There are many ways to find out what hardware you have in your PC. Windows has several programs that provide everything you need to know to make Windows work and there are a lot of 3rd party utilities that provide in depth hardware information.
Device Manager lists the hardware that Windows has recognised and shows basic information including description, software drivers, hardware ports and interrupts.
Device Manager can be run several ways.
System Information provides similar information to Device Manager, but rather than show the information by device, it is listed by resource (hardware port, interrupt or IRQ, DMA etc). System Information is also the place to find information about hardware that does not have a driver loaded.
System Information can be run several ways.
If Device Manager shows a device with a yellow exclamation mark, it means the hardware is not working properly. It may not have a driver loaded at all or there may be a memory or IRQ conflict. These days it is most likely a missing driver and Microsoft have just the tool to help you work out which driver to use.
Open “System Information” and select Components | Problem Devices. You will see all devices not working and their PCI device IDs.
Go to PCI Database and search for the Vendor or Device ID.
You should now know what the device is and where to obtain the drivers.
e.g. A problem device may have the code PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3038&SUBSYS_12340925.
VEN_1106 is the vendor ID and DEV_3038 is the device ID.
Note: You only use the four characters after the underscore.
Searching for the device ID 3038 returns:
| Device Id | Chip Description | Vendor Id | Vendor Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0×3038 | USB 1.0 Controller | 0×1106 | VIA Technologies Inc |
| 0×3038* | 4 x USB2.0 PCI controller | 0×1106 | VIA Technologies Inc |
3rd Party programs provide in depth information about your hardware. Just right for finding out exactly what type of memory you need to buy to upgrade your PC.