Motherboard Identification

[Guest]

I have an old (inherited) tower system with a Pentium 200 that I'd like to upgrade. How do I identify the motherboard to see what CPUs I can put in, and to get a datasheet so I can tell what the jumpers are? I'm happy with the motherboard - although old it has USB and onboard sound, so I don't really need to upgrade the board itself.

 

[Guest]

You need to obtain the bios string usually visible in the bottom left corner of the screen during boot up. You can use the pause key to halt the boot process at that screen while you copy the number and then hit enter to continue.

Once you have obtained this number you can either do a search using the string and a good search engine ( www.google.com ) or go to one of the many sites that specialise in bios ID ( http://www.ping.be/bios/ ) and search the site for a match for the string.

This will usually identify the board maker and model or at least the chipset used and the board maker. From there it's off to the manufacturers site to find the appropriate manual to download.

The only proviso to the above is that if you have a "brand name" computer such as a Compaq (I'll wash my mouth out later) or an IBM or HP you can virtually disregard everything I've said and I wish you luck in trying to identify your board.

Aussie