How to find what Type of Hardware you have, without Opening Computer Case?

[Astalavista]

HOW TO FIND OUT WHAT TYPE OF HARDWARE YOU HAVE WITHOUT OPENING YOUR COMPUTER'S CASE

Here is a tutorial on how to find out some information that is very useful when upgrading or troubleshooting your computer

The first section is the steps needed to find out what hardware you have and will give a list of things to include when asking for advice about your computer.

The second section will list the steps to use DirectX Diagnostic Tool to determine your type of Video Card

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Section 1: Obtaining and using CPU-Z to gather system information

Section 1a: Obtaining and using CPU-Z

1) Go and download CPU-Z.

2) After downloading CPU-Z extract the contents of the .zip file, and put the extracted files where you can easily access them.

3) Double-click the cpuz.exe file.

4) Now that CPU-Z is open, you can click on each tab to find out specific information about your computer.

Section 1b: What to list when asking for advice

In the following section list the information that pertains to your query. For example, if you are upgrading your CPU, list the relevant information from the CPU Tab.

CPU Tab:

Processor Specification
Processor Code Name
Core Speed
FSB
Bus Speed

Mainboard Tab:

Motherboard Manufacturer
Motherboard Model
Graphic Interface Version
Graphic Interface Transfer Rate

Memory Tab:

Type
Size
Frequency

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Section 2: Using DirectX Diagnostic Tool to determine your type of Video Card

The DirectX Diagnostic Tool will give you information about you video and audio equipment and their drivers.

Section 2a: Opening the DirectX Diagnostic Tool

1)Click the Start button.

2)Click the Run... button from the Start Menu.

3)Type dxdiag in the text box.

Section 2b: Finding relevant information from the DirectX Diagnostic Tool

In the following section list the information that pertains to your query.

System Tab:

DirectX Version

Display Tab:

Device Name
Device Chip Type
Device Approx. Total Memory

Drivers Main Driver
Drivers Version

Hope that helps

[Icarusul]

Please add this, and you can make it all bold and fancy and crap

HOW TO FIND GRAPHICS CARD INFOMATION

Press the windows start logo, and travel to the run command. Type dxdiag in that box. This tells you about what kind of a graphic card your running

Report the following in these tab's

SYSTEM TAB:
Report the DirectX Version:

DISPLAY TAB:
Under Device report the following;
Name:
Manafactuer:
Chip Type:
Approx Total Memory:

Under driver report the following;
Main Driver:
Version:

[Tomaz]

CPU-Z is mainly for extremely basic info about RAM and CPU. It barely show anything about your motherboard except for a few BIOS version numbers and random stuff like that and doesn't show any info compared to programs like AIDA32,DrHardware,SiSoft Sandra and Everest. A few things missing in CPU-Z: HDD, FDD, chipset info (like USB/firewire/LAN chips and more), ANY cards (AGP/PCI etc), transfer rates for PCI/IDE and other periphials.
I suggest these four programs I mentioned for good info about your hardware. AIDA32 and Everest will often display links to websites to get BIOS updates and a variety of drivers.