Setup guide K7N420pro the way I did it(Written by Bas)

Question

Setup guide K7N420pro the way I did it
Hi there, (revised 19-march-2002, thanks Glenn!)
This article describes how I build my K7N420pro system and how to make it stable.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DISCHARGED ANY STATIC ELECTRICITY FROM YOUR BODY BEFORE HANDLING ANY COMPONENTS.
It is recommended to use an antistatic wristband if you have one.
When you remove the motherboard from the packaging, put the board on a table with some cardboard under it, make sure there is no metal stuff under it (that can cause shorts and unnecessary posts on this forum)
Clear the CMos first, this is done by setting the jumper JBAT to position 2-3 for 5 seconds, then put it back to position 1-2.
(Check the board for pin 1 of this jumper as some manuals have an error on this!!!) Just remember to refer to the printing on the motherboard itself and keep in mind that pins 1&2 are default settings for any 3 pin jumper configuration.
Check the CPU socket for the little yellow-stripe, bend it carefully in such a manner that it will make contact with the CPU. (I think he's talking about the the temp sensor here, I do not recommend bending or even touching this sensor unless for some reason it was mashed into the mobo. If you must, make sure your fingers are dry or cleaned with alcohol to remove any hand oils)
Now insert the CPU into the socket, very little pressure is needed, if any. It fit's only 1 way!!!
(do not apply thermal paste yet)
Remove the pink-stuff on the heatsink if it's on there, and clean it with alcohol or nail polish remover. If you use Nail polish remover give it a once over with alcohol to cut any moisturizers that may have been added. Nail polish remover will work on some thermal pads where alcohol would only prepare it for surgery.
Now check very carefully how the Cooler must be mounted!!!
Take your time and do a test run (do not apply thermal paste yet) by attaching the front clip first by holding the hs/fan assembly above the cpu with one of your fingers holding the tension clip down and hooking it on the front plastic clip and then resting the heatsink on the cpu's rubber pads (it is not necessary to fasten the other retaining clip, remember this is a trial run).
This way you can see how it fits and you can make sure there is enough clearance from any components. You can do this a couple of times, this way when you have applied the thermal paste, set the heatsink down and fasten the clip, there will be minimal movement between the die and the heatsink, wich can squeeze too much thermal paste out of position and create air pockets. Then there's that problem of cracking the die.
Put some silver-grease on the die of the CPU, follow the directions from Arctic Silver.
After you have done this connect the fan connector to the CPUFAN1 header, but only if it's a normal 4000-6000RPM cooler, if it's a High-speed-fan connect it directly to the powersupply!!!!
Now make sure jumper SW2 is set to Auto-mode.
Short the jumpers JA1 if you want the sound to come from the connectors near the parallel-port.
Put the ram-stick(s) on the board in slot1&2, press them firmly until the plastic-clips click into them.
Check your powersupply and make sure it can handle the power needed by this board and the CPU, most good 300W will do.
Check the case for the metal-spacers you need between the board and the case, make very sure that they are all placed right and that there are not too many!!!!
Now you are ready to place the board into the case....
Connect all the other stuff and power the system ONLY after you double checked everything.
Make sure that the harddisk flat-cable is connected with the blue connector to the board.
When it starts, go into the BIOS and load the BIOS Setup Defaults, after that goto the Frequency/Voltage Control section and only change the CPU FSB/DRAM/AGP Clock setting to this:
Duron -> 100/266/66 or 100/200/66
Athlon 200FSB -> 100/266/66 or 100/200/66
Athlon 266FSB -> 133/266/66
Athlon XP -> 133/266/66
Goto advanced BIOS Features and Disable APIC (it's mostly disabled by default)
Change the boot sequence to:
First boot device Floppy
Second Boot device CDrom
Third Boot device HDD-0
(After your OS is setup you can just setup your First Boot Device as HDD-0 and disable the others. Actually I just use First Boot Device and toggle to what I need as I go, you will have to monitor your OS installation at first untill the first reboot, you must enter the BIOS and switch it from the CD/ROM to the HDD-0 or it will loop.)
Goto the Integrated Peripherals section MCP OnChip PCI device and disable/enable what you need or don't need.
Now save the stuff and put your Win2000 (or XP) CDrom into the first CDrom drive you have.
Let it boot and create your partitions, it's best to format your system drive to FAT32 (NTFS is slower) and make sure it's not bigger then 32GB or you can't format it FAT32 under Win2000 (don't know about XP). I would recommend FAT32 over NTFS on both 2000 and XP. (Some people will disagree with me)
Make sure you use an account name with normal characters, so don't use 臄 or whatever, or you may/will get into trouble installing drivers.
After Win2000 (XP) has been installed, install ServicePack2 and Dirtectx 8.1 for Win2000 (XP has those allready).
Stay away from using the drivers on the disk supplied.
Then install the nForce 1.0 ref-drivers, can be downloaded from MSI or
http://www.nvidia.com/
After this you should be able to rock-and-roll
When you have problems with certain devices, you could try the BIOS 2.3, but don't use the LiveBIOS to do this, read my other article on "How to flash a BIOS"
Written by Bas

Answer 1

i cant get my computer to play any high end games like alice or unreal or any thing like that or Madden NFL 2003 i have windows 2000 was working with xp home my computer restarts every time. tell me some thing it restarted with xp as well some games take me back to desk top :O