• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

JK builds a computer!

The guy that invented the computer came from my part of the world . He never actually completed it, back in Victorian Britain , because he couldn't get the parts !
He stopped part way though making his difference engine to design a mechanical computer with a mill(CPU) and a memory for general use . This was never built .
The Science Museum in London did finish a replicaof the difference engine a few years ago and it is a very impressive piece of Mechanical Engineering . And it works , unlike some modern operating systems ..
 
don't run a computer without a cpu fan designed for your specific cpu (and cpu speed!). Number 2 problem I've had with my home built computers was cpu fan failure. I finally dropped the bucks on a good steel ball-bering fan and have been good to go for years now (and these computers are servers that are on 24/7, not heavily loaded but always on).

Number 1 problem I've had is hard drive failure. Currently I buy new Seagate drives because they have a 5 year warranty. I'd go with the 160 or larger drive. You'll aways fill the space up....

512MB memory is probably sufficient for what you're doing, but I always recommend at least 1GB of memory. Even my old (now defunct) powerbook had a gigabyte of memory in it. A giga will probably be necessary if you consider upgrading to Windows Vista in a couple of years.
 
All right guys...

Motherboard - check!

Processor - check!

Heat sink w/fan - check!

Silver-based thermal paste - check!

Memory - check!

Temporary video card - check!

This is it. It is time. Next time I post, hopefully it will be using my new upgraded computer system. Wish me luck!

P.S. - ever notice how many wires there are inside a computer? Wow, it's like a rainbow in there!
 
Joshua Korosi said:
P.S. - ever notice how many wires there are inside a computer? Wow, it's like a rainbow in there!
Click to expand...

That's why I like SATA. The cables are much smaller. rounded IDE are ok, but SATA is nicer. Now if they could just come up with a standard power distribution back-plane so we didn't have all those freaking power cables in there.
 
Didn't work. :(

I mean, it started to work. It made all the appropriate start-up noises and everything, and the fan was running - but alas. The screen remained dark.

MSI's tech support is closed, so I shall have to try again tomorrow, with their guidance.
 
If any of the IDE or floppy cables are turned upside down the computer will not boot into BIOS even. It's been awhile since I did that but that's what happens I think.
 
Check the video card is seated properly. The first thing you should see on the monitor is the card booting. I have cheap geforce FX cards in 2 of my PCs and neither goes in its slot with a nice crisp feel if you know what I mean. Should be something like "Geforce FX BIOS ....."
 
Neither of the video cards I tried worked. I even tried to run the computer with no IDEs or drives or anything like that attached, per MSI's suggestion. Again, power - but no video.

The screen does not twitch, darken, lighten, or do absolutely anything when the motherboard is turned on.

Couldn't get through to MSI's phone tech support, so I sent an online request.
 
The old Duron and Athlon XP CPUs had the disadvantage of being vulnerable to physical force, if the heatsink was assembled a bit wrong it's supposed to be able to crack it. Therefore its essential that all force is applied straight down and to make sure its in the correct position before you start. It's also possible to install the memory chip wrong if you apply enough force. All this should be covered in the motherboard manual though.
 
All jumpers are set correctly; I believe the chip is fine. I didn't have to use any force to insert it.

The problem, most likely, is that this motherboard evidently requires TWO connections from the power supply - the normal 16-pin one, and a second, tiny 4-pin clip. My old power supply doesn't have the 4-pin clip, and the port is in such a location that I didn't even notice it, so I didn't think about it.

A new power supply will be here in the next day or so.
 
OK, so, the new power supply that treble_head sent me ended up working. That's really all there is to it...

The motherboard came with a CD which could auto-install all the drivers and stuff like that; however, the autoinstall only works for Windows 98SE and higher, and I'm plain old 98. So, I had to sort through the CD and find all the (still compatible) drivers, and install them myself one-by-one. Works, though, no problems.
 
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