How to Build an AMD Based Windows 2000 System? How to Build an AMD Based Win2000 System-Configuration-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com

Part IV. Configuration

How to Build a Win 2000 System? By Lee Penrod

Basic Configuration

Before installing any more hardware in the system we should get the drivers for the basic configuration in order. Below is a checklist of the drivers that you should have ready at this point,

___ Current video card driver from Asus's website for win 2k. At the time of this writing it was version 5.33
___ Promise controller driver for motherboard, downloaded from Asus's website
___ Asus Probe software (on motherboard cd)
___ Current Via 4-in-1 driver, downloaded from www.viatech.com
___ Current Windows 2000 update file. SP2 at time of this writing. (network install version)

As I noted previously in the introduction, the best thing to do before the build is to get all of the drivers for the devices you are building with. The two best ways to get the drivers stored previously into the system is to either store them on a secondary hard drive you are going to use for the new system or to download them and burn them to a CD-R.

Copy the drivers to a new folder on your desktop. Put each driver in it's own directory, and uncompress it, making sure to expand the folders. If you want instructions for one method of doing this see the appendix.

Install the promise driver, to activate the ATA100 controller
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Now, if you go looking around in my computer at this point you will probably notice that your CD-Burner isn't being detected. This is because Windows 2000 doesn't have the driver installed for the ata100 controller. To check this go to: Start

Settings

Control Panel. Click Hardware, and open device manager

The second controller on the motherboard is the "Mass Storage Controller" That isn't working: To get it working right click it and hit properties. Select reinstall driver.

This will bring up the Upgrade Device Driver Wizard. Select Next. Hit Next again.

Now uncheck Floppy disk drives, and CD-ROM drives. Check specify a location, and hit next.

Click Browse, and locate where you put the Driver's for the motherboard. Select the Win2000 directory that the Asus achieve makes. There should be a file named Ultra here you can select. Click it once and then click open.

Click next. You will then get a screen showing you that you the new name of the device. Select Finish, and then select ok to restart your computer.

Most driver installations are similar to the steps taken for installing the promise driver.

Now that the other controller is working, it is important to load the motherboard chipset drivers. Since the motherboard we are using is the A7V, this means loading the current Via 4-in-1 driver.

Run setup in the 4in1xxxV directory that the Via 4-in-1 driver creates, replacing the xxx with the version number of the via driver.

There really isn't much to the via driver just do the following: Select Next, then yes. Next, next, next, next, finish. After finish the system will reboot.

Install graphics card driver. Installing the Asus v7700 driver is nearly identical to installing the promise driver. Go into device manager, and select the default display adapter that is listed under the display adapters. Select update driver / reinstall driver under the properties of it. Follow through the wizard, and when it asks for a specific file point it to the directory that has the uncompressed 5.33a Asus v7700 Deluxe driver in it. The file it wants is the asusnv2k.inf file. Follow through the rest of the wizard, select finish at the end. Reboot the system.

Update windows After the reboot, update your version of windows 2000 by running W2KSP2.EXE file that you got earlier from Microsoft's website.

After the update is done, shut down the system, and turn off the powersupply. Ground yourself.

Installing and configuring the Sound Card | Go to Top |

If needed remove the slot cover in front of PCI slot 3 in your case. Insert you sound card into PCI slot 3, by lining it up and pressing it into place in the slot by the top edge of the card. Connect a black 4 pin analog audio cable to the back of both your CD-ROM drive, and your CD-RW drive. Plug the cable from the CD-ROM drive into the black CD_IN connector on the sound card. Connect the cable from the CD-RW to the AUX_IN connector. Plug your speakers into the back of the sound card. (it's the green hole).

Now the Sound blaster PCI128 isn't plug and play. However, when you boot up Windows 2000 will do a fairly good job of installing a basic driver for it. If you do not install any other drivers, the card will function at the level of a SB Pro. However, it is best to install the windows 2000 driver from creative's website.

The driver consists of 2 parts: An installer, and a library file. Just run the installer, and follow the basic prompts. The installer works well.

Now that sound is working, it is time to shut down the system again and install the Intel 10/100 pro NIC. With yourself grounded install the card into PCI 5. After it is installed connect your DSL or cable modem to it as needed and turn it on.

Windows 2000 does an excellent job of handling most Ethernet network cards. The Intel 10/100 pro doesn��t need any driver from the manufacturer at all. Windows 2000 handles it in a true plug and play fashion. Restart when prompted.

Configuring DSL | Go to Top |

Although setting up DSL can vary by ISP. Here are the basic steps that work on most systems.

Double click internet explorer on the desktop. This will bring up the Internet connection wizard.

Select "I want to set up my Internet connection manually or I want to connect through a local area network". Click Next. Select "I connect through a local area network". Click next Make sure that Automatic discover of proxy server is selected, and hit next.

After that you can setup an Internet mail account if you wish for Outlook express, or select no and next. When you get to the completing Internet connection wizard hit finish. For most people this should set up DSL. If this doesn't work try using the disk supplied by your ISP.

Now that the connection works, download any drivers you do not have.

Installing and configuring the PA301 phone line network card.
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Shut down the system and turn off the powersupply. Install Netgear card into pci2, securing it with a screw.

When you boot up after doing this, you will get a message at post saying: "PCI Card plugged in slot 2 share IRQ with Promise IDE controller. Make sure the card support IRQ sharing"

Don't worry about this, the PA301 supports sharing so Press F1 and continue.

When windows loads you will need the Netgear driver CD.

On the Install Hardware device drivers wizard, select search for a suitable driver for my device. On the locate driver files menu, Check CD-ROM drives, and uncheck everything else. Click Next,

and then next again when prompted.

Click finish, and then reboot if prompted.

Now that we have the second network card up and running we need to configure this PC with the network already in place. Although setting up an entire network is beyond the scope of this guide, I will go into a few pointers.

1. The PCs on your network should all have the same workgroup name. 2. All PCs on the home network should have TCP/IP network protocol installed, (if you are going to use connection sharing) 3. All windows 9x systems should have a user set / created. 4. You need to set the resources you want available on the network, to shared.

Now here's how I set up the system for my network.

start

settings

Network and dial up connections.

Select the local area that is using the Netgear Phoneline10X PCI card. (Local Area Connection 2)

Now this network is constructed under TCP/IP and has the subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 . The name of the work group is Avalon. The other computer on the network is named Pookie and has an IP address of 192.168.10.10. This new machine should have an IP of 192.168.10.1

To set all this up we double click LAN 2 and click properties. Select Use the following IP address and set the IP address of this system to 192.168.10.1 and the subnet mask to 255.0.0.0

After that is done, click ok.

Now both this system, and the other system are on the same subnet mask. However, they are not part of the same workgroup. So they cannot see each other. To fix this go to Start

Settings

Control Panel and double click system. Go to Network Identification.

Click the properties button and change the work group to the name of your workgroup. Once you click ok here, you will join the existing network, and 2-3 minutes after restart the other computer will be able to see you from it's network neighborhood.

You are done! After reading this build guide I hope you don't feel too overwhelmed. Once you actually start building it is pretty easy. The two main things to remember when building is to always ground yourself, and if something doesn't want to go in, then you are probably putting it in the wrong way.

Below are some pictures of the finished system.

Back

Inside

Front

All together

NEXT: | IV. Configuration | Appendix |

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