(^244) PC Hardware: A Beginner’s Guide
- Turn off the computer’s power and remove the AC power cord from the outlet.
- Open or remove the system case, depending on the case design of the PC.
- Identify an available slot of the appropriate expansion bus. Remember
expansion cards are manufactured to fit the slot style of a certain bus structure.
If the PC is fairly recent, as well as the card, more than likely either an ISA or
PCI slot is what is needed. An older 8-bit card will fit into an ISA 16-bit slot.
To make room for the card, you may need to rearrange the existing cards. - Remove the screw holding in the metal slot cover for the slot in which you will
be inserting the new expansion card. Hang onto the screw; you’ll need it to
secure the expansion card. - Before inserting the card, read its documentation to verify its configuration
and settings. It is very hard to set DIP switches and jumpers once the card is
inserted into a slot and fastened down. - Handle expansion cards only by their edges and avoid touching their circuit
side (the one with the electronic stuff on it), their pin side (the backside), or the
edge connector. That doesn’t leave much, I know, but the to pand side edges
do give you enough of the card to hold. - Insert the card by aligning it to the slot (refer to Figure 11-14) and then, with
steady pressure, press the card into the slot. You may need to rock it very
slightly, front to rear, to get it to settle into the slot. Don’t force it. It should be
snug, but you can also damage the slot or the card, or both, by forcing the card
into the slot too fast and too hard. As you work, keep the card from rubbing or
touching other cards already installed. Figure 11-18 shows how to align the
card to the slot, but Figure 11-19 represents a more realistic situation. - When it is evenly and securely in the slot, fasten the card with the slot screw.
- You may want to plug the PC in and test it for a very short while with the system
case covers off. This way if there is a problem, it is a much shorter path back to
where you are. When you are sure all is well, replace the system case cover.
Troubleshooting Expansion Cards
If you get an error relating to an expansion card, it will most likely be right after you’ve
installed it, but errors can come at any time. Immediately after you install any new hard-
ware, you run the risk of getting a boot or POST error that indicates a possible expansion
card problem. If you don’t get boot errors, the new device or card (or another device or
card) may not perform as it should. If either of these situations should occur, there are
three possible scenarios: a bad connection, system resource conflicts, or the new or old
card is bad.