Repair and Upgrade How-to's

Repair and Upgrade How-to's

by Coral1

Below are the basic steps for replacing and/or upgrading different components in your system.

Common steps

While there is no way I can stop you from learning the hard way, do yourself a favor and get into the habit of following these initial steps when working on hardware projects.These should be considered as the de facto first steps before doing any work.

1)Get the latest drivers -- While using the included drivers or the ones that Windows has, will get you up and running, save yourself a step and go to the web site of the device you are installing and get the latest drivers for it. Get them setup and ready to go, so when you get the "New Hardware" notif, you can point to them.

2) RTM -- Read the manual or instructions all the way through first. This will alert you if there is anything you need to watch out for (you also might want to pray that whoever wrote it, knew what they were doing).
I don't care how many times you have done something, nothing is more irritating than having gone part way through a job, and then having to undo it. Then reading the instructions to figure out what is wrong. Just because some yammer head wanted to do something different.

3) Ground Yourself -- ESD (Electro Static Discharge) is a real component killer. A charge small enough that you don't feel it, will take out that new "whatever" you just bought yourself with the kids collage fund. Touching a bare metal part of the case while it is plugged into an AC outlet, will usually do the trick (system does not have to be turned ON). And anti-static mats and/or straps are not that expensive anymore.

4) Unplug it -- After grounding yourself, be sure to take the power cord out of the PSU or unplug it from the wall socket. All ATX PSU's supply a small amount of power to the mobo even when it is OFF. A "hot mobo" is first cousin to ESD, and will kill something just as fast.

5) Additional tips: Laying a tower style computer on its side will make most project work much easier.

BACKUP anything you don't want to risk losing. Stuff happens.

Return to Top.

Opening the case

The older, run of the mill, mini-tower case has 6 screws on the back of the computer <if no one has already been into it and left some out>. 3 along each side, top to bottom. I have also seen one in the top center. These screws are usually a 1/4 inch hex head (6.3mm), with a medium (#2)Phillips screwdriver slot in them. Take these screws out. then you either have to lift the back of the cover up about an inch (2-3cm) and pull straight back OR slide it backwards a short distance, and lift it off, OR a combination of both.

Looking closely at the bottom inside edges of the case cover, you can see some kind of channel, or some tabs, that need to fit into the main chassis when you put things back together. Desktop, full-tower, and sever cases are basically the same, with minor variations to keep you from getting bored.

Newer cases usually have separate side panels that may or may not have a screw holding them. Some are simple "slip-n-click" or "tool-less". They either lean out from the top, or you have to slide the panel backwards a little to get it to come off. Some server cases have key locks on them. These have a hinge. Some of the trick custom cases are hinged also, though they usually do not have locks on them.

The fun ones are where they hide the screws. These can usually be found by GENTLY prying off a clip-on front cover and locating the screws, and then sliding the cover off the front of the case. I have also found screws behind stickers and under the rubber case standoffs <laptops are very fond of doing this, but they are a whole other headache>.

NOTE:
I keep old flathead screwdrivers of different sizes around to help pry carefully on case covers that are stubborn.

Return to Top.

Video card

You could just take out the old card and put in the new one, then load the drivers for it. It will probably even work without giving you any problems.

BUT... (there is always a But) there is a chance that the OS will get confused and not know which driver to use (XP likes this trick). So to minimize problems: you should uninstall the cards tweak program(s) and then delete the video card from Device Manager and exit out. Now Shut Down the system. After grounding yourself, unplugging the power cord, and opening the case, what you do next depends on which video card you have.

1. 1) PCI and ISA -- Loosen the 2 screws that hold the monitor cable to the video card. Locate and remove the screw for the mounting bracket that is holding the card in the slot. Grab the card by the top-rear corner and the top-front corner. Any place you can get a clear finger hold. DO NOT rock it side to side. You can crack the slot, and that is something you want to avoid. Always rock the card front to back (the same direction as the slot). If it is still stuck, you can use your thumb to push "in and up" where the cable plugs in. I have found this works pretty good.

   Then take the new card out of the anti-static bag and put it in the same slot. If you are upgrading from ISA to PCI, PCI to AGP, or AGP to PCI-E, then put it in the correct type of slot. Put the mounting bracket screw back in, then the monitor cable and snug down its screws. Plug the system back in, and turn it ON, boot into the BIOS, and change any video settings that need to be changed.

   Save settings and reboot into Windows. When you get the New Hardware prompt, point it to the drivers and follow the remaining instructions. After setting the Resolution and Refresh Rate (if needed), and everything seems to be working fine, then you can replace the case cover.

2. 2) AGP -- The act of removing and installing AGP cards is the same as above. However (you thought I was going to say "but" again, didn't you?), there are certain things you need to be aware of.

   There are 4 different "speeds" of AGP: 1x - 2x - 4x - 8x. You need to check that the card and your mobo are compatible. Because:

   There are 3 different voltage requirements between the 1x to 8x cards: 3.3v - 1.5v - 0.8v. Even though they finally started "keying" the cards and slots, if you do manage to put a high voltage card in a low voltage slot (or visa versa), you have a fairly good chance of frying the video card, the mobo, or both.

3. 3) PCI-E -- Officially called PCI-Express. The newest bus type for addon cards. Comes in 1x, 4x, 8x, and 16x flavors. For video cards you will want 8x or 16x. Pretty much a straight forward process to install cards (see PCI). But as of this writing, it is only a little over a year old. Give them some time to make it confusing.

   The one totally awesome thing you CAN do, when running two PCI-E video cards, is hook them directly together to make one monster card.

   To do this you will need a mobo with two PCI-E video slots, and a chipset that supports either nVidia's SLI (Scalable Link Interface) or ATI's CrossFire interface, and two SLI or CrossFire video cards. They are still "optimizing" these, so do some serious homework on them before you jump in with both feet.
   
   NOTE:
   Right this minute (December 2005), two ATI X850 CrossFire's and two nVidia 6800 SLI's run fairly close. But nVidia's new nex-gen top card (7800) is just plain mopping the floor with ATI's top card (X850). Hopefully things will even out some when ATI turns loose their new R520 GPU. Look for some interesting developments over the next year or two.

4. 4) Onboard video to Video card -- Along with the steps outlined above, you will need to figure out how to Disable the Onboard Video. This is done by changing a jumper on the mobo, a setting in the BIOS, or the mobo does it automatically when a video card is added to the system. Reading the motherboard manual should tell you how to go about this.

Return to Top.

Other Addon cards

Come to think of it, all Addon cards follow the steps mentioned in the Common Steps and PCI/ISA sections above.

1. Read the instructions.
2. Get the drivers ready.
3. Uninstall any of the devices programs, and remove it from Device Manager. Of course, you can skip this step if this is the first install of this type of device. Like adding an USB card to a mobo without onboard USB.
4. Exit out and Shutdown.
5. Ground yourself.
6. Unplug the power cord.
7. Open the case, take out the old card, put in the new card, plug in the power cord.
8. Boot into the BIOS and make any changes needed. Save and Exit.
9. Boot into OS and install as directed by the device instructions.

Return to Top.

Power Supply

This used to be sooo easy. The biggest headache being if you had a proprietary form factor. The most important thing about this project now, is making sure the new PSU has ALL the correct plug connectors that you need, and enough amps on the 12 volt rail.

There are:
20 or 24 pin mobo connectors, with or without Auxiliary or P4 plugs. Eight pin, SATA, PCI-E, Video power, as well as the standard 4 pin molex and small floppy power plugs, to pick and choose from.

After doing the standard routine, and you have the case cover off, you need to start unplugging all the power lines to the drives, video, mobo, and any thing else using the PSU to run it. If things are a little crowded, you will need to take out some data cables as well. Make a note of how and where these go, so you get them correct when they go back in. It would not hurt to mark the cables with a soft tip magic marker also.

A word of warning: Some of the connectors have locking clips on them. The mobo connector for sure. You can look at the ones on the new PSU to see which one have it and how to undo the ones in your system, before you break out the pliers and start yanking on a "stuck" plug..

On the rear of the case, around the funny looking hole that surrounds the exhaust grill and the power cord socket, most generic PSU's will have 3 or 4 screws holding the PSU in. Take these out while holding the PSU with one hand to keep it from falling. Carefully slide it out.

Slide the new one in, and put the screws in loosely. Once all the screws are started, use one hand to adjust and hold it in the proper position and tighten the screws the rest of the way down.

Start putting the power and data cables back where they belong. Plug the computer back in and fire it up. If all is well, you can put the cover back on.

Sometimes a PSU will sit on a tray and have one or two screws inside the case to hold it in place. Other than that, the procedure is the same.

Return to Top.

Harddrives and Optical drives

Unplug the power cable and the data cable. Take out the screws. Slide it out of the case. Slide the new one in. Put the screws back in. Plug the data and power cables back in. You're done.

OK,OK. It's almost that easy. The trick is how to get the drive(s) out.

For optical drives this means that both side panels have to be off to get at the screws on either side, and then slide it out through the front panel. This is also the way to get floppy drives and some HD's out. If the HD does not have an opening it will go through, then you have to take it out the back of the drive cage.

Another method is to screw rails onto the drives (all) and slide them into mated slots until they click. For these, after you unplug the power and data cables, you have to take the front panel off and find the unlocking tabs. Then slide them out, put the rails on the new drive, and slide it back in.

Most cases nowadays have removable drive bays. At least for the HD's. You undo one or two screws and slide the whole bay out the side. Add or swap the drives, and reverse the process.

Now for the hard part. Will it work in your system?

How should I know. The CD/DVD's probably will. But the HD's are another question. Here is a "Rule of Thumb" hardware cheat sheet to help you figure it out.

AMD Socket 462 and Intel Socket 370 -- And newer mobo's should be able to see any HD you put in. The early versions of these BIOS's might need to be upgraded to see a drive over 137gig. Especially the early 370's. (With the new 300gig and larger drives out now, your guess is as good as mine)
Slot A and Slot 1 -- Usually will see up to 137gig HD's. There might be BIOS updates that will let you use larger drives. <see notes>
Socket Super 7 -- Most of these will see up to 32gig HD's. <see notes>
Socket 7 and Earlier -- These go from 8gigs down to 512megs (yes, megs), depending on how far back you go.

NOTES:

1. 1) If there is not a BIOS update for your mobo, you can put an PCI IDE addon card in an empty slot to use a larger drive.
   On slot mobo's: - this will let you run any HD, and usually boot from it also.
   On Super 7's: - it will usually let you go up to a 137gig HD. More if you manage to get XP SP2 or one of the latest Linux's on it. Can be a PITA to make it boot from it.
   On Socket 7's and earlier: Good Luck. You are on your own.
2. 2) Most Harddrives have a jumper setting that will let you "clip" or limit them to a size the BIOS can use.
3. 3) Most drive manufactures also have what they call a Disk Drive Overlay program (DDO). Basically what this does is load a small program on the HD that "lies" to the BIOS, so you can use the whole drive. I don't recommend these except as a last resort, as they can be troublesome when repairing disks, and are a PITA to get rid of if you want to put the drive in another system that can see the whole thing.

Return to Top.

HeatSink/Fans and CPU's

If you are adding one of those Super Duper HSF (heatsink/fan), I strongly suggest you read the instructions that came with it and check the web site of the maker, because some of the bigger, badder ones require that you take out the mobo to put a backing plate on. This will help take the strain of the heavier HSF off the mobo.

For replacing just the fan or putting a better "stock" type heatsink on, this is the basic procedure.

Make notes on any power/data cables that you might have to remove, so you have room to work. Then unplug the fan cable from the mobo header pins. If you are just replacing the fan, you might get lucky and be able to do it 'in situ'. Fans are attached either by small screws or some kind of clips. Undo these, take the old fan out, make sure the fan blades on the new one are pointing the same direction as the old one (fans should blow air down toward the mobo), set the fan in place, and lock it down. Plug the fan cable back into the header and you are done. If you are upgrading to a larger or quieter fan, you might want to double check that the wires are in the same order as the old one. Hold the wires in your fingers with the connector up, and the 'horns' on top, facing you. It should be: Black on the right is the Negative, Red in the center is the Positive, and Yellow on the left is for the Sensor. I have also seen Yellow as Positive and Blue for the Sensor, as well as colors that have nothing to do with the standard color codes. The only way to be almost 100% sure is to check the pinouts in the manuals for the fan and the mobo.

If you can not get to the fan or you need to take the heatsink off also, you can take it off as a single unit.

Locate the heatsink holding clamp and undo it. Most are a metal spring strap type, with a hook or a hole you can put a small slot screwdriver into, then push down and out to unhook it from the catch on the side of the socket. Make sure the other side is off its catch, and gently twist it repeatedly left and right until the thermal paste loosens and the HSF comes off. If it is acting more like super glue than old chewing gum by the time you get up to a pressure about the same as it takes to open your favorite twist top cap, STOP! Rehook the fan, plug the system in, and rig it to NOT boot into the OS. You can do this by: booting into the BIOS; unplugging the keyboard (or holding down 3-4 keys) to hang the post; or unhooking the HD's. Let the system run for 15 - 20 minutes to warm up the paste. Turn it off, unplug everything, and try twisting the HSF off again. Since the HSF is on the 'warm' side now, you will probably want to use something as a 'hot-pot' holder to keep from burning your tender little fingers.

Now that the HSF is off, you need to clean all the old paste off the CPU. A lint-free cloth and 99% or 91% rubbing alcohol is best for this. 70% alcohol will work, just be sure to dry wipe it good to remove any residue it might leave.

Put a small amount of thermal paste (about the size of a grain of rice) in the middle of the CPU and lower the heatsink into place. If the heatsink has a cutout along one side, make sure it goes over the top (wide part) of the socket so the heatsink will sit flat against the CPU. Reattach both sides of the retention clamp, plug the fan in, and anything else you had to disconnect to make room to work, then boot into the BIOS. Go to the hardware monitoring section, or whatever your BIOS calls it, and check the fan speed and CPU temp. If it seems to hold steady after about 15 - 20 minutes (hopefully at a lower temp than what caused you to start this project), consider it a successful operation and close it up.

Did you know you can "trick out" your stock HSF? Here's a nice little mod I learned awhile back.

On the bottom of the HSF you may notice that it has very small ridges in it. Those cause the air gaps that the thermal paste is suppose to fill.

Get some 600 to 800 fine grit wet/dry sandpaper. Even higher if you can get it. Lay it grit up on the flattest surface you can find. Rub the bottom of the HS as evenly as you can until it is polished. A circular motion works well, just keep it flat. That's important, because waves, bevels, or cupping the center of the HS, is counter productive. What this does is give you more metal making contact with the CPU, thereby pulling heat away from it more efficiently. Since there are still micro scratches in the metal, I take that same rice size dab of thermal paste and "paint" it over as much of the bottom of the HS as it will cover, starting with the center where it makes contact with the CPU.

This should be good for a couple degrees of cooler CPU temps for nothing, but 15 - 20 minutes of elbow grease and part of a sheet of sandpaper.

The paste where it is not touching the CPU, will act as a heat reflector to keep it from radiating back down onto the CPU and mobo <unfortunately I can't prove this, but it sounds impressive to nosey friends, family, and customers>. Now where was I before I got sidetracked? Oh, yeah.....

If the reason you have the HSF off is because you are replacing or upgrading the CPU, then the next step is to take out the CPU.

If you are going to install a faster CPU, hopefully you have already verified that the new CPU will work in this mobo; whether it needs a BIOS update to work in this mobo; and if needed, downloaded it and flashed the BIOS before you started taking the computer apart.

Push gently down and out on the plastic or metal lever bar to unhook it, and then lift it to a straight up position. With your thumb and finger (fingernails are a plus here), grab the CPU on either side and while gently wiggling it, pull it straight up out of the socket. This is usually easier said than done the first few times, but with some patience and practice you will soon get the hang of it. While you still know how it was sitting in the socket, make a note of where the arrow or notched corner on the CPU was lined up in the socket.

If you are using jumpers on the mobo to set the multiplier and fsb, change them now. If the setup is jumperless, go ahead and take the new CPU out of the anti-static bag, and line up the arrow/notch the same way the old one was sitting, and seat it all the way into the socket. DO NOT force it. If it does not want to go into the socket with a only a little pressure, make sure you have the arrow the correct way, and also check for bent pins on the bottom of the CPU. <see notes>

If all is OK, then you can try 'jiggling' it a little bit as you lightly push down on the CPU, to get the pins to go into the holes. Then lower and lock the lever. After putting on the paste, HSF, and hooking up all the cables, boot into the BIOS, set anything that needs changing, Save/Exit, and boot back into the BIOS, and go to the hardware monitor section and see if the temps level off at an acceptable number.

NOTES:

1. 1) On LGA775 CPU's, DO NOT drop one side into the socket and then the other, OR slide the CPU over the top of the socket. Doing either of these could kill your mobo. Hold the CPU between your thumb and finger, line it up carefully, and lower it straight down into the socket. This is a good thing to do with any CPU, but it seems the 775 is especially finicky about it.
2. 2) If the CPU does not want to go into the socket, turn it upside down, and holding it at eye-level, slowly rotate it. You will see that the pins make perfect rows as it spins. Look for any pins that are out of line. Single pins can be straightened with a pair of tweezers, small hemostats, or small needlenose plyers. These pins are VERY delicate, and if you break one off, you WILL cry. So straighten them in small steps. Especially if they are bent badly. The flat slot covers off the back of the case work good for lining up rows of pins that are off just a little.

We interrupt this program....

The new Maximum PC (January 2006) just came in, and I thought this was worth a mention, as all the hotshot OC'ers and Gamers swear by Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste to help keep their CPU's from going up in flames (Really! There is a video of an AMD catching fire. I think it was on tomshardware.com).

So one of the geniuses over at MPC decided to test a few of the high-end pastes, and the generic stuff from Radio Shack (aka: Silicone heat transfer compound).

I won't bore you with all the system details (top of page 70, if you are interested), just that the idle temps were taken after 30 minutes of inactivity, and the full load temps were taken after running CPU Burn-in for one hour. The numbers are listed as idle/load, and in Celsius. The best scores are in bold.

Arctic Silver 5 -- 36/54
Arctic Ceramique --35/53
OCZ Silver 5 -- 36/53
Frozen CPU Copper -- 37/58
Generic Paste -- 40/54

From the numbers, you can see that at idle, there is up to a 5 degree difference in temps between the "good stuff" and the "cheap stuff". But under a load (where it counts), the cheap stuff tied for second, and is only off the lead by one degree.

Granted, this is only one system, and it needs to be done with more rigs before we can start "busting the chops" of the "paste preachers".

Don't get me wrong, I understand that when pushing your rig past stock, every degree cooler helps. But it seems to me that if you are having "hot CPU" problems, you would do better by adding case fans to improve airflow, or ditching the stock HSF in favor of a good hi-tech third party HSF, or a heatpipe cooler, or even going to water-cooled, than worrying about the paste you are using.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program

Return to Top.

Ram

You take these out by releasing the clips holding the ram sticks in. There are two primary ways that clips are setup.

30 and 72-pin SIMM <rarely seen any more> -- These have a little spring clips on either end, which have to be pulled away from the ram so that it will lean forward. When you are lucky, you can get your fingers on the clips, otherwise you need a small screwdriver. Both have notched corners to keep you from putting them in backwards. The 72 pin also has a notch in the middle of the pin row. To install these, you have to line up the notch in the slot at a 45 degree angle and then push them up to 90 degrees and they click into place.

168 pin SDRam, 184 pin DDR, and 240 pin DDR2 -- These are much easier. You push down and out on the lever on each end and they pop straight up. To install them, line up the notch(s), push down on the ends until the levers come up and lock into place. The SDRam has two notches in the pin row, and the DDR's have one. Also all three run at different voltages. So even if you have sockets for two kinds of ram on your mobo, you can only run one type at a time.

The bad news is that there are a bunch of different flavor out there. FP, EDO, Parity, Non-Parity, Single-sided, Double-sided, ECC, Registered, Unregistered, High-Density, Buffered, Unbuffered.

AND...

If that is not enough, There are two different PC ratings and a DDR rating. The difference in numbers basically represents the speed the RAM has been designed to run at.

They started with:
PC66 = 66MHz fsb
PC100 = 100MHz fsb
PC133 =133MHz fsb

Then switched to these:
PC1600 = DDR200 = 100MHz fsb
PC2100 = DDR266 = 133MHz fsb
PC2400 = DDR300 = 150MHz fsb
PC2700 = DDR333 = 166MHz fsb
PC3200 = DDR400 = 200MHz fsb
PC3500 = DDR433 = 216MHz fsb
PC3700 = DDR466 = 233MHz fsb
PC4000 = DDR500 = 250MHz fsb
PC4200 = DDR533 = 266MHz fsb
And still climbing....

And there are still some early P4's using RDRAM.
And now there is talk of DDR3.

You also need to know if it is a 128meg, 256meg, 512meg, or 1024meg (1gig) memory module.

So... you have to figure out what kind, what speed, and max size per slot, your mobo will handle. And be sure you get the correct sticks. You can usually (but not always) get ram a step or two faster than you need, and it will "clock down" to run in your system without any problems. This is a favorite trick of OC'ers

Return to Top.

Motherboards

I saved this one for last, as it involves most of the other projects to varying degrees. And like the other ones, physically is not that hard to do. It's also the easiest one to mess up. I am not trying to scare you, I just want you to be careful. That being said, let's get started.

After going through the start routine, lay it on its side to make life easier (if you are working on a tower). Get your pen and paper handy so you can take notes as you go.

Generally I like to take any addon cards out first, and either put them in anti-static bags or someplace safe. Now there is some elbow room to work. If you are using a sound card, make a note of which connector the small audio cable is using.

Next off the mobo is the Floppy cable and IDE cables, making note of which is hooked to the primary channel and which is secondary, and lay them over the edge of the case. You do not have to unhook them from the drives unless they are still in the way. The same for SATA, front USB cables, and anything else plugged in to the mobo. Next up is the PSU connectors for the mobo. You can usually kill two birds at once by grabbing it in the middle, between your thumb and the side of your index finger, which holds the latch open while you rock the connector long ways to loosen it.

I want to spend a few minutes on the Front Panel connectors. Hmmmm.... You should probably at least check into this before you start taking the mobo out, so you will know what you are up against.

If this is a same mobo replacement, or you get lucky, it is just a matter of unplugging a block of connectors and replugging them back in.

If the connectors are individual two or three wire ones, see if they are marked with letters identifying what they go to. If no, see if it is marked on the mobo and write down which wire colors go to which front panel function. Failing that, you will have to look up the pinout in the old mobo manual or trace the wires themselves. Then it is a fairly straight forward matter of matching them up with the new mobo pinouts.

With ATX Power and Reset Switches, it usually does not matter which way you plug them in to the pins. Most are simple momentary contact switches and don't care how the juice flows. If it does not work, it has a diode in it and you will need to turn it the other way. LED's (light emitting diodes) and the small LCD's (liquid crystal display) screens do care how they are plugged in. If your power or harddrive lights do not come on, turn the connector the other way

If the front panel connector and the new mobo pinouts are not even close, it will call for some creative hacking on your part. It will go something like this:
you will need to find and release the tabs that hold the wires in the connector (a safety pin and magnifying glass might be helpful), and insert them into the proper holes. Or insert them into two hole plastic connectors if you have some handy. If not, you will need to make some. You could just plug each wire onto its pin, but you run the risk of the bare metal tips touching. Not good. I found that taking a piece of wire the next size bigger, and with a good pair of wire-strippers, cut the insulation into 1/2 inch lengths (12mm).These make a nice tube that can be slipped over the metal tip. Wah-laa! Instant connectors.

Now... I will admit that this is a pure hack, and can look like it. It all depends on how talented you are. But it is "cleaner" than some of my earlier ideas. [isn't that the truth! -- Editor]. This can also be used on other mismatched pinouts, such as front USB port connectors

Enough of that. On to bigger and better pitfalls.

Now that everything is disconnected from the mobo, it's time to locate the screws that hold it down. This is another process that can be highly amusing to do. The number of screws used, run from five (5), up to nine (9). One of which will be in such a place, that it will need a screwdriver that hasn't been invented yet to reach it with ease (by the way: this article is proof that I had the idea for the "Snakeshaft Screwdriver" first. If you beat me to market with it, don't forget my royalties).

After getting the screws out, gently twist and turn the mobo until it comes out of the case.

If it is needed, knock out the rear I/O panel with the back of the screwdriver, and install the one for the new mobo. Now you need to compare the mounting hole to see if you will have to move any of the standoffs to work with the new mobo. Mounting holes usually have a metal ring around them. I have found it a good idea NOT to put screws in mobo holes that don't have this ring.

OK. Say this is a easy swap, and everything matches. At some point before you put the new mobo in the case, it's a good idea to test it on the bench first. If there is a problem, it's easier to deal with it out of the case, than having to take the mobo back out. If it fires up on the bench, but not in the case, then it's a good bet that the mobo is shorting out on the case. It is usually because the back of the mobo is making contact with the metal backing plate, or a mounting screw is wrong.

Put the new mobo on an insulated surface, cardboard or the same thickness of newspaper will do. Install the CPU and HSF (don't forget to plug it in), video card, monitor, one stick of ram, and plug in a PSU. If you do not have a spare Power Switch, you can jump the Power pins with a small screwdriver. It only needs a quick touch. While it boots up, watch the memory count and then go into the BIOS and go through all the sections (to see what is where) and set anything you need to. Then go back to the section where it shows the CPU temp and see where it levels off at after 20 - 30 minutes. If it gets too hot, you should check that the HSF is mounted correctly. AFTER you turn it off and unplug it, of course.

If everything looks good, Save and Exit. If it does not want to turn off with a quick touch to the Power pins, you will need to hold the screwdriver there for 4 - 6 seconds for it to turn off. If you are going to be using more than one stick of Ram, go ahead and add it now, and run through the memory count again, to make sure all of it is seen.

After the prep work is done, take off the video card and unhook the PSU. Then carefully lower the mobo into the case, and line up the mounting holes. Depending on your case, this can be as easy as setting a full plate on the dinner table, or as tricky as trying to get a large couch through a small door. I like installing mobo's with the CPU/HSF and Ram still in the board, unless the Ram is snagging on something, then I take it off.

Start the mounting screws, but do not tighten them down. Install the Video card or a PCI card to set the gap between the back edge of the mobo and the case, line up the onboard ports with the rear panel openings, then tighten the screws down firmly. About "twist top" pressure is all you need. Plug in the PSU mobo connector(s), video card connector (if needed), and case fan(s).

There's a lot of opinions on how to proceed from here. These run from:
1) a clean OS install, with minimum hardware to start to start with. Adding back one thing at a time. Then after the hardware and drivers are done, reinstall your apps, and copy back your data from the new backup you made before you started.

to:
2) just bite the bullet. Load it up, fire it up, and battle your way through the new drivers, and a possible Repair install.

and all combinations in between. But how ever you do it, if you have Windows XP, you know it's going to be screaming about needing to be reactivated.

Return to Top.

Final Words

So I will repeat what I said at the beginning. RTM! Check out the web sites. Look at the faq's. Read the magazines. Especially if you are just starting. Remember:
A real hardware geek does not have to know all the answers, BUT they do have to know HOW to find them.

Now, if you will excuse me.... I am going to dive into a pile of hardware to unwind from the stress of having to do all this typing....

NS,NR!!

Search ERT on the Tools Page

Did you know? You can discuss this article with the mentor who wrote it and others interested in the topic? You are invited to join the discussion with

Got a technical article or tutorial you want to publish on the Internet? Join in the Round Table Forum and let the Mentors know what you have. If it meets ERT standards, is factual and can help ERT visitors, then ERT Mentors and Editors can help you (without charge) polish your offering so it can be published and promoted by ERT. An article published on ERT may be read by as many as 10,000 visitors a week; promoting you, your site, and your ideas. Please note ERT does not publish re-prints; promotional handouts, or pieces consisting mainly of links. So original technical content only please. If you prefer you can email the Editor