help. please.

[ace7054]

can anyone help me? my hard drie crashed so i got a new one. i put it in and everything, but now the computer says i don't have a sound card (which i do b/c it worked before my hard drive died) and it doesn't give me the option to use 256 color, nor does it allow me to change my screen resolution (again, things i was able to do before). my buddy took a look and said something about needing drivers, but that i was screwed because the sound and video cards wre part of the motherboard. he said that if i found out what kind of motherboard i had, i might be able to find out the components and get the drivers for them. everyone keeps asking me if i have any disks that came with the computer, and i don't because this computer was given to me. can anyone help me at all? please post a response or send me email to mae0001@widener.edu. thanks, matthew

[Susan]

You do need to figure out what motherboard you have and who the manufacturer is. When the system boots, look at the bottom left hand corner of the screen for a long set of numbers/letters and post them here or you can try and find them yourself at www.ping.be/bios (http://www.ping.be/bios) .

You will have to download the motherboard drivers from the manufacturers website and install them (the first being the MB drivers and then the video and sound drivers)into windows to get things running properly.

[commodsquad]

Also, to add to Susan's post. To help with getting the string of numbers from the boot up screen You can press the "pause/break" key to pause the system during boot up so it is easier to copy the neccessary info like the bios type and version and the motherboard identification string. When you have copied the info and are ready to resume booting press "enter"..It works for my board but I'm not sure if this method is mobo specific so if I am wrong or there is other methods someone please help or correct me /forum/smile.gif..Hope that helps..

[welsh wizard]

try the following site for info on obtain bios to manufacture details http://www.ami.com/
Though I not to happy with the way they tell you how to obtain the BIOS string. they have a download file that will be able to identify Makers if its American megatreads BIOS
WW

[ace7054]

ok. first, thanks for all of your help guys (and girls). the number i got from the bottom left of the boot up screen was 51-0224-001437-00111111-071595-571-007_66_571-H i went to that ping page and found out that the number means HSING TECH ENTERPRISE CO., LTD., but i can't seem to find anything about i anywhere. whats next?

matt

[ace7054]

i just realized that i messed up. the number is correct, but it means its a PcChips M571 = Amptron PM9100. sorry about that.

[Mntsnow]

The video drivers are at http://www.amptron.com/html/91vga730.html and the sound drivers are at http://www.amptron.com/html/snd95730.html (win95) or for win98 at http://www.amptron.com/html/snd98730.html

Hope this helps

Mntsnow

[Peter M]

Hi!

Get newer drivers from
www.sis.com.tw (http://www.sis.com.tw) (5597/98 VGA, 5513 IDE) www.cmedia.com.tw (http://www.cmedia.com.tw) (8330 sound device)

and the latest BIOS from

ftp.pcchips.com.tw/BIOS/M571.

btw, you didn't mess anything up, the PC-Chips trade name belongs to Hsing Tech company.

Regards, Peter

[ace7054]

thanks for your help everybody. everything seems to be working okay now. you guys were great. thanks again, matt