windows hardware problem

i have reinstalled window 2000 on my friends machine w/out writtin' down all the harware present on the system. the problem is that the windows doesn't recognize certaint hardware (network card/sound card/video card). by "doesn't recognize" i mean that in the 'device manager' all i get is a question mark and something like "video device" ... i think that some of this hardware is on the motherboard (i know that the video device is on the MB/ it's on of those SiS 360/370) but like i said i didn't write anything down (dunb motherf@#$%er) and my friend doesn't have any driver disks or CD to figure it out. i opened the machine and it doesn't say anything on the harware itself to let me know the manufacturer (it's a cheap machine) ... so i guess my question is how can i detect the hardware so i can download the appropriate drivers. is there a software i can use???


any advice appriciated :p

there are generic drivers you can use for the nic (should be Realtek; I cant remember)...as for sound and video card im not sure, if you look closely, there should be a label of some sorts on there.

First of all I think look on the m/board if he has any cards installed be it screencard,soundcard,networkcard etc..That way you can determine whether you should enable onboard devices or disable them in the bios setup.I think the best way is to pull them all out except the screencard if he has one.Then load windows and add all the other cards one by one after windows has loaded.Also go to controll panel/system and remove the devices which have conflicts and check for devices which are loaded twice.You might as well remove all because windows will detect them anyway after rebooting.

Have a look on the chipsets on the motherboard.Usually the onboard video chipset as well as sound will display the right chipset numbers and manufacturer so you can then download it from either the manufacturer or (pcdrivers.com and driverforum.com).I am still using win98 so I hope this helps.Maybe someone who already has win 2000 will be able to assist you better.

regards
v/man:)

Try and find any kind of part numbers on the MoBo. Then go to motherboards.org and look it up. If you know the manufacturer you can look that up there too. They will have a link to the manufacturer's site so you can get the drivers you need for the built in stuff.

This has happened to me on a number of times, for Windows 95, 98, and 2000 Pro.. Vanman has the right idea here - you'll want to open the box again and look for the chipset numbers, then download either from the sites he listed or straight from the manufacturer if you can determine who the manufacturer is. Once you download the proper files for your chipset, Windows SHOULD then at least recognize the actual uninstalled cards (video, sound - Windows should be able to determine the model and manufacturer).. At this point, if Windows doesn't have the drivers for the cards, then you'll have enough information to go find and download the drivers from their website...

I've even gone as far as doing searches on Google on various components within a system, using whatever names and numbers I could visually find on the components - with enough time you can find all the needed drivers and such...

PM me if you have any more questions and I'll do what I can for you...

The easiest way would be if it is a brand name manufactured pc with a model name/number ie Packard Bell <your model here>. Then all you have to do is google for a spec sheet for that model. A lot of modern cheap pcs have onboard sound/video/nics. If you can find the motherboard/chipset name you can download the drivers from the mb makers site.

If it is a recent mother board (and a cheep one) then the onboard sound will probably be the AC97 chip, I think thats what it is called. Do a search on the web and see what that turns up.

Also one thing worth trying, since no one seems to have mentioned it is aplying the latest service pack to windows 2k. I know that new hardware was supported by the NT service packs it is likely still the same.

WaveRebel

The service pack is a good suggestion but it probably won't find the hardware. Getting the drivers, especially the Motherboard drivers itself is very important. Often just loading the proper M/B driver will install the bridges that allow the hardware to communicate properly and then windows will recognize them. Also the better m/b drivers include the on-board hardware with them so you will load the m/b drivers, reboot and all that unrecognized H/W will come up and be ready to be installed properly.

This is essentially what was said before only posted to add the part about the bridges since those are critical to the proper operation of on-board hardware and Windows rarely has the correct m/b drivers to load these IDE bridges.