Strongly considering a PC upgrade. Is this spec ok?

[EEVILMURRAY]

Just by looking at those posts without thinking - @Cube I know there isn't anything in the four hole thing at the top left. I saw it on my old mobo but couldn't see a four hole pin on the wires from the power supply so just put it down to being outdated.

[Cube]

Just by looking at those posts without thinking - @Cube I know there isn't anything in the four hole thing at the top left. I saw it on my old mobo but couldn't see a four hole pin on the wires from the power supply so just put it down to being outdated.

 

That would be it. The PSU has a 8-pin wire (4x2). This splits into two. One of them (you'll see from the shapes) goes in that four-pin hole.

[Sheikah]

Also check your graphics card is seated well in the bay. That always seems to be a problem. Can see if this is a problem by plugging your monitor into the onboard graphics output and removing your HD 7850 from the motherboard and try turning on.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Perhaps. The graphics card took a bit of force to get into the case. Using that split thing Cube mentioned it does power up properly but I'm not getting anything on my monitor is this the card? I really don't want to touch it using much force unless I really have to.

 

Also. Does it matter what SATA ports the CD drive, HD and SSD go in?

[Cube]

SATA cable order isn't vital, generally 0 and 1 are for SSD/HDDs.

 

Sounds like you have exactly the same problem I had. This is what solved it.

 

1. Pull out the graphics card.

2. Put the monitor cable in the motherboard's slot

3. Load the BIOS (Delete on keyboard)

4. On the 3D BIOS Click on either the onboard graphics card or the PCI slots. There should be an option to change the first choice for graphics - this needs to be changed to IGFX.

5. Turn off, put the graphics card back in. Keep the cable in the motherboard slot.

6. It should now load. Install Windows, Motherboard drivers and Graphics Card drivers.

7. Reboot.

8. Once it's loaded, move the cable to the Graphics Card. It should automatically detect the change.

[EEVILMURRAY]

The monitor cable was in the motherboard slot (I thought it was meant to be there always) but I'll do the

.. urgh removing graphics card thing. I'm undoing almost every screw on the back panel to get this out smoothly.

 

It's going well thus far. I think. It's installing Windows now. But I've had to dig out an old wired mouse since it wasn't recognising my wireless one

 

I'm not sure if it's the USB ports as I had to move the keyboard one. I'll check it all out again after the shizzle has all been installed.

 

Well the PC is up and running. The monitor keeps cutting out but I think that's due to out of date graphics drivers. It's starting up rather slow so I've done something wrong with the SSD. Plus I'm not sure if it's using the actual graphics card. The display settings show an Intel 4000 and when I start it keeps saying "the Catalyst Control Centre is not supported hy the driver version of your enabled graphics driver. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable AMD adapter using the displays manager" it's said this after I updated the drivers on the display thingy.

[Cube]

How big is the C:?

 

Have you moved the monitor cable back to the graphics card? That message sounds like it's still plugged into the motherboard.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Before I did try putting the monitor cable in the graphics card (I had to use the adaptor that came with it) and got nothing. But now it's working. But it's still a slow machine at the moment. I'm sure my XP machine started up quicker than this.

[Sheikah]

It's possible that you installed your OS to your HDD rather than your SSD. Navigate to your computer and confirm that your SSD is what contains your Windows OS files.

 

Also check you used your SATA 3 cable and that you connected to the right SATA mobo ports (6Gb). Once you have your OS installed to SSD, make sure the boot disc is removed from your DVD drive and that on your boot settings you set to boot from SSD. Lastly make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date.

[EEVILMURRAY]

It's possible that you installed your OS to your HDD rather than your SSD. Navigate to your computer and confirm that your SSD is what contains your Windows OS files.

 

Also check you used your SATA 3 cable and that you connected to the right SATA mobo ports (6Gb). Once you have your OS installed to SSD, make sure the boot disc is removed from your DVD drive and that on your boot settings you set to boot from SSD. Lastly make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date.

 

I think that's the problem, as on my computer it only shows the C: drive and no other hard drives. Does this mean I'm going to have to format the C: drive then? Because when I've had to "format" a PC before all I had to do was insert the Windows disc and it would return everything to factory settings. But this is installing the OS to a different drive (And I assume the C: drive just becomes like an external HD?) As it seems to have retained a fair bit from the XP era as well, even though I've deleted the Windows old folder.

 

Would that help with the sound settings also? I've tried downloading a Realtek thing and it installs and asks for the restart but afterwards it doesn't seem to have been installed at all.

 

I'll have to double check the SATA 3 cable and if it's in the 6gb port as I'm not sure, I just started in the early numbers. So if memory serves 0, 1 and 2 have the CD/SSD/HD cables in them, but not sure which ones in which.

 

EDIT, just had a look at the Disk Management (looking at formating options) and found what I assume is the SSD (60gb) as Disk 0. So if I format the C drive, slam in the Boot disc, install it to the SSD, whip it out as you said and change the stuff in the BIOS, probably have to redo the graphics card thing (?) and all should be well!

Edited July 14, 2012 by EEVILMURRAY

[Sheikah]

Easiest way:

 

Remove hard drive and any disk drives other than SSD. Insert Win7 install disc and it can only install to SSD then. After your PC is up and running you can turn off and put your HDD back in. If it goes back to being slow make sure your SSD is set to be the boot disk in the bios.

 

Then if you can, backup important files only on your HDD using another device, format your HDD and copy important files back. That should sort it out.

[Cube]

The card thing shouldn't need repeating as it's BIOS settings. Just move the cable back to the motherboard.

 

The sound drivers should be on the disc with the motherboard. Also check what is default in the Windows options.

 

The second drive needs to be activated in drive management after installation. If you can move vital data you can format it.

[EEVILMURRAY]

The card thing shouldn't need repeating as it's BIOS settings. Just move the cable back to the motherboard.

I've had to move the cable back anyway. When I tried booting it up again to fap around a bit but no display came up on the monitor so had to put the cable back in the mobo port.

 

One thing I was wondering about is that when I install the OS on the SSD. Do you install games/other programs on the SSD as well or let it make a directory on the HD and leave the SSD to just storing the OS?

 

Ok! I'm going to do some remixing with the cables/ports and stuff. Hopefully it'll stop complaining about the Catalyst thingy not working. See j00 on the other side!

 

Also Cube. Did you ever use that gold Cross Fire thing?

 

EDIT - I tried installing the OS on th SSD but now all it says is thay the computer "restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error" and that the installation couldn't proceed and if I click OK it will restart the computer and I can restart the installation. But it brings up the same message straight away. Well I've changed the boot order to the disc drive and installing Windows again. Lessee if this works. I don't think I'll try building a PC again anytime soon.

Edited July 15, 2012 by EEVILMURRAY

[Cube]

The gold Cross Fire thing is for when you buy a second graphics card.

 

Some programs can be installed on the SDD (browsers and stuff). I followed a few tips here:

 

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2011/05/7-ways-to-reduce-your-disk-size-in-windows-7/

[EEVILMURRAY]

Ok, I've made progress. I think it was because I was trying to install the Professional and then Home Premium versions (the disc I am using may not be 100% genuine :p) so have gone for Home Basic and things are going smoother. Just about to install the graphics drivers and hopefully I'll be able to install them without the Catalyst bitching about incompatibility and shutting down/the adaptor into the graphics card not fucking up. But this is good!

One thing I was wondering about is that when I install the OS on the SSD. Do you install games/other programs on the SSD as well or let it make a directory on the HD and leave the SSD to just storing the OS?

 

Anything? I've let normal programs install themselves onto the C drive but pictures/videos etc are on the old HD, which is now the D: Drive. I've had to make a shortcut for it on the desktop, but this Windows 7 navigation system is wank.

 

EDIT: It's finally working! For some reason it won't recognise my wireless mouse, but luckily I have a wired one from my laptop days. It's still better than the graphics card not working or something

Edited July 15, 2012 by EEVILMURRAY

[Cube]

Add the folders to your favourites.

 

I did a couple of these:

 

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2011/05/7-ways-to-reduce-your-disk-size-in-windows-7/

 

For moving the Users folder, I had to do that then create a new user, deleting the original.

[Sheikah]

Keep programs on your SSD like your internet browser program, programs like photoshop, antivirus, the occasional game you are playing a lot. Anything running constantly in the background. Do the tips on that URL Cube posted to cut down the size of your OS install too. I also copy over movies/tv series and stuff before I watch them.

 

Cool to see you got it working. I'm guessing everything is super fast now? It's a good idea to click the start button (or press windows key), right click computer and select properties and click Windows Experience Index. Not only is this a nice pat to the ego, this step detects your SSD as an actual SSD if your PC hasn't done so already, making it function better on your system.

[EEVILMURRAY]

Cool to see you got it working. I'm guessing everything is super fast now? It's a good idea to click the start button (or press windows key), right click computer and select properties and click Windows Experience Index. Not only is this a nice pat to the ego, this step detects your SSD as an actual SSD if your PC hasn't done so already, making it function better on your system.

I can't see a "Windows Experience Index" link on the properties

 

Shizzle is faster I think, although the startup always scares me. On the old PC shortly after turning it on the monitor acknowledges it and I can see it starting up. With this the light continues blinking (as if it's recieving no signal) for around 5-10 seconds but then starts up fully loaded.

 

I've had it crashing on me a few times. There doesn't seem to be any link between what I've been doing at the time. One time I was writing something in Wordpad, later it was something else, just now I had something paused in VLC. I'm hoping it'll be a temporary thing which will sort itself out.