Adapter Card
An adapter card can be defined as the printed circuit
board that add internal expansion to
computer system and allows the computer to communicate with another peripheral
such as a monitor inserted into expansion slot on a computer motherboard to add
some functionality to a computer system via expansion bus
i.e. the computer bus
that move information between the internal hardware of a computer system and
peripheral device. Such functionality includes network, sound, etc.
Common types of adapter card
Video graphics adapter
Video graphics card: is the most useful adapter card
required within your computer because it acts as the interfaces between display
devices and computer.
Network cards:
Network card is one of the common well known adapter
card allows computer to interact with the network and the network to
communicate with the computer, without network adapter card installed into your
computer you can’t access network.
Input/output adapters:
With the input and output
devices to be attached to the central processing unit requires a circuit, which
save as input and output adapter cards.
Modem adapters: this is another common method adapter
card which allows communication and connect two DTE (Computer terminal etc.)
directly using an rs serial cable.
Multimedia cards:
Multimedia card is important to
computer since it is the one responsible to generate sound you hear from your
computer speaker. And one of the most common multimedia cards is sound card;
that generate sound signals to be sent to your speakers and sound systems.
Installation of adapter cards
During installation of adapter card you need to observe the safety of the card
itself and your compute also, here are the tips to install adapter card very
fast.
Make sure you shut down your computer and you unplug it
from the power source. In case you don’t know how to shut down your computer click
windows icon on left hand corner at the bottom. Tap the power icon, then select
shutdown.
- Now open the computer case and locate where the slots are on the motherboard.
- If the slot is empty it may contain a cover, remove it if any
- Take the card you want to install, hold the card at the edge where there is no metal contact.
- Carefully press the card tightly into the slot.
- Connect all needed internal cables in respect to the installed card
- Now Return back and close the computer case
- Plug the computer into the power source and power it on.
Troubleshooting adapter cards
Might happen adapter cards have failed, or your computer runs into problem that
you can’t do anything with your computer. Here the procedure to troubleshoot
adapter cards.
- Check and make sure the adapter card inserted properly and fully seated in the slot before deciding otherwise.
- Install the appropriate driver if not installed properly, to check if the driver is installed: Right click This PC/My computer, tap manage on left bar click device manager. Now tap the driver, right click on then update driver software… also you might download driver from the manufacturer website.
- Check for resource conflicts; avoid more than one device to use the same resources.
- Verify the compatibility between adapter card and their driver. To check the driver’s properties right click on the required driver, properties then driver details.
Update drivers and firmware.
Performing driver and firmware updates: Go to Device manager, this will give you the list of
drivers and firmware in your system. Then click the drop down button to see the
particular driver of interest, right click on that driver and click properties.
After the properties window pop up, navigate to the
driver tab to get the driver options. For updating click the update button and
wait till the update is complete.
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