Building My First PC Today! Advice please!

had some time and managed to sort out imageshack
here's the motherboard sort of installed!:
motherboard002.jpg

and here's the misalignment at the rear:
motherboard005.jpg

BTW just realise I've installed the stock cooler by mistake rather than the aftermarket cooler I purchased - doh!! So will have to go about removing that tomorrow! (although tempted to leave for the time being)
 
Have you put the cardboard rings (usually red) around the screws on the motherboard? Doesn't look like you have you can't have metal touching metal.

You need to move them stand-offs to the right holes behind your motherboard also, as far as I can see you only have it lined up with 3 holes? That isn't enough. They just twist out, and there should be other holes quite near them where they will screw into.

Thats why its not lining up properly.


Edit : I presume there was round head screws in the bag of screws that came with your motherboard? Use them on your motherboard and not them ones.
 
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Is the left-hand side all the way down? Looking at that second picture it looks like the mobo is not level.

Double-check your standoffs are fully screwed down into the motherboard tray.

Another thing to check is the tray itself isn't bowed. This happened to me with my CM Stacker a few years ago, it prevented my GPU from sitting in the PCI slot properly. Using some specialist tools and careful measurements I fixed it. [I wacked it with my elbow where I thought best! :P]. I won't recommend that particular "fix", though, just in case [aha] you break your case.
 
This is probably overkill but "if" you were statically charged at the time then you might damage the modules, thats the reason why you shouldn't touch the metal contacts.

If you have any isopropyl alcohol around you could clean the contacts again.

thats my 2 cents!

**edit, just noticed that you have the memory modules sloted in, i think if your running a duel channel you need to check that your memory is in the proper slots to get the correct performance.

also you should remove any extra screw holes on the casing tray that arent being used, i see three on the edge they are okay but any underneath might case problems.
 
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Bin Boy said:
This is probably overkill but "if" you were statically charged at the time then you might damage the modules, thats the reason why you shouldn't touch the metal contacts.

If you have any isopropyl alcohol around you could clean the contacts again.

thats my 2 cents!

**edit, just noticed that you have the memory modules sloted in, i think if your running a duel channel you need to check that your memory is in the proper slots to get the correct performance.

also you should remove any extra screw holes on the casing tray that arent being used, i see three on the edge they are okay but any underneath might case problems.
Click to expand...
Not really. Some motherboards have the dual channel colour next to each other the same so he could have black black white white.
 
Is it me or can I just see 3 screws holding the motherboard to the case (without the red rings too!). I'd have expected a lot more than that to have lined up to the holes in the case.

As Ben-Irvine asked previously, what case is it?

That's a great photo of your motherboard tho!
 
Only 3 screws holding it in - only seemed to be able to find 3 standoffs (see page 1 of this thread)
I haven't put any cardboard rings on the standoffs either!
Made sure I was grounded/earthed the whole time with anti-static mat and wrist band but am concerned I may have inadvertently touched the modules and maybe some other parts of the motherboard- anything I can do about this now??
The case is an Antec P183 and yes, maybe I should stick to photography lol
Oh and I'm sure the instructions said to group the RAM like that but will check tonight
Thanks everyone for their help so far
 
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You might want to check where those standoffs have gone. if there are any there that arent appearing on the motherboard you should remove/move them as they can short out and potentially damage the board.
 
96740156.jpg



Are you sure you only have three standoffs... I've highlighted two that dont line up with anything.

Unscrew all the standoffs, then replace ONLY the ones that line up with the holes on your motherboard (can be fiddly, maybe get a pencil, line up the motherboard with as many holes as you can, then mark the holes that line up making sure the motherboard doesnt touch the metal tray. Then put the standoffs in the marked holes and carry on...)

You shouldn't have any spare standoffs on the tray, and you DEFINITELY shouldn't have any spare standoffs sitting behind the motherboard that aren't being used.
 
You can worry about the memory configurations once you've sorted out the motherboard.

I tried to find a decent picture of the internals of a P183 but surprisingly I couldn't. You may want to take a few pics once you've taken the motherboard out and used the pencil tip suggested by StuPot.

Keep at it. Chin up. This isn't rocket science and keep asking away if you have any doubts. We all started with learner plates.
 
It does sound like a stand-off problem,

Have you put stand-offs in all holes on the tray??? Only place stand-off offs in the holes usually marked with "A" (assuming full ATX). The hole that's near the I/O is normally set back but I think a "B" placement in right underneath. This causes the board to rise in the corner and I've had this when I've not been thinking straight.
 
Word of warning on standoffs - I just built a PC using an ATCS 840 case which has a little template taped onto the motherboard tray showing where to put the standoffs for various formats of board. Only trouble was my actual motherboard's holes for standoffs didn't match. The ATCS-840 had me putting in an extra standoff where the motherboard didn't have a hole.

Do you have something like this going. Check the standoffs against the actual holes on the mobo. Also - had to use a lot of force to get the mobo's i/o plate in the cutout properly. I mean a LOT of force.
 
:P if u cant fit it in with the bk plat ...... just leave bk plat off .... as long as u know to be careful when plug-in the mouse/usb etc, that will be OK ..... unless its some0ne else,s or yur selling it

sometimes i like to check where the pw switch and re-set pins are .before i put the board in as sometimes ... it can be tricky when the bord is in to connect them up ...
 
the stand off in the top left corner is to high .. on that pic and the board itself is bent ....the chips only need a small bit of flex and they unsolder them self ...
 
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