[10.04]Best Method To Replace Video Card?

[Frans Ketelaars]

On Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:27:36 +0100, ms wrote:

> On 03/08/10 19:15, jimkvg at 3web.com wrote:
>> Jesse
>>    From my experience of frying a good video card and motherboard, I
>> highly suggest that you turn switch on the back of the case off or
>> unplug it.  When I turned my PC off and removed the side cover, I
>> noticed that a red monitor light on the motherboard was still on.  I
>> went ahead and pulled the good video card out.  That shot both the card
>> and motherboard!  I had to buy new card and motherboard for
>> replacement.  Please unplug the case before you pull the card out to
>> put a new one in.  Thank you.  Jim
> 
> Well, I'd say you could have also fried *yourself*, something more
> difficult to replace than a mobo and video card... :)

>From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX :

------------------------------------------------------------

Power switch

AT-style computer cases had a power button that was directly connected to 
the system computer power supply (PSU). The general configuration was a 
double-pole latching mains voltage switch with the four pins connected to 
wires from a four-core cable. The wires were either soldered to the power 
button (making it difficult to replace the power supply if it failed) or 
blade receptacles were used.

An ATX power supply does not directly connect to the system power button, 
allowing the computer to be turned off via software. However, many ATX 
power supplies have a manual switch on the back to ensure the computer is 
truly off and no power is being sent to the components. With this switch 
on, energy still flows to the components even when the computer appears 
to be "off." This is known as soft-off or standby and can be used for 
remote wake up through Wake-on-Ring or Wake-on-LAN, but is generally used 
to power on the computer through a front switch.

---------------------------------------------------------------

So, with ATX, harm to yourself by dangerous voltages inside the case is 
no longer a problem (as long as you don't open the power supply), but be 
aware that the power switch on the front of the computer no longer 
disconnects the system from the mains voltage and some power is still 
supplied to the main board. I think the red LED was just there to warn 
people about that :)

Note that with the old AT systems, even when the mains power to the 
_computer_ was completely switched of, some contacts of the switch on the 
front of the computer were still connected to the mains voltage...

    -Frans (happy with the 'new' safer system)