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DIY* PC Assembling

DIY- Do it yourself.

Before we go to the article by our columnist, I would like to give a brief introduction about computers in India.

BACKGROUND

Computers were used on a large scale for the first time during the World War II for military data processing. Its non-military uses gained momentum in the post-war period. India was one of the first countries of the world to utilise the capabiliity of computers in Education, R&D, Planning and National Development. The developments during '50s and '60s in terms of computer resources chronicled here would testify to this trend.

With the arrival of the first Analog Computer at Indian Statistical Institue (ISI), Kolkata in 1950, till 1974 the total number of computer installations in India was under 200.

Some Statistics about Internet users and

By the end of the decade, a billion people will be clicking away at computers, but generating a profit out of newly wired portions of the world is going to take a lot of work.

The number of PC users is expected to hit or exceed 1 billion by 2010, up from around 660 million to 670 million today, fueled primarily by new adopters in developing nations such as China , Russia and India, according to analysts.

Bottom line:
PC and software makers are ready to make new sales but have their work cut out for them. Poverty, unreliable energy supplies, a multiplicity of languages, regional laws and education levels are all potentially major obstacles.

So with the fast adaptation of PC in developing countries like India, it would be ideal to know about PC assembling basics. We have a new young, brilliant Engineering Graduate, Lakshmi Narasimhan who has written an article about PC assembling for us. So go through the steps to assemble your own PC.

So why would you like to assemble your own PC? It not only saves money, it also guarantees that you get what you want.

Advantages of DIY PC assembling

• Saves money
• Guarantees that you get what you want
• Avoids proprietary designs from companies which they make for customer retention
• Familiaries yourself with the system

Disadvantages

• You will need more time and patience
• If your pc is vital to your business, it is better you go to a system builder as he will be

So now for the article..

I will describe the process of PC assembling as steps.

The three main steps in building your pc are as follows:

• Prerequisites and information gathering
• Building your PC
• Installing the Operating System (OS)

I will cover these steps in the following sections.

Step1: Need, Market Price and Product Quality

Step2: Configure and mount the Mother Board

Step3: Drive Mounting

Step4: Installing Interface Cards

Step5: LED and BIOS Configuration

Step6: Load the Operating System

Step7: Load Hardware drivers

Step8: Load Softwares

Step9: Test your job

Step1:

As usual the first step in every action, to analyse the need. So what is the need for the PC? Is it going to help me in my work? Is it going to help me keep in touch with my friends? First thing to do is fully analyze the business need for the PC. Then the next thing to do is find out the configuration that will fulfill my need. Find out the system configuration for the Operating System you will be using(Linux, or windows etc) and the softwares you are going to use at present and softwares you would be needing in the future. Get to a hardware park and get quotations for your configuration. See if you can have the necessary capital to fullfil the quotation and ensure that you buy quality products(never compromise quality for cost). Here you will be determining the type of Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video card etc which you will be buying. You will be requiring tools some electrical tools like Screwdriver, Cable Ties, Small Wire Cutters, Pliers and Paper and Pencil to write down important notes.

The following are the things you will be buying for PC Assembling are as follows

• PC Case/Cabinet
• Motherboard
• Power Supply Unit
• CPU and RAM
• Floppy Disk Drive (FDD)
• Hard Disk Drive (HDD)
• Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse.
• CD-ROM
• Video and Sound Cards
• plus additional things that you may require.

So let's move on to PC Assembling.

Keep all the necessary components you bought along with the manuals for the components handy in a well lit place.

Remove the Packaging of Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse. Keep the power cord and wires that came along with the components separately so that they do not get mixed up with other components. Fit the cords that come with the equipment as given in the manual. Do not connect any devices to the main power outlet till the final assembling is over.

Some of the PC cases come along with Power Supply Unit or it can be bought separately. If you have bought it separately then find the mains cable for the PSU without plugging it yet.

Remove the outer casing for your PC Case and place the PC Case on its side, with the opening facing up. Fit the PSU if it is not already attached. In the rear of the Case there will be a large opening (most of the time it is at the top), it is here you fit the PSU if it is not already attached with Fan outlet and power socket of PSU facing outside and power connectors must be hanging inside the PC case. Use the Coarse headed screws to fix the PSU. After PSU has been fitted attach the power cable to PSU. Do not switch on the mains.

Step2: The next step is to configure and mount the motherboard.

Depending on where you purchased the motherboard, you really should double check the jumper and switch settings. Make damn sure that you have things set for the CPU YOU HAVE ATTACHED TO THE MOTHERBOARD BEFORE you power anything on!

In a lot of cases the Motherboard HAS TO GO IN the PC case FIRST. In full tower systems and "flip-back" cases, a person can put the Motherboard in later. It is generally the best place to start. I DO NOT suggest "air-chasising" a motherboard unless you have a great deal of experience and take the proper safety precautions.

When configuring a Mother Board, the first thing that must be done is to set the jumpers to the appropriate settings for the CPU you have selected. A detailed description of the jumper settings is available in the Technical Manual provided with the MotherBoard. NEVER try to OVER-CLOCK or tweak a system unless you are 100% sure you know what you are doing and this could damage the system.

After the jumpers have been set, verified, and re-verified you can install the RAM memory, and CPU. Be careful to align the pins correctly on the CPU, and incorrect placement will cause damage to the chip.

After this has been done secure the brass anchors to the case, and install the plastic stand-offs. Place the small washer between the brass anchors and the motherboard (and on top, between the motherboard and screw head) to help ensure there won't be any shorts, or other problems.

Now position the Mother Board over the stand-offs and gently press down until the Mother Board is completely seated. Once you have the Mother Board seated properly insert screws into the brass anchors to secure the Mother Board into position.

Finally, attach the power connectors to the Mother Board, normally the black, or common, wires are positioned in the center of the power connector. Attach the wires in the case to the motherboard - make sure the fan in plugged in on the CPU, power switch, reset, AND the internal PC speaker.

At this point, we normally turn on the power briefly, to make sure the power supply turns on (symbolizing both a good power supply AND a properly grounded motherboard AND RAM that is alright). If the power supply doesn't turn on, then you have either a bad power supply or a dead short somewhere. If everything turns on, and there's no smoke, and there are no beeps immediately - either your speaker is plugged in wrong OR you did everything correctly.  

It is important to know that you SHOULD get a beep during the initial power-up test, when the system realizes that there is no keyboard attached. If you didn't get that beep, then you may have a problem.

Step3: Drive Mounting   - The next step is to mount the drives in the system

This includes Hard Disk Drives, Floppy Disk Drives, CD-ROM's, CDRW's, DVD's and other devices that require a drive bay for installation. 

The reason we suggest this next is that, in some instances, the peripheral cards installed in the computer can block one, or more, of the mounting points of a drive.

Keep in mind which drive(s) will be attached to which connection (primary or secondary) - and which drives are going to be setup as master and slave, so you can set the jumpers BEFORE screwing them into the case (where you might not be able to get to the jumpers). If you are using SCSI drives, the drive ID's MUST be set.

When installing a drive it is imperative that at least four (4) screws be used to secure a drive. Try to keep the drives on the same level, don't intermix the top screw holes on one side and the bottom holes on the other side. This can cause the drive to become slightly "bound" or warped, and may cause read/write problems. Keep in mind that most drives spin at 4 to 7,000 rpm (or greater).

It is also very important to use the correct size screw for the mounting. 

Typically there are two (2) different types of screws that are used in computer assembly. The difference is easily visible to the naked eye. One screw has a narrower diameter and higher thread count than the other.

If you encounter too much, or too little, resistance when inserting a screw it is probably the incorrect size or threaded wrong. Be careful to not strip the screw or break it off. You will only need to make it snug to function properly.

After the drivers are secured in the case connect the power and data cables to the appropriate connectors. 

Step4: INSTALLING INTERFACE CARDS

Now that the Mother Board is installed, and the drives are in the case, we can proceed to installing the other interface cards into the system.

Step 4 will be focused on Drive Controllers (if they aren't built in to the system) and Video Adapters ONLY at this point. The goal is to eliminate the problems, and add changes in a controlled fashion. The Modems and other devices should wait for right now. 

Nothing is worse that thinking you have the system completely assembled only to have it fail to start. Our process will take a few extra minutes, but works 100% of the time, and can save you hours of frustration. The average computer system takes 20 to 40 minutes to assemble (hardware only), depending on the case and the type of parts.

When installing the Controller and video cards (if they aren't built-in to the motherboard) it is important to avoid conflicts with IRQ, DMA, Port Address, and ROM Addresses. In most cases, factory defaults should be used (at least looked at, considered, and known). All of these settings are carefully detailed and documented in the Technical Manuals provided with the devices. Again, with these particular cards, the default settings will work without any problems 99.99% of the time. 

Once the cards are properly inserted, connect the corresponding data cables to the cards. No internal cable goes to or from the video card (unless you spent extra money and have a "feature connector" which is highly unlikely). 

Internally, the drive controller, whether on a card or built-in to your mother board, will have a cable going from it to the floppy drive and to the hard disk drive, the CD ROM drive. 

In addition, you have the I/O ports. There should be a cable going to the Printer port and 2 Serial ports at the least. There may also be a PS/2 mouse port to connect and/or USB connections, both of which are often available on the newer mother boards.

If you have a tape drive, jazz, zip, or other type of drives... wait for NOW. The goal here is to get one floppy (two if you have them), one hard drive (unless it is an upgrade and the other hard drive(s) are required for system start), and one CD ROM drive installed. We want the monitor, keyboard, and a mouse hooked up. These are the bare minimum devices which are required to operate a functional computer. Adding things later will be easy.

Double check yourself, and all of the connections... the power to the motherboard (black to black, in the center, on AT cases). Make sure you have power connected to both the monitor and the case. There are some basic rules and cautions:

If you are absolutely positive that everything is connected correctly, it is time to hit the power switch.

Step5: LED and BIOS configuration

Your system is almost ready for its first "real" power up now, but before you can do that you need to connect a couple of small things that will make the next trouble shooting steps a little easier. Make sure the PC speaker, the Power LED, the Hard Disk Activity LED, and the Reset Button is all connected (you should have connected them in an earlier section). The status of these indicators is crucial to troubleshooting the computer in the event of a problem.

When the computer is first powered on a screen should appear describing the Video Adapter and it should begin a memory test, if you have a very fast computer or a slow video card you may not get to see these things until you push the reset button on your computer (or hold down the Ctrl Alt Delete keys at the same time, and release them). Testing the video card and RAM is called a Power on Self Test, POST . Your keyboard and basic cabling is tested at this time also (unless it was disabled in the BIOS). If this does not occur consult the troubleshooting section of the motherboard manual. Listen for beep codes.

After the computer has completed its POST tests it may initiate a CMOS Checksum Error, this is normal for the first time that a computer is activated, and display a message to press F1 to continue. Press F1 (function key F1 - above the number keys and punctuation's).

System CMOS is the utility that allows the user to tell the computer what BASIC hardware is installed. It is where setting for Hard Disk Drives, Floppy Disk Drives, and other information are stored. Some system CMOS's contain a utility called "Auto Detect" for you, otherwise you must enter them manually.

When using a SCSI disk drive, follow the instructions in the manual with your SCSI controller. Normally, you set the Hard Disk Drive Type to 0 or Not Installed.

This does NOT effect most people. (When using an ESDI or other nonstandard drive controller, follow the instructions in the manual with your ESDI controller or non-standard. Normally, you set the Hard Disk Drive Type to 1.)

IDE and EIDE drives are the most common, and probably what you have. They require specific heads, tracks, and cylinder settings, unless you have a previously installed Ontrack's Disk Manager or some other type of configuration software which maybe required to install EIDE drives in older systems. Disk Manager usually requires the Drive Type set to 1 or 10.

Most EIDE (drives larger than 540MB) have the heads, tracks, and cylinder settings written on the top of the drive. On the bottom or back of the drive you will see some jumpers. These jumpers are generally perfect for only one drive in a system. However, with more than one drive, or a CD ROM on the same cable chain, you might have to change these settings. If you followed the earlier instructions, these jumpers are already set. If not, the jumpers are (generally) as follows:

M = Master. Only drive in computer, or the primary drive of the two on that chain. Remember, only two IDE/EIDE devices can exist on a cable. Modern systems have both a Primary and Secondary controller as standard practice. Drive C: is a Master 99.9999% of the time.

S = Slave. This is the secondary drive on a two drive chain. The first drive MUST be set to MASTER. Drive D: is a Slave 99.9999% of the time.

CS = Cable Select. This is a setting that you are allowing the cable to select whether the drive is a Master or a Slave. This, we have found is generally in efficient and fails to work properly all of the time.

Step6: load the operating system

Now that you have set CMOS, you are ready to load your operating system.

This could be DOS, Windows 95/98, Windows NT,xp,2000 and within few hours it may even be LONG HORN or some other operating system.

For ease of discussion we will assume that you are going to install the most popular operating system currently in existence, as 80 million others have... Microsoft Windows98, and assume that the hard disk drive is brand new.

The only problems might be your Hard drive isn't configured correctly, or the floppy doesn't start your CD ROM drive. If either of these problems occur, you will need to solve them before continuing.

The installation program Microsoft has now is pretty nice. It will partition and format the Hard Disk Drive automatically (with prompts), as well as transfer all of the necessary files that are needed to run the system. Setup will ask you questions about your computer, such as type or mouse and display that you are using. Read the screens carefully and follow the instructions. In most cases the defaults are the best choice.

Once Windows is successfully installed, move to the next step.

Step7: load hardware drivers

Now that Windows is running on your computer it is time to load the drivers associated with any special hardware that may be installed (and physically INSIDE your machine at this time... if the cards aren't in your system at this time, WAIT on installing those card drivers until later). Odds are Windows 95/98 has installed most of them, or at least tried to, for everything it was able to detect and find. This can range from Video Cards, Sound Boards and CD-ROM's to Modems and Scanners.

These drivers allow the computer, programs, and devices to communicate properly with each other.

Detailed instructions of how to install these drivers are contained in the technical manuals provided with the devices. Don't let these manuals intimidate you. Most name brand components have great installation programs, once they are started.

Unless your computer is brand new, you might want to finish this after getting the latest drivers for your components. You can do this by contacting the companies that made the parts, from a local technician, or from the Internet. I have found that most of the larger companies have drivers available on the Internet, usually for FREE... only your time finding them and down loading them are required.

Step8: load softwares

It is now time to load the rest of the programs (Games, Word Processors, etc.) onto the computer.

Generally this is NOT a problem, and with most companies there are few hidden problems or challenges. Such as using an upgrade version of a program, such as MS Office... it requires you have a previous version of a word processing program IT considers valuable justifying the upgrade.

Installing usually has pretty good defaults, sometimes you can choose CUSTOM installation, just to KNOW where things are going, and WHAT is actually being installed. I suggest this ONLY for advanced users and the brave at heart.

Once again, installation instructions are provided in the documentation provided with the product, either on the CD ROM, floppy disk, Internet, or a paper manual. Sometimes a combination of these.

I suggest making a list of the programs you are installing. 

I further suggest installing your most important programs FIRST (and checking them before installing the next program). 

Once you have installed a program, place the disks (or CDs) in a "special" place... with all of them together. All of their computers documentation and primary driver disks, and programs are kept in this single place. If you have more than one computer, get a "special place" for EACH computer. It is your choice. Keeping the motherboard manual, the drivers, and component manuals in a singular place will make your life a great deal easier in the future. 

Whether you are upgrading or selling parts, having these manuals, this documentation, and the driver disks is imperative to save you time and money. AND will add resale value to your system.

Step9: test your job

The only thing left is to test the computer, to do a full "burn-in." 

A "burn-in"  means that you will need to keep it running and powered on for about 48 hours straight, doing various things... even if it is only a screen saver or a self running demo program while you are away or sleeping. 

The best way to test your computer is to use it. Run every program, play every game. Make sure that everything is working properly.

If the monitor is brand new, there will be a slight odor (like melting plastic). This is normal and nothing to be concerned about. Just make sure there is plenty of ventilation. The smell should be gone in 4 to 12 hours. If there is ever actual smoke, then you have a problem.

Running the programs, using your computer is the only way that you will truly be able to determine the computer is behaving the way you desire, and the way it should.