Some final preparations before installing replacement mobo

[Toshiro]

I finally got the new motherboard and video card for my eMachines. I've got a wee problem and a few questions...

First off... my case wires for Power LED, HDD LED and Soft Power switch. They each have one colored (red, green or black) wire, and a white wire. Which one is negative, which is positive? There doesn't seem to be any + or - markings on the wires.

Second... I'm not sure if my PSU is still alive (I'm 98% sure it is, though), but it doesn't have a hard switch and needs to be connected through a properly-hooked-up motherboard and turned on via soft power switch... If my PSU is dead or messed up, could it possibly ruin anything? If it's dead I assume nothing would happen (besides some swearing and explaining I also need a new power supply, ugh).

Same with my RAM. I don't know if it's good still (no burnt smell and close inspection shows nothing looks wrong, and am about 95% sure the RAM's fine), but if my RAM is messed up in some way, would it potentially damage the mobo, or would it just not work?

Now, my mobo's manual says (in stylish choppy English) to install the AGP card and everything during initial installation. It should automatically disable onboard video, correct? Should I check in BIOS before the comp tries to load XP just to make sure?

Oh and one last thing.... my CPU and heatsink still have a good amount of thermal paste on them (I don't think anything's been touched or wiped off), but have been stuck and unstuck from eachother several times. Is it imperative that I clean them and get more paste, or should it be fine as it is?

 

[Nubius]

You need to get your motherboards instruction manual to properly connect the Power switch etc.. wires to your motherboard. I'm not sure how your motherboard is setup but usually the name on the plastic tip of the wires points away from the center of the motherboard when they are connected. That'll line up the positive and negative usually and you should see the jumpers colored with atleast a positive sign through it to indicate wether that jumper pin is negative or positive. My explination was kind of bad but I hope that helps somewhat. I guess the only way to test out the power supply is to hook it up and the ram, if they don't work your computer won't boot up. Yeah I would say you should just go into the BIOS and double check to make sure the onboard AGP is off and to make sure your graphics aperture is at max etc... and yeah its best to clean off the heatsink and cpu and reapply thermal compound, but you shouldn't be taking it off repeatedly because it takes a couple months for it to solidify to its final 'form' I guess you could say. Goodluck

 

[Toshiro]

My motherboard and it's manual has the indicators for positive and negative labelled by the pins... and if the named side of the wire's connector faces outward, then that would mean that the colored wires are the positive ones...? so thanks that's solved!

I've tried keeping the CPU stuck to the heatsink as much as possible... I'm gonna stick with the existing paste for now, as I'm broke and it's a long ride out of town to the nearest place that would have the stuff. That, and I don't do anything too extraineous with the comp, so it shouldn't get too hot anyway.

I should be doing the work soon (I've got lots to do now that school's back in...).