To provide help for people who needs drivers/manuals but cannot find them

i would like to bring up this topic here because i personally used to have trouble finding proper driver and manuals for certain brand of motherboards(such as pc partner, soyo, biostar, and a lot of those of lower grades).

If there is any motherboard expert out there who has a huge database who can share information and help those who are in need will be welcomed

I myself will also try to help out in this topic itself if any help is needed to find drivers and manuals.



What you need to post(provide) if you have

1) Photo of your motherboard, the clearer the better
2) Brand
3) Model
4) Description

Desciption can range from the layout of the board eg, how many PCI, VGA, or ram slots to the form factor of it to what you see from the board

For those not so well-known boards, the information tend to be hidden, these are examples of where to find information.


Figure 1 : Information clearly stated on the expansion slot which is often the case


Figure 2 : Board ID printed on edge of board


Figure 3 : Motherboard ID during startup


Figure 4 : Bios ID during start up

During start up you might have to hit the Pause/Break button to be able to write down the bios information for identification purpose as there are several websites providing information on bios that will eventually lead you to the make and model of the motherboard.

Unsure what form factor is your board?
Form Factor





I will add to this topic as i find more information, those who have extensive knowledge on motherboard identification pls post here or PM me to add any info.
If there are any mistakes/ errors pls do PM me so that i can correct.
Hope everyone can chip in a little to help.

Those who needs help can start posting here, I will try to help.

This post has been edited by beginner: Dec 4 2006, 04:27 PM

reserved for more info

This should be pinned...

Agreed...
This is very helpful to everyone especially newbies in pc..

but so far seems like not much ppl in need of help here. if still no further info needed by forumners i think maybe can close this thread already....maybe these information is not so sought after in lowyat.

cos now we have some sort of programs to detect the mobo devices
such as cpuz or device identifier

may b we could provide some link to those program to identify the mobo....

well i donno any of those link of the program...but i use Everest to identify...any one mind to provide some other program that helps??

not all motherboards can be identified, those lower grades ones dont have such info. eg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/beg...28/8601-686.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/beg...P4M266-8235.jpg

if i dont know about the mobo ident, usually i kept driverpacks.net database.

most oftenly it will solve my problem when repairing/installing my friend's old mobo driver

btw beginner, does BIOS id could identify d exact mobo? enlighten me pls...

yes it can. depending on versions and brands of the bios, there are certain characters that identifies the manufacturer of the motherboard. hence u can check the manufacturers website for chipset and also specifications of the motherboard that matches that written on the bios ID.

EG.

http://www.abit.com.cn/drivers/mbtype_pic/20060109005.jpg

from the image above

8363-686B-6A6LMA19C-YH

A1 represents abit, so you know the motherboard above is from abit.

8363-686B represents the chipset used by the motherboard

this is a branded motherboard hence making the search easier, if its a jetway or pc partner or soyo, then its a totally different story.



This post has been edited by beginner: Jan 19 2007, 08:15 AM