[J3Vr6]

Hi d'ere, Ho d'ere!!

Alright, I got my MSI motherboard sitting right beside me.  I got my 2 harddrives that were in my 450mhz sitting right next to that in a nice orderly fashion.  It has windows 98se installed on the big boy.  They are full to the brim with stuff, and not all porn

I'm going to attempt to put this computer together when I get home in an hour.  I can figure out putting in the processor, the video card, the cd players, and memory.  But I keep getting conflicting informatoin about installing my harddrives.

One person tells me that I should be all smiles and giggles and be up and running in seconds flat after I install the harddrives, yay me.  Other people tell me that my OS is going to poop slime (a very messy concoction) since it's a different motherboard, processor, and memory from what was on before.  In this little pool of people, some are telling me that I"m going to get the blue screen of death.  Some tell me I'll get that and will have to install system files...

So here I am, brain people.  What am I looking at when I install this motherboard?  Am I gonna be able to work with it normally or will I have to cry and pray?

[Liberator]

I recommend a clean install as you will have to load chipset/AGP drivers and it's just a good idea in general.  It may work, but you'll have fewer problems with a clean install.

[aldo_14]

Clean install is always better.... when I rebuilt my Pc, I shoved in a new video card, mobo and soforth, and the old Win ME install worked ok.  Although I reformatted anyways (had to wait a few days for a copy of win2k)

[Odyssey]

[color=cc9900]It's perfectly possible just to switch a harddrive into a different case, just make sure all the BIOS settings are alright and your OS ought to set everything up as if they were freshly installed. You might end up with redundant drivers, but unless you're really tight on space it isn't all that much of a problem.[/color]

[Thorn]

If you're running XP you wont have any trouble. 2K isusually ok.
98/ME you're gonna have to format probably. While you're formatting you're probably better off installing 2000 or XP anyway...

[Odyssey]

[color=cc9900]When I was upgrading my sister's computer, I switched her HD into a spare working case I had, and the HD from that case into her old machine. Both used 98SE. After installing drivers for everything, they run perfectly okay.
Unless the OS running is set up as a real bodge job anyway, it ought to translate fine whatever it is with no terminal problems.[/color]

[J3Vr6]

Well, I didn't even get to that point  I plugged everything in as best as I thought and turned it on.  The little lights on the keyboard blinked, the computer beeped, I jumped for joy.  Then a few seconds into it, it just shut down.  

I was like, "Argh?"  and looked over all the connections.  It didn't have a connection guide so I had to go by the references in the manual, but I think I connected everything right.

Suggestions?

[kasperl]

AGP card might have the wrong voltage, if the beep code isn't the normal one. go to the site of the mobo and look up all the beep codes.

[Liberator]

Define "a few seconds".  Does it POST?  Do you get a picture of any kind?

You shoul have gotten a "D-Bracket" with the board.  It doubles as a second set of USB ports.  Anyway, the manual has a listing of the various LED codes and what they mean.  It diagnoses any problem in the start up sequence.

When I assembled mine I had to put two sticks of memory in before it would load Windows.  And I had to replace one of those because it was bad.

[J3Vr6]

I didn't get any video as it was just a few seconds, my monitor takes a little while to warm up.  The beep I got I thought was the POSTing, but I didn't see a screen so I don't know

I thought of the D-braket, as I installed it too.  But at the time it happend I pooped my pants and didn't think to look at it before I unplugged the system.  After I remember and didn't wanna try again in fear that I'd break it.

The agp slot supports 1.5v/3.3v and goes up to 4x.  My video card is a Creative 3d Annihilator 2 MX (Geforce 2) that's AGP 2.0 compliant or something.  4x also.  I know it's working, at least it did in my 450.

[Odyssey]

[color=cc9900]Hit 'del' at startup, enter the BIOS settings, and make sure that all the IDE outlets are set to 'Auto'. If it's thinking your drives aren't what they are, that's the time at bootup it would go wrong.

Also, keep in mind that if you don't try again, you'll never get it working. If what's happened has damaged it, it's already been done.[/color]

[J3Vr6]

I just looked it up on the MSI website, and they say that it could be due to cpu overheating and make sure the cpu heatsink is properly installed.  I think I had done it right.  One thing I notices is that the guy didn't put thermal glue between the heatsink and the processor like I've read.  But if it worked for him, why wouldn't it work for me?

[J3Vr6]

Originally posted by Odyssey
[color=cc9900]Hit 'del' at startup, enter the BIOS settings, and make sure that all the IDE outlets are set to 'Auto'. If it's thinking your drives aren't what they are, that's the time at bootup it would go wrong.

Also, keep in mind that if you don't try again, you'll never get it working. If what's happened has damaged it, it's already been done.[/color]

I was hitting 'del' when it happened.  But it may just be the computer overheating...


And you're right about if it's broke already, it'll still be broke it I tried again.

[Odyssey]

[color=cc9900]Theoretically, you're probably fine without paste or pads unless you're overclocking. I doubt it'd quite work like you've described if the processor was overheating, it'd likely do something a little more violent.

You ought to be able to hit 'del' before it beeps. Start pressing the key repeatedly immediately after you hit the on button.[/color]

[karajorma]

If your motherboard is shutting down due to overheating it should be beeping at you before it does so. Try disconnecting the drives completely. Your PC should post even with no hard drives.

[Grey Wolf]

Originally posted by Odyssey
[color=cc9900]Theoretically, you're probably fine without paste or pads unless you're overclocking. I doubt it'd quite work like you've described if the processor was overheating, it'd likely do something a little more violent.

You ought to be able to hit 'del' before it beeps. Start pressing the key repeatedly immediately after you hit the on button.[/color]

Umm.... Paste is needed. Period. No questions about it. A modern processor without paste is very likely to fry.

[J3Vr6]

It didn't have paste before, though.  And I was hitting 'del' since the moment I turned it on.  The FAQ from MSI said the following:

The computer shuts down after 3 seconds of pressing the power button.  And the explanation was the overheating.  I don't know, I've never built a computer before so I don't know what I should be looking for anyway.

[Odyssey]

Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
Umm.... Paste is needed. Period. No questions about it. A modern processor without paste is very likely to fry.

[color=cc9900]Fair enough, but I can't say I've ever used it before. I'm not up with the times, obviously.[/color]

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
Umm.... Paste is needed. Period. No questions about it. A modern processor without paste is very likely to fry.

Don't use it either. Never have. Temperature sensor on my mobo seems perfectly happy.

[J3Vr6]

Well that leaves me back to square one then