Where can I find the help I need ? Can you help ?

On Jun 2, 9:33 pm, 98 Guy wrote:
Note that I cut 2 of the original 5 newsgroups from this reply.
Hopefully the OP will be reading one of the remaining 3 groups.

wrote:
I started a "computer recycling project" in my church.

Essentially what I am looking for is a utility that can "scan"
all the pci cards, be it soundcard, video card, or whatever,
and give me their make and/or model number.

http://www.zhangduo.com/unknowndeviceidentifier.html

http://www.windrivers.com/

http://www.drivermagician.com/

http://www.softwarepatch.com/

http://freescan.driverguide.com/

http://driveragent.com/

http://tinyurl.com/3ygotp

Another thing is that the computers we got are all ANCIENT
computers, and sometimes so ancient that the manufacturers
no longer exist.

The only versions of Windows you should be installing on those system
will either be Windows-98se, or Windows XP-SP2. Windows 98-se is a
more logical choice in your case, since you most likely are dealing
with systems with slow/old CPU's and meager amounts of RAM, not to
mention that you would need to obtain a licence for XP (but you can
install Windows-98se with complete impunity regardless of what others
here think of that).

That said, Windows 98 should be relatively complete as far as having
drivers for motherboards and hardware that was available back in 1998
and probably as far back as 1995. Anything more recent than 1998
should be available on the net (motherboard, video, network cards,
modems, etc).

I wouldn't waste my time in your case trying to find drivers for sound
cards, SCSI or other "non-standard" storage devices, or video cards
made before 1998. Most likely the recipients of your computers will
not make use of devices like those.

You, and the recipients of the systems you are building, will probably
not be satisfied with the use of such old hardware, say anything with
less than a Pentium-II CPU. The computing experience will be
troublesome and frustrating and not worth the effort. You shouldn't
have a problem finding tons of relatively recent hardware - unless
there are other larger recyclers in your area that are obtaining more
modern surplus hardware to either build into systems - or to ship
overseas and melt them down for their base metals.



Thank you for your reply, and also your pointer. I'm located in a 3rd
(4th??) world country, where about half of the peole don't earn enough
money to buy new computers for their kids, and another half of the
populace are so rich that they literary throw away Pentium 3/4
machines just because they recently purchase their new Core 2 Duo
machine.

The church that I go to don't have lots of super-rich people, but they
do upgrade their computers from time to time. That's why I get their
P1, P2 machines and try to make something out of them.

The people that I send the re-conditioned machines to are urban-poors,
most from broken families, and stay in drug/crime infested area. Most
of the children there are really keen in learning new things, it's
just that they live in areas where they don't get much help from
anywhere.

Even the re-conditioned P1 / P2 machines did make a difference to
some. At least they can try to learn the English language, learn some
programming stuffs (I do install some programming tools in some of the
machine), and so on.

That's why I say that the task is huge but the payback is really
fulfilling. Whenever I see the faces of those children, turning from
gloom to one fills with hope and joy, no money in the world can buy
that, I tell ya !

This is a one man show, for now. I use my free time to fix up the
computers, use my beat-up old car to deliver them, but it's worth it.

Anyway, thanks again for everything, and God Bless !

On Jun 3, 6:07 am, "glee" wrote:
"98 Guy" wrote in ...
Note that I cut 2 of the original 5 newsgroups from this reply.
Hopefully the OP will be reading one of the remaining 3 groups.

wrote:

I started a "computer recycling project" in my church.

Essentially what I am looking for is a utility that can "scan"
all the pci cards, be it soundcard, video card, or whatever,
and give me their make and/or model number.

http://www.zhangduo.com/unknowndeviceidentifier.html

Another quite similar utility, that I have used for some time, is "Unknown Devices
1.2", available hehttp://www.halfdone.org/ukd/
andhttp://www.speakeasy.org/~halfdone/
andhttp://www.majorgeeks.com/Unknown_Devices_d3908.html





http://www.windrivers.com/

http://www.drivermagician.com/

http://www.softwarepatch.com/

http://freescan.driverguide.com/

http://driveragent.com/

http://tinyurl.com/3ygotp

Another thing is that the computers we got are all ANCIENT
computers, and sometimes so ancient that the manufacturers
no longer exist.

The only versions of Windows you should be installing on those system
will either be Windows-98se, or Windows XP-SP2. Windows 98-se is a
more logical choice in your case, since you most likely are dealing
with systems with slow/old CPU's and meager amounts of RAM, not to
mention that you would need to obtain a licence for XP (but you can
install Windows-98se with complete impunity regardless of what others
here think of that).

I am certainly aware of the issue you've pointed out, but in my case,
I tried Linux, but the missing driver problem got only worse. It's not
that I want to violate Microsoft's right, but the reality in this
world is that if you got a card that has no label on it, and if you
want it to work, chances is that there is a windows driver somewhere
that can make it comes alive.

Other than violating the OS copyright, I take good care to not violate
any other copyrights. All other software that I installed in the
machines are either Open Sourced, or Freewares.

Please do not misunderstand me, I'm not trying to wriggle myself out
of my guilt. I do acknowledge my guilt. My only hope is that Microsoft
may decide to drop their copyrights on OS that they no longer sell,
and no longer support, such as Windows 98.

Thanks again for your message, God Bless !




Win98SE does not require activation the way XP and newer do, but installing multiple
systems with one license *is* a violation of the licensing agreement. True, no one
at MS is going to send out the "cyber-police" at this point in time.....indeed, MS
has no way to even tell if 98 has been installed on multiple machines with one
license. Being a church-related project, the OP may want to consider the legal
aspect. Nuff said on that.....



That said, Windows 98 should be relatively complete as far as having
drivers for motherboards and hardware that was available back in 1998
and probably as far back as 1995. Anything more recent than 1998
should be available on the net (motherboard, video, network cards,
modems, etc).

I wouldn't waste my time in your case trying to find drivers for sound
cards, SCSI or other "non-standard" storage devices, or video cards
made before 1998. Most likely the recipients of your computers will
not make use of devices like those.

I would think a working sound card from any era would be an item the endusers would
want.



You, and the recipients of the systems you are building, will probably
not be satisfied with the use of such old hardware, say anything with
less than a Pentium-II CPU. The computing experience will be
troublesome and frustrating and not worth the effort. You shouldn't
have a problem finding tons of relatively recent hardware - unless
there are other larger recyclers in your area that are obtaining more
modern surplus hardware to either build into systems - or to ship
overseas and melt them down for their base metals.

--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+http://dts-l.org/http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

On Jun 3, 10:27 am, 98 Guy wrote:
glee wrote:
(but you can install Windows-98se with complete impunity
regardless of what others here think of that).

but installing multiple systems with one license *is* a
violation of the licensing agreement. True, no one at MS
is going to send out the "cyber-police" at this point in time...

He actually has no choice.

He can't buy 98 from MS, and he can't really buy XP anymore either -
not retail anyways. Given the vintage of his hardware, Vista is not
an option either.


Many thanks for your support. I'm not saying that I'm guilt free, is
that other than Win98, there's no many choice, do they ?


We can argue the legality, or the morals, or the practicality of
installing system after system after system with the same win-98
license key until the cows come home, but it's Micro$haft that has
made it impossible for people like the OP to obtain a "legit"
solution, so I say screw MS - they deserve it.

I would think a working sound card from any era would be an
item the endusers would want.

I don't know exactly what device the OP is getting his hands on where
he can't find a driver, but soundcards are a likely guess. I don't
know how long I'd putz with a system where I could get everything else
working except the sound card - but not long.

Sound card, net card, video card, you name it. Many don't even have
any label. Sometimes I can only guess what they are, and then test
them out.

Anyway, thanks again and God Bless !

On Jun 3, 10:27 am, 98 Guy wrote:
glee wrote:
(but you can install Windows-98se with complete impunity
regardless of what others here think of that).

but installing multiple systems with one license *is* a
violation of the licensing agreement. True, no one at MS
is going to send out the "cyber-police" at this point in time...

He actually has no choice.

He can't buy 98 from MS, and he can't really buy XP anymore either -
not retail anyways. Given the vintage of his hardware, Vista is not
an option either.


Many thanks for your support. I'm not saying that I'm guilt free, is
that other than Win98, there's no many choice, do they ?


We can argue the legality, or the morals, or the practicality of
installing system after system after system with the same win-98
license key until the cows come home, but it's Micro$haft that has
made it impossible for people like the OP to obtain a "legit"
solution, so I say screw MS - they deserve it.

I would think a working sound card from any era would be an
item the endusers would want.

I don't know exactly what device the OP is getting his hands on where
he can't find a driver, but soundcards are a likely guess. I don't
know how long I'd putz with a system where I could get everything else
working except the sound card - but not long.

Sound card, net card, video card, you name it. Many don't even have
any label. Sometimes I can only guess what they are, and then test
them out.

Anyway, thanks again and God Bless !

i had one more idea. do a search on google for the make and model of
the system and see if you can find some information about what MIGHT be
on that system. It's a bit of a long shot and time consuming, which
stinks, but it might get you to the ultimate goal.

wrote:
On Jun 4, 12:09 am, mark wrote:
Or you can buy a volume licensing key from MS for i think about $150.
From the sounds of it, you are a non-profit organization? Use it for a
tax write-off. You might be able to get the church to back you on it
and get the funding through the church. Buy one single volume license
and run with it.

What I am doing does not even qualify as a "non-profit organization",
for it's a one-man show. Besides the OS, all other software that I
installed are open-sourced and/or freewares, such as Open Office,
Scribus, Photo Filtre and so on.

I've tried to install Linux on the machines, but the missing driver
problem got only worse. There are times I can find windows drivers for
the cards, but there's nothing on the LInux side (perhaps I just don't
know where to look).

Anyway, thanks to you and to all for your suggestions/ideas. Thanks
again and God Bless !





wrote:
Hello, all !
I started a "computer recycling project" in my church. What we do is
to collect all the old computers that people donated, open them up,
remove all the dust and grimes inside, check the parts, and then try
our best to make "new" (aka reconditioned, restored, etc.) computers
out of the still-usable parts. Then we pass those working computers to
people/organizations that can put them to good use.
The project itself is fun and very fulfilling, but there's one thing
that bug me the most - many times we have computer parts (pci cards,
mobos, etc) that are totally usable but we can't find suitable drivers
for them !
There are times we have pci cards that don't have any label. By
reading the chips, and the ports, we can guess what type of cards they
are, but we are never sure.
Essentially what I am looking for is a utility that can "scan" all the
pci cards, be it soundcard, video card, or whatever, and give me their
make and/or model number. That way, at least I'd know which driver I
need.
Is there such a utility around that we can use?
Another thing is that the computers we got are all ANCIENT computers,
and sometimes so ancient that the manufacturers no longer exist. Where
can I find drivers for such devices ?
Please accept my sincerest thanks in advance, for any suggestions that
you can offer. Thanks again, and God Bless !

wrote:

I am certainly aware of the issue you've pointed out, but in my case,
I tried Linux, but the missing driver problem got only worse. It's not
that I want to violate Microsoft's right, but the reality in this
world is that if you got a card that has no label on it, and if you
want it to work, chances is that there is a windows driver somewhere
that can make it comes alive.

High to Very High, if you talk about 'IBM-PC and compatibles' :-).

Of
course, Windows (3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, ME, NT3.x, NT4, NT5, NT5.1, NT6
Vista).

Everything from 1992 should have Linux support, as I have informed
myself now.
First Pentiums should run ok on linux, with maybe not too old Hardware
(e.g. ISA-Card Pentiums....). PCI Hardware should do well with Linux.
Ol' ISA stuff, even with 386 CPU's, is a blaze with Win95. IMO (some
RAM, 16MB...)!

Although, I would step down to a PCI i486/DX4-100 with NT and 128MB
RAM, 16MB GfX, SCSI and so, for the least, indeed ;-).

Other than violating the OS copyright, I take good care to not violate
any other copyrights. All other software that I installed in the
machines are either Open Sourced, or Freewares.

Why argueing?

Please do not misunderstand me, I'm not trying to wriggle myself out
of my guilt. I do acknowledge my guilt. My only hope is that Microsoft
may decide to drop their copyrights on OS that they no longer sell,
and no longer support, such as Windows 98.

Thanks again for your message, God Bless !

I am sure you can find feet-height large staples of ol' Win95-, or even
Win98 CD's around. Cheap. Cheaper...



Best regards,

Daniel Mandic