Computer Problems I Had Building A New System!
The first problem I had was making sure I had everything to do the build. Most everything I had bought via internet. I did buy most everything, but there was a few things I forgot about. One was a modem...(duh!) I went to town and bought one, and a flat screen, and a memory card. (I had a card on order, but it hadn't came in with the system.)
Most everything went as planned in the build until I tried starting it for the first time, and nothing happened! The tiny Front Panel Header is where I got things mixed up. You have to put them in the correct order using the Motherboard manual, and I thought I had, but they were wrong 3 times before I figured them out!
It's ALIVE!!!!! It finally turned on and I followed the onscreen commands to install Windows XP, and everything took a while to load in, but it finally did.
I had to get Windows "Authenticated" and online didn't work. I had to call and put the codes in...annoying!!! Then I found a lot of my other expensive programs had similar problems, since it wasn't the same system they were originally installed on. Those were annoying!
I finally got everything configured and problem free...except for one very annoying problem described below!
Unknown Device Problem – Unknown PCI Device Found
I was having this problem for months! Every time I turned on my computer, this Unknown PCI Device window would pop up automatically, wanting me to install the drivers for it.
When I let Windows XP try to install the drivers automatically, Windows couldn’t find a driver for it...Please insert CD with the proper driver didn’t work either! This is because I had no idea what the PCI card was that it was detecting.
So I did what a normal person would, I uninstalled all of my PCI cards one at a time until I had none inside the case except for the video card to see the screen. Deleting all of the drivers for those cards during the process…nothing helped. All I do know is that when I first installed Windows XP, the Unknown Device wasn’t there trying to get installed.
Since I couldn’t find a driver for a device I couldn’t figure out what it was, I assumed it was on the Motherboard somewhere, so I installed the newest Mobo drivers, but still that Unknown Device was there.
All my cards went back inside the case, and everything was working fine except for that annoying Unknown Device Window constantly showing up at every restart of my computer.
Like I said, it has been 4 months since I’ve been having this problem, and I tried finding help all over the internet, but nothing helped!
Well, I got to thinking the other day about it being the Motherboard causing the problem, so I checked my book in the Bios section. I thought I’d change my boot settings, (because for some reason, my computer booted from a floppy, and I don’t have one yet), to change it to CD/HD/F, (CD then Hard Drive then Floppy detect.) I thought I already had but it wasn’t set properly.
So I was still looking thru the book and got to this section on Integrated Devices, and Onboard Devices, and there was something there that I had to change anyway. Onboard Sound was enabled, and if I had a PCI Sound Card I was supposed to disable this item. So I did, and it fixed my Unknown Device Problem!!!!
That was the device it kept detecting, and it was a fluke finding it. I wasn’t going to mess with BIOS, because if you don’t know what you are doing you can ruin your system. I know a lot of people who overclock and such, but it is dangerous if you don’t know how. So I was scared to try resetting much of anything, but it doesn’t hurt to read your manual from back to front to find something as simple as I did that creates such an annoying problem for people new to building their dream machine!
If you are having this same problem, please read your Motherboard Manual, and find out how to get into Bios from it. It sure helps knowing that you are not alone in such problems as these!
Unknown PCI Device ….Case Solved!