Frequently Asked Questions / Other Questions / Answers Page:
Q/A : The Shadow Takes On Your Most Pressing Questions Here!
Q: Dear Shadow, somtimes i have trouble with my yahoo! instant messenger,
sometimes i cant talk to people, even though iam signed , it always seems to happen after i get kicked off sometimes....anyway,
ANY IDEAS? -Don
A: Hey don, i am gonna assume what you have for internet is either dial-up or some
sort of wireless connection, Iam i right? so, i would assume u get kicked off a lot when you lose your connection to your
service, which zonks out your instant messenger or "IM". OK, whats going on here is the connection issue, see, when you lose
your connection to your internet, your not "Signing out" like normal (duh) anyway, because of that, yahoo thinks your still
connected (you really did not completely severe the connection) so, when u sign back on, it thinks your in a different location,since
you already signed in once and you are signing in again, it signs u on in 2 places, therefore, when you are signed in 2 places,
you will be able to talk to people, but u cannot hear them, or vice versa....get it? your talking with one name, while the
other name (that you lost your connection to), is listening , understand? Anywho, the best way to solve this problem
is to do one of the following :
A: Sign in and out of IM
B: Go to Yahoo.com, Sign in and then log out (this one almost ALWAYS works)
or
C: Wait and wait until the server resets itself, finds you are not connected to one of the user names and corrects
itself (could take anywhere from 5 min, to hours)
Hope that helps don , thanx - Allyn
Q: Dear Shadow........I HAVE A VIRUS!!! HELP! its some kind of trojan... i have anti-virus, but it cant zap it! Chase B.
A: Hey
chase. Don't panic......well, ok....panic a little lol. Sorry , thats not funny. Anyway, just send me the info that you have
: Anti-Virus Software....Firewall info....See if u can give me all the information you have from your anti-virus logs you
have on the virus....another idea , while your at it....contact your anti-virus provider and let them know whats going on,
if possible, also let the law know everything about it or whats its doing...ect. (thats if you want by the way). Just send
me everything here : screwball_322@yahoo.com, thanx chase.
-*Thanx for waiting chase and thank you for your e-mail. I have analyzed your problem and i have found a few things.....i
have good news and bad news....
Here is the info i found for those nasty ip addresses that the virus software keeps trying to access.
Information related to '85.255.112.0 - 85.255.127.255'
NetRange: 85.0.0.0 - 85.255.255.255 CIDR: 85.0.0.0/8 NetName:
85-RIPE NetHandle: NET-85-0-0-0-1 Parent: NetType: Allocated to RIPE NCC NameServer:
NS-PRI.RIPE.NET NameServer: NS3.NIC.FR NameServer: SEC1.APNIC.NET NameServer: SEC3.APNIC.NET NameServer: SUNIC.SUNET.SE NameServer:
TINNIE.ARIN.NET NameServer: NS.LACNIC.NET Comment: These addresses have been further assigned to users
in Comment: the RIPE NCC region. Contact information can be found in Comment: the
RIPE database at http://www.ripe.net/whois RegDate: 2004-04-01 Updated: 2004-04-06
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-04-03 19:10 # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
--* Ok, well thats the bad news.....hes in europe, or at least thats what his ip spoofing software/hardware says....so
theres not any real chance of finding him and getting him arested......oh by the way.....your not the only one who has been
hit by him...-http://xoops.ibdeeming.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=80
Ok the good news, i think i found a way to stop this one.....my e-mail has been sent to you with your cure. I did report
this attack and virus type to the AV provider Avast! - thanx for reading the FAQ/Q&A on that one, iam glad someone
listened to how great this software really is... but remember not to turn off your protection software from now on.....which
is what happend in this case...thanx
-Shadow
p.s. = Everyone, Please please please: remember to keep your Firewalls/Anti-Virus software/Spyware Remover software enabled
and updated....VERY IMPORTANT!
P.s.s = This guy is total scum, hes responsible for quite a few attacks, i hope this guy gets sacked soon by the mafia
in russia or something for screwing up their computers lol
Q: What are Tax Sales? Do you guys know? Sorry i know your mainly tech. question people but, i figured if you knew of
anything online that could help me, that would be great! Are there any benefits to this? -Kaitlyn Collins
A: Hey Kait, you mind if i call you that? lol
Anyway, just for a little background info for everyone who does not know what the heck kait is talking
about....ok
What do all 50 of our wonderful united states need in order to survive? anyone? TAXES, thats what.
So, when u have a shortage of tax money, you can get desperate and look for ways to get it right? With me so far?
So, everyone in the grand US that owns a house knows that the most hardest thing about
owning a house is.....making those payments on it....Wether it be mortage or Property taxes...right?
So, what happens? Meet John Smith:
Actual Captain John Smith:
John bought this house, which really sucks:
Johns House:
John Bought a house, his house sucks and so does johns job, so john cannot afford his house payments or property taxes..... what
does john do? JOHN SKIPS TOWN AND MOVES TO PHILLY, thats what john does... (Please note that we are just trying to have a
little humor here, most tax sale houses are Very quite nice and in good areas).
actual cat:
So John's house sits there , becomes abandoned or whatever and the state has to still get paid.............thats where
tax sales come in......Anyone can come in, buy the house at a state auction for the amount of the overdue property taxes.....so
it could be as low as $200 or as high as $1500, which IS NOT A LOT considering the average house cost....right? Is that not
awsome or what? You get the house with no mortage (state could care less about the bank , plus , you did not borrow from the
bank, thats johns problem), and you only pay the property tax, and ITS YOURS! .............
One Catch to all this. The owners, if they decide they want the house back (which they have only a 6 month period
to do so) then they can file to the court to try and get it back. (highly unlikely, they could not afford it in the first
place, most people would rather leave and not be found then have debt in their name that they have to pay, plus their bank
would be pissed right? Fines, fees , ect.)
Thats only if they win in court too, i think. If they win, what do u lose....nothing, just a perspective house, thats
all. These auctions usually happen twice a year, this year....2006 , there is one in june.
Great Question....I myself ,am looking for a house , Thank you! - Allyn Shadow
*For more great info on Tax Sales , please visit the following sites:
Q: How do i keep my computer safe on the internet? i was told a firewall and virus software would protect me? If so,
what kind of software should i get? Any risks? Am i still safe with those? -Emma Nagal
A: The Shadow Replies: Hey emma!
There are a lot of bad things out there on the internet. Just to name a few: Haxors/Black Hats/Script Kiddies these guys (also
known as hackers under a more general term) are people who would damage/breech/violate/change/infect your PC/Server/Network.
First let me start by saying that "All hackers are not bad hackers".
Hacker is a very general term, something you do not want to be confused with.
There are many terms for people out there, so let me just give a few examples with definitions that
i have found (sorry i must do this for my own kind) :
Haxor - (General term for bad guys / bad hackers) A person with hacker like ablities who uses their technological knowledge/skill
to infiltrate and harm a Network/computer machine.
Hacker (could be anyone, not a bad thing!) - Someone who posses great computer
skill to manipulate computers and there inter-workings.
Black Hats - (el8, ect.) - Hackers who have turned "Bad" using their Profound skill for ill-purposes, usually,
not always, to damage a system (virus creation,flooding,nuking,phreaking,brute force attacks).
White Hat (ex:Honey nets/company network admins.) - Guardians of the network world, hackers
who have turned "good", they usually work for big corporations/small businesses, ISPs, ect. To manage network security
(aka fight black hats and script kiddies).
Script Kiddies - Small time individuals who lack in professional/Elite hacking skills, Dangerous
= YES, SMART = NO, they are sometimes viewed to be more dangerous then black hats, because they lack knowledge in what they
are doing, and could make a bigger mess without knowing it, but because they are not very skilled, they are easily tracked
and caught.
Grey Hat - Neutral players in the power game, they excel at their skills just like black and white
hats do, but remain on the sidelines to create elite hacking tools/programs which script kiddies end up getting a hold
of and start screwing up things for the rest of us (the main reason people hate hackers so much!)
Anyway, enough of that! In answer to your question now here is, Brian:
Yes, you do want a firewall and ANTI-Virus software to protect your computer (Windows XP Firewall IS NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE!!)
For a firewall i highly suggest one of the following: Symantec Sygate Personal Firewall (unfortunatly Symantec will
no longer have this product for free download or to buy, (DON'T Go to Limewire....DON'T download sygate pro with keygen....Cough)
News: The Sygate Personal Firewall and Sygate Personal Firewall Pro products will no longer be available effective Nov. 30, 2005 Symantec
spokesman Phil Weiler said. Consumers will receive special upgrade pricing when they buy a replacement product from Symantec’s
Norton family of Internet security products, he said. By pulling the Sygate Personal Firewall, Symantec is further reducing
the options for people looking for a free firewall for their computer. Sygate offered the Sygate Personal Firewall at no cost
and sold Sygate Personal Firewall Pro. Kerio Technologies has previously said it will discontinue its desktop firewall at
the end of this year.
Another good firewall (thats free, which is better then nothing) = Zone Alarm! A great with good options/security/ect.
Not as good as Sygate but still good. You can spring for the bought version which gives you a whole lot more. (DON'T
use limewire, DON'T download pro.....cough)
If you wanna go el dante grande (whatever i dont speak spanish) then buy Sidewinder!
Sidewinder has long been acknowledged as the world's strongest firewall. It is used in the worlds'
most sensitive government networks, and has the highest security accreditations of any firewall (EAL4+ with EAL5 penetration
testing).
There are many others such as: Norton Personal Firewall (CRAPITY CRAP CRAP CRAP, USING TOO MUCH SYSTEM
RESOURCES, NOT GOOD ENOUGH PROTECTION FOR EVEN A CEREAL BOX...........cough)
If you cannot buy there big one, download the free one! Trust me it is sooo worth it.
They great thing about america is that smaller companies who make better anti-virus software, get
no credit whatsoever, unlike the bigger companies who have horrible software (yeah oooh lets say Norton....CRAP, McAfee
CRAPITY CRAP.....cough), who get advertising all the time and dumb people who buy into their propaganda crap.....(LIKE AOL<SO
***** to have no wonder its junk!)
Sorry off topic...... Anyway Heres Allyn Again:
As far as risks go emma, there are always risks in a system (security holes in software, ect.) it
is just best to try and do what you can. I do share most of brian's opinions on this. So, you will always not be 100% safe,
but you can be 80-90% safe, lol. Probably not what you wanted to hear.
A few things to ensure safety success:
CHANGE ALL DEFAULT OPTIONS ON ROUTER =Password - Make your own with a combination of letters AND
numbers, cannot stress enough the importance of that! *THE LONGER THE BETTER!
Change other default options: ICMP PING - Block this!
Some routers come with mac address filtering/ip address filtering, - you should not have to do this,
even in a crowded apartment building, if you do feel the need, do it. However, If you have connection issues or latency
with your Net connection/other users cannot get on - adjust the properties of it, turn it off, or have someone who knows
what they are doing configure it for you.
128 and 64 WEP - ENABLE ENABLE ENABLE, you MUST be using this if you are going wireless.
NO ifs ands or buts. YES wep can be broken, but it takes time to do that and if you see a guy with a labtop sitting in his
car near your house, well, then call the police. Anyway, its still just one more obstacle in the way of your system
resources, DO IT!
Auto Updates - sometimes, routers have an update feature to maximize their protection. Do it!
Keep anti-virus software up-to-date always!
Update your firewall too!
Turning OFF/ Shutting down all your systems at night/when your not using them/not around/vacation : if possible:
server = maybe not /
Home PC = Yes, y get hacked when your asleep and still logged onto yahoo! or something.
DO NOT WRITE DOWN PASSWORDS RIGHT NEAR YOUR PC OR ON IT or in a easily found place.
DO NOT use outlook express for E-mail, if you can help it!
Dial-up is more secure then Cable or DSL - Y? because lower speeds for you equal lower speeds for them, plus, you
are assigned a new IP ADDRESS everytime you login on dial-up = harder to track. Dial-up makes you less desirable to attack.
They will go for better cooler stuff then that.
If your just a home PC owner = more than likely, no one cares to hack you anyway, especially if you have dial-up.
No one will care about Aunt B in MayBerry with her pc stocked full of homemade cookin recipes for under $0.89 on a 133mhz
pen I with windows 95! YOU are going to worry about more where you go! In other words, the sites you visit where you download
dummy programs from a site that claims to have the best free anti-virus software ever, that IS a virus, that you are downloading!
Just watch yourself, before you E-jig-iddy ject yourself and wreck yourself!
ect. ect. P.S> AOL SUCKS, they claim a lot of Crap! Which is what it is, CRAP! GET netzero or peoplepc online for
dial-up,......DO NOT CONFORM TO AOL!
-You you conformist!
THANX EMMA AND EVERYONE ELSE! Boy that was a long one!
Q: What Are your Dj Service Rates???
A: Dj Shadow says: Our rates are changing a lot for different areas because there is some big competition going on, so
at the moment they are not posted on the website. To inquiry about our rates please call Dj Pacman at the # posted on the
bottom of the dj services page. Thank you!
Q: What sevices does ShadowTech Provide??
A: ShadowTech Provides: -Networking Solutions = Networking all of your PCs together and making them talk to one another
to improve computer operations within your business or home. -PC Repair = Repairing all of the daily mishaps of
computer life, finely tweaking all of those bothersome windows settings, fixing hardware/software conflictions, problems,
or replacement. We also supply some additional services upon request. Please E-mail screwball_322@yahoo.com for more info. Thank you,
-Allyn Shadow
Q: Can you help me with webpage design? I don't know what to do! I have tried
everything from tutorials online to bought CDs, HELP!
A: Hey, its ok, we do have one web design wizard on our staff. He looks forward to helping you out. Although, we do not
commonly help with web design, we are considering adding it to our busniness ventures. Brian says "soon i think i will have
to add a java/html tutorial page. This may include flash in the future. Please, e-mail: screwball_322@yahoo.com for web design. I will try to answer quickly in the order the requests were recieved." Thank you
RESPONSE: -Thank you SOOOO MUCH! I have needed this help
for so long. Now i can get on with the rest of my day in my home business. i will tell everyone about your helpfulness.
-Carol Denarson
Q: My link to your site has disappered, y?
A: The link has probably dissappered due to our recent site problems. It did go
down not too long ago, which in turn, changed the link address, ect. Please re-link to our new address (if it has changed
for you) and or refresh the link, as it should work now. Thank you.
Q: Hey Shadow, How do i build my own computer???
A: OK, there are a lot of things that go along with building a computer.....:Selecting the type of computer
that you need= Game Server, Word proccesor, just an internet computer, basic game computer, something for drafting/CAD/animation,
ect. After you figure that out, then you can start selecting your parts: Motherboard, HD, RAM, CD-ROM, ect. But tell you what,
ill show you how to build a basic computer with some added items just for an exsample or if you like you can also go here
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/ ,here http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/ ,or here http://www.buildyourowncomputer.net/learntobuild.html for very detailed tutorials: Ok Here we go-
*This guide was meant for a basic custom built computer with and ATX case. Please note that i did not write this help
guide. The reason i did not write this is because whatever i would have wrote, would have been not as nicely detailed. So,
i did some poking around on the net and found a really nice basic guide, but if you have any questions on this guide (as it
is hard for some to understand and because it is not too general with the componets), i can more than help you.
Shadow -
The first thing you should do is unpack your ATX case. Take off the cover of your case so that you
can access the inside. Place the case on a desk so that you are looking down towards the open case. Your case should come
with motherboard mounting screws. If your ATX back plate it not already fitted you can fit it by placing your plate near the
ATX back plate cut out and pushing the plate outwards, it should clip on.
Now place your motherboard on top of the mounting screw holes. Make sure your ATX devices on the motherboard
such as PS/2 and parallel port are facing towards ATX back plate cut out. Gently push your motherboard towards the cut out,
every devices should fit easily into its corresponding cut out, as shown below.
The screw holes on your motherboard should align with the screw holes on your case. Place your screws
that came with the case into the appropriate holes and gently screw it on using a screw driver.
The motherboard is now securely mounted to the case. You can now place the ATX power connector to the
motherboard. Your ATX case should come with a power supply unit (PSU) and should already be mounted to the case. The ATX power
connector is shown on image below.
Place the ATX power connector on top of the power socket on the motherboard. Push down the
power connector and it should clip onto the socket. If you try to fit the power connector the wrong way round, it won't fit,
it will only fit one way. So, if the power connector does not go in, it should go in the other way round.
Locate the processor socket on your motherboard. I am installing an Intel PIII 866 processor on a socket
370 as shown on the following image. The installation would be slightly different if you have a different processor i.e. Slot1
PIII CPU, P4 CPU, AMD Slot A / Socket A CPU etc.
Raise the brown lever on the socket and slowly put the processor in place. You have to make
sure the pin 1 of your CPU goes into the pin 1 of your CPU socket otherwise the CPU would not get into the socket, so don't
try to force it in. It will go in gently if you fit it correctly. Now close the brown lever which will securely hold the CPU
in place.
If you bought a retail boxed CPU it would include a heatsink + fan. If you bought an OEM
CPU make sure you got a fan that is correct for the speed of your CPU, otherwise your CPU will overheat and behave abnormally
or could be damaged. Take off the plastic cover from the bottom of the CPU fan that covers the heat transfer pad. Now place
the CPU fan on top the CPU and push down the metal clips on the fan so that it clips onto the CPU socket.
CPU fan has a power connector which needs to be connected to CPU fan power socket on your
motherboard as shown on the image above.
Finally, you have to specify what frequency (speed) your CPU is running at. This can be
done using jumper settings, or on some modern motherboard it can be done in the BIOS, or your motherboard may have automatic
detection for your CPU frequency. Please refer to your motherboard manual for more details. The motherboard I am using (Abit
BX133) has a dip-stick jumper setting and it can be setup in the BIOS. I have left the jumper setting to default as I will
use the BIOS to specify the CPU frequency. The CPU runs at the bus speed of 133Mhz therefore I will use the settings 133 *
6.5(multiplier) under the BIOS, which will the run the CPU at 866Mhz.
Installing memory is quite simple. Find the SDRAM banks on your motherboard, they should look similar
to the banks below. Notice the memory banks has a white clip on each side. Make sure you release the clips so it bends to
each side.
Hold each corner of the SDRAM placing it on top of the bank 1. You will notice that the
SDRAM has a cut at the bottom side, it is there to prevent the memoy going in the wrong way round. If you are holding the
SDRAM the incorrect way you will not be able insert it. Gently push down the SDRAM and it should clip on to the memory bank.
The two white clips will now become straight holding each corner of the memory. If you have more that one SDRAM perform same
steps as above but placing the SDRAM in memory bank 2 and so on.
If you look at the rear side of an IDE hard drive it should look similar to the image below.
The IDE/ATA connector is on the left hand side which consists of many pins. Next to the
IDE connector is the jumper setting for the drive. The jumper should be set to Master, which is the default setting for a
new HDD. Any other device sharing the same IDE cable should be set to Slave. Different HDD has different jumper settings,
please refer to your HDD manual for more information. On the right hand side, next to the jumpers is the power connector.
Every device except FDD uses this type of power connector. Figure 1 and 2 below shows what an ATA 66 and a power cable looks
like. The ATA 66 cable which is also known as UDMA 66 cable is an advance IDE cable, which offers higher performance and data
integrity than the standard IDE cable. ATA 66 cable consists of 80 conductor cable where as the standard IDE cable consists
of 40 conductor cable. I am using an ATA 66 cable because the above HDD is an ATA 100 drive which requires an ATA 66 cable.
Figure 1 - ATA 66 Cable
Figure 2 - Power cable
Place your hard drive into the HDD mounting slot of your case, make sure the IDE/ATA connector is facing
outwards. Screw the HDD to the case using screws provided with the HDD or the ATX case.
Insert the ATA 66 cable into the ATA connector of the HDD. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable
is connected to pin 1 on the HDD connector. Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an ATA cable. Most new IDE/ATA cables
are designed so that it will only go in one way which will correspond to pin 1.
Push the power cable into the power connector as shown. The power cable is designed to go
in one way, so you shouldn't have any problems.
Connect the other end of the ATA 66 cable to the primary ATA socket of your motherboard
as shown. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to the pin 1 on the ATA socket.
That's it you have successfully installed a HDD.
The rear side of a floppy drive looks similar to the following image.
The black connector on the left hand side is the floppy disk connector. It is different
from the IDE connector and uses a different cable. The small white connector on the right hand side is the power connector
for the floppy drive. Figure 1 and 2 below shows what a floppy drive cable and floppy drive power connector looks like.
Figure 1 - Floppy drive cable.
Figure 2 - Floppy drive power cable
Place the floppy drive into the FDD mounting slot as shown. Screw the drive securely into place.
Insert the floppy drive cable into the floppy drive connector. Make sure the pin 1 on the
cable connects to the pin 1 on the floppy drive connector. As you already know by now that pin 1 is the red or pink strip
on the edge of the floppy drive cable. Most floppy drive cables are designed so that it will only go in on way, so you can
not connect it incorrectly.
Push the floppy drive power cable to the power connector. This will only go in on way.
Finally connect the other end of the floppy drive cable to floppy drive connector on your
motherboard. Make sure pin 1 on the cable connects to pin 1 on the connector.
If you look at the rear side of your CD / DVD-ROM it should look similar to image shown on figure 1.
Figure 1
On the right hand side you have the power connector. Next to power connector you have the
IDE connector. On the left hand side near the IDE connector you have the jumper settings for the DVD-ROM. The jumper is set
to Master by default. I am connecting the DVD-ROM on a separate IDE cable therefore I will leave the jumper setting to Master.
However if you are sharing an IDE cable with another device like HDD, then you would have to set jumper to Slave, as your
HDD would be set to Master. Next to the jumpers you have the CD Audio-Out socket. One side of your audio cable connects to
this socket and other side connects to the sound card cd-in socket. This would allow you to listen to Audio CD's on your computer.
Figure 2
Mount your CD/DVD-ROM drive into its mounting slot. Use the supplied screws to screw the
drive into position.
Figure 3
Connect the IDE cable to the drives IDE connector. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable is connected
to pin 1 on the drives IDE connector. Pin 1 is the red or pink strip on the edge of an IDE cable. Connect the other end of
the IDE cable to the IDE socket on your motherboard as shown in figure 4. Again, make sure you conncet the cable to pin 1.
The IDE socket could be your primary or secondary socket depending which socket you choose. If your HDD is on the primary
IDE socket and your secondary IDE socket is free, then it is better to use your secondary IDE socket for the CD/DVD-ROM.
Figure 4
Finally connect the power cable to power connector and connect the audio cable to the CD
Audio-Out socket as shown on figure 3.
Most modern graphics cards are AGP based and connects to the AGP bus of the motherboard. An AGP bus
(slot) looks like the following image. The brown slot is where you connect your AGP graphics card.
Place your AGP card on top of the slot and gently push it down. The card should firmly sit
into position.
All you need to do now is to screw the metal plate on the front of the card to the ATX case.
Use the screws supplied with case and screw the card to the case.
Most modern sound cards are designed with the PCI interface and connects to the PCI slot
of your motherboard. A PCI slot looks like the slots on the following image.
Place your sound card on top of a chosen slot. Gently push down the card so it sits into
position. Once the card is seated correctly into position, screw the card on to the case.
Finally insert the audio cable into the CD-IN socket. The other end of the cable should
be connected to Audio-out socket on your CD/DVD-ROM drive.
Find a free PCI slot on your motherboard (assuming your modem is a PCI modem). Place your modem card
on top of the slot and gently push it down into position.
Once the card has seated correctly into position, screw the card to the case using the screws
supplied with the case.
Now you have installed all the prerequisite hardware devices. You can either proceed to
the finalising stage, or you may want to install optional devices like a ZIP drive, CD-RW drive or a TV-Card. If you do not
want to install these devices you can now proceed to the finalising stage.
Just like any other IDE device, a zip drive connects to an IDE cable and a power cable. The rear side
of the ZIP drive looks similar to the image below.
On the left hand side you have the IDE connector. On the right hand side you have the power
connector. In the middle you have the jumpers. You have to specify if the ZIP drive is being connected as a Master or a Slave
device using the appropriate jumper setting.
Place the ZIP drive into a mounting slot and screw it securely into position.
Connect the power cable and the IDE cable to the corresponding connectors. Connect the other
end of the IDE cable to the IDE socket on the motherboard. Make sure the pin 1 on the cable connects to pin 1 on the motherboard
IDE socket and on the ZIP drive socket.
The rear end of your CD-RW drive should look similar to the image below.
It contains all the usual connectors such an IDE connector, a power connector, audio connector,
and a place to set the jumpers. Set the jumpers so the drive is configured to run as a Master device. It is best to connect
your CD-RW on separate IDE cable. This would avoid problems while you copy CD's on-the-fly. This means copying a source CD
from a CD/DVD-ROM drive to a blank destination CD in your CD-RW drive without the source CD being copied to the hard disk
first. Copying on-the-fly is less time consuming than copying the source CD to the hard disk first. However if you decide
to connect your CD-RW drive and another device like a DVD-ROM on the same IDE cable, it would be fine providing you make an
image of your source CD on a HDD first before copying to your blank CD. You may have problems such as "buffer under run" errors
if you try to copy on-the-fly.
Place your CD-RW drive into a mounting slot as shown. Position the drive correctly and screw
it onto the case.
Connect the IDE and the power cable to the drive. If you want to use the CD-RW drive for
playing Audio CD's then you also need to connect an audio cable to the Audio-out socket of the drive. If you have a CD/DVD-ROM
then the audio cable is usually connected that drive instead of the CD-RW, but there is no reason why you can't have both.
Finally the other end of the IDE cable should be connected to an IDE socket of the motherboard.
Installing a TV card is no more difficult than installing any other PCI cards. Locate an unused PCI
slot and place the card on top. Gently push card down into the slot.
When the card is correctly in position, screw the card securely on to the case.
Note that a TV card uses two IRQ (Interrupt Request) one for video and one for audio. It
is best to place your TV card into a slot which does not conflict with an IRQ of another device. Although IRQ sharing is possible,
some TV cards may behave abnormally if you are sharing IRQ's.
Now that you have installed all the necessary hardware there are still few more things you need to
do before switching on your PC for the first time. Your ATX case has a power switch which turns the PC on, a reset switch
for resetting the system, a power LED which comes on when the PC is switched on and a hard drive LED which flashes when data
is being written or read from your hard drive. You also have an internal speaker.
Figure 1 - Power and Reset switch
The switches and LED's need to be connected to its corresponding connectors on the motherboard. Please
refer to your motherboard manual to locate where the connectors are. Different motherboards place the connectors in different
locations. The connectors for the switches and LED's are normally grouped together. They should look similar to the image
below.
Figure 2 - Switch and LED connectors
Every cable is normally labeled, they are normally named as follows, but could be slightly
different on your system.
Power switch
Power / PWR-SW
Reset switch
Reset
Power LED
Power LED / PWR-LED
Hard drive LED
HDD-LED / IDE LED
Speaker
SPK / Speaker
The connectors on the motherboard are also labeled but may be too small to see. Instead
refer to your motherboard manual which would provide details on which pins you should connect the cables to. The image below
shows how the pins may be organised on your motherboard.
Once you have connected all the cables to the correct pins on the motherboard, you are ready to switch
the PC on. At this point you can close the cover of your ATX case but don't screw it on just yet as you might have possible
problems that needs rectifying.
Connect all the cables to back of ATX case. These includes the main power cable that connects to the
power supply. PS/2 mouse and keyboard that connects to the PS/2 ports. Monitor cable that connects to the graphics card port,
etc.
Finally the moment has arrived. Switch on your monitor first. Your ATX power supply might have a main
power switch at the back so make sure that is switched on. Now switch the PC on by pressing the power switch on the front
of the ATX case. If you have performed all the tasks without any mistakes and providing that none of the main components are
faulty, the PC should boot. When the PC boots you should see the name of the BIOS manufacturer, such as AWARD BIOS displayed
on your monitor. Your CPU type, speed and the amount of memory should be displayed as shown on image below.
If your motherboard has a plug and play BIOS and is set to automatic device detection by default, then
you would see your IDE devices being detected followed by a prompt complaining about missing operating system. If your motherboard
does not detect the hardware, then you need to proceed to the BIOS setup screen by pressing DEL or F1 or F2 depending on your
motherboard.
Congratulations you have completed building your own PC. You now need to proceed to the software section
which explains how to setup the BIOS, Hard disk and install an operating system.
This is the BIOS setup for Award BIOS v6.00PG. If you have a different version of the Award
BIOS their would be a lot of similarities. If your BIOS is AMI or Phoenix then the common BIOS features would have some similarities.
Whatever BIOS you have, this setup guide should give you an idea about how to setup a BIOS. Please note that setting up BIOS
incorrectly could cause system malfunction, therefore it is recommended that you also follow the BIOS guide provided on your
motherboard manual.
Click on any of the BIOS setup options below to setup that feature.
Softmenu III is where you can setup up the CPU without setting jumpers on the motherboard. You can
setup the CPU simply by selecting the speed i.e. Pentium III 750 from the list. This ensures that the CPU bus, multiplier,
voltage etc, is correctly set for that particular CPU. However you can manually setup each feature if required. Once you have
finished with the setup press ESC to return the previous menu. See figure 1.
Standard CMOS Features
Here you can setup the basic BIOS features such as date, time, type of floppy etc. Use the arrow keys
to move around and press enter to select the required option. You can specify what IDE devices you have such as Hard drive,
CD-ROM, ZIP drive etc. The easiest way to setup the IDE devices is by leaving it set to auto. This allows the BIOS to detect
the devices automatically so you don't have to do it manually. At the bottom, it also displays the total memory in your system.
See figure 2.
Advanced BIOS Features
As you can see from figure 3, there are numerous advance settings which you can select if required.
For most cases leaving the default setting should be adequate. As you can see the first boot device is set to floppy. This
ensures that the floppy disk is read first when the system boots, and therefore can boot from windows boot disk. The second
boot device is the Hard disk and third is set to LS120. If you want to boot from a bootable CD then you can set the third
boot device to CD/DVD-ROM. See Figure 3.
Advanced Chipset Features
Here you can setup the contents of the chipset buffers. It is closely related to the hardware and is
therefore recommended that you leave the default setting unless you know what you are doing. Having an incorrect setting can
make your system unstable. If you know that your SDRAM can handle CAS 2, then making changes can speed up the memory timing.
If you have 128MB SDRAM then the maximum amount of memory the AGP card can use is 128MB. See Figure 4
Inegrated Peripherals
This menu allows you to change the various I/O devices such as IDE controllers, serial ports, parallel
port, keyboard etc. You can make changes as necessary. See figure 5.
Power Management Setup
The power management allows you to setup various power saving features, when the PC is in standby or
suspend mode. See figure 6.
PnP/PCI Configurations
This menu allows you to configure your PCI slots. You can assign IRQ's for various PCI slots. It is
recommended that you leave the default settings as it can get a bit complicated messing around with IRQ's. See figure 7.
PC Health Status
This menu displays the current CPU temperature, the fan speeds, voltages etc. You can set the warning
temperature which will trigger an alarm if the CPU exceeds the specified temperature. See figure 8.
Load Fail-Safe Defaults
If you made changes to the BIOS and your system becomes unstable as a result, you can change
it back to default. However if you made many changes and don't know which one is causing the problem, your best bet is to
choose the option "Load Fail Safe Mode Defaults" from the BIOS menu. This uses a minimal performance setting, but the system
would run in a stable way. From the dialog box Choose "Y" followed by enter to load Fail-Safe Defaults.
Load Optimized Defaults
Like the Fail-Safe mode above, this option loads the BIOS default settings, but runs the
system at optimal performance. From the dialog box Choose "Y" followed by enter to load Optimized Defaults.
Set Password
To password protect your BIOS you can specify a password. Make sure you don't forget the
password or you can not access the BIOS. The only way you can access the BIOS is by resetting it using the reset jumper on
the motherboard.
Save and Exit Setup
To save any changes you made to the BIOS you must choose this option. From the dialog box
choose "Y".
Exit without Saving
If you don't want to save changes made to the BIOS, choose "N" from the dialog box.
This procedure explains how to setup a new hard disk. Warning - if
you are setting up a hard disk which contains data, the following procedure would completely erase your hard disk and the
data would be unrecoverable.
Before a new hard disk can be used it needs to be setup. This involves partitioning and formatting
the hard disk. Windows 98 or ME boot disk contains the required software to perform this procedure. FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM
are the files required in your bootable floppy disk.
Start the partition and format procedure by booting your PC using a Windows boot disk. Make sure you
set the BIOS so that the boot sequence is set to detect the floppy disk first. If your system has no problems booting you
will be presented with a Windows boot disk menu. This gives you the option to start the system with or without CD-ROM support.
At this stage you do not need the CD-ROM support, so choose the option to boot without CD-ROM support. You should end up in
the MS DOS prompt A: (A drive).
From A: command prompt type fdisk. You
will be presented with following message:
Choose "Y" to enable large disk support.
You will now be presented with the FDISK main menu as shown below.
From the menu, choose option 1 - Create DOS partition or Logical DOS drive. Another menu
will present the following options.
Choose option 1 - Create primary DOS Partition. FDISK verifies the integrity of your drive
and will ask you if want to use the maximum available size of your hard disk to create the primary partition and set it active.
To keep things simple we will create one large partition. Choose "Y" to use maximum available space. When the partition has
been created successfully you will be notified by the system. Your drive is now known as C: (C drive). Press "Esc" to return
to the menu. Press "Esc" again to exit FDISK. You need to restart your system for the changes to take affect. Leave boot disk
in the drive.
When the system reboots, choose start without CD-ROM from the boot disk menu. While booting
from floppy disk you might get error message like "Invalid media type reading drive C" this is OK for this stage as the hard
disk is not formatted.
From A: command prompt type format c:
You will get a message saying "WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST. Proceed
with Format (Y/N)?".
Don't worry about the message as you do not have any data in the new hard disk. Choose "Y". The format
will proceed and would show you a progress indicator. The time it takes to format a hard disk depends on the size and speed
of the drive. This could be around 5-30 minutes. Once the format is complete you need to reset your system. You are now ready
to install an operating system.
This procedure demonstrates how to install Windows ME operating system. The procedure to
install Windows 98 is very similar to ME. Since Windows ME is the latest Windows 9x family operating system, it will be used
to demonstrate the installation procedure.
Boot your system with Windows 98 or ME boot disk. When the system starts you will be presented
with a menu which gives you the option to boot with or without CD-ROM support. Select the option to boot with CD-ROM support.
This would create a RAM drive and load a device driver to support your DVD/CD-ROM. The RAM drive is assigned to D: (D drive)
and your CD-ROM should be assigned to E: (E drive).
Place the Windows ME CD into the drive. At A: command prompt type E: and press enter.
Then type setup. At his stage Windows runs DOS based scandisk to verify if your hard disk
has any problems. If there are no problems Windows proceeds with the setup and launches the Windows ME setup wizard as shown
in figure 1.
After agreeing to the license agreement Windows will ask you to type in your product key.
The default directory to install windows is c:\windows, I recommend that you leave it as default. Next you would be
given four types of installation options which are Typical, Portable, Compact, and Custom. Choosing typical would install
the most common components and is suitable for most people. If you want to specify which components to install then choose
custom. You would be presented with few other dialog boxes such entering your name and company name, option to create a Windows
ME boot disk before file copy process begins. After completing the copying process Windows restarts and boots from the hard
disk, make sure you remove your floppy disk from the drive. It will detect your plug and play devices and would present a
few more dialog boxes. Just read the instructions on dialog boxes and proceed as required. Windows would restarts again after
completing final setup stage. This does not mean everything is completely setup. Some of your hardware device may have conflicts
or may not have drivers loaded as Windows does not contain those drivers.
From device manager you can check if all the drivers has been loaded or if there are any
conflicts. From the start menu select Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. Click on the System icon and
then from the System Properties window select the Device Manager tab. This lists all the devices as shown in
figure 2.
If there are any yellow exclamation mark "!" next to any of the listed device, it
means that no drivers or incorrect drivers has been loaded for that device. Your hardware should come with manufacturer supplied
drivers. You need to install these drivers using automatic setup program provided by the manufacturer or you need to manually
install these drivers. If you do not have the drivers, check the manufacturers website to download them.
To install a driver manually use the following procedure:
From the device manager double click on the device containing the exclamation mark.
This would open a device properties window.
Click on the Driver tab.
Click Update Driver push button. The Wizard for updating device driver pops up as shown in figure 3.
You now get two options. The first option provides an automatic search for the required driver. The
second option allows you to specify the location of the driver. If you don't know the location of the driver choose the automatic
search which would find the required driver from the manufacturer supplied CD or Floppy disk. Windows would install the required
driver and ask you to restart the system for the changes to take affect. Use this procedure to install drivers for all the
devices that contain an exclamation mark. Windows is completely setup when there are no more exclamation marks in the device
manager.
This procedure demonstrates how to install Windows XP Professional. The procedure to install Windows
XP home edition is very similar to the professional edition. Since Windows XP Pro is more advance operating system, it will
be used to demonstrate the installation procedure.
The best way install Windows XP is to do a clean install. It is not difficult to perform a clean installation.
Before you perform the installation I recommend that you check Windows XP Compatibility List to ensure that your hardware is supported by XP. If your hardware is not on the compatibility list you can check your hardware
manufactures website to download the drivers for Windows XP. Save all the necessary drivers onto floppy disks or CD before
you start the installation.
All versions of Windows XP CD are bootable. In order to boot from CD-ROM you need to set the boot sequence.
Look for the boot sequence under your BIOS setup and make sure that the first boot device is set to CD-ROM. If you have an
older PC and your BIOS does not support boot from CD-ROM then you need to create boot disks using 6 floppy disks. You can
download the following program from Microsoft which will create the 6 floppy setup disks:
If your computer can boot from CD-ROM then you can perform the following steps to install Windows XP:
1. Start your PC and place your Windows XP CD in your CD/DVD-ROM drive.
2. Your PC should automatically detect the CD and you will get a message saying "Press any key
to boot from CD".
3. Press a key to boot from CD and Windows setup will begin. Windows will start copying preliminary
setup files to your computer.
4. You will be asked if you want to perform a new installation, repair an existing installation,
or quit. In this case, you will be performing a new installation.
5. You will be presented with the End User Licensing Agreement. Press F8 to accept and continue.
6. Select the partition where you want install windows. You will have the opportunity to create
and/or delete partitions or just allocate the available disk space to one partition.
7. The next screen asks if you wish to use the NTFS file system. This is the recommended file
system. If you choose to use FAT32, you will not have all the security and stability features of Windows XP.
8. Choose to format the partition to either FAT32 or NTFS. You'll also see two additional choices
to perform a quick format of each option. Stick with doing a full format. When asked to start the format, press the "F" key.
The formatting process may take quite a bit of time depending on the size of your HDD.
9. The setup program will automatically start copying files after the partition is formatted
and you will see a setup progress bar.
10. After this is complete the computer will restart. Leave the XP CD in the drive but this
time DO NOT press any key when the message "Press any key to boot from CD" is displayed. In few seconds setup will continue.
11. Windows XP Setup wizard will guide you through the setup process of gathering information
about your computer.
12. Choose the region and language.
13. Type in your name and organization.
14. Enter your product license key.
15. Name the computer, and enter an Administrator password. Don't forget to write down your
Administrator password.
16. Enter the correct date and time.
17. Choose workgroup or domain name.
18. Register Windows XP if you've installed all the current hardware on your machine.
19. Add users that will sign on to this computer.
20. Log in, to your PC for the first time. You now need to check
the device manager to confirm that all the drivers has been loaded or if there are any conflicts. From the start menu select
Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. Click on the System icon and then from the System Properties window
select the Hardware tab, then click on Device Manager. This lists all the devices as shown in figure 1 .
If there are any yellow exclamation mark "!" next to any of the listed device, it
means that no drivers or incorrect drivers has been loaded for that device. Your hardware should come with manufacturer supplied
drivers. You need to install these drivers using automatic setup program provided by the manufacturer or you need to manually
install these drivers. If you do not have the drivers, check the manufacturers website to download them.
To install a driver manually use the following procedure:
(a) From the device manager double click on the device containing the exclamation
mark.
(b) This would open a device properties window.
(c) Click on the Driver
tab.
(d) Click Update Driver push button. The Wizard for updating device driver pops up
as shown in figure 2 .
You now get two options. The first option provides an automatic search for the required
driver. The second option allows you to specify the location of the driver. If you don't know the location of the driver choose
the automatic search which would find the required driver from the manufacturer supplied CD or Floppy disk. Windows would
install the required driver and may ask you to restart the system for the changes to take affect. Use this procedure to install
drivers for all the devices that contain an exclamation mark. Windows is completely setup when there are no more exclamation
marks in the device manager.
OK! WOW! hope that helps you out....Great Question, Thank
You! -Allyn Shadow
Q : I need to get my taxes done FAST, i have no car, is there somthing online
i can use.... HELP! -Lost in Michigan
The first thing you should do is unpack your ATX case. Take off the cover of your case so that you can access the inside.
ShadowNet Computer Building
For information only, these are the keys as they would be stored and searched by searchBC: "computer
building building computer building hardware software hard drive cdrom cdrom floppy floppy disk floppy disk drive motherboard
ide pca cia ata atx shadow the first thing you should unpack your atx case take off the cover your case that you can access
the inside place the case desk that you are looking down towards the open case your case should come with motherboard mounting
screws your atx back plate not already fitted you can fit placing your plate near the atx back plate cut out and pushing the
plate outwards should clip now place your motherboard top the mounting screw holes make sure your atx devices the motherboard
such and parallel port are facing towards atx back plate cut out gently push your motherboard towards the cut out every devices
should fit easily into its corresponding cut out the screw holes your motherboard should align with the screw holes your case
place your screws that came with the case into the appropriate holes and gently screw using screw driver the motherboard now
securely mounted the case you can now place the atx power connector the motherboard your atx case should come with power supply
unit psu and should already mounted the case place the atx power connector top the power socket the motherboard push down
the power connector and should clip onto the socket you try fit the power connector the wrong way round wont fit will only
fit one way the power connector does not should the other way round locate the processor socket your motherboard installing
intel piii processor socket the installation would slightly different you have different processor slot piii cpu cpu amd slot
socket cpu etc cpu fan has power connector which needs connected cpu fan power socket your motherboard finally you have specify
what frequency speed your cpu running this can done using jumper settings some modern motherboard can done the bios your motherboard
may have automatic detection for your cpu frequency please refer your motherboard manual for more details the motherboard
using abit has dipstick jumper setting and can setup the bios have left the jumper setting default will use the bios specify
the cpu frequency the cpu runs the bus speed mhz therefore will use the settings multiplier under the bios which will the
run the cpu mhz installing memory quite simple find the sdram banks your motherboard they should look similar the banks below
notice the memory banks has white clip each side make sure you release the clips bends each side hold each corner the sdram
placing top the bank you will notice that the sdram has cut the bottom side there prevent the memoy going the wrong way round
you are holding the sdram the incorrect way you will not able insert gently push down the sdram and should clip the memory
bank the two white clips will now become straight holding each corner the memory you have more that one sdram perform same
steps above but placing the sdram memory bank and you look the rear side ide hard drive ide ata connector the left hand side
which consists many pins next the ide connector the jumper setting for the drive the jumper should set master which the default
setting for new hdd any other device sharing the same ide cable should set slave different hdd has different jumper settings
please refer your hdd manual for more information the right hand side next the jumpers the power connector every device except
fdd uses this type power connector the ata cable which also known udma cable advance ide cable which offers higher performance
and data integrity than the standard ide cable ata cable consists conductor cable where the standard ide cable consists conductor
cable using ata cable because the above hdd ata drive which requires ata cable place your hard drive into the hdd mounting
slot your case make sure the ide ata connector facing outwards screw the hdd the case using screws provided with the hdd the
atx case push the power cable into the power connector shown the power cable designed one way you shouldnt have any problems
the black connector the left hand side the floppy disk connector different from the ide connector and uses different cable
the small white connector the right hand side the power connector for the floppy drive place the floppy drive into the fdd
mounting slot screw the drive securely into place insert the floppy drive cable into the floppy drive connector make sure
the pin the cable connects the pin the floppy drive connector you already know now that pin the red pink strip the edge the
floppy drive cable most floppy drive cables are designed that will only way you can not connect incorrectly push the floppy
drive power cable the power connector this will only way finally connect the other end the floppy drive cable floppy drive
connector your motherboard make sure pin the cable connects pin the connector the right hand side you have the power connector
next power connector you have the ide connector the left hand side near the ide connector you have the jumper settings for
the dvdrom the jumper set master default connecting the dvdrom separate ide cable therefore will leave the jumper setting
master however you are sharing ide cable with another device like hdd then you would have set jumper slave your hdd would
set master next the jumpers you have the audioout socket one side your audio cable connects this socket and other side connects
the sound card cdin socket this would allow you listen audio cds your computer mount your dvdrom drive into its mounting slot
use the supplied screws screw the drive into position connect the ide cable the drives ide connector make sure the pin the
cable connected pin the drives ide connector pin the red pink strip the edge ide cable connect the other end the ide cable
the ide socket your motherboard again make sure you conncet the cable pin the ide socket could your primary secondary socket
depending which socket you choose your hdd the primary ide socket and your secondary ide socket free then better use your
secondary ide socket for the dvdrom finally connect the power cable power connector and connect the audio cable the audioout
socket find free pci slot your motherboard assuming your modem pci modem place your modem card top the slot and gently push
down into position once the card has seated correctly into position screw the card the case using the screws supplied with
the case now you have installed all the prerequisite hardware devices you can either proceed the finalising stage you may
want install optional devices like zip drive cdrw drive tvcard you not want install these devices you can now proceed the
finalising stage most modern graphics cards are agp based and connects the agp bus the motherboard agp bus slot looks like
the following image the brown slot where you connect your agp graphics card all you need now screw the metal plate the front
the card the atx case use the screws supplied with case and screw the card the case most modern sound cards are designed with
the pci interface and connects the pci slot your motherboard finally insert the audio cable into the cdin socket the other
end the cable should connected audioout socket your dvdrom drive find free pci slot your motherboard assuming your modem pci
modem place your modem card top the slot and gently push down into position once the card has seated correctly into position
screw the card the case using the screws supplied with the case now you have installed all the prerequisite hardware devices
you can either proceed the finalising stage you may want install optional devices like zip drive cdrw drive tvcard you not
want install these devices you can now proceed the finalising stage just like any other ide device zip drive connects ide
cable and power cable place the zip drive into mounting slot and screw securely into position connect the power cable and
the ide cable the corresponding connectors connect the other end the ide cable the ide socket the motherboard make sure the
pin the cable connects pin the motherboard ide socket and the zip drive socket installing card more difficult than installing
any other pci cards locate unused pci slot and place the card top gently push card down into the slot note that card uses
two irq interrupt request one for video and one for audio best place your card into slot which does not conflict with irq
another device although irq sharing possible some cards may behave abnormally you are sharing irqs now that you have installed
all the necessary hardware there are still few more things you need before switching your for the first time your atx case
has power switch which turns the reset switch for resetting the system power led which comes when the switched and hard drive
led which flashes when data being written read from your hard drive you also have internal speaker every cable normally labeled
they are normally named follows but could slightly different your system power switch power pwrsw reset switch reset power
led power led pwrled hard drive led hddled ide led speaker spk speaker the connectors the motherboard are also labeled but
may too small see instead refer your motherboard manual which would provide details which pins you should connect the cables
once you have connected all the cables the correct pins the motherboard you are ready switch the this point you can close
the cover your atx case but dont screw just yet you might have possible problems that needs rectifying connect all the cables
back atx case these includes the main power cable that connects the power supply mouse and keyboard that connects the ports
monitor cable that connects the graphics card port etc finally the moment has arrived switch your monitor first your atx power
supply might have main power switch the back make sure that switched now switch the pressing the power switch the front the
atx case you have performed all the tasks without any mistakes and providing that none the main components are faulty the
should boot when the boots you should see the name the bios manufacturer such award bios displayed your monitor your cpu type
speed and the amount memory should displayed shown image below your motherboard has plug and play bios and set automatic device
detection default then you would see your ide devices being detected followed prompt complaining about missing operating system
your motherboard does not detect the hardware then you need proceed the bios setup screen pressing del depending your motherboard
congratulations you have completed building your own you now need proceed the software section which explains how setup the
bios hard disk and install operating system things did not smoothly and your does not switch then the troubleshooting section
for possible solutions bios softmenu softmenu iii where you can setup the cpu without setting jumpers the motherboard you
can setup the cpu simply selecting the speed pentium iii from the list this ensures that the cpu bus multiplier voltage etc
correctly set for that particular cpu however you can manually setup each feature required once you have finished with the
setup press esc return the previous menu standard cmos features here you can setup the basic bios features such date time
type floppy etc use the arrow keys move around and press enter select the required option you can specify what ide devices
you have such hard drive cdrom zip drive etc the easiest way setup the ide devices leaving set auto this allows the bios detect
the devices automatically you dont have manually the bottom also displays the total memory your system advanced bios features
there are numerous advance settings which you can select required for most cases leaving the default setting should adequate
you can see the first boot device set floppy this ensures that the floppy disk read first when the system boots and therefore
can boot from windows boot disk the second boot device the hard disk and third set you want boot from bootable then you can
set the third boot device dvdrom advanced chipset features here you can setup the contents the chipset buffers closely related
the hardware and therefore recommended that you leave the default setting unless you know what you are doing having incorrect
setting can make your system unstable you know that your sdram can handle cas then making changes can speed the memory timing
you have sdram then the maximum amount memory the agp card can use inegrated peripherals this menu allows you change the various
devices such ide controllers serial ports parallel port keyboard etc you can make changes necessary power management setup
the power management allows you setup various power saving features when the standby suspend mode pnp pci configurations this
menu allows you configure your pci slots you can assign irqs for various pci slots recommended that you leave the default
settings can get bit complicated messing around with irqs health status this menu displays the current cpu temperature the
fan speeds voltages etc you can set the warning temperature which will trigger alarm the cpu exceeds the specified temperature
load failsafe defaults you made changes the bios and your system becomes unstable result you can change back default however
you made many changes and dont know which one causing the problem your best bet choose the option load fail safe mode defaults
from the bios menu this uses minimal performance setting but the system would run stable way from the dialog box choose followed
enter load failsafe defaults load optimized defaults like the failsafe mode above this option loads the bios default settings
but runs the system optimal performance from the dialog box choose followed enter load optimized defaults set password password
protect your bios you can specify password make sure you dont forget the password you can not access the bios the only way
you can access the bios resetting using the reset jumper the motherboard save and exit setup save any changes you made the
bios you must choose this option from the dialog box choose exit without saving you dont want save changes made the bios choose
from the dialog box this procedure explains how setup new hard disk warning you are setting hard disk which contains data
the following procedure would completely erase your hard disk and the data would unrecoverable before new hard disk can used
needs setup this involves partitioning and formatting the hard disk windows boot disk contains the required software perform
this procedure fdisk exe and format com are the files required your bootable floppy disk start the partition and format procedure
booting your using windows boot disk make sure you set the bios that the boot sequence set detect the floppy disk first your
system has problems booting you will presented with windows boot disk menu this gives you the option start the system with
without cdrom support this stage you not need the cdrom support choose the option boot without cdrom support you should end
the dos prompt drive from command prompt type fdisk you will presented with following message choose enable large disk support
you will now presented with the fdisk main menu shown below from the menu choose option create dos partition logical dos drive
another menu will present the following options choose option create primary dos partition fdisk verifies the integrity your
drive and will ask you want use the maximum available size your hard disk create the primary partition and set active keep
things simple will create one large partition choose use maximum available space when the partition has been created successfully
you will notified the system your drive now known drive press esc return the menu press esc again exit fdisk you need restart
your system for the changes take affect leave boot disk the drive when the system reboots choose start without cdrom from
the boot disk menu while booting from floppy disk you might get error message like invalid media type reading drive this for
this stage the hard disk not formatted from command prompt type format you will get message saying warning all data nonremovable
disk drive will lost proceed with format dont worry about the message you not have any data the new hard disk choose the format
will proceed and would show you progress indicator the time takes format hard disk depends the size and speed the drive this
could around minutes once the format complete you need reset your system you are now ready install operating system this procedure
demonstrates how install windows operating system the procedure install windows very similar since windows the latest windows
family operating system will used demonstrate the installation procedure boot your system with windows boot disk when the
system starts you will presented with menu which gives you the option boot with without cdrom support select the option boot
with cdrom support this would create ram drive and load device driver support your dvd cdrom the ram drive assigned drive
and your cdrom should assigned drive place the windows into the drive command prompt type and press enter then type setup
his stage windows runs dos based scandisk verify your hard disk has any problems there are problems windows proceeds with
the setup and launches the windows setup wizard after agreeing the license agreement windows will ask you type your product
key the default directory install windows windows recommend that you leave default next you would given four types installation
options which are typical portable compact and custom choosing typical would install the most common components and suitable
for most people you want specify which components install then choose custom you would presented with few other dialog boxes
such entering your name and company name option create windows boot disk before file copy process begins after completing
the copying process windows restarts and boots from the hard disk make sure you remove your floppy disk from the drive will
detect your plug and play devices and would present few more dialog boxes just read the instructions dialog boxes and proceed
required windows would restarts again after completing final setup stage this does not mean everything completely setup some
your hardware device may have conflicts may not have drivers loaded windows does not contain those drivers from device manager
you can check all the drivers has been loaded there are any conflicts from the start menu select start settings control panel
click the system icon and then from the system properties window select the device manager tab this lists all the devices
shown there are any yellow exclamation mark next any the listed device means that drivers incorrect drivers has been loaded
for that device your hardware should come with manufacturer supplied drivers you need install these drivers using automatic
setup program provided the manufacturer you need manually install these drivers you not have the drivers check the manufacturers
website download them install driver manually use the following procedure from the device manager double click the device
containing the exclamation mark this would open device properties window click the driver tab click update driver push button
the wizard for updating device driver pops shown you now get two options the first option provides automatic search for the
required driver the second option allows you specify the location the driver you dont know the location the driver choose
the automatic search which would find the required driver from the manufacturer supplied floppy disk windows would install
the required driver and ask you restart the system for the changes take affect use this procedure install drivers for all
the devices that contain exclamation mark windows completely setup when there are more exclamation marks the device manager
this procedure demonstrates how install windows professional the procedure install windows home edition very similar the professional
edition since windows pro more advance operating system will used demonstrate the installation procedure the best way install
windows clean install not difficult perform clean installation before you perform the installation recommend that you check
windows compatibility list ensure that your hardware supported your hardware not the compatibility list you can check your
hardware manufactures website download the drivers for windows save all the necessary drivers onto floppy disks before you
start the installation all versions windows are bootable order boot from cdrom you need set the boot sequence look for the
boot sequence under your bios setup and make sure that the first boot device set cdrom you have older and your bios does not
support boot from cdrom then you need create boot disks using floppy disks you can download the following program from microsoft
which will create the floppy setup disks windows home edition http www microsoft com downloads release asp releaseid windows
professional http www microsoft com downloads release asp releaseid your computer can boot from cdrom then you can perform
the following steps install windows start your and place your windows your dvdrom drive your should automatically detect the
and you will get message saying press any key boot from press key boot from and windows setup will begin windows will start
copying preliminary setup files your computer you will asked you want perform new installation repair existing installation
quit this case you will performing new installation you will presented with the end user licensing agreement press accept
and continue select the partition where you want install windows you will have the opportunity create and delete partitions
just allocate the available disk space one partition the next screen asks you wish use the ntfs file system this the recommended
file system you choose use fat you will not have all the security and stability features windows choose format the partition
either fat ntfs youll also see two additional choices perform quick format each option stick with doing full format when asked
start the format press the key the formatting process may take quite bit time depending the size your hdd the setup program
will automatically start copying files after the partition formatted and you will see setup progress bar after this complete
the computer will restart leave the the drive but this time not press any key when the message press any key boot from displayed
few seconds setup will continue windows setup wizard will guide you through the setup process gathering information about
your computer choose the region and language type your name and organization enter your product license key name the computer
and enter administrator password dont forget write down your administrator password enter the correct date and time choose
workgroup domain name register windows youve installed all the current hardware your machine add users that will sign this
computer log your for the first time you now need check the device manager confirm that all the drivers has been loaded there
are any conflicts from the start menu select start settings control panel click the system icon and then from the system properties
window select the hardware tab then click device manager this lists all the devices there are any yellow exclamation mark
next any the listed device means that drivers incorrect drivers has been loaded for that device your hardware should come
with manufacturer supplied drivers you need install these drivers using automatic setup program provided the manufacturer
you need manually install these drivers you not have the drivers check the manufacturers website download them install driver
manually use the following procedure from the device manager double click the device containing the exclamation mark this
would open device properties window click the driver tab click update driver push button the wizard for updating device driver
pops you now get two options the first option provides automatic search for the required driver the second option allows you
specify the location the driver you dont know the location the driver choose the automatic search which would find the required
driver from the manufacturer supplied floppy disk windows would install the required driver and may ask you restart the system
for the changes take affect use this procedure install drivers for all the devices that contain exclamation mark windows completely
setup when there are more exclamation marks the device manager driver drivers the first thing you should unpack your atx case
take off the cover your case that you can access the inside hdd led led switch game server power power switch email modem
agp video card video tuner tuner card cdrom dvdrom dvd dvdrom build own computer copy paste chad emig chad emig disk drive
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