HOW
TO INSTALL A GRAPHICS CARD
Hi,
I thought I would write a short tutorial about how to go about doing
this and how to deal with the problems that can occur.
I am going to do this from the point of view of someone who has never
been inside a computer before and is doing this for the very first
time.
First I will briefly explain the types of graphic cards available.
There are really four types of display adaptors around now a days,
these are
1. Onboard graphic chips
2. PCI Graphic cards
3. AGP graphic cards
4. PCI Express
Onboard graphic Chips:
When you go to the store to buy a computer, in the description it
may say that it has integrated graphics - What this is saying is that
the graphics for this computer are controlled by a chip on the Mother
Board.
They require no installation from the user and the drivers for them
will be found on the mother board CD (if you have one)
If you are buying a computer with an Operating System already
installed though, the system recovery disc will have all the nesseccary
files for the chip so you need not ever worry about your graphic chip
not working properly from a software point of view.
The advantage of having this is that, it will knock a considerable
amount of money of the computer you are buying and it won’t use up as
much resources as a graphics card does.
The downside of this however is that your new computer may struggle
to play most of the modern games and with things like DVD's, video
editing etc
I say may, as newer graphic chips are relatively good for the price you
pay for them and you may never have a problem with them!
If you only need your computer for things like word processing,
surfing the web etc then this is an ideal way to save some money when
buying your comp, if you do want to play modern games though you may
need to think about buying something with a dedicated graphics card
such as a PCI or AGP card to ensure it will still be capable for future
games
PCI graphics card:
These are not so common now, as they have been phased out buy AGP
graphic cards but they are a better alternative to the graphics chips
on some older computers.
You would probably not be able to buy a new one in the shops now a days
but you will be able to pick them up second hand.
If you have an old computer and want to upgrade your graphics you
may need to buy a PCI card as you might not have an AGP slot so check
first before you go and buy one.
**A PCI slot is a white slot found on
the bottom left part of your Mother Board, there will usually be three
or more of them and are usually used for thing like sound
cards/modems/NIC's etc.**
AGP Graphic cards:
Accelerated Graphics Port compatible graphics card are the latest
format used today, at the moment there are three types of AGP, x2 x4
and x8 - x8 obviously being the latest one.
These are by far the most expensive type of graphics card but are
still affordable by most people, £60 and upwards for a half
decent one.
**The AGP port will be reddy-brown in
colour and is found just above your PCI slots- it was originally
developed for Pentium 2 based Mo Bo's but it was soon found that it
didn’t matter what type of CPU you had as it worked with anything. It
is a lot faster than PCI graphics card as it allows a direct connection
between your chipset and your graphics controller.**
See here for more info about AGP if you are interested: http://www.sysopt.com/agp.htm
Upgrading from a graphics chip to a
graphics card:
The main problem I have when someone comes to my company with a
graphics problem is that they have installed an AGP card but have not
disabled their onboard graphics.
You need to disable this if you have upgraded from an onboard
graphic chip to a graphic card as your Mo Bo will still be looking here
for its monitor!
You do this by going into your BIOS, you usually have to press
delete, F1 or a similar button when your computer first starts to get
to your BIOS.
Once here look for a setting for ONBOARD GRAPHICS and set it to
disable (whilst you are here why not disable your serial ports if you
don’t use them to free up some IRQ's/resources)
You may also need to enable your AGP port and set it to x2 x4 or x8
depending on your card.
Now save the setting but don’t let your computer restart, turn it off
(make sure you have saved the bios settings!!)
Open your computer up and look for your PCI/AGP slot and simply
just insert your graphics card ensuring you never touch the connectors
on the bottom of the card, screw it in and put your computer back
together again! Simple!
* A point to note- Static
electricity has a habit of killing your computer, to avoid this either
make sure you are using an anti static wrist strap or an anti static
mat preferably both! (Most mouse mats are also anti static mats) If you
don’t have one available you can keep your computer plugged into the
mains but ensure that the power is turned off, this will let you ground
your computer using the earthling system in your house.
If you’re not combatable with doing this a last resort is to spay
fabric softener around the area you are working in.
Ok, now turn your computer on, when windows starts it will kick off
with the "found new hardware" wizard, I always find it better to
close/cancel this and use the installation wizard that comes with the
driver CD but obviously you can use this if you want!
I’m going to take it that you cancel the hardware wizard. Now
insert your CD that came with your graphics card and follow the
installation wizard on the CD. It will be safer to keep all the default
settings and just install it.
After it has installed and restarted if it needed to, it is a good
idea to have a quick check on the manufactures web site to see if there
is a driver update available.
Hopefully everything will work ok and you are able to change the screen
resolution etc etc!
Upgrading from a graphics card to another
graphics card
This is slightly different in the sense that you may need to uninstall
the drivers you have already.
If you already have a graphics card installed you will have drivers
installed for it also and these may need to be removed before
installing a new card.
Although 9 times out of 10 you can get away with just installing
new drivers alongside your old ones you may run into trouble when doing
so, see the troubleshooting bit at the bottom for how to do this.
You will not need to disable anything in you BIOS if you have a
working graphics card installed already, it will simply be a case of
following the steps above for opening up your computer (avoiding the
static) and swapping your cards over, if you are taking out an AGP one
there is a little catch on the end of the AGP slot that you will need
to either pull or push to release the graphics card, (so if it is not
coming out easily look for this)
Now turn your computer on, when windows starts it will kick off
with the "found new hardware" wizard, I always find it better to
close/cancel this and use the installation wizard that comes with the
driver CD but obviously you can use this if you want!
I’m going to take it that you cancel the hardware wizard. Now
insert your CD that came with your graphics card and follow the
installation wizard on the CD. It will be safer to keep all the default
settings and just install it.
After it has installed and restarted if it needed to it is a good
idea to have a quick check on the manufactures web site to see if there
is a driver update available.
Hopefully you will have had a trouble free installation and everything
will work properly!
PCI Express:
PCI Express is the latest standard of graphics card to appear on the
market.
To use one of these you will need a PCI Express compatible Mother
Board, so check you have this first!
Today they are the most expensive Graphics Cards you can buy, which
also goes hand-in-hand with the PCI Express mother Boards, they too are
expensive!
To install it, follow the exact same steps as the AGP Graphics Card,
except obviously use the PCI Express one.
Chances are if you’re installing a new PCI Express Graphics Card at
the moment you will be doing it on a new motherboard, now most PCI
Express compatible Mother Boards don’t come with onboard Graphics so
you will not need to worry about disabling this in the BIOS.
If you do have a graphics card installed already, it will simply be
a case of removing your drivers for the old card (see AGP section)
turning your computer off, open it up and replace the Graphics Card.
Turn your computer back on and wait until the New Hardware Wizard
appears. I find it easier to cancel this and play the Driver CD that
came with the Graphics Card. Follow the prompts and it will pretty much
install itself.
After it has installed and restarted if it needed to, it is a good
idea to have a quick check on the manufactures web site to see if there
is a driver update available.
Troubleshooting
BIOS settings:
When upgrading from a graphics chip to an AGP or PCI Express card there
are a few settings you may need to alter in your BIOS
1. Disable the Onboard Graphics controller
2. Enable the AGP or PCI Express port
3. Set your AGP port to the rate specified by the graphics card
manufacturer x2 x4 or x8
4. Set the option for the "Init display first" to PCI Express or AGP
depending on the card type
5. Disable PCI/VGA palette snoop especially for NVIDIA AGP cards
6. Video BIOS shadow- Most cards need this enabled but some need it
disabled so check you documentation.
** Not all of these BIOS setting may be available to you, they may
be worded differently or you may have more settings as not all BIOS's
are the same, so check the manufactures documentation/website for more
info
Uninstall Drivers:
You may end up having to un-install the old drivers should you have a
conflict with them, to do this in XP:
Right click on My Computer and select Properties
Select the Hardware tab
Go to the Device Manager
Click on Display Adaptor
Double click on the name of the graphics card that appears
Go to Driver (the middle tab)
Go to Uninstall
And follow the prompts to uninstall the driver, after you restart
the computer it will either use the new driver if you have already
installed it or install it from the cd you got with the new graphics
card.
If you ever have a problem with your graphics card or any of your
other hardware for that matter always go to you system information,
most people just go to their device manager but all this will say is
that there is a problem with your device, your system information on
the other hand may tell you what the problem is.
It is worth checking the conflicts menu whilst you are there as
well to see if any IRQ's can be freed/changed to free up resources!
Get there in XP by Start > All Programs > Accessories > System
Tools > System Information
It is the same for Win 9x except there is a lot more functionality
under the tools menu in sys info with windows 98 SE, I always found the
File Verification tool very helpful, this scans your windows
installation for any file changes from the original installation and
gives you the option to re install them, this will usually save to
having to do a complete re-install most of the time and will solve many
problems that you get.
A bit of the graphics card track but hopefully a useful tip!
Well I hope this helps someone install their graphics card!
Nokia
Original Tutorial by
Nokia for TheTAZZone-TAZForum
Originally posted on March 2nd, 2006 here
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