Naieve questions!

[Blackdog]

I am very new to building, but am having a blast!
couple problems however.
Installing XP is bringing me to a BSOD, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
Here's the silly question, am I supposed to install things such as Hard Drive, CD/DVD drive first before the OS, and how?
I've upped the voltage of my RAM to 2.4... still happening.
A friend suggested something about RAID helping???
Do I need an identical HDD and a floppy drive? I have a floppy drive not installed due to the fact that I have nowhere to plug in the IDE cable.
Do they make an SATA floppy drive? or a converter to ATA?

whoa, sorry... that's where i am at right now. THANKS!

[Barrister73]

I cannot help you too much, but I can say that you do not need to have a floppy drive. I'm quite floppyless at the moment and running fine.

MRR

[chunkylover53]

I'll try to tackle a little. You need a hard drive and an optical drive (CD/DVD) connected to the motherboard and PSU to load the operating system. You don't need to "install", like you would a plug and play device in windows (like a printer or an ipod). Eventually you will want to load drivers for the DVD, but you can not do that until after windows is up and running.

If Jamie's reco on memory didn't work, you can put the BIOS settings you changed back to auto and try a few other things till he's back on. Try two other sticks of memory, try only one of the ones your using now, try the other one if that doesn't work, etc. Try slots 2 & 4 if you are currently using slots 1 & 3, etc.

Next, not that I trust the MOBO temp readings entirely, but why don't you go into the BIOS and post your CPU temp readings back here as well. If it's that, your temps might help Jamie or the WM diagnose.

Finally, go ahead and post the brand and model of that optical. I can't tell if it's also SATA or IDE.

[iiiprimeiii]

load the fail safe defaults in ur bios...also did u clear the cmos b4 trying to boot up??

[Blackdog]

My optical drive is definitely IDE, will get back with the temps.

[Blackdog]

like I said, naieve questions. I don't seem to be having any problems booting up, but what is cmos b4?

[iiiprimeiii]

sorry cmos "before" just short typing. but if u clear the cmos before ur first boots and load the fail safe defaults ur just enhancing the possibility of not having any minor errors that will cause problems. im not really sure what ur problem is but this might help.

[shyster]

Here is Robs page talking about how to clear the CMOS:

http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_first_boot.shtml

Also are you using 4GB ram total or 2GB? Just wondering because I heard somewhere that windows vista, and consequently any windows before, cannot detect 4GB ram before being installed. This would probably lead to your error, and the fix probably, if this is the problem would be to as suggested use only one stick of 2Gb ram.

[Blackdog]

Loading defaults seems to change nothing in BIOS.