How to

Hi folks:

Anyone have the slightest idea how to remove a video card from a 9 year old Alienware Aurora tower?

Manual tells you how to remove everything else but when it comes to the video card it says zip.

Alienware is no help as the first thing they ask for is your warranty number (on a 9 year old computer - yeah right). When I mentioned it was 9 years old they hung up on me (really).

I figured out were it is but I see no releases, screws, etc.

Thanks,

Ben

Are you sure it ain’t an “on board” video card? As in “can’t be removed“?

Ben, not knowing the specific type (R1 maybe?) it's a guess that you might find some help here....

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alienware+aurora+r1+video+card+remove,

Can you post a pic of your case? If it’s an R1 or R2 if I remember right from my old one. It’s three screws that are not obvious they are for the video card. It actually removes an entire lower section of the case. The video card/cards of dual are in a small riser board that sits them flat to the MB so the whole thing has to come out. They then attach to this in the usual ATX manor of one screw at the end of the bracket. Hope this helps

I don't think its an "on board" card as it sits 90 degrees to the mother board which I assume means it plugs into the MB and can be removed.

Its an ATI Radeon tho there are no numbers I can see Which is one of the reason I wanted to remove it.

All I can see of it is side edge on. The sound board is in the way on the bottom and the fans are in the way on the top. Yes - I considered the fans might be part of the GPU but see no way to confirm this.

I have no way to post a photo and frankly don't think it would tell us much if I did.

I removed 3 small screws to the left of the GPU but it did no good as trying to wiggle the GPU did nothing.

Will take a look at thread and see what's there - thanks.

Ben

EDIT:
One of those videos did the trick. Mucho thanks. My card is different but the procedure was the same (I was missing the release latch).

After breaking out my magnifying glass its an ATI Radeon HD 5970 2 GB. I assume that's quite old and outdated. Wonder if I can upgrade a bit. This is a 9 year old machine so newer GPUs might not be compatible. For one thing its a lot bigger then the two GTX1080's in my newer computer combined (by a bunch).

In any event many thanks for the help gents.

Ben

Well, this discourages me from ever buying an Alienware computer. I’ll stick with Falcon Northwest. Their service is very good.

Ben, glad you got it sorted,
I was happy to help someone who had helped me sort out my clambuckets back in October!

Hi Dave:

Both my Alienware computers (the Aurora and my new Area-51) are great tho not up to Falcon Northwest Mach 5 standards. Alienware itself has to be the most miserable company to deal with on the face of the earth (followed closely by their parent company Dell). It took a month to even get their system to accept my order. It kept getting cancelled and when I asked why no one knew. I wish I had known about Falcon Northwest at the time.

Ben