Identify Motherboard & Manufacturer?

R

Ray19

New Member
Can someone tell me how to identify the motherboard and the manufacturer of it? Let me explain - I installed a new Western Digital 500 GB/Go EIDE Hard Drive and then tried to install my Windows XP Professional System. I believe my computer has an Intel P4 processor? After I installed my Windows XP Professional System I noticed that it had installed none of the programs it contains such as Winword, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, or Outlook. All I had was Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and a few accessory programs. I then looked at the properties of my new hard drive (Explorer) and it showed only a 138 GB capacity!! I didn't know what was happening?? I called the Microcenter (where I purchased my new drive) technical folks and reported my difficulty.

I was told to install Windows SP 2 and download any upgrades of my motherboard from the manufacturer. I have downloaded and installed SP 2 without any change in results. Now I need to look at the motherboard and see if there are any updates from the manufacturer on the board and perhaps the BIOS program which only boots the XP system (such as it is) from the XP disc itself. How can I do this? I need to add that previously I installed a 250 GB Seagate hard drive with no difficulty. Have I exceeded the capability of my computer with this new 500 GB hard drive?

I'm kind of at my wits end. Any advice you may have will be greatly appreciated.
Ray19
 
well for one:
you will not have word, excel, access, or powerpoint when you install an operating system. those programs come with microsoft office.

now about your harddrive:
go into your bios and see how much space your motherboard says the harddrive has. if it says 138GB i would try changing some of the settings on the motherboard for the harddrive. unfortunatly i cant exactly tell you what to do there since i dont remember :( but i am sure some one else here can give you a detailed explanation.

now to find out your motherboards information you can dl and install sandra. it will tell you your motherboards manufacturer and tell you the type of motherboard you also have.
 
Ray19 said:
Can someone tell me how to identify the motherboard and the manufacturer of it? Let me explain - I installed a new Western Digital 500 GB/Go EIDE Hard Drive and then tried to install my Windows XP Professional System. I believe my computer has an Intel P4 processor? After I installed my Windows XP Professional System I noticed that it had installed none of the programs it contains such as Winword, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, or Outlook. All I had was Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and a few accessory programs. I then looked at the properties of my new hard drive (Explorer) and it showed only a 138 GB capacity!! I didn't know what was happening?? I called the Microcenter (where I purchased my new drive) technical folks and reported my difficulty.

I was told to install Windows SP 2 and download any upgrades of my motherboard from the manufacturer. I have downloaded and installed SP 2 without any change in results. Now I need to look at the motherboard and see if there are any updates from the manufacturer on the board and perhaps the BIOS program which only boots the XP system (such as it is) from the XP disc itself. How can I do this? I need to add that previously I installed a 250 GB Seagate hard drive with no difficulty. Have I exceeded the capability of my computer with this new 500 GB hard drive?

I'm kind of at my wits end. Any advice you may have will be greatly appreciated.
Ray19
Click to expand...

All the programs you listed are not on the XP install disk. Those were added on. As far as the drive size, your old pre SP XP CD will only see a drive up to that size (unless this is a pretty older computer and is bios limited). After you installed SP2 go into Disk Management and the rest of the drive will show up as unallocated. Just partition and format it.

If you Slipstream SP2/3 onto your XP cd you will not have that problem anymore.

If you what to know what mother board you have. Install this.
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php
 
Last edited:
Thanks for Help - Additional Questions

I wasn't thinking - I knew I needed to load Office separately. Guess my other problems had me going for awhile.
I partioned the unallocated portion of my hard drive as instructed and formatted it. But I can't figure out how to make it part (combine it) of my C drive? Can anyone offer some help? Also, the Slipstream suggestion looks very good. Should I clear my C drive before using? I have installed SP2 but have no problem removing everything from C drive if preferred. I'm assuming that I should wait until SP2/SP3 is in place before installing Office?
Also, the site NZXT Apolla gave me was excellent for identifying my motherboard & BIOS. Thanks very much!
FYI - MB is Unspecified P4PA with Chipset VIA P4X266 (VT 8753). BIOS is Phoenix Technologies. I have e-mailed VIA for their recommended downloads to update my board & bIOS.
Your help is much appreciated.
Ray19
 
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