P55A-UD4 and oddity of networking???

[Searcher1]

Hi All especially DM

A little late I finished building this box only today ~ pleased to say other than a little head scratching all seems to have gone well but now for the need to for some extra feedback???

Right I installed all my drives (what the heck is a "simple drive") i.e. one drive partitioned for OS and the other for programs and two other HDDs for data etc

Installed the Intel chipset drivers, Audio drivers, LAN drivers, my Dell monitor driver and the graphics card driver (for the record the board has BIOS F11 and the most current is F15 ?)

Connected up my network cable to the Router and now have the following issue:-

W7 Pro says no network access or present

The Router shows this build as a device with an allocated IP address ~ I have not got any default firewall setting blocking new devices (or at least I am sure about this???)

I can access my NAS via its GUI in IE8 but cannot find it using the network  \\name method  NB Though I have yet to 'install' my HP wireless printer it is shown as being there in the Network device search i.e. the wireless in the Router is finding it under W7

Thinking it might be my NOD Firewall and Security software I tried disabling it but this did not help???

This is all under Admin login

So IMO this is so very odd unless I have missed something so basic I can not see it for the looking???

TIA for any insight?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Searcher1,

Obviously there is not a hardware problem with your new build or you wouldn't be able to access your NAS at all so therefore it is just a configuration problem. Make sure that you have all the necessary drivers installed and then check your settings.

By the way I thought that everyone knew a simple drive  is just one that is not very clever!!

[Searcher1]

Hi Searcher1,

Obviously there is not a hardware problem with your new build or you wouldn't be able to access your NAS at all so therefore it is just a configuration problem. Make sure that you have all the necessary drivers installed and then check your settings.

By the way I thought that everyone knew a simple drive  is just one that is not very clever!!

Hi DM

Yes settings for sure ~ seems like I will have to step through the IPCONFIG release/refresh and likely put this W7 build on a fixed IP in the DHCP range and other advice I have suggests I may need to amend the "hosts" file.

As for the drives ~ well is this W7 dumbing down??? 

What threw me was the unallocated partition of the boot drive when you click and all it offers if to make siad "simple disk" it says something like 'this is only for single drives....' and this to me meant physical drive then the penny dropped and ths size showing in the dialogue was the partition size - doh!    As for the other physical drives a 500GB and 1TB W7 offers to initialise as MBR or GPID (have I recalled that last set of iniitials right???) I did both as MBR

I will post back once I have the network/internet access sorted with how I did in case it helps others???

[Dark Mantis]

Actually I think you meant GPT - Gui Partitioning Table not GPID which is a Mac thing.

[Searcher1]

Actually I think you meant GPT - Gui Partitioning Table not GPID which is a Mac thing.

I suspect you are right though I was wracking my brains as I thought there was MBR and the other 'set' was 4 initial letters???

[Dark Mantis]

You are not thinking of UEFI are you. That is what is taking over from the BIOS. It stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. The GPT is a part of it.

[Searcher1]

You are not theinking of UEFI are you. That is what is taking over form the BIOS. It stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. The GPT is a part of it.

Hmmm! no it definitley started with a G 

[Searcher1]

Success update as typing on the new PC now 

I did it by these steps in case it helps anyone else

1) Tried the simple step to start with of ipconfig /release then renew - this allowed me to use the NAS 'name' to link to it.

2) But the Internet was still a closed book - I setup the IP manually rather than reply on the Routers DHCP and whoopie the internet came alive...............trying this now don't you know  But the NAS was by 'name' lost so did the ping and the IP gave the GUI but 'name' failed and as I now had a static IP #1 above would do work! Oh! needed the NetBIOS set to Enable because of the use of the static IP.

3) So had to edit the LMHOSTS file to include the IP and the 'name' of the NAS however you command of nbtstat -R fialed with a failure to purge remark. But on the WINS tabd advanced button there is an "Import LMHOSTS file" button and that did the biz, so fully up and running.

All the W7 updates done

Now need to make a layer of security by not using the Admin account for daily stuff ~ I found this thread over at DPreview about how to setup the second account http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...9&changemode=1 does this make sense especially the method in the third post from the bottom of that thread

Edit - need to check my front panel connections as the power LED and HDD activity LED are not lit i.e. the plugs are the wrong way round doh!

So if you can now comment about the User Account method mentioend above that would be very welcome

[Dark Mantis]

Edit - need to check my front panel connections as the power LED and HDD activity LED are not lit i.e. the plugs are the wrong way round doh!

Hey wish I had a pound for every time I have had to turn them round.

So I was right then it was just a matter of configuring it. Anyway great work getting it all going now.

The more security layers the better as long as you don't get bogged down in them.

[Searcher1]

Thanks 

Yes pleased I am up and running again ~ just finished sorting the errant LED plugs and whilst I had the case open pulled the HDD cage to realign the SATA cables to get a less agled cable run 

W7 is the only OS I have felt the need to think more carefully about "user account vs admin access" so can you comment about the method, as I have not done it yet, I posted the link to???

Incidently ref the row of LEDs on the motherboard that all light up from a cold start.  If the manual it makes reference to the utility Dynamic Energy Saver 2 if you wish to enable these Phase LEDs in normal operation, is that the only way to see them lit as granted I have yet to put any major load on the CPU but they are once booted unlit......so is the DES2 utility one worth installing???

[Dark Mantis]

Personally I would advise you not to. Most of these programs/utilities are just gimmiky and can cause you more headaches than enough. Besides who really needs a board that looks like a Christmas tree all the time.