Where to find drivers

So this is one that has been coming up since the beginning of time.

How do you find out what a piece of hardware is without taking your computer case apart or if you dont have physical access to your machine.

My current platform is Windows 7 but it will be very similar in the likes of server 2008, server 2003, XP, and Vista.

On pc, better said Windows boxes, go to your start, all programs, accessories, system tools, and “system information”.

Drill down to components, and problem devices.

You will note something similar to the following:

From here we now know the “VEN”/Vendor, and “DEV”/Device. So, VEN = 11AB, DEV = 4364

Your next stop is http://www.pcidatabase.com/

Looking at out previous step, this is what was entered in the search:

And the results show the actual hardware:

Done – now you do not need to spend hours searching through 101 contradicting forums.

 

Thanks for reading.