make use of a jumper to set the cache size and type. Set this now, if need be. If you have internal cache, which most do, you won’t need to bother. Likewise, some boards give you the ability to use either AT or ATX power supplies. Depending on which type you will be using, you may need to set a jumper to tell the board what type of power to use.

If your board supports the asynchronous SDRAM clock speed, as most boards with Via chipsets do, you need to set the jumpers properly for this as well. This capability allows you to run the memory at a different clock speed than the rest of the system. This comes in handy, for example, when you want to use older memory yet run the rest of the system at the higher bus speed. You can set the system bus speed at 100MHz and then set the memory to run at 66MHz or 75MHz, for example. The instructions for properly setting this up are in your board’s manual.

If you’ve done that, most of the configuring is done. Now you want to double-check the other settings that were set by the manufacturer to make sure they are correct. Make sure the CMOS-clear jumper is set to normal so that you can change the BIOS settings later. Make sure the battery jumper is set to onboard battery instead of external battery. If you have a jumper enabling FLASH BIOS, make sure this is disabled. Also, check to see if all jumpers enabling or disabling onboard controllers are set correctly. All these settings are usually set correctly by default, but you need to make sure. Keep in mind that many boards control these feature via their CMOS and you will be setting them after the PC is up and running, not now with jumpers.

Step 9: Install the Motherboard

Now you need to install the motherboard into the case. If you’re following this tutorial, the CPU, fan and memory will already be installed onto the motherboard, so you will be installing this whole setup into the case now.

Turn your PC case onto its side and move all the power leads from the power supply out of the way so that you have clear access to the motherboard plate. If you are using a case in which the motherboard mounting plate can be removed, you may wish to remove it now and install the motherboard outside of the case itself.
Locate the holes on the motherboard and the holes on the case or motherboard mounting plate. You might want to hold the board just above the case motherboard plate and see which holes on the case line up with holes on the motherboard. All motherboards have mounting holes in different places.
Now gather your standoffs. Screw them into the holes in the case or mounting plate that line up with holes on the motherboard. You can tighten them with a 3/16″ nut driver or by hand. Some cases have small spacers that snap into place. With these, you push them through the mounting plate from the back side and they will snap into place.
For the holes on the motherboard that line up with an eyelet hole on the case (a hole that is very long so that you can slide things in it), install a plastic stand-off on the motherboard. The stand-offs should poke through the motherboard and expand to keep them in place. The little disk on the other end of the stand-off will later be used to slide into the eyelet holes. If your case does not provide eyelet holes, do not worry about this step. Most cases use only the metal standoff screws to hold the motherboard, which is a hell of a lot easier than the slide-in variety.
Take the motherboard by its edges and hold it over the case. Align it so that it is properly aligned with the rear connectors facing backward, etc.
Lower the motherboard into the case. Sit it on top of the standoffs you just installed so that each standoff lines up with a screwhole on the motherboard. If you happen to be using any of the slide-in standoffs, you will need to slide these into their eyelet holes as you lower the board into the case.
Inspect the screws you will use to tighten the board down. If the head of the screws are too wide, and you think they might contact any circuitry on the motherboard, place a plastic washer over each hole. I’ve had some ATX boards refuse to start up later because they were grounded somewhere to the case, probably by a screw.
Tighten the board down. Install the screws into each of the standoffs underneath, through the board and the washers if you used them. Tighten them down by hand first, then finish them with a screwdriver. Make sure you do not tighten them too much. You don’t want to crack your board. Just make them snug so that the board doesn’t wiggle around in the case. It may be necessary to adjust the position of the board somewhat in order to get the holes aligned enough with the standoffs to tighten down the screws.
If you were installing the board to a removable mounting plate, install the motherboard mounting plate back into the case. On some cases, the plate is installed from the side. On these, you insert the bottom edge of the plate into a guide rail on the bottom of the case and then rotate upward. The top edge of the plate will contact the case, at which point you can screw it in or a spring loaded handle will lock it in. On other cases, the plate may slide in a different way, from the rear for example. These plates are then easily removed later if you ever need to remove the motherboard.
Double check your work. Check to be sure that the back of the motherboard is not touching any part of the case or mounting plate. Make sure the slots and connectors line up with the holes on the back of the case. And definitely be sure that the board is rigid and tight. If you press down on the board at any point, it should not bend down.

Step 10: Connect the Motherboard to the case

Now it is time to begin connecting your newly installed motherboard to the various wires of your case as well as it’s power source.

NOTE: If you have been working on a removed motherboard mounting plate, you will need to install the plate back into the case in order to be able to make the connections below.

Connect the power to the motherboard. On an ATX board, the power connector is one large 20 or 24 wire plug. It is keyed for correct installation. Just plug it in. The board may also require a square, 4pin +12v plug and even a spare 4pin Molex or two. Check your manual to make sure the board is fully powered.
Connect the CPU fan to the power. Many CPU fans connect to one of the power supply leads. They often, then, provide a pass-through so that you have a connector free for a drive, thereby placing the CPU fan on the circuit to a particular drive. Others have a little 3-pin lead that connects to a small connector on the motherboard itself. Just plug it into the motherboard. The connector is usually labeled CPU_FAN 1, or something to that effect. If your cooling fan uses the 3-pin type and you are following this tutorial to the letter, then this is likely already done.
Study the case connectors on the motherboard and match them up with case connector wires. The connectors are usually a big block of pins located in the lower section of the board. Some boards label the pins, but it is best to have your manual since it can sometimes be difficult to determine which label goes to which set of pins. If you have a good case, each connector will be labeled to tell you what case feature it leads to. If this isn’t the case, you may have to physically trace the wires back to see what feature it goes to. When connecting, consult the manual for pin 1’s, to make sure each connector is plugged in the right way. Remember, if the particular case feature is not working later, you may only have to turn the connector around on the motherboard. The next steps will walk you through connecting each wire.
Connect the power switch - On ATX machines, the power switch is connected to the motherboard instead of the power supply itself. Consult your manual. The connector is usually labeled PWR_SW, or maybe just PWR, but you must make this connection. Doing this wrong could cause your system not to start later.
Connect the reset switch. It can be plugged in any way, just make sure you connect it to the right pins. The pins may be labeled RST or RESET, but it is best to also consult the manual.
Connect Power LED/ Keylock Switch. Many system cases put these two devices on one 5-pin plug, but if you case does not have a keylock, it will be alone. The motherboard will probably be labeled accordingly. Just plug in the plug. If your system has separate plugs for each, connect them separately.
Connect the hard drive activity LED. Some come on a 2-pin plug. Others come on a four-pin plug, sometimes only two of the pins actually doing anything. Consult your manual, or play with it until it works. It is usually labeled HDD, HDD_LED, or something like that. If this is attached wrongly, the light may either never come on later or will stay on all the time when the PC is running.
Connect the PC speaker. Most cases put this onto a 4-wire plug. Just plug it in to the 4 pins on the motherboard. Other cases put the speaker connector on two 1-wire plugs. In this case, plug them into pins 1 and 4. I never could figure out why they did that…
Double-Check your work, as always. Note that if an LED does not light up, its case connector needs to be flipped 180 degrees.

Step 11: Install Floppy Drive

Choose which drive bay you want to install the drive to and remove the face plate off of that bay. Save the face plate for future use. Pick a bay that will fit the drive. If you have to install a 3.5″ drive in a 5.25″ bay, you’ll have to use a special front panel to adapt it. This panel sometimes comes with a new floppy drive when you buy it.
Now, slide the drive into the bay from the front. Make sure the front of the drive is flush with the front of the PC. Also make sure the screw holes on the drive align with the screw holes on the drive mounting rack.
If your particular case has a removable drive rack (as does the one we are using for this tutorial), then you may need to remove the rack from the system to secure the drive. But, in using removable racks, you need to pay attention to which set of screw holes to use on the rack which will result in the drive face being flush with the front of the PC. In some cases, it is still easier to install the drive from the front and make it flush just to see which screwholes to use. Then you can remove the drive rack, making note of which holes to use.
Secure the floppy drive. Using your screwdriver and screws, secure the drive to the drive rack. For removable racks, you can do this separate from the case. If the rack is part of the chassis itself, then sometimes it is easier to turn the case on its side to secure the drive so that you are not fighting gravity as you try to get the screws into the holes.
OPTIONAL: If you are installing a 3.5″ drive into a 5.25″ drive bay, you will need to use a rack system which will bridge the gap between the drive and the chassis. These racks are simply metal rails which are secured to the drive by screws. These effectively make the 3.5″ drive as wide as a 5.25″ drive. Then you can install and secure the drive as normal.
Connect the power supply to the floppy drive. On the 3.5″ drives, the plug is very small…the smallest coming out of the power supply. On the larger 5.25″ drives, the connector is a large 4-wire connector, just like the hard drive power connectors. These are a little harder to plug in, and may take some rocking. The mini-plugs are much easier to plug into the 3.5″ drives. It is designed so that it is obvious which way to attach it.
Attach the Ribbon Cable. Floppy cables have a twist in the cable. The “A:” drive goes AFTER the twist. If you have a second “B:” drive, this goes before the twist. You do not need to mess with master/slave jumpers. If you choose not to mess with the twist, you can, with later BIOS versions, swap the order of the drives in the BIOS. 3.5″ drives use a set of pins for the connection to the ribbon cable. 5.25″ drives use a card-edge connector, just like the typical edge of an expansion card. You need to use a cable with the proper connectors for each type you use. Many floppy cables come with connectors for each type on each side of the twist. Always check Pin 1 on the ribbon cable connector. The red edge of the cable is aligned to Pin 1 on the connector of the drive. If you accidentally reverse this, your drive won’t be damaged, it just won’t work, and the floppy drive light will stay on all the time until fixed. The connector on the far end of the ribbon cable connects to the floppy controller on the motherboard or I/O card (usually labeled FDD). Consult your motherboard’s manual to determine which is your floppy controller.

If you are installing any other 3.5″ drives (such as a ZIP drive), then you can install those the exact same way.

Step 12: Configure you Hard Disk and the CD ROM

Before physically installing your hard drive or CD-ROM, it is easier to configure them outside of the case. Configuring them involves changing jumpers, and doing this within the confines of the case can be quite difficult sometimes.

How to configure these drives depends on how many drives you intend to install and of what type.

Your motherboard has two built-in IDE channels, each supporting two devices. If two devices are on one channel, one must be the “master” and the other the “slave”. Usually, your primary hard drive (the one which contains the operating system) is the master and the other drive is the slave. If you only intend to install one hard drive and having nothing else on that IDE channel, then you can select the “cable select” setting for the drive, which tells the drive it is alone on the channel.

You can attach any IDE device onto your IDE channels in any order. But, it is recommend you use IDE1 for your hard drives and IDE2 for your CD drives. It is always best to keep the CD drives on a separate channel from the hard drives.

Configuring these drives is very easy. Often the jumper settings are printed on the top of the drive itself. On CD drives, the settings are described right above the jumper pins. On hard drives, the information is printed on the top of the hard drive, if it is printed at all. If not, then consult the manual for it or go online to try finding the specs. The manuals will also outline any special jumper settings such as use of the limiter jumper on Maxtor hard drives.

If a particular drive does not need to be jumpered at all, it is best to hang the jumper over one pin. This is the same as being unjumpered, but makes sure the jumper is there for future use if needed.

If you are using SATA Hard drives, you are in luck. Because each SATA drive uses its own channel, there is no need for jumpers or worrying about master/slave relationships.

Step 13: Install Drive

Before simply following the directions below on mounting the hard drive, pay attention to where you put it. Technically, you can put the hard drive in any free bay of your case, but there are a few considerations:

Hard drives generate heat, especially the drives with the higher rotation speeds. Therefore, it is best to place these drives as far from other hardware as possible. Give them room to breathe.
If it is necessary to install a drive cooler, make sure you have room for it.
Some cases give room under the power supply to install a hard drive. Bad idea. A power supply is like a magnet, and magnets and your data do not go together. Don’t install a hard drive anywhere near the power supply. Keep your hard drive near the front of the case.

Okay, lets install the actual drive:

Determine which drive bay to install the hard drive into. In most cases, the hard drive usually goes into a 3.5″ slot toward the front of the case, near the bottom. These bays do not have a corresponding opening to the front of the case simply because there is no reason to see the hard drive from the front. Some cases use a removable drive rack to hold the hard drive. If your case uses this type of setup, remove the rack now.
Slide in the hard drive. If you are using a removable drive rack, just push the drive into the rack so that the screw holes line up. If your case has the drive rack as part of the chassis, then just lift the drive into the case and line up the screw holes on the drive with the drive rack. Be sure the drive connectors face toward the back of the case.
Fasten the hard drive into place using your screws. This is easy to do on removable racks. In non-removable racks, tightening down screws on the far side of the hard drive can be a problem, because the screws are not highly visible and thus it is hard to get to them with a screwdriver. It can take a little creativity to get at them. Most cases which have this problem have little holes where you can stick the screwdriver through and tighten the screw beneath. If the screw is not in there, I’ve even had to do a controlled drop of the screw onto the hole and then use the screwdriver to position it into the hole. It can be a real feat to do it sometimes, and this is one reason some manufacturers went to the removable racks. If you have a magnetic screwdriver that can hold the screw, this might be less of a problem for you.
If using a removable drive rack, you can now install the rack back into your case. Some racks are fastened into place using a simple thumb lever. Others need to be screwed in.
If you have any other hard drives which you are installing as you build your PC, then repeat the 4 steps above for the other drive.
Attach the power cable. Choose an unused power lead from the power supply and plug it into the power plug on the hard drive. The plug will be keyed so that it will only go in the correct way. SATA power connectors are thin and black; they are obviously different from other white Molexes.
Attach the ribbon cable to the hard drive. The ribbon cable goes from the primary IDE controller of the motherboard to the drive, usually labeled IDE1. Make sure the red edge of the ribbon cable is aligned with Pin 1 on the drive ribbon connector. If you can’t see Pin 1 marked, then it is almost always the pin closest to the power connector. If you place the cable on backwards, you may get strange errors that make your new drive sound like it has died already. As for the cable itself, usually you have two plugs closer together on one end of the cable and then a third plug on the far end of the cable. The far plug plugs into the motherboard. Of the two remaining cables, there are no requirements as to which plug to use on which hard drive. If you are only installing one hard drive, just use whichever one of those plugs reaches the drive best without stretching the ribbon cable out. If you are installing two hard drives, then plan it out so that you can use both connectors in whichever order works best. With SATA the ribbon cable goes to an SATA controller. Start with SATA_1 and move on if you have multiple drives.

SCSI Drives

If you are opting for a SCSI drive setup, then there are a few minor variations from the procedure above. First, you need to install a SCSI controller into one of your expansion slots (unless your motherboard has an integrated SCSI controller). Then proceed:

You need to set any switches or jumpers that need setting on the new drive. In SCSI setups, each device gets its own SCSI ID, numbered 1-7. #7 is usually given to the adapter card. You may pick, then, any other unused address. You may need to take into account any little quirks in your adapter, such as special likings to other addresses that could cause problems a little later. You’ll need the manual for this one.
Check for the correct termination. In SCSI setups, the adapter can hold up to seven SCSI devices. These devices are hooked up in a chain, usually with the adapter at one end and another device at the other end. This ending device must be set to be the terminating device, therefore ending the SCSI chain and making a complete electric circuit. In some cases, the adapter is in the middle of the chain, therefore you must terminate at both ends of the chain. You may need to consult the manual for any special termination techniques particular to your brand of drive. In general, a certain jumper setting will enable internal termination on the drive itself, eliminating the need for a special terminating plug.
The procedure for actual installation is the same as the procedure above for IDE drives.

Step 14: Install the CD-ROMs

Whether you are installing a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a CD-R/RW, or even a DVD-R/RW, each of these drives install the same way. The installation is quite simple.

Choose which drive bay you wish to install the drive in.
If you have not yet removed the drive bay cover, do so now. This is usually done by pushing two tabs together and pushing the plate out from the front of the case. As I mentioned in the case preparation step, if you have a metal plate covering this bay that has not been removed, you will need to pry it out before you can install the drive. When you are done, the drive bay should be open from the front of the case.
If your case makes use of drive rails to hold the drive into place (the case we are using does use such rails), then fasten these drive rails to the sides of the CD drive. In order to determine which set of holes is the one to use, it may be necessary to temporarily slide the drive into the drive bay. However you decide to do it, the drive rails should be positioned such that when the drive is put into place in the case, it will be flush with the front of the case rather than being recessed or sticking out.
Slide the drive into position. Most of the time this is done from the front. If you installed drive rails in step 3, then make sure those rails are lined up with the drive rack as you push the drive in. Then push the drive all the way in until the clips on the drive rails snap into place. At that point, you can skip the next step and move to step 7.
If you are not using drive rails, then you will simply have the drive in place, but not fastened down inside the case. At this time, screw the drive into place. You might want to just place the screws in but not tighten them. This is done so that you can slide the drive out again later. When installing the cables later, you may need to slide the drive out a few inches so that you have enough room to work behind the drive. In many cases, especially mini-towers, one can have a hard time working behind the CD-ROM because it is pinned up against the front of the power supply. Sometimes it is helpful to put the case on its side as you tighten the drive into place.
When tightened into place, make sure the front of the drive is flush with the front of the case. If the front bezel is off the case on installation, make sure you don’t make the mistake of making the drive flush with the case frame. It needs to stick out a little so it will be flush with the bezel when you re-attach it. Also make sure it appears straight. While this doesn’t really affect functionality, it’s a matter of aesthetics. If the drive is in too far or sticking out too far, go ahead and re-adjust it now.
Attach the power supply to the drive. Just like a hard drive, just find a free 4-wire power plug and plug it into the power connector on the CD-ROM.
Attach the ribbon cable. Connect one of the two available plugs on the ribbon cable to the CD drive. Just choose the plug which can reach the drive best. If you have two CD drives, use the plug on the end of the ribbon cable for the top most drive, and the middle plug for the next lowest CD drive. Attach the plug on the far end of the ribbon cable to the secondary IDE port on the motherboard (usually labeled IDE2). Just like connecting any other drive, you must ensure that Pin 1 on the connector is lined up with the red edge of the cable. Pin 1 is usually marked in some way on the drive and on the motherboard both. Sometimes, it is just a small mark on one corner of the cable connection port, and that indicates that that corner pin is your pin 1.
Attach the Audio Cable. This small 3-wire connector goes from an “Audio” plug on the back of the CD-ROM to a 3-pin plug on the sound card. If you happen to have on-board audio circuitry on your motherboard, the CD-IN plug will be on your motherboard and you can connect this now. Since you likely do not have a sound card installed at this point, you can connect one end of this cable now to the CD drive and leave the other end free to connect once the sound card is installed. Some CD drives have both an analog and a digital audio out. Most of the time, people just use the standard analog audio, but if you wish, go ahead and use the digital. Your drive should come with audio cables for both options.

Step 15: Install the Video Card

You must have a video card installed in order to complete this tutorial so that you can see the output from your new PC once you turn it on. Installing a video card (or any expansion card for that matter) is incredibly straight-forward and easy.

Find an expansion slot ideal for your video card. You can consult the bottom right image for a look at the three types of video card slot types: ISA, PCI or AGP. Most video cards in use today are using the AGP slot, which uses the topmost slot (usually brown) on your motherboard. Other cards use the PCI bus, which most motherboards have several of and the slots are usually white. The very old video cards use the larger ISA bus, but it is unlikely you will be using this type of video card unless you are building a PC out of incredibly outdated hardware.
Remove the case insert that corresponds to the slot on the motherboard. This is usually done by unscrewing, but some cases have punch out inserts. If unclear, what we are referring to by “insert” is the small plate which covers up the rear slots on your case which your expansion cards will emerge from.
Insert the video card in the slot. You might need to rock the card in, inserting one end first, then rocking the rest of the pins into place. The old ISA cards may be tougher because of their length. You might not be able to rock them. Most of you, though, will not be dealing with ISA video cards anymore. When pushing down, make sure the motherboard does not flex. If the board tends to bend, it may be necessary to place one hand underneath the board to hold it up. Also, in some cases, you may have a problem with the leading edge of the video card’s metal plate hitting the case behind the motherboard. The result is that it keeps you from being able to push the card in all the way. I’ve tried all sorts of weird crap to fix this problem, including taking pliers to the card and actually bending it. Sometimes, you can grab a flat-head screwdriver and pry the hole wider that the card’s lip protrudes into. But, in most cases, just playing with it for a bit will do the trick. It might also be worth noting here that AGP video cards are typically installed “upside down”, meaning the circuitry side of the video card will face down. ISA and PCI cards are usually installed “right side up”.
With the video card inserted into the correct slot, it will probably sit there with no support at all. It is still, though, necessary to tighten it in using a screw. The card’s metal plate will have a notch for a screw and it will line up with a screwhole on the side of the expansion hole on the rear of the case. Just insert a screw into that hole and tighten it.
Double-check your work. Make sure the card is securely in place and, if your video card has a cooling fan on it, make sure no ribbon cables or power leads are getting into the fan blades.

Step 16: Post-Assembly

Well, you have gotten this far. Congratulations! You have now completed the hardware portion of putting together your PC.

Admittedly, if you are following this tutorial to the letter, your PC is rather bare-boned at this point. It is highly likely you will be installing some additional hardware such as a network interface card (NIC), a sound card, maybe a dial-up modem or other hardware. Some people like to install everything right away. Usually when I build a PC, I like to start with the basics. The reason is that it makes the installation process of your operating system easier. Once you have your operating system installed, you can then go in and install your additional hardware and get those items working one at a time. It can be a little daunting to try to get everything working at the same time, especially simultaneously to installing the operating system itself.

Now, you are about ready to turn your new PC on for the first time. But before we do so we need to give everything the once over and make sure we didn’t miss something. So, with a flashlight, check all of your work. It is better to “waste” the time than to engage in wasted time trying to track down why the system will not boot.

Review all your connections and installations as completed in prior steps. Here is a bulleted list of highlights to guide you:

Drives properly connected to the power supply
CPU fan attached to the power supply or to the power connector on the motherboard
If this is an older AT machine, ensure the P8 and P9 main power connectors are installed properly, with black wires in middle.
The 110/220 volt switch on the back of the power supply is configured properly for your area
Ribbon cables attached correctly and securely. If using rounded cables, the arrow on the connectors indicating Pin 1 should be aligned with Pin 1 on all drive connections. On gray cables, ensure the red edge is aligned with Pin 1.
All connections tight, no connectors off by one set of pins
If there are any key motherboard settings which are jumper-controlled, ensure these settings are correct
No wires or ribbon cables protruding into fan blades
Power switch connector on ATX machines properly connected to the PWR_SW pins on the motherboard. If this is not properly done, the machine may not even turn on when the switch is pressed.

Step 17: Initial Boot up

It is time for the moment of truth. To see if this thing works!!

Let’s get everything connected and prepared to turn it on:

Connect your mouse and keyboard
Connect your monitor to the video card and connect the power cord to the monitor.
Connect the power cord to your power supply on the PC itself.

Okay, now for boot up time!

Stick your system disk into the A: drive. You should have prepared or gotten a system disk in the first step of this tutorial. If you are using a bootable CD-ROM (as is the case with Windows XP) then just stand by on this because the CD drive will not be openable until the power is on.
Turn your monitor on and let it heat up a few seconds before proceeding. Heating it up for a few seconds ensures you don’t miss any potential error messages because the CRT tube is not ready to display an image.
Before hitting the power switch, take note of what to expect. If you notice something awry right away, you may need to quickly turn the PC back off. Here’s what to look for:
a. The power LED should turn on

b. The CPU and PSU fans should start spinning

c. The hard drive should power up.

d. You will see the video BIOS screen first, then you will see the BIOS screen and it will proceed to count the memory.

e. You may hear one beep from the PC speaker. It is possible you will get more than one beep, which indicates an error which we will address.

f. You may also get a “CMOS checksum error” or another error saying the CMOS or time isn’t set.

g. Know what key(s) to hit to enter CMOS setup. This will be shown on the bottom of the screen usually during the memory count. You will want to press the stated key combination to enter setup immediately because CMOS setup is the next step.

h. If you hear any weird sounds such as grinding, scraping, or loud whining, be ready to turn the system off immediately.

i. Keep in mind that if you miss the stated sequence to enter the CMOS setup before the boot sequence moves on, there is nothing wrong with just hitting the reset button and rebooting until you do catch what it is. It will not hurt your PC to reset it immediately or turn it off quickly if you notice a problem.
Press the power switch. If it powers up, observe the system closely. As soon as the BIOS screen appears, press the appropriate key(s) and enter CMOS setup. The correct key combination should be visible at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it pops by too quickly for you to see which keys to press. No problem. Don’t hesitate to just hit reset and try again, as stated above.
If everything started up as expected and you successfully got into the CMOS setup screen, just let it sit there while you take out a flash light and inspect the system as it is running. Make sure all the fans are running. Make sure all the fans are operating smoothly and not generating any strange noises. Make sure the case power LED is on. Make sure the floppy drive light is not stuck on. If it is, the ribbon cable is not properly aligned with Pin 1 and you will need to turn the PC back off and flip it around. If any of the fans are not spinning, turn the PC back off immediately and plug the fan in. You do not want to run the PC for long without fans running, especially the CPU fan.

The PC Mechanic Tech Forums

If, at this point, you are incredibly frustrated because your new computer is not working and you just cannot seem to find the problem. YOU ARE NOT ALONE! We’ve got an extensive forum community at PCMech. In the forums, you can ask questions and get answers from many incredibly knowledgeable people. All you need to do is register. It is absolutely free. The forums are a great asset for PC Mechanic users, allowing everyone to learn from others’ experiences. Go to the forums!

Step 18: Configure the BIOS

Now, your new PC should be up and running and you should be staring at the BIOS setup screen.

Your next step is to make sure your BIOS is using the proper settings. While some users like to use the BIOS to tweak the system into running like greased soap, during an initial build it is best to keep settings conservative, which usually means leaving them at their defaults. Remember at this point we are most interested in getting this PC to work. I will first walk you through the necessary steps, then I will go over some of the other settings you may see that you don’t need to mess with at this point.

When you get into CMOS for the first time, do the following:

Go into your Standard CMOS Setup screen. Ensure your video settings are correct (typically EGA/VGA) and that your floppy disk is properly set to the size you are using (usually 1.44M). You will see settings for IDE Primary/Secondary Master/Slave. If these items are not already properly set for the hardware you have, have the BIOS auto-detect your drives for you. Also, set the date and time to the correct settings.
Unless your board has jumper-controlled processor and voltage settings, you will need to set these options in your CMOS now. In our Soyo board, the screen to go into is called “Soyo COMBO Feature”. It may be called “SoftMenu” or some other term on your board. Consult the manual to find out if you can’t see it. Once in that screen, you need to set your system bus speed, CPU multiplier, memory timing speeds, CPU voltage, etc. Many of these options have an AUTO setting which is the safest choice if you don’t know otherwise. Some other systems have a list of possible processors, in which case just choose yours from the list. On our testbed Soyo board, this screen was also used for enabling or disabling onboard sound, RAID, and 10/100 LAN and if your board has similar settings, you can set this to your liking. For example, if you will be using a sound card of your own, you would need to disable the built-in sound on your motherboard. If you have onboard SCSI or onboard RAID capability, then set these depending on whether you will be using them or not.
Confirm your boot order. One of the screens in your CMOS (many times the Advanced Features screen) will have a boot order option. This controls the order in which the PC will look for a copy of something to boot off of, whether it is a full operating system or just a diskette or CD. In a little bit you will be installing your full operating system and will need to boot the system beforehand. If you are using a standard system diskette, make sure A: (or your floppy) is enabled to be first in line. In this case, you might want to also check to be sure that if there is a setting to disable seeking out the floppy altogether, that is set to indeed seek out the floppy drive (some people set this to off so as to make the boot process faster, but you cannot do that while building). If you are going to be booting from a CD (as is probably the case if you will be installing Windows XP) then make sure your CD-ROM is first in line.

Those are the basics of what you will need to set in order to continue with this tutorial and have your PC set properly. Now, I will give a brief rundown of some of the other settings you may see. This is by no means meant to be a complete reference, as all boards are different. Your motherboard’s manual is your best reference to the settings you need to concern yourself with.

Advanced BIOS Features

This section controls some of basic operating settings of your PC. For example, you will enable/disable things such as on-board cache, determine the boot device, etc. Here are some of the common settings:

Virus Protection/Warning: Will scan your hard drive boot sector on startup for viruses and alarm you if anything attempts to write to the boot sector. Enable for increased security, but disable to avoid the annoyance. If you are using a third-party antivirus utility (or plan to) then this is useless.
Cache Settings: These settings control L1 and L2 cache, which in most newer systems resides on the processor itself. In almost all cases, this is enabled and should be. If there is an option to have ECC error checking on the L2 cache, go ahead and have it enabled.
Quick POST: This will allow the BIOS to skip some tests such as the memory test on boot-up, thus allowing the PC to boot faster. You can disable it for the sake of thoroughness, and this is fine if you leave your PC on most of the time. But, if you turn it on a lot, this is an annoyance and I’d recommend enabling Quick POST.
Boot Sequence: This controls the order in which the PC looks at the drives for bootable information. Sometimes the BIOS will have one field for this and you scroll through the options. Other versions have separate settings for “First Boot Device”, “Second Boot Device” and so on. This was addressed above.
Boot Up Floppy Seek: Controls whether the floppy drive will be looked for at all. Set this to enabled, at least until you get your operating system installed
Swap Floppy Drive: Allows you to control the assigning of the A and B drive letters to your floppy drives by swapping the order that is dictated by the twist in the floppy drive ribbon cable. Most of the time this is disabled.
Fast A20 Gate: The gate A20 is a device used for addressing memory above the 1 MByte mark (don’t really need to get into that here). This used to be controlled by the keyboard via a pin. Keyboards still play a role in this today, but you control it via the BIOS. Some BIOS have enable/disable, some have Normal/Fast. I would go ahead and leave it at the default.
Typematic Rate Settings: These options control the rate at which holding down a key on the keyboard will produce characters on screen. Just leave it disabled as it isn’t very important.
Boot Numlock: Enable to have Numlock on when you start the computer.
CPU Serial Number: Enables or disables the serial number thing in some older Intel CPUs. Privacy buffs, disable it.
Security Option: Some systems have an option to require a password every time the system boots up. You’ll probably want this disabled.
Video BIOS Shadow: - Disable.
OS Select For DRAM > 64MB: Set to Non-OS2. This is an archaic setting.
HDD SMART Capability: Set to disabled. It is only useful if you have software running which monitors the status of the hard drives.
Small Logo Show: Controls whether the little EPA logo is shown on your bootup. Disable. Sometimes there is a small select option, too, for selecting which logo will be shown.

Advanced Chipset Features

This area of the BIOS allows you to control certain aspects of your motherboard which are specific to the chipset on your board. This would include bus speeds and memory issues. Some boards place their controls for processor, bus speed into this screen as well. I address that in more detail above. Most of the time, you don’t need to worry about anything in here for the sake of this tutorial. But, a general outline:

Chipset Special Features: Disable. Not all BIOS have this.
L2 Cache size: If this option exists, set it to match the size of your external cache.
DRAM Parity Checking: Enable only if using parity memory
Dram parity/ECC mode: “Parity” if using parity memory, “ECC” if using ECC memory
Memory Timings: This area allows you to control the speed of the memory. On Via chipsets, it will usually also display the processor bus speed and the DRAM bus speed, allowing you to set the memory to operate on the Host Clock or BY SPEED. You can set the memory speed manually or have it run at the same speed as the system bus. If you are using SDRAM, you can also control the CAS latency, which is usually best left at default unless you’re a real tweaker.
AGP Mode: Controls the AGP Mode, such as 1X, 2X, 4X or 8x. Set to Auto if available, or whatever it is set to already.
AGP Frequency: Set to 66MHz.
AGP Aperture: Controls how much of the PCI memory address range will be dedicated to graphics memory space. Usually, 64MB is fine, but you can set it to whatever you want.
DRAM Frequency: Set to the speed of your memory
System BIOS Cacheable: Only valid when the system BIOS is shadowed. It can speed up access to the BIOS, but because the OS rarely needs to look at the BIOS, enabling this does not cause much benefit. Disable.

Power Management

This section should be fairly straight-forward to even the novice user, and you should be able to use your manual to best describe the settings. I usually leave everything in here default and you should for now, too. You’re just trying to get the PC working at this point, not fine-tuning every little aspect of the BIOS.

Integrated Peripherals

IDE HDD Block Mode: Speeds up hard disk access by transferring data from multiple sectors at once instead of using the old single sector transfer mode. When you enable it, the BIOS will automatically detect if your hard disk supports block transfers and configure the proper block transfer settings for it. Up to 64KB of data can be transferred per interrupt with IDE HDD Block Mode enabled. Since virtually all hard disks now support block transfers, there is normally no reason why IDE HDD Block Mode should not be enabled.
Master/Slave PIO Mode: This function allows IDE drive to transfer several sectors at a time. Several modes are possible. Mode 0 means one sector at a time. Mode 1 is no interrupts. Mode 2 means sectors are transferred in a single burst. Mode 3 means 32-bit instructions at up to 11.1 MB per sec. Mode 4 is 16.7 MB/sec. and Mode 5 is up to 20 MB/sec. Standard for most drives today is PIO Mode 4. But, many BIOS’s offer an AUTO setting that will automatically make the best call for your drive. These modes must be set for each drive, including primary master, slave, secondary master, slave.
Master/Slave UltraDMA: Set to Auto. Enable if your drives are UDMA capable. Keep in mind that to use this feature also requires it to be set up via the operating system.
On-Chip PCI IDE, or IDE Controller: Used to either enable or disable either of your on-board IDE controllers. You can disable one of these if you do not need it, freeing up resources. For example, if IDE-2 is unused, you can disable it, thus freeing up IRQ 15 so something else can use it.
USB Controller: Enable or disable your motherboard’s on-board USB controller.
USB Keyboard Support: Many boards have a separate setting for USB keyboards, so you will need to enable this if you use one.
USB Mouse Support: Same as keyboard, but sometimes you see one for mice, too.
Onboard 1394: Enable or disable your onboard Firewire capability
FDD Controller: Enable or disable your motherboard’s on-board floppy disk controller. You probably want this enabled.
OnBoard Serial Port: Used to enable or disable the serial ports. Setting to AUTO will usually default to IRQ 4, and 3F8 (COM 1) or IRQ 3 and 2F8 for COM 2. Disabling will, of course, free up the IRQ’s.
Onboard IR Function: If you have an infrared device connected to the motherboard, you can enable IR here. IrDA (HPSIR) mode, ASK IR (Amplitude Shift Keyed IR) mode, and disabled are the available options. Sometimes you might see an SCR mode, for smart card readers. Choose the mode used by your IR device. This setting is usually linked to Serial port 2, so if that is disabled, this option may not show up. Sometimes this option is called UART Mode.
Duplex Mode: This will determine full duplex or half duplex transfer modes for your IR port, if enabled.
Parallel Port: There are four options. The default value is Normal (SPP) which will work with all parallel port devices but is very slow. Two faster bidirectional modes are available, namely the ECP (Extended Capabilities Port), used for devices with large data transfers, and EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), for devices that switch directions a lot. ECP uses the DMA protocol to achieve data transfer rates of up to 2.5Mbits/s and provides symmetric bidirectional communication. On the other hand, EPP uses existing parallel port signals to provide asymmetric bidirectional communication. There is usually an EPP+ECP mode for users who don’t know which mode to choose, but this can also take up an extra IRQ.
ECP Mode use DMA: Controls the DMA channel used for ECP transfers. DMA 3 is default. You can set to 1 if there are conflicts.
Init Display First: Used to control whether to initialize an AGP or a PCI video card first on start-up. Only relevant to users who use both types of video cards with one monitor.
Power On Function: Some motherboards allow you to turn on the system via a variety of alternative ways other than the normal power switch. Examples include mouse buttons, button only (normal), or by keyboard. Select whichever option you want.

PnP/PCI Configuration

This section controls some of the various aspects of plug and play and the PCI bus. Much of it will not need to be touched at this point, but a couple items bear mentioning:

PNP OS Installed: If all your operating systems support Plug & Play (PnP), select Yes so that they can take over the management of device resources. If you are using a non-PnP-aware OS or not all of the operating systems you are using support PnP, select No to let the BIOS handle it instead. Some say that it is best to leave this option set to No regardless of whether your OS is PNP-capable or not. The reason is that when it is set to No, the BIOS will attempt to resolve any resource conflicts. If it is set to Yes, even if a conflict is detected, the BIOS will ignore it. So, setting it to Yes provides a bit of a safety net, and it will not affect the ability of the OS to perform PNP on its own.
Reset Configuration Data (Force Update ESCD): ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data) is a feature of the Plug & Play BIOS that stores the IRQ, DMA, I/O and memory configurations of all the ISA, PCI and AGP cards in the system (PnP or otherwise). Normally, you should leave the setting as Disabled. If you encounter serious problems with the installation of a new PCI card, these settings can help bail you out. Such a conflict could be serious enough that the OS may not start. If this happens, you can go into the BIOS and enable this option. Next time the PC boots, the BIOS will go and re-configure the settings for all PNP cards. The BIOS will automatically reset this setting to DISABLED next time you boot.
Resources Controlled By: Normally, the BIOS controls the IRQ and DMA assignments of all of the boot and PNP devices in the system. When this option is set to AUTO, this is what happens, and the ESCD is the mechanism for doing it. If you set this option to Manual, you will be able to manually assign all IRQ and DMA information, usually via a sub-screen of the BIOS that will enable if you set this option to Manual.
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop: This option is only useful if you use an MPEG card or an add-on card that makes use of the graphics card’s Feature Connector. It corrects incorrect color reproduction by “snooping” into the graphics card’s framebuffer memory and modifying (synchronizing) the information delivered from the graphics card’s Feature Connector to the MPEG or add-on card. It will also solve the problem of display inversion to a black screen after using the MPEG card.
Assign IRQ for VGA: Many high-end graphics accelerator cards now require an IRQ to function properly. Disabling this feature with such cards will cause improper operation and/or poor performance. Thus, it’s best to make sure you enable this feature if you are having problems with your graphics accelerator card.
Assign IRQ for USB: Assigns an IRQ to the USB controller. It enables or disables IRQ allocation for the USB (Universal Serial Bus). If you are using AGP, this should be enabled. If you are not, you can disable this to free up an IRQ.

PC Health

This might be called by a bunch of different names, but it is the section of the BIOS (if it has it) that monitors things like fan speed, CPU temperature, voltage levels, etc. You may also be able to set a shut down temperature, so if the CPU gets way too hot, the system would shut itself down for safety.

Defaults

Many BIOS versions have pre-set sets of default values which you can pre-load. Some have “fail-safe” defaults and “optimized” defaults. If you don’t wish to mess with any of the above, you can use these options to set the BIOS info up to certain sets of settings in one or two button clicks.

Passwords

Most BIOS versions have security options to allow for user or supervisor passwords. Most people do not use them. But, if you do, just make sure you record the password. If you lose it, you’ll have to reset your whole BIOS to get your system back.

Save and Exit the BIOS setup program. This will reboot the machine. Make sure your system disk is still in Drive A:.

Step 19: Test The System

At the end of the previous step, you saved your CMOS settings and the system rebooted. You should have had a system disk or CD in the boot drive so that the PC booted itself properly. If you got an error to the effect of “Missing Operating System”, then you likely did not remember to put the system disk into the drive or the system disk is not valid and bootable. If it is not a bootable system disk, you will need to get one before pressing forward. More modern operating systems like Windows XP come with CDs which themselves are bootable, in which case just make sure the CD is in the CD-ROM. If you are still having problems, verify your boot order was set correctly in CMOS in the previous step. Remember, if you are trying to boot from a diskette, your floppy drive must be set as the first boot device. If you want to boot from CD, your CD-ROM must be set as the first boot device.

Assuming you handled that properly, the PC should be up and running and you are either sitting at a command prompt or some other screen dictated by your bootable CD or diskette. Now that the PC is just sitting there running, it is a good time to test a few things before proceeding further. Check the following:

Check the LED’s on the front of the case. During boot-up, the HDD LED should light. If it does, it is connected properly to the motherboard. If not, try reversing the leads on the LED plug, or just turning it around. You can also check that the power LED lights and that the turbo LED lights, if it is connected.
Check the hard drive. Make sure it is spinning.
Check the fans. Make sure the CPU fan, power supply fan, and case fan(if you have one) are all spinning without any wires in the way. If your video card happens to have a fan, make sure it spins freely as well.
Make sure the CD-ROM has power by hitting the eject button and seeing if it opens.
Hit the reset button to be sure it works. While it reboots, check to be sure all the data on the BIOS splash screen is correct to your system.
Let the system run for 10-15 minutes. While it is running, go into your CMOS setup again and go to the PC Health screen so that you can monitor the CPU temperatures while it is running. The purpose in doing this is to ensure that the processor is being adequately cooled and will not lead to instability. If you choose, you can also - CAREFULLY - ground yourself and then reach in and gently touch the sides of the CPU and heat sink as it is running. If the heat sink is lukewarm to the touch (not too hot to touch) then it is doing its job properly. During this testing period, you can just let the PC run for a bit. If, after several minutes, the heat sink gets too hot or the temperature readouts become abnormally high, or if the PC Health screen freezes and you cannot do anything with the keyboard, then you likely have a cooling issue with your processor. You are either running a cooling fan which is not adequate for your processor or there is an issue with inadequate heat transfer between the processor and the heat sink, which means you might need to re-install the processor and do a better job of using heat sink compound this time.

Okay, now that we are pretty sure the hardware portion of this tutorial is a done deal, let’s move into setting your hard disks up.

Step 20: Prepare the hard Drive(s)

Before we can install your operating system to your hard drive, that drive must be prepared for use. In order to use your hard drive, it must be partitioned and formatted. If you are building a system and putting a previously used hard drive into it, you may not need to perform this step. But, on any new hard drive or one you are just trying to start over with, you will need to do this. If you are installing Windows XP, all formatting, partitioning and installation work from the XP CD. You should have your first boot device be the CDROM already. Insert the disk and reboot the system. Windows Setup will begin. Then, skip down to the step on Windows XP Installation. If you are installing a legacy OS, then proceed.

Many retail hard drives come with their own utilities for setting up their hard drives. For example, Maxtor hard drives are packaged with a utility called MaxBlast. MaxBlast itself serves as a bootable disk for your system, and after booting the system up it will move directly into the first step of its wizard to set up your drive. These kinds of setup are very convenient and will walk you right through both partitioning and formatting the drives. If your hard drive came with such software, then I recommend you use that software and follow the manual that came with your drive. And, in that case, simply follow the manufacturers steps and you can proceed to the next step in this tutorial after doing so.

If you are using an OEM hard drive or one you happened to have around already, you may not have any software for it. So you will need to set your drive up the old-fashioned way. Here’s how:

HARD DRIVE PREP - THE OLD FASHION WAY

Partitioning is done using the FDISK command. FDISK is a plain-jane, text-only utility that comes on most Windows/DOS setups. FDISK should be included on your system disk and when you use it, it will actually be run off of the floppy drive. If, for some reason, your system disk does not have FDISK.EXE on it, get one that does.

Take a little time to plan your partitions. Do you want one large partition for the entire drive? Or do you want to separate it into different drive volumes? If you have FAT32, it is very popular to create one partition for the entire drive. Otherwise, if you are using a drive larger than 2G, you will have to separate it into more than one partition. Also, keep in mind that smaller partitions lead to smaller clusters, thus less slack or wasted disk space. With almost any modern operating system (I’m thinking Windows here) you will want to use the FAT32 file system. When you go into FDISK, it will ask if you want to enable “Large Disk Support”, and you do if you’re using any OS Windows 98 or newer.

So, start.

Type “fdisk” at the command prompt. If it does not work, it is because your hard drive is not attached properly or you may be missing FDISK.EXE on your system disk.
It will ask if you wish to enable Large Disk Support, and in most cases, you will. Type “Y” and proceed.
Next, you will see 4 menu options. If you already have partitions on this hard drive, you can choose option 4 to view the current partition setup and decide if you want to change it. For a brand new drive (which I’m assuming for the purpose of this tutorial), you’ll need to start from scratch.
Some information: The first partition is your primary DOS partition. This is your C: drive and can’t be divided. This is also called the active partition. You can only have one active partition. The second partition is optional. It is called an extended partition. This is the space left over after the primary partition. Then, logical DOS drives are created within the extended partition, each having a letter by which you will refer to it.
First you have to setup a primary DOS partition. Choose Option 1 (Create DOS partition or Logical DOS drive).
Choose Option 1 in the next menu.
Now you can make your entire hard drive the primary partition or only a part of it. Many people just make the entire drive one partition just to stay simple. If you want to break from this norm, specify the amount of drive you want to partition in either megabytes or percentage of total drive. If you are using a percentage, be sure to follow the number by a “%” or the computer will think you’re talking MB’s. As a tip, I generally like to have my operating system(s) stay on their own partition, so I like to assign 2 GIG or so to the primary DOS partition, allowing ample room for a few versions of Windows. That’s just me.
Next, you’ll need to make this partition active. Return to the main FDISK menu and choose Option 2 (Set Active Partition). Follow the prompts.
If you’re going to create an extended partition (and you probably will unless you’re only going to use C), choose Option 1 again, but this time choose Option 2 in the next menu (Create Extended DOS partition).
Plug in the percentage of drive to partition for this one. You can use the remaining amount for simplicity. Do not make this partition active. Only one can be active.
After you create an extended partition, you will be given the Create Logical Drives option in the extended partition menu. Follow the on-screen instructions to assign drive letters to your partitions D: through Z:.
After all this is done, you can choose Option 4 (Display Partition Information) and check your work.
After the drive has been partitioned and all looks fine to you, press to exit FDISK. You’ll be told you need to restart the machine and that’s what you’re about to do.
Reboot the machine with the system disk in Drive A:. If you try to do anything on the C: drive, you may get an error about Invalid Media Type. Don’t worry about it. It’s because you haven’t formatted it yet.

Here’s how to format your newly created disk partition(s):

At the A> prompt, type format c: /s. The “/s” tells it to make the disk bootable by copying some elementary system files to the C drive. If you booted from a CD and intend to install the OS right away, you do not need to copy system files, in which case you can leave the “/s” off.
You will get a warning saying that this action will erase all data on the drive. This is normal, and since there is no data on the drive, just press “Y” and move on.
It will show the status as it happens.
If you created additional partitions on this drive, format those volumes now. Type “format d:” or “format e:”, where the letter corresponds to the volume you wish to format. Do not type the “/s” since you only want the C: drive bootable. Do this for all remaining partitions you created during the partitioning process.
When you are complete, you should be able to do a directory listing to be sure it is formatted by typing “DIR C:” at the command prompt. You’ll likely get a FILE NOT FOUND message, but that’s normal. At least the drive is set up.

When you have done both procedures above, reboot the system. If you copied the system files over you can do so without the system disk in the diskette drives. If not, you’ll need to leave the system disk in Drive A. If using the C drive, it is supposed to boot normally and go to the C: prompt. If you get an error like “No boot device found” or “No ROM Basic”, you probably forgot to make the primary partition active. Run FDISK again and fix that. If you get an error like “No Operating System”, you probably forgot to make the disk bootable. Make sure you typed “/s” at the format command.

Step 21: Install the CD Rom driver

NOTE: This Step is here only for those users who must manually get their CD-ROM recognized before installing their operating system. You may not need to do anything. See below:

Most operating systems come on CD, which requires you to have your CD-ROM working in order to install the operating system. This is usually a pretty easy thing to do. In fact, sometimes it is totally unnecessary for you to actually DO anything, because it is taken care of. If you are installing Windows 98 and have a real Windows 98 boot disk, it has the option of booting with CD-ROM support automatically. If your operating system CD is bootable (and in many cases they are) then as long as you have your CDROM set as your boot device in CMOS, it will automatically go to the CD-ROM and begin the process of installing your operating system. In this case, this step is not necessary.

Otherwise, read on…

Your CD-ROM comes with an install disk that, if properly programmed, will install your CD-ROM drivers very quickly. Unfortunately, many manufacturers make lame installation disks, requiring you to do some of the work manually. For this reason, I recommend you have a copy of EDIT.COM on your hard drive or system disk in case you have to manually edit the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. Also have a copy of MSCDEX.EXE on your disk in case your CD-ROM installation does not include it. If necessary, use the command “copy mscdexe.exe c:” to copy the file from your system disk to your hard drive.

Some installation programs are very particular as to what they expect. Some will stop unless MSCDEX.EXE is not already installed on the drive C: Some go so far as to expect this file in C:DOS, and it might not tell you this. You can just put the file in a directory called C:DOS and try again. Other installations cannot properly configure CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. Some will halt if these files aren’t already present on the hard drive. If you run into problem, keep this in mind.

Below, I will outline a general procedure for installing DOS-mode CD-ROM drivers. This obviously changes on a per-drive basis:

Make sure EDIT.COM is on your hard drive. It may be found on your system disk, your installation disk, or you may need to get it from another system. Copy this file to the new computer’s C: drive.
Install the CD-ROM Installation disk in Drive A:.
To be safe, you might want to create a AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS if they are not already there. You can do this by typing “EDIT CONFIG.SYS” then saving it empty. This will create the file, although it will be empty. Do the same for AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Run the Install program. Usually you type either “a:install” or “a:setup”. It will copy necessary files, and modify your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Just follow the prompts. All install programs are different. When this is done, reboot.
Check the system files. You can EDIT them or type “type config.sys”. The line will look something like “DEVICE=C:CDPROVIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001″. In the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, it may look like “C:WINDOWSCOMMANDMSCDEX /D:MSCD001 /V”. The parameter after “/D” should be the same in both files. These lines will vary depending on your CD-ROM and files locations.
If you want to change the drive letter of the CD drive, add “/L:F” at the end of the line referencing the CD-ROM in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Change “F” to the drive letter you wish the CD-ROM to be.
Test your work. Reboot. The CD-ROM should activate. Then stick a CD in the drive and try to read it by switching to the appropriate drive just as you would to read a floppy diskette. If it didn’t work, then first check your AUTOEXEC.BAT and make sure it is leading to the correct location for the file MSCDEX.EXE. This file is necessary on all systems to make a CD-ROM operate in DOS.

Step 22: Install the Operating System

Okay, it is time to install your operating system. This is the final step necessary to make your new PC a fully workable PC.

There are many operating systems on the market today, but for the sake of this tutorial, we are assuming you will be using Microsoft Windows. There are, of course, other OSes out there including many varieties of Linux, and you are certainly welcome to try those other operating systems if you wish. As things stand now, though, simple statistics will show that an overwhelming majority of PC users make use of some version of Windows. For that reason, we are focusing on the Windows operating system in this step.

Your first step is to buy your Windows operating system. The first thing you will notice is that Microsoft distinguishes between “full versions” and “upgrades”. The upgrade is cheaper, but it will ask for and check to make sure you have a previous version of Windows installed before proceeding. Often you do not need to have a prior version installed physically to get it to work, but you must have a prior version available on floppy diskette or CD-ROM, because whether it checks your hard drive or a removable medium, it will check for a prior version. A full version, of course, is designed to be installed when no other version is there or when you have no valid license to a prior version.

TIP: Instead of installing Windows from a CD, some people prefer installing directly from the hard drive itself. The basic reason is speed. Hard drives are many times faster than a CD drive, and since the Windows install procedure will be moving a lot of data from the CD to the hard drive anyway, many people prefer to simply skip the bottleneck and do everything from the hard drive. Basically, this is done by copying the entire Windows setup from the CD to the hard drive before installing anything and then running Setup directly from the hard drive. Just copy the whole CD over to a directory on your hard drive, and then run Setup from that directory. This is also helpful later down the road if you need to install a Windows component and cannot find your Windows CD.

Finally: Tidy Up

Now you have a PC which you built and it is now running with a newly installed operating system. Great job!

You are now ready to get the PC set up as you want it. With Windows set up as a virgin installation, there are a few things you need to do right at the start. Windows XP will seek to get you to activate your copy of Windows, but it is recommended you hold off on this until you get your drivers finalized.

Enable Windows XP’s built-in firewall (if you are using XP). The firewall is not perfect and you can easily replace it later with a better option. However, you need to connect to the internet now to download the latest drivers for your PC. The Windows firewall will suffice for now. To enable the firewall, go to the Control Panel and click Network and Internet Connections, then click Network connections. Right-click on your network connection and choose Properties. Go to the Advanced tab and check “Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to the computer from the internet”.
Next, connect to Windows Update by visiting www.windowsupdate.com using Internet Explorer. Scan for Updates and then go directly to the critical updates and service packs section. If there are any major service packs listed, install them now and reboot.
Install your motherboard’s chipset drivers. Most likely, your motherboard came with a CD which contained drivers for the chipset as well as any integrated hardware. You can install this software and drivers now from the CD. You should also check the motherboard manufacturer’s website and see if there is any updated driver software since the CD was created. After installing these drivers, reboot again.
Re-visit Windows Update and install any other key updates, including DirectX.
Now, visit the website of your video card manufacturer and download the latest drivers for your video card. Install them. You will likely need to reboot again.
Lastly, you should install any remaining hardware and drivers for your new computer. Install the sound card drivers as well as the drivers for any remaining hardware. Visit the manufacturer’s website to see if there are more recent versions of each. You may need to reboot after each installation. Simply go through each until each component in your PC has the required drivers installed.
Now, active Windows. If you installed Windows XP, there is an activation process which you must go through. This is Microsoft’s way of curbing pirated copies of Windows. Windows will give you a grace period of 30 days after installation to activate it. If you do not activate it within this timeframe, Windows will stop operating. Windows will remind you when you log in as well as at a regular internal until you do activate. To activate, you simply follow the wizard. It is easiest to activate via the internet. Doing it this way is very automatic and is done using a secure server. If your PC is not internet connected, you can activate it via telephone. Call the toll-free number on the screen, read off to the operator the number displayed on the screen and type in the confirmation number they give you.

For future reference, if you make a major hardware change to your new computer at a later date, Windows may require you to re-activate. Simply follow the same procedure.

Windows will also ask you to register your copy. This is totally optional. If you skip it, it will not ask you again.

At this point, your new PC is now ready to go! Next, you can begin installing your software and customizing your new computer to suit your needs.

Congratulations. Enjoy your new PC!

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