Holy fuck, guys. I’m not typing this from my phone, but from my computer…that I BUILT MYSELF!! And I’ve learned so much. Currently typing as I start to slowly get Windows back up (for the 3rd time this month).
Sooooo much to talk about, and honestly..several times I felt like “this is it”.
It started quite rocky, of having to balance between holding my phone (to show Tulsi what I’m seeing) and holding a flashlight of trying to figure out what plugs to pull out. Possibly one of the biggest obstacles was pulling the PSU (and its cables) out. There were so many things attached to it, and the way I was holding the phone (not pointing it to what I was seeing), wasn’t really helpful.
Eventually I did find all the things that were attached and was able to get it off fully.
Another flaw with the plan, was me being all “alright, just making sure…you want me to do X?” Having to verify what he was telling me, made him quite frustrated (and took the most time). I can understand his frustration, though he should had known what he was getting himself into. He forgot to pack his patience for the trip.
I wanted a step-by-step tutorial (specifically tailored for my computer). Yet I barely got one from him, which is why I often had to make sure if this or that was the correct thing to do (which created his frustration, as he doesn’t seem to understand this).
When I was able to eventually remove the cooler to access the CPU, I…erm. I expected better from someone who I felt I could trust. There were pretty noticeable gaps in the paste to allow heat to escape. I’m not going to lie, he did a half-ass job on it.
This is quite upsetting, especially of how much money I had spent. I regretfully have to say that I will no longer be doing business with this person. Now with this knowledge of building a computer by myself, I can cut out the middleman (and save a lot of time and money).
Removing the CPU was possibly one of the most “fun” times I’ve ever had in my life. Was given gloves, but I felt they would only be needed to remove the paste. Tulsi told me I wouldn’t need to remove it from the CPU (even though the edges were covered in paste). Let’s say I should had wore the gloves as I didn’t realize just how much of the stuff was on my fingers (until I put the CPU down on my dresser). I tried not to freak out, reminding myself that only swallowing it would hurt me. But I couldn’t go get my old CPU until I had cleaned my hands.
Managed to mostly get the paste off. My mother also helped by giving me this strange gunk in a can, claiming to remove anything. The smell and what I felt on my hands was quite unpleasant, but you can’t really argue with the results (as it worked to remove what’s left).
Came back to my room. If Tulsi had his mic on, I bet I would probably have heard him laughing his head off through that.
The hours went on of where I’m getting ready to put the old board in, and he was losing his patience even more with me. He seems to be using “shouldn’t it be obvious that you do this?” on me, but again…all I cared about is ‘not fucking up’. And then came a time where he had to go, during possibly the most critical step of this PC building process; plugging everything back (and trying to remember how it all went).
Was forced to look for my old board’s manual (since attempting to get it from MSI’s website was a complete fail, as my phone has no way to unzip .zip files). Managed to find the board’s box (with the manual in it). Glad I keep old stuff.
Attempted to follow the manual the best I could, questioning of some parts if I needed this part to go somewhere that isn’t on the board.
Then came the time of getting the PSU (and its cables) reattached to everything. Tulsi came back on at this thing, but didn’t seem interested (at all) of helping me (constantly going “offline” to avoid me. :P). However, I had my (short) fun times of using this to torment him.
But eventually it came to a time were I seriously needed his help (as I couldn’t figure out what this extra 4-pin plug needed to go into. Cracked open the PSU book, which was as helpful as Google(when looking for something with a lot of words). Infact, it didn’t even mention the damn plug! How in the FUCK is this helpful to me?! Eventually I felt like I just didn’t need it for this setup.
I manged to figure out those tiny, tall pin things (front panel connectors). Took awhile (and I still don’t know how I was able to figure it out, with words like ‘PWR SW’ on the little things). Learned that they have a tiny arrow on the back of them to indicate the positive charge, and just followed the diagram the best I could.
Looking back at this, I can only assume the ‘SW’ meant ‘SWITCH’ (instead of ‘Southwest’ (or ‘SJW'(Social Justice Worker)) as I was originally thinking).
And then, finally…the time came to see if the hours of work I put into this, paid off..to plug this thing up, and turn it on. Yet something stopped me for the longest time from doing this. And that thing is an old saying of how “history can repeat itself”. The history was dropping a screw on the board while trying to remove a broken CD-ROM. Reached in, trying to grab it. Never did it come to me by turning the computer upside down and shaking it.
I did get the screw out, but somehow it fried the board when I tried getting on.
…This time, it was trying to add the 6th screw into the board (which was in a really, REALLY tight fit of being next to the cooler). Lost control of the screw and it went on the board, and I did the SAME fucking thing I did years ago of reaching in to grab it. But this time, I flipped the case around to get the screw out (which worked).
Since then, I feared the board would be fried (yet again). Thankfully my father came to the rescue, taking over for me of getting the last screw in (even going as far as installing RAM I had to take out in order to access the CPU Fan plug).
Hooked it up. Prayed to the almighty…and turned it on. And. it. BOOTED!!! 😀 I..I DID IT!!! I FUCKING DID IT!!!!! I BUILT A PC!!! Even looking back at this, I still can’t believe it!
Though when I turned it on, I heard a horrible clacking sound of something rubbing against a fan. I also noticed the fan on the top wasn’t spinning. Turned it off, unplugged and tried to investigate. One of the connectors of the PSU’s IDE cable line was right against the CPU Cooler fan. Got it out of the way. As for the top fan not spinning (including the other case fans), I discovered this conga line of Moleux cables connected all the fans. Managed to connect them all, and supplied power. Problem fixed! 🙂
Included in the fixes, was the 2nd of the two fans on the front of the case (which cools the drives). This really baffled me for a good time (such as “how can this connector power both fans”). My father also tried to help. We looked over the motherboard book, and he assumed the 4-pin connector goes into SYSFAN1 (which is clearly the same type as CPUFAN).
The fix was routing the bottom fan cable to an unconnected connector. BINGO! I KNEW the top fan cable couldn’t possibly be controlling both of them!! Connected it to the conga line, and the fan spun!
All there was left to do was reinstall Windows. Yet just like before with the new hardware, it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s the same type of board for this specific CPU. Settings get changed, Windows says WTF.. gotta reinstall. Tulsi was shocked to hear this.
Maybe this is no longer an issue with Windows 10? I can only assume.
There is one other problem (that I still can’t seem to solve), but my external drive, again, will not work when plugged into the USB ports on the top of the case. I am 100% positive I plugged in both connectors to the back and the front USB ports on the board. I’m thinking that maybe switching the two, might help.. however, I don’t think that matters.
The drive works fine when plugged in the back, though…but it robs me of two USB ports. I could try to see if I could find a USB 2.0 extender, connect it to the board, and use it to get me more ports.
However, I think there are other ways of extending the number of ports.
Sometime tomorrow, I need to clean off the paste of the 9590. Eventually I want to sell this hothead of a CPU in order to get my money back (even though I feel the blame should go to the installer of the hardware, and not AMD (for having inadequate paste coverage)).
And that’s it. All I wanted to say. I got to admit, whoever said that building a PC is fun and rewarding, was right (as long as you don’t fuck up).