On Becoming a Computer Technician Part Two.

[Jnanislore]

When you get your freshly minted computer off the ground and posted, and listen closely, if the computer won't post, then rewire your power box, and refer to your mobo manual for that too, because that's probably what you failed at. But modern computers that run Windows 10 or 11 and that run on the current Firmware require a special format on the original OS hard drive for that device, so let's call it GPT, because that's what it is. If you run in legacy, you can use anything else, but booting into your Firmware using a modern PC requires that you format properly on your Windows install into GPT, according to the new rules, and not the old BIOs rules, but the new Firmware rules, so that clears that up. Learning the new Firmware is required and is not like the old BIOs we got used to, so take heed and proceed with a bit of steed, because it's a quite different approach we're taking and requires a different tactic.

You also don't even need a CD-ROM drive anymore, so don't worry about that, but you will need a Windows 11 copy from a USB stick, and upgrade into that, or install the Windows 10 upgrade into the Windows 11 upgrade on the new drive, and you should put it on a fresh drive, one that is new, per se, just to future proof it.

What you do in the Firmware settings is set your drive boot order to UEFI, if the drive is GPT, otherwise set to legacy to boot from that drive, and install Windows, and you're good to go. That's about all there is to it. You will also need to set your ram up in the Firmware, as ram settings are not set in stone, and you will also need to enable the ASUS Performance Enhancement, but that's it. It's really quite simple if you think about it.

Now I want to know what is holding you back? I told you everything I know...

This is not the old method, but the new method.

To clarify, all other drives can be in any format, but the Windows drive needs to be in GPT to boot into UEFI, otherwise you're going to boot into Legacy mode, but all other drives don't matter, so this is just the Windows install drive I'm referring to.

Do this however you want, but this is the task at hand. It's also possible to convert a drive over to GPT, and all you need to do is research on how to do it, and it's simply a task through the command prompt.

In the Firmware, you can manually toggle between Legacy and UEFI. Firmware is the new BIOs, since the old BIOs has been replaced with the new Firmware, just to clear up my speech and use of words and terms. And if you can do all that, then you can be free from everyone else practicing over you, and if your computer ever starts to reboot in a cycle, just replace the thermal paste on the processor, cause more than likely that's the complaint. And I already showed you how to diagnose a power supply issue, so you're all set. Those are the two major things which happen to computers, and now you know. Also, turning all your fans on high will stop that too.

I'll liberate each and every one of you, one by one. I'm Thor, the god of thunder, now hear me roar. You can boot that USB flash drive from the Firmware, just look for the boot option under bootable drives and install Windows and format your drives.

Now I want to know what is holding you back. I told you everything I know. If you can't get free, try as hard as me. I wouldn't fool around with XMP or D.O.C.P settings in the Firmware, as this can, along with overclocking your hardware lead to major issues such as locking your machine up to the point where it can't recover, but if this happens, then reset your CMOS battery, or clear the CMOS with the clear CMOS button if your mobo has one, or short the pin on the clear CMOS jumper and it should boot right back up, and make sure your machine is turned off while you do any of these things, along with being also unplugged and fully discharged. Fooling with memory settings can also have this effect, so be careful. Don't go too far and run at your rated speed. Ram will cause your system to become more stable or less stable depending on how it's configured, so it's important for stability that it's correctly tuned if tuned at all, so if you switch from the default setting, then make sure you know what you're doing as this can cause your system to become unstable. XMP and D.O.C.P fall under overclocking features and I'm not an OC kind of guy, so I don't use these features and run my at my rated speed, and for a boost, not an actual OC, that's when I activate the ASUS Peformance Enhancement feature, but you need to do it after setting your memory settings to its rated speed, and not the default speed to get the biggest boost in performance, but the CPU can be left at default, as the CPU runs as rated, and I know what it sounds like. It sounds kind of lame, but it's a decent performance clip and it's easy to achieve and it won't make your system fall apart under cruel weather.

Anyways, be good in all you do. Good luck with your new hardware choices and future endeavors. If everything else fails, you can always part your bricked machine in the corner of your room. Use it for a medicine cabinet or something useful, but anyways, good day.

In addition I will cover motherboard sizes and case details, which are needed to be known about. Motherboards come in small, medium and large and extra-large capacities. The larger the board the harder and more expert the board design, so always go with the largest board possible, because it's for the expert player, and we're all playing a game. On the case size, you will be needing an ATX case, and you want to make sure you pick either a full tower or a mid-tower, and most cases now are all mid-tower, which is fine, but I'm sure if you can afford one, and search around, you can still find a nice full tower ATX case to suit your needs, but a good mid-tower is better than a bad full tower, but a great full tower is better than a good mid-tower, so take your pick, but both will suffice, and my mid-tower is better than my old full tower, so there it is, but it has less space, but more fans, and always try to buy the case with the most fans possible, so six fans is nice. Three front, two top, and one in the back. You have the three intake fans in the front which pull air into the case, and the top two fans are exhaust fans which blow air out the top, and one back exhaust fan, so that's a good system to be searching for, because you want nice cooling and good airflow, but that about covers the basics of computer fundamentals and the basics of computer design principles.

This is a great place to start as far as your knowledge base is concerned even as a beginner as long as you've read part one and part two of my principles and design philosophies, and even as a beginner I would be trying to build the expert's motherboard, even though it's more difficult, but not by much.

Each of your parts should cost around $100-200.00 USD. Learn your manufactures and what they're good at and buy from those companies. A decent gaming rig should cost no more than 1-2k dollars to craft yourself. You can build cheaper than that or more expensive, but you don't need the top parts, so pull from the middle on most of your parts, and the top on the GPU, and it'll save you some cash. And don't buy cheap parts, so good quality parts only, but try to get a good deal on all your parts and it'll cut costs down quite a bit. You can build cheap and save money or expensive and waste money, so be careful. A well-designed system can perform at the top regardless, so don't waste all your money throwing it at top-of-the-line parts.