How to Identify a Motherboard Through Computer Software
An unfortunate fact of dealing with computers involves needing information regarding the "interior" of the computer, such as the model numbers for the various internal components, as well as the quantity and types of interface slots. We often need to identify the motherboard for various reasons. Some of those reasons include determining the particular processor (CPU) chipset drivers, graphics drivers and sound card drivers.
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Instructions
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Click "Start," (on XP, also click "Run") then type "cmd" and then press Enter. On Windows XP or Vista, this will take you to the "command prompt."
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Type "winmsd" and then press Enter from the command prompt on Windows XP. This will invoke the winmsd system utility to display all the available hardware and software information regarding the system. This includes system manufacturer, full system model, system type, processor information, BIOS version & date, SMBIOS version, memory information and other related hardware and software information.
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Type "msinfo32" and press Enter from the command prompt on Windows Vista. This will invoke the msinfo32 system utility to display all the available hardware and software information regarding the system. This is effectively Vista's replacement for $XP's "winmsd" utility; it gives basically the same information as the "winmsd" utility.
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Type "sysdm.cpl" and press "Enter" from the command prompt on either Vista or XP. Click the "Hardware" tab. Click the "Device Manager" button. Expand the "System Devices" item. Here you will find the same (and more detailed) information as that derived from "winmsd" and "msinfo32 (within the sub-areas of "Device Manager" and within the "System Devices" expanded information).
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Tips & Warnings
With these "Windows-blessed" methods of determining motherboard and chipset information, you can create a profile of the system manufacturer, BIOS revision, data, CPU model, computer model and related graphics and other chipset information, that easily will allow you to identify the system's motherboard. Two popular free third-party products used with great success are Belarc advisor and WinAudit (links provided in the "Additional Resources" section). Note also that Windows XP and higher (including Windows Server 2003 and higher) allow for use of "wmic" (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) and "PowerShell" scripting also to determine very detailed hardware, software and network information regarding Windows-based systems.
Software identification of items such as motherboard resources is not always a perfect science; therefore, you may still need to contact the manufacturer in order to double-check your findings before any critical hardware, firmware or chipset updates.
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Comments
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db042188
Aug 30, 2010
we're seeing something like "Standard manufacturer name" when we follow these instructions. I do notice Megatrends on the bios line. They do have a download that will tell us (I think) if the motherboard is theirs. We needed to wipe this pc clean. We were able to get the OS running but we believe we'll need motherboard drivers to get internet access. We've lost that cd. We dont believe we'll be finding that the motherboard is from megatrends. I'll post more here once I've had a chance to look further.
