Installing a graphics card

Once your computer has successfully shut down, you will want to remove the power lead from the back of the PC. With all ATX model PC's the power still runs through the mainboard even though it is switched off. This is because the power button is not a physical switch it is a soft switch which sends a signal instead of making the connection its self. Anyway its the best idea to make sure that the power is fully disconnected from the PC. 

You can now remove the case and begin to unscrew the old graphics card from the motherboard and case. Making sure you are earthed properly Remove the old graphics card and place it inside and anti-static bag. Now take your new card and place into the correct slot depending of the type of the card. Shown in part one. 

Screw the card down into place and make sure the card is properly seated in the slot. This is especially important with AGP cards as they can decide that they don't want to work unless seated near perfectly. To check this look at the base of the card and make sure it is all the way down in the slot and level. It certainly wont work if one side is sticking up. The gold connectors on the bottom of the card should be barely showing. Don't put the case back on just yet, but connect the power back up and switch the computer on to check that the PC boots correctly. If this is the case then you are OK to put the case back on. Switch of the PC and replace the case If you encounter a series of beeps, the chances are that the card is not seated correctly in the slot. 

Should you encounter the beeps, unplug the power and remove the card again. Either blow lightly into the slot or use some compressed air to blow on the slot. Replace the card and try it all over again. 9 times out of 10 this will fix the problem. If it doesn't. Try it once more and then either try the card in another machine or get onto technical support and the company you bought it from. Some cards do arrive faulty so it may not be your fault. If the beeps are still present with the old graphics card replaced then head over to BIOS Beep Codes to find out what these beeps are telling you

When the PC has booted correctly Windows should detect the new hardware. Unfortunately windows cant hold information for every card in its database and it would never be able to keep track of all the new drivers. So you card may be described as a PCI or AGP display adapter. This is especially true for Nvidia cards. This is nothing to be concerned about just carry on as instructed until windows boots up. Different setup's give different results at this point. For instance your display could look massive and have only 16 colour displayed. Again nothing to worry about. 

Now is the time to run the CD that would of come with your graphics card. This will have a setup program on it to setup the Drivers and utilities for the card. If your card only came with Drivers and no setup utility you will have to install the card manually.

Manually adding the graphics card.

If you are new to this then you may think that this sounds rather difficult. Let me assure you though that it really isn't that hard. Windows does make it rather easy for you. First thing to do is get to the system properties screen as described in part 1.

Once you have arrived at this screen open the Display adapters branch and check to see if there is a card installed. You should see a Standard Display adapter or something similar. Right click on the installed card and select "Properties" from the menu. You will then be presented with the properties for the installed graphics drivers. You want to select the Driver tab from the 3 Tab buttons at the top. You should then be presented with the screen below.

Once at this screen Press the update driver button.

 The next screen will ask you weather you want to search for the driver or specify where the drivers are located. Select the search option. The computer will then ask where you want to search for the driver. Select the floppy disk, CD-ROM option. Make sure that the driver disk whether it be on floppy or CD is actually in the drive before continuing from this point. Once you press "next" the computer will begin searching for the driver that best fits the card you have just placed inside the machine. After a few seconds it will display a message with the driver it has found. This should be the driver you are looking for. It will also give you the option to keep the current driver. Only use that option if the one windows recommends is nothing like the card you have just installed. If it doesn't find the correct driver go back to stage 1 and this time select specify the location of the driver, you will then have to find it manually on the disk. This should be easy enough if there is not too much to sieve through. Once you have entered a directory that has a driver in it. It will be displayed on the left hand side of the window and be available for selection. Now simply let the driver install and restart your machine. You may find that you have to set the size and colour settings of your monitor again. This is normal.

Back to Part 1 - Removing the old card