You seem to forget the single most important thing to do while working with these types of electronic devices...'''STAY GROUNDED!!'''
The very first thing a person '''MUST''' do before touching a single thing is to wear an anti-static wrist strap and connect it to a metal part of the machine you're working on.
Static discharge is the NUMBER 1 killer of electronic parts! Even after you've removed your graphics card from the machine, STAY GROUNDED, and stay that way throughout the entire process.