I just reinstalled windows XP pro and have no idea where to get drivers for any of my hardware. But that isn’t the problem, that is what google is for. The problem is that I need to figure out what hardware I have. I have no paper work or anything telling me seeing as how I never got any. I went into device manager but it only tells me the type of device not what the device is.
Any ideas?
-John
hardware inside or peripherals? If its inside I’d open the case and look for manufacturer names and models on labels on the components or silkscreened on the circuit boards.
Google for the model of the computer + drivers.
“HP Pavilion zv5000 drivers”
etc.
Tell me, is it the normal pre-made computer or did you order the seperate parts to build your own computer?
Pre-made
Find the model name, model number, and name of driver you are looking for. The name-DELL, INSIGNIA, etc.The number can be found either inside the computer or on the back. 4-6 digits long, sometimes containing letters. If your computer has a series, make sure to note it in case there are several versions of you computer. With all of those, you can find a layout of your computer and what drivers it has on the internet. Once you recognize the missing drivers and their model name (and the S/N might be helpful), search them on the internet and you should be able to find them.
Custom built computer
If you kept the original disks that came with the hardware, you should be able to re-install the hardware from those. If not, look at the model name & number on the piece of hardware you are installing and find the driver from there.
A side note- be patient with it. When I re-installed Windows XP Home Edition, I lost my graphics and sound drivers and couldn’t find them for a couple of weeks until someone told me about all of this. And after that, another couple of days.
Good Luck
Seth Cook
Everest Home edition is a free program that will detect what hardware is in the PC even when there are no drivers installed. It can be run right off of a flash drive too.
That would have been handy back in January. Would have saved me some time.
What my problem is that even if I do find the drivers for my computer when I install XP, they can’t find the hardware. This happened with my ATI graphics card. I know what graphics I have and when I downloaded the software for it (latest version) and I would try to install it, it would say that it couldn’t find the right graphics card for that driver. Any suggestions on this?
I don’t know about that. Maybe try to find earlier versions of th driver and recheck that the hardware is set in the computer correctly. Other than that, I am not sure what to say.
Along with what others have said, windows update over and over and over and over and over again. I had to do every update before it finally realized I have a video card and sound, but it did. So sometimes you just have to be patient and do the boring work of updating windows completely and maybe the problem will solve itself. If not, I’d definitely look at the program Jeff mentioned earlier.
Sometimes you have to install chipset drivers and updates first, before some hardware is recognized.
Always install all the drivers for your motherboard first.
Astra32 is another nice tool that tells you what your computer has inside. 
Wow, I really was tired when I posted this I didn’t even think of just going to HP’s website.
Thanks,
-John
Wow, I really was tired when I posted this I didn’t even think of just going to HP’s website.
Thanks,
-John