How to Install Hardware and Ram

Before you buy a card you need to know what slots are available,
A PCI slot is white, ISA slots are black, AGP slots are brown and are for Video cards.
Go to this page for a break down of a Mother Board, it shows you what is what on the board. Parts of a Computer. I put my sound cards on the ISA slots, I put my Video Cards in the AGP slot and the PCI slots for Network Cards and Phone Modem Cards.
This is just how to install the card, you will have to remove the software, drivers and possibly change some jumpers on the Motherboard and change some settings in the BIOS, depending on what system you have, with some cards you even have to remove Registry entries for the old card. The best way is to Boot into Safe mode and remove the old cards software in the Add/Remove and then remove the Graphics Adapter from the Device Manager, then shut down the computer, unplug the Power and remove the old card or change the jumpers, again depending on your system, check your computers Manual, then install the new card and Reformat and Reinstall, that way you get a clean install of the new card. Generally when Windows finds the new card have it install the Standard VGA drivers, then once Windows is up and running, install the cards drivers. You will still need to set up the BIOS for the new card, check your Computer and Cards Manual for the settings. On mine I went from using a PCI card to a AGP card, so I had to go into the PNP Configuration and set the VGA Boot From = to AGP from PCI and PCI VGA Palette Snoop = Disabled. Next I went into Chipset Features Setup and changed Top Performance = Enabled, Next the AGP Fast Write to =Enabled your card needs to support this feature as well as your Mobo, then AGP Mode to = 4x my Motherboard and card support 4x, older systems use 2x, Next I set the AGP Comp. Driving to = Auto, Next I set the AGP Aperture Size to= 64MB sometimes you need to play around with this number until you get the best results, Next I Saved and Exited the BIOS. That was my system, every install is different so do some research on the Computer and Video Cards Manufactures sites for more info, read the Computer Manual and the Video Cards Manual, they should have all the info you need to install the card. One of the main problems with installing a new card is IRQ sharing, the Video card needs to have it's own IRQ and can only share with PCI Steering, time and time again Windows has set up my Video card and Network card on the same IRQs, then you have to keep moving the Network card from slot to slot until Windows assigns them their own IRQs, this can be very frustrating. If you Reformat and Reinstall it should go smooth with few or no problems, to check the IRQs you go to the Device Manager and double click the Computer Icon, then choose the IRQs.
OK to install the card, Unplug everything from the Computer.
Take the Computer and set it on your Kitchen countertop or Table
Make sure it is well lighted, have a flashlight handy and a phillips screw driver.
Make sure you didn't drag your feet across the Carpet before you touch or handle the Card or inside the Computer.
Touch something metal, I touch the metal frame of the Computer or touch some metal on your Stove, to get rid of any static electricity you may have. ( You can harm the card or Computer boards with a static shock ).
Take off the cover and find the open slot that the card needs, you may need to remove the cover plate on the back of the computer where the card will be, sometimes you have to pry them off with a screw driver, be careful not to damage the Mobo when doing this, next line up the card with the slot, then push it down, you will feel it snap in place, put the screw in to hold it in place.
Some Cards you have to install the software before you install the card, some after, read the Manual for specific information for that card, some cards do not come with software or you do not need it, because Windows already has the drivers for it.
Next put everything back together and turn on your Computer, if you are replacing a card with a new one, you will have to remove the old one from the Device Manager before you install the new one, so Windows knows what you are doing, Windows should find the new card and will ask for the Windows CD and or the cards Driver Floppy disk or CD.
Next go to the Device Manager and check to see that there are any problems, sometimes Windows will assign it an IRQ that is already being used, try removing it from the Device Manager and restarting again, Windows may get it right after a few tries, if not, try manually assigning it a new configuration or IRQ in the Device Manager-Properties panel of that card, if that doesn't work , you will have to move it to different slot and try it again until Windows gets it right.
If this sounds to hard for you, have a Tech install the card for you, some installs require you to change jumpers on the Mother Board and change BIOS Settings, check your Computer and Cards Manual for information, if you are not comfortable about these areas, stay out of them and let a Tech do it, you can really mess up your system by doing the wrong things in these areas.

How to Install,Internal Harddrives, CDROM, Zip drives, etc.

CD-Roms are pretty straight forward, go to your device manager and Remove the old CDROM, then shut down the Computer, take out the old one and reconnect the new one in reverse order. The jumper setting should already be set as the primary from the factory, but check the CDs Manual to make sure, connect the wire from the sound card if there is one. When you restart, Windows it will recognize the new Cd Rom and probably have the drivers for it, if not, it will ask you for the CD Roms Driver Disk or the Windows CD to get the drivers.

Here is a site all about CD-RWs

Andy McFaddens CD-RW FAQs

I would recommend an external one that connects to your USB or parallel port. Basically you install the software, attach the Drive to the Computer, start up the Computer and the software sets it up for you.

If you are running out of space on your Harddrive, the most economical way to get more, is a new and bigger Harddrive. You can buy a 40 gig drive for about $150.00 and when you install it, you can copy your current drive information to the new drive, then slave the old drive and use that for storage, like downloaded files, pictures,etc

Here again are some general Rules to follow to install a Harddrive:

Before you Buy you need to know what Bays and IDEs are available, look in your Computer Manual or inside the Computer.
Unplug everything from the Computer.
Take the Computer and set it on your Kitchen countertop or Table
Make sure it is well lighted ,have a flashlight handy and a phillips screw driver.
Make sure you didn't drag your feet across the Carpet before you touch or handle the Card or inside the Computer.
Touch something metal, I touch the metal frame of the Computer to get rid of any static electricity you may have. ( You can harm the card or Computer boards with a static shock ).
It is just a matter of sliding the drive in the slot, hooking up the power connector and the IDE connector.
There is a red line on the IDE connector that go towards the power connector.
If you are just replacing your old drive with a New Drive, the New Drive Jumpers will be set to Master from the factory, so all you need to do is hook it up, if you are going to attach your old drive as a storage drive, then you will need to change the Jumpers on that drive to be the Slave, there are pins on the back of the Harddrives called Jumpers ( Screen Shot ) that do this, M means Master, SL means Slave, the Master harddrive attaches to the end of the IDE cable and if you have two, the Slave drive attaches to the second connector on the IDE cable.
You can copy your old drives information to the new drive using the Floppy Install disk that comes with the New Harddrive, it should be an automatic process and if your Computers Bios wont recognize a Large Harddrive the disk should have software that tricks the Bios into seeing the New Drive. IF your Bios can recognize the new drive and the Floppy Install disk wont copy the old drive to the New Drive you can use a DOS Command to do this
To use the DOS Command you first need to Format the New Harddrive and copy the System files to it
To Format the New Harddrive, using a Windows Startup Disk at the A: prompt type
format c:
or if you have New Harddrive Slaved off the old Drive, go to My Computer right click on the D: drive which will be the New drive go to Format, do a Full Format then Copy the System Files to the Drive.
To copy the System file from the Startup Disk to the New Harddrive go to the A: prompt and type
sys a:\ c: this will copy the System files from the floppy disk on drive A: to C: on the New drive.
To copy the all the Data from your Old Drive to your New Drive go to the A: prompt using the Startup Disk and type
xcopy c:\*.* /h /i /c /k /e /r /y d: your old drive must be the Master and your New Drive must be the Slave Drive, after the files are copied over to the New Drive, make the New Drive the Master and the Old Drive the Slave, Reboot and check to make sure the New Drive has Windows and all your Data, if it is OK, go to My Computer and right click on the D: drive, which will be your Old Drive and go to Format, do a Full Format on that Drive, now it is ready to use.
If this sounds to complicated have a Tech install the new drive for you.
Read the Harddrives Manufactures Manual, it gives you a lot of information.

How to Install Ram ( Random Access Memory), Ram is one of the best upgrades you can do:

You should have a minimum of 64 megs of Ram for Windows 95, 98, ( for XP 256 is the minimum), but it is best to have 128 megs of Ram, it is a big boost in performance.
If your running 3D games or Video Applications go to 256 or 512 megs of Ram, I am running with 512 megs, Ram is really cheap right now. I remember paying $120.00 for a Simm Ram chip with 2 megs of ram on it.
Check your Manual for the type of Ram your Computer uses.
Unplug the Computers power cord, open the case, make sure you ground yourself by touching the metal frame of the Computers case, find the slots the Ram goes in ( check your Manual or Parts of a Computer for a picture of the slots and the Ram chip ) slide the ram in place, make sure it is facing the right way, there are little notches in the bottom and sides of the chip, make sure they line up with the ones in the slot, push down until it locks in place, turn on your Computer, it should recognize it right away, if it doesn't, pull it out and reinstall it again, make sure it is seated properly and make sure it is the right kind of Ram for your Computer.