Guide to Installing a New Video Card

Dark boy42 · Aug 8, 2008

This guide is to help you install that new video card that you bought.

Here is the layout of a basic motherboard:

(source: http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/CDE/MBOARD.GIF)

Step 1: Selecting a Video Card

There are 2 types of video cards. There is a PCI card, which fits most motherboards, and an AGP video card, which is newer, fits less motherboards, but is more powerful than PCI.

Step 2: Removing your current video card.

First, disconnect your monitor. Place your computer tower on a table or workbench, because if you work on a carpet, you are in danger of frying your motherboard from static shock. Next, take off your computer tower's casing. After you can see the inside, put it on it's side so that the exposed side is up. Remember to remove all static electricity from your body before continuing. Look on the back of your computer and find where your monitor cable was plugged in. This is what you are looking for:

(source: http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/hatasa/kurosio/pages/monitor_port.jpg)

Look on the other side of that port, inside your computer. That's your video card. Unscrew it, unplug it, and put it to the side. Remember to keep the screw(s) in a safe spot.

Step 3: Installing your New Video Card

Use the diagram toward the top of my post to locate the correct slot for your new video card. Slide it into the correct slot gently. Screw the card into place, and attach the old wires to it. Seal your computer back up, and you have just installed a new video card.

"This looked a lot bigger writing it"

~Dark