This blog post will describe a card reader installation in an average desktop computer. You will need a screw driver, most likely a phillips type. Open up your computer case by taking off one of the side covers.
Quickest way to know which door to take off is to take the door off opposite of the input output ports ie. video, ethernet, USB, HDMI, etc. Now you will most likely need to take off a front cover. Many front covers on personal computers are NOT screwed on, but it just depends.
There will be some plastic tabs that you just pinch together with your fingers and push out. Once you loosen enough of these, then the front cover will come off. Now you want to look for a 3.5 inch slot.
Multi card readers are the same width, 3.5 inches, as desktop hard drives. Also, the older school 3.5 inch floppy drives also fit in this same slot. You may need to remove a 3.5 inch cover.
Many times these covers are NOT screwed on. From inside the case you will notice two pieces of plastic on each side that are actually releases. Press in on both plastic releases and then push the cover out.
It is usually easier to install a multi card reader from the front. Slide in the card reader from the front of the computer case. You want to make sure that you have it front side up.
You should be able to read the print on the front. Now most current contemporary card readers are connected to a Universal Serial Bus. They can be USB 3.0, USB 2.0, etc.
Look on the motherboard of your computer for a spare USB connector. They should be marked in visible lettering. For example this computer I installed a multi card reader into, had “USB 2.0” labeled right above the USB port.
USB ports on motherboards are actually just pins. You do NOT want to press too, hard because these pins can break off. Before you connect your multi card reader to a motherboard USB port, look at the end of the cable that connects to the motherboard.
Sometimes these connections have a blank on the cable that would not fit over a pin. The connection on the cable will be female and the connection on the motherboard will be male. For example the motherboard I attached this cable to had four pins on the bottom row of pins.
The top row had 5 pins. The cable attached to the multi card reader had four pins and one blank. Line up this cable and connect it to the pins on the universal serial bus cable.
Most multi card readers do NOT come with drivers. Most modern Microsoft, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems have drivers that will suffice. Now all you have to do is put the front cover and side covers back on your computer as well as boot into your operating system and then test out your card reader.