Install/Remove Expansion Cards

For Video cards - Most PC video cards these days are AGP. But you COULD be working with PCI, or PCI express. In the event you are not positive which you have (more than 75% of the time it will be AGP) consult your motherboard manual. If your video card is AGP, you ought to see a slot smaller than the other slots on your board, & it will be a different color. You can likely also tell your video card if it is a GPU (a processor with a fan on top of it) or a video card company printed on it like NVidia or GeForce.

To take out your video card in order to switch it for a newer, or if it fundamentally is not working, remove the screw first that holds it to the case. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE CARD UNTIL YOU HAVE UNSCREWED IT. You will destroy, possibly even destroy your card, & you may destroy your AGP, PCI or PCI express slot as well. Your board may then have a simple switch that holds the socket down. Flick this switch up. After the screw is removed, & the switch is flicked up, pull the card away from the board. Pull it on side first so when it comes out it comes out on a slant, kind of like an automobile reversing. It ought to come out fundamentally. To put in a used card, make positive the card you are putting in is properly lined up in the slot, then press the card in to the slot. If it doesn’t appear to go in, you may be putting it in the wrong way. The pathways on the side of the card ought to be the side that goes in to the motherboard slot (these pathways looking like little lines going up side of the card). time the card sinks in with a click (like RAM), flick the switch down & screw the card in to the place you unscrewed it. Start up your PC, make positive the card is working, and then put your case back on.

Sound card - Sound cards are simple, & the method for these can be used for any other card, such as network cards & the like (assuming they are all PCI. PCI are the black slots on your board). For installing/removing a PCI card, unscrew it from the board, pull it out, then put the new in, & screw it in. simple. In case you are having troubles, make positive the lines jogging up side of the card is the side going in to the slot. In case you still have troubles, try turning the card around (but still make positive the pathways are facing the slot).