Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Triple Ace on October 31, 2006, 10:52:25 pm
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Well I was installing my new graphics card and I snapped off the little plastic latch at the end of the slot. Now I'm affraid if I install the card it will fall out. What happened was I could not get the card in. So when I tried to open the little latch to put in the card, I opened it too much and it came right off.
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I don't think it will fall anywhere after you attach it to the back panel of your PC.
Besides, I don't think the PCI-E slot itself has been designed to offer any notable support for the card against mechanical stress, it's the back panel of the card and back panel of the PC that are firmly attached to each other, keeping the connectors securely in the slot.
That is, if that plastic latch isn't attached to anything important in the MOBO. I don't think it is, but anyway you shouldn't need to worry about the card falling off the slot after it's been installed. It's not like some invisible force field tries to remove PC hardware from their slots inside the case... :D
What card did you get by the way?
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I got a GeForce 7600 GT. Thats the O.C.D part of me worrying about that latch. I just got this computer a couple of weeks ago and now something, that something being the latch, got busted so I started panicing.
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I've pulled my 6600GT out of its AGP socket, by accident, while the computer was running. One can only hope that the PCI-X slots are as durable. (Something like a year later, I'm still using the same card. :p)
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:wtf:
How in all that is holy did you manage to break off that latch?
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That sucks. Can you screw it in the case anyway. Try to tape it with some electirc tape.
Well I was installing my new graphics card and I snapped off the little plastic latch at the end of the slot. Now I'm affraid if I install the card it will fall out. What happened was I could not get the card in. So when I tried to open the little latch to put in the card, I opened it too much and it came right off.
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It's one manifestation of the dreaded Ikea syndrome.
You buy something (what it is doesn't matter) that you have to put together by yourself.
Now, in most of the cases the instructions are either insufficient or otherwise so unclear that they don't help as much as they should. Add to this the fact that in some cases, parts require specific method in order to get them attached to each other. This results in quick frustration, which may lead to slight purple haze in the brains which makes thinking clearly difficult or impossible, which usually manifests as trying to make something the Wrong Way (TM), including the use of Brute Force (TM) to make the Wrong Way (TM) "succeed". When you add alcoholic beverages to the equation, it leads to fully-fletched Ikea syndrome that makes it temporarily impossible to assemble the product in question (properly).
PC parts are no exception to this rule, especially if one is assembling/fixing a computer the first time and doesn't yet know how all works exactly, but the trouble is that PC hardware is a *little* more fragile and less forgiving than your wooden shelf or table you have to assemble yourself. Usually, the wooden or metallic parts don't break easily, and even the use of Brute Force (TM) usually only results in superficial damage.
Computer hardware, however, breaks more easily as a result of Brute Force (TM) - or possibly even as a result of Wrong Way (TM) even if Brute Force (TM) is not needed. And no one pays when you manage to pierce a hole onto your MOBO with a screwdriver when trying to press a plastic latch down or something like that. I almost did that the other day, I mean I also tried to apply Brute Force (TM) to that stupid PCI-E latch, but luckily I found the Right Way* to release the card before any damage was done.
So, when assembling/fixing/upgrading computers it's good to keep in mind that Brute Force (TM) should always be kept far away, and if it seems something can be done in more than one ways, one should find out what is the Right Way before trying the Wrong Way and thus possibly destroying something.
*In the case of PCI-E cards the Right Way to install is as follows (if you didn't have time to figure it out before you mutilated your PCI-E slot :D)
-Put the hook in the card's corner (next to the connectors) on into mentioned plastic latch in the slot first
-Tilt the card's rear end towards the MOBO and the slot so that the connector edge slids into the slot and rear panel of the card meets the rear panel of PC
-attach the card's rear panel securely to PC's rear panel.
When removing the card, apply reversed order of installing the card. The hook in the card's front edge comes off the latch the very last.
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Well I learned from my mistake, and Gateway is sending me a replacement motherboard free of charge.
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You actually don't need that latch in most cases, as long as the bracket is screwed in securely on the other side. The DFI boards I'm using don't have the latches at all.
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Don't worry, I broke the clamp down latch of the heatsink and processor on my girlfriend's mobo. With some creative glue gunning and extra plastic parts I had lying around, I built a lock the heatsink was able to snap onto. It hasn't moved one bit. She's had it over a year, and her processor hasn't melted/exploded yet. But I know that 'panic' feeling, believe you me. :shaking:
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Glue Gunning? Isn't that glue easily meltable? Just curious.
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Haha yeah, but fortunately the clamp is on the thick plastic which hasn't conducted enough heat to melt the glue that's holding it......... yet. :nervous:
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i think you'll be fine as long as you don't shake the case around like a maraca