First time computer builder

[whattaguy]

Okay...so I thought it was easy to put a computer together, so I offered to take $1800 to piece together 3 computers for our little church office instead of giving the money to Hewlett Packard. Here is my parts list. (I have 3 of each)

Enermax Case with 350W power supply
Asus A7N266-VM mobo
Crucial DDRAM
Aopen CDRW
40G Western Digital 7200rpm HD
Panasonic Floppy

I got one good pc working after I did a bios update, but I have problems with my other pc's. Actually, I have one small problem with the working one too. I know this: I have one failed mobo that I need to get an rma for because my cpu fan wouldn't run on it...I switched mobo's and it worked. Here are my other problems:

1. All three floppies read "Floppy Drive Failure (40)" or something like that, so I can't update the bios. Is it possible to update the bios via CDROM since I know it's working (I could make this CD with my home pc)?

2. Both of my other HD's are not being read through the bios...can't even fdisk them. I get "no fixed disks present".

3. I switched cases to see if I had a bad power supply, but now get a long winded beep or siren that tells me that the mobo can't detect the DDRAM. This is the most frustrating, since I can't even get anything on the screen.

Proposed solutions:

1. I have bad ribbon cables (I already threw away a couple because I knew for sure they were bad).
2. Bad Mobos
3. Bad HDs
4. Bad Floppies
5. Exchange everything
6. None of the above and must do further tests.

I will be indebted to you forever if you can give me an easy fix to my problems. I know this isn't music related at all, but I know you computer savvy peope could help a guy like me out.
Thanks in advance.

Christian

I have new round cables coming in this week to test that part out.

 

[Timanator]

Without knowing how much experience you have had at this, I'm gonna give this my best shot.


Rule 1. On the data cables for IDE channels(the 40 pin, slightly wider than the floppy cable) The red edge of the cable is closest to the power connector(3 pin) on the device(whether it's a Hard Drive or a CD-rom)

Rule 2. Make sure your jumper setting is correct on the IDE devices. If 2 devices were to use one cable, one must be slave and the other a master(read the manual or visit IDE device company site)

Rule 3. Make sure all jumpers on Mother board is set right according to the Motherboard manual. (memory, voltage/ bus speeds)


Now assuming all the data cables are on correct.

Floppy does not work, try flip the connector on the floppy side unsidedown. Make sure Floppy is enabled in the bios (should be as default)

Worst case scenrio, take it to a local computer shop to let a tech take a look, and good luck.

 

[Basslord1124]

You sure you got power running to your drives? I had a freak incident one time when we got our home PC back from the shop and we were getting an error with the floppy drive (similar to whats yours was). Turns out the dipwads must've accidentally unhooked the power from the floppy.

If I were you, I'd go through everything very carefully to make sure you haven't overlooked anything.

 

[whattaguy]

Well, after 30+hours of working on this computers, I finally figured out the problem. I didn't mount the mobo correctly. I screwed it flush against the case rather than elevating it with the screws that came in the box. Anyways, after I figured that out, I put together 2 systems in less than an hour. And I figured out that I have a bad motherboard. Anyways, thanks for all the help again.

 

[DAFFYDRUNK]

I'd vote for check further. I buy thousands a year in parts and on avarage only about 1-2 % in dollar value is defective. It's possible you have a bad batch of some part though. Beeps mean the mem or vid card is not fully seated. Some of the common things I see when people bring me their failed first attempt at building a computer is deep scratches from mounting the CPU fans, (screwdriver slip). Another is putting too many MB mounting studs in the case and 1 or more cause a short on the back side of the mainboard. A few other things are not fully seating the vid/mem, incorrect jumpers bios settings, incorrect Master/slave jumpers, reversed cable, not using the end plug after the some of the wires flip on the floppy data cable ect. I've seen a couple with cheapie powers supplies that were DOA too....