First power-up...help!

march10k

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Apr 20, 2009
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18,510
I just assembled my first computer last night. It got to late to do more than install and connect everything. This morning, before work, I tentatively took a few steps...I plugged in the PSU and turned it on. So far, so good, I have lights to the PSU and the cmos reset on the back of the case, so the mobo has power. Next, I hit the power button...fans spin up with a whoosh, and the power LED lights up at the front of the case. What a relief, I know I plugged one lead in correctly! So I shut it down and have breakfast. On the way out the door, I plug in the monitor from my old computer and fire her up again (I'm bringing home a wired keyboard tonight, since I'm sure the wireless one from the old puter won't work until install drivers...oops!).

It starts to start up and immediately dies...I hate the power button on my ATSC 840, it gives you no feedback at all on whether it's on or off...I think I just didn't hit the button hard enough, and it lost power as soon as I let go. So I press more firmly and hold for half a second to make sure it's on. Woohoo, fans, lights, a nice gigabyte Ultra Durable 3 badge on the screen...then (I don't have the OS disc installed, since I don't have a keyboard hooked up, and therefore have no hope of going anywhere this morning), uh-oh. I get something along the lines of "CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR" and something about recovering the BIOS (thank God for dual BIOS)...and it restarts after a few seconds.

I have this vague idea, this being my first build, that there isn't anything wrong, per se, that I just need to have a keyboard plugged in so I can run through the BIOS and set things up. Is that really all there is to it? Or is this something serious?

I have a GA-EX58-UD5...not sure what other components are relevant here...
 

march10k

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Apr 20, 2009
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18,510
Well...Interestingly enough, even though error reporting was set on "all but keyboard", plugging in a keyboard solved the issue...now I've got windows installing. It's unpacking at a rate of about .3% a minute...blech!