PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Removing the Old Motherboard

If you are replacing a motherboard, you must remove the old motherboard before installing the new one. The exact steps vary according to the motherboard and case, but use the following general steps:

1. Power down the PC and all attached devices. Disconnect all external cables other than the power cord, noting which cable connects to which port. Then move the PC to your work area and remove the cover from the case. We can attest that one wayward case screw can destroy a vacuum cleaner, so put the screws safely aside. An old egg carton or ice cube tray makes a good parts organizer.

2. If the PC power cord is connected to an outlet strip, surge suppressor, or UPS, turn off the main power switch on that device, and turn off the main PC power switch as well. This removes power from the PC, but leaves the PC grounded.

   Warning

   With nearly all AT form factor power supplies and motherboards, turning off the PC power switch actually removes all power from the motherboard. With ATX (and variant) power supplies and motherboards, turning off the main PC power switch leaves some power flowing to the motherboard, which supports such features as Wake-on-Ring (WOR), Wake-on-LAN (WOL), and Suspend to RAM (STR).

   Although the voltage present is much too small to cause personal injury, working on a powered ATX motherboard may damage the motherboard, CPU, memory, or other components. Best practice when working on ATX motherboards is to use an outlet strip or other device to ...