ShadowReality

My new PC upgrade parts are arriving soon, and so I thought I would document this process so I know how annoying it is to do to discourage me from potentially doing this in the future. So.. Old PC, Motherboard is DEAD, upgrading, lets get it ready.

How not to remove a motherboard.

First off I had to remove all the PCI cards, that’s easily enough my case is pretty screw-less and everything clips out easily. These included:

Nvidia 5500 AGP card - it was having memory problems so that’s being replaced
56k modem card - i don’t think I’ll be re-installing that
Sound blaster Audigy 2 ZX sound card - which I will more than likely be re-installing due to the digital inputs and surround sound.
A strange extra port that plugs direct into the motherboard, looks like a joystick port.

Next up, I removed all the motherboard screw.. or at least tried to. Unfortunately there is always 1 bastard that refuses to come lose, so after several minutes of trying to get this out instead I opt for finding something to eat.. perhaps I’m just lacking the nourishment to get this screw out, yep i’m sure that’s what it is.

Back again, this time armed with some needle nosed pliers I attack my new adversary, however it has equipped itself with a defense, and that is a pure circular circumference, +0 DMG from pliers, DAMN YOU SCREW… I try the screwdriver once more as if the screw had somehow changed.. it had not.

So thus i reached the conclusion, since the motherboard is dead and of no use to anyone anymore, why not just rip it out, so using brute force and a hammer I went about freeing the motherboard from the evil screw who held it hostage, however this screw is above average as just as i thought it was coming loose it killed my old crappy hammer. CRITICAL HIT!
Bah I needed a new hammer anyway, but mark my words screw.. your going down..

While all this was going down, the onlooker seemed alarmed that I might be going crazy. Fear not, I eventually got the motherboard out.

And so finally the case has been emptied, and dusted and ready for the new bits.. so a cautionary tale for anyone doing this sort of thing, make sure you have the right tools.