How Do I Find MB Drivers for Unknown Computer?

My 75 year old aunt has a computer that's about 6 years old and has
become so bollixed up I need to wipe and reload the OS. But, she
doesn't have the MB drivers. She can't afford to buy a new computer.
She may have gotten the computer from TigerDirect by no one is sure.
How do I figure out where to get drivers for it?

"jim evans" wrote in message
...
My 75 year old aunt has a computer that's about 6 years old and has
become so bollixed up I need to wipe and reload the OS. But, she
doesn't have the MB drivers. She can't afford to buy a new computer.
She may have gotten the computer from TigerDirect by no one is sure.
How do I figure out where to get drivers for it?




Start with a diagnostic program such as cpu-id. It's free and downloadable.
It should identify the motherboard , chipset, graphics display and RAM. Ive
also heard that Belarc Adviser will do an excellent job of recovering
hardware information. Additionally take a look at the programs in the Start
menu to see what she's been running.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html


You may also find the make of the motherboard by opening the computer and
looking over the board. Quite often the name is imprinted on the face along
with the version.

Do yourself a favor and remove the drive from the computer and make an image
of it onto an external drive before you begin. Your aunt may surprise you
when she asks you to restore those pictures she'd put on the computer and
was expecting you to recover to the new installation.
Additionally you may be surprised that once you install windows again
all the drivers or most of them may get installed from the Windows disk.
That's happened to me several times.

--
Jan Alter

Thanks very much. I have already made a copy of the copyable
contents of her drive. She only has about 3 gig of stuff outside of
Windows. She only uses it for email and Word occasionally. So the
most important driver is for the Ethernet card, and next is the video
driver.

jim evans wrote:

Thanks very much. I have already made a copy of the copyable
contents of her drive. She only has about 3 gig of stuff outside of
Windows. She only uses it for email and Word occasionally. So the
most important driver is for the Ethernet card, and next is the video
driver.

Can you not get into Device manager and have a look at the hardware in the
machine from there?

--
Graham
Website - http://www.thedeathzone.free-online.co.uk

jim evans wrote:
My 75 year old aunt has a computer that's about 6 years old and has
become so bollixed up I need to wipe and reload the OS. But, she
doesn't have the MB drivers. She can't afford to buy a new computer.
She may have gotten the computer from TigerDirect by no one is sure.
How do I figure out where to get drivers for it?

SIW (System Information for Windows) will tell you the make and model of
the MB, plus additional related info. It's small, portable, and free.
http://www.gtopala.com/

"jim evans" wrote in message
...
Thanks very much. I have already made a copy of the copyable
contents of her drive. She only has about 3 gig of stuff outside of
Windows. She only uses it for email and Word occasionally. So the
most important driver is for the Ethernet card, and next is the video
driver.



If windows will run you could go to Control Panel, System Folder, Hardware
tab, Device Manager, and see what network card is being used. That would
give you the ability to find the driver should the windows installation not
install it. If Windows isn't running then you could physically look at the
card and if it isn't marked just get its federal identification number and
do a search that way.


Jan Alter

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:11:44 -0600, jim evans
wrote:

My 75 year old aunt has a computer that's about 6 years old and has
become so bollixed up I need to wipe and reload the OS. But, she
doesn't have the MB drivers. She can't afford to buy a new computer.
She may have gotten the computer from TigerDirect by no one is sure.
How do I figure out where to get drivers for it?

Read this: http://www.wimsbios.com/awardnumbers.jsp

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:11:44 -0600, jim evans
wrote:

My 75 year old aunt has a computer that's about 6 years old and has
become so bollixed up I need to wipe and reload the OS. But, she
doesn't have the MB drivers. She can't afford to buy a new computer.
She may have gotten the computer from TigerDirect by no one is sure.
How do I figure out where to get drivers for it?

Presumably a modern O/S is being planned. WinXP is more than likely to
instal sufficient drivers for everything on the motherboard to work
and also the Ethernet card.

Some motherboards have components that expect specific drivers eg VIA
but in my experience the Operating System will usually provide.

For best quality graphics and sound then drivers may be necessary but
in view of planned, minimum usage that doesn't appear to be an issue.

Most motherboards have model name and make printed on them - often
between the PCI slots.

When found this can be used to Google to the makers site and full
downloads obtained, if still necessary.

km

"jim evans" wrote in message
...
My 75 year old aunt has a computer that's about 6 years old and has
become so bollixed up I need to wipe and reload the OS. But, she
doesn't have the MB drivers. She can't afford to buy a new computer.
She may have gotten the computer from TigerDirect by no one is sure.
How do I figure out where to get drivers for it?

a lot of those prebuilt systems used cheap PCChips motherboards and had CAB
files on the hard drive (and drivers) for a reinstall.