Installing Sound and Video Cards under Windows XP

an article added by: Justine Mccain at 06162007



In: Categories » Computers and technology » Windows XP » Installing Sound and Video Cards under Windows XP

Installing a sound card or video card is much like adding any other adapter card to your PC. If you’re installing a sound card, make sure that you connect the audio cable from your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive (Step 5); if you’re installing a video card, make sure that you pick the right AGP or PCI slot (Step 7). Follow these steps:

  

1. Cover your work surface with several sheets of newspaper.

2. Unplug your PC and place it on top of the newspaper.

3. Remove the screws on the back of the case and slide the case off, saving the screws for later.

4. To dissipate static electricity, touch a metal surface before handling any cards or touching your PC’s motherboard. For example, touch the PC’s metal chassis I shudder to think of what I’ll do if anyone develops a fiberglass computer case.

5. If you’re installing a new sound card, check for a thin audio cable connected from your old sound card to your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive; if you find one, disconnect the cable from the old sound card.

6. Remove the screw holding the adapter card that you’re upgrading and pull upward to remove it. Don’t forget to put the screw in your spare parts box and put the old adapter card in an anti-static bag for safekeeping. (I use the bag left behind by the new card.) Some AGP card slots have plastic tabs that act as a locking mechanism. Just bend the tab gently with your finger, and you should be able to remove the existing AGP card.

7. Locate the adapter card slot that matches the card that you’re installing. An AGP video card can fit only in a dedicated AGP slot, but a PCI video adapter or sound card should fit in any open slot. Naturally, if the upgrade card uses the same type of slot as the card that it’s replacing, use the empty slot that you’ve just opened up.

8. Pick up the adapter card by the top corners and line up the bottom connector on the card with the slot on the motherboard, making sure that the card’s metal bracket aligns properly with the opening in the back of the PC.

9. After the card is aligned, apply even pressure to the top of the card and push it down into the slot.

10.Place the screw in the corresponding hole in the bracket and tighten it down.

11.If you’re installing a sound card and you disconnected a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM audio cable from the old card, reconnect the cable from your drive to the new card. Check the manual for the card to determine where the CD/DVD audio connector is located; this is a standard connector, so it should be easy to track down.

12.Place the cover back on your PC and replace the screws that you saved from Step 3.

13.Plug your PC back in and turn it on.

14.Run the installation disc that came with your upgrade card or load the driver disc when prompted by Windows.

legal notice

Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Web-articles is a free articles resource.
Suggestion: If you need fresh, daily updated content for your website, feel free to use our service. Click here for more information.

Useful tools and features

Installing Sound and Video Cards under Windows XP  
If you like this article (tutorial), please link to it from your web page using the information above.

related articles

1. How to setup a local network in Windows XP
LOCAL NETWORK PROBLEMS Any time two or more computers and their related devices are under the same roof, they should probably connect to one another through a etwork. Networking allows users to share files and printers and to share access to the Internet through a common modem or broadband connection. Windows XP includes tools and wizards that make it relatively simple to set up a network, but a network is always more complicated than an isolated, stand-alone computer. Network problems don’t oft...

2. Windows XP activation and hardware problems
Not every computer failure is caused by a software issue. Many problems that appear to be related to Windows are actually caused by some kind of hardware malfunction or by a conflict between two or more incompatible hardware components inside the computer. This article describes many of the most common problems that you might encounter when you try to add, move, or change a component inside your computer. Most of these problems have relatively easy solutions if you know where to look. Finding and fixing hardware problems requ...

3. Installing a New Hard Drive on Windows XP Professional
Hard drives are a special case. On a cost- per-bit basis, drives are cheap and getting cheaper all the time. When a drive fails, the cost of replacing the physical device is relatively small, but the data stored on the old drive is often irreplaceable. So you shouldn’t throw away an apparently broken drive until you have done everything possible to recover the data, and you shouldn’t do anything to the drive that might erase or damage any more data. When your boot drive (almost always the C: dri...

4. How to recover data from a corrupted hard drive using Windows XP Pro
Recovering Your Data Unless the physical platters inside the drive are severely damaged, it’s probably possible to recover the data from a bad drive. In extreme cases, you might need to send the drive to a very expensive recovery service that will take the drive apart in a clean room environment and replace the damaged parts, but it can be done. Before you spend that money, try the techniques in this section to read your files with special recovery software. The most important thing to ...

5. How to move a hard drive to a new computer under Windows XP
Moving a Hard Drive to a New Computer Moving an old drive to a new computer is often the best way to continue using the same data after you start using the new machine. However, it’s often not possible to use the old drive as the boot drive (the C: drive) on your new computer. You can’t just drop the old drive into the new box and use the Windows software that you installed on the old computer. Unless the old and new computers are exactly the same make and model or they use exactly the same m...

6. Adding more RAM under Windows XP
Hard drives aren’t the only parts of a computer that can fail. Memory modules, the central processor, the motherboard, the power supply, and all of the peripheral devices that allow the computer to exchange data with the rest of the world can stop working properly. Obviously, troubleshooting a memory module is very different from trying to fix a mouse or a keyboard, so this article contains specific advice about fixing many of the most common devices and components in and around your computer. Memory ...

7. Mouse, Keyboard, Motherboard and Power Supply Problems
Replacing the Motherboard Installing a new motherboard is the computer equivalent of a brain trans- plant. It’s major surgery that replaces the central components that control everything the computer does. Obviously, you won’t perform a motherboard swap very often, but if you are a truly dedicated hardware geek and you’re not afraid to tear the whole computer apart, it can be done. Just follow the instructions that come with motherboard, take your time, and double-check all the li...

8. Using a printer on Windows XP Professional
Printer Problems Printers are mechanical devices controlled by computers, so they can suffer from the worst of both worlds: mechanical failures and bad data. When a printer fails to produce the document you expect, or the document doesn’t look the way you expected it to look, you should look for both types of problems. Restart the Printer Sometimes the printer’s options and configuration settings will return to the correct values after you turn off the printer ...

9. Windows XP Professional technical support
You’ve tried all the troubleshooting tech- niques in this article, but nothing seems to solve your particular problem. The computer still displays an unhelpful error message every time you turn the thing on, and you have replaced everything except the screws that hold the case together. There’s nothing about this problem in the user manual or the online Knowledge Base, and a Google search only produces pleas from other people who are facing the same problem. Now what? It’s time to ask for help...

10. Creating a backup of your system under Windows XP
As painful as it might be to admit, some Windows problems just won’t go away. In spite of everything you have tried, everything suggested by local computer experts, the manufacturer’s technical support center, and the combined wisdom of the Internet, your computer continues to display symptoms of a serious problem. Neither the Windows Knowledge Base nor any of the advice in this article contains anything that does much good. At some point in the process of troubleshooting, the amount of wasted time an...