You need to configure and mount the Mother Board.
Depending on where you purchased the motherboard, you really should double check the jumper and switch settings. Make darn 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 case FIRST. In full tower systems and "flip-back" cases, a person can put the mother board 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.
Very Important: If you purchased the Motherboard and CPU at the same time, the reseller may have pre-configured it for you... but do NOT rely on that (or them). They are human, and can sometimes forget, make mistakes, or possibly someone else just starting to work for them "did" the configuration. Always double check the jumper settings and switches. If any of them are wrong it could blow up, short out, or otherwise damage or ruin parts in your system when you hit the power switch.
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 Mother Boards. NEVER try to OVER-CLOCK or tweak a system unless you are 100% sure you know what you are doing, AND you are willing to risk throwing away some money (as things CAN blow up).
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. (I will add pictures at a later date to assist in this process).
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. YEA!!
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.
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Copyright 1998 T.E. Mercer, all rights reserved. This page was last updated
16 April 2000