How to determine the motherboards chipset.

Question:

How to determine the motherboards chipset.

Answer:

Manual

The manual is always going to be the quickest and easiest way to determine what chipset your motherboard uses. If you have any documentation that came with your motherboard it is recommended you first refer to that documentation.

Windows Identification

If you are looking for the chipset of the motherboard and are running Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP you can find the chipset information under the 'System devices' category in Device Manager. The chipset of the motherboard will likely be ALI, AMD, Intel, NVidia, VIA, or SIS. However, this information will only be seen if the chipset drivers are installed in the computer properly.

Note: If you are attempting to identify your chipset because you need to install drivers for the chipset often a motherboard and/or computer will come with a CD that has the proper chipset drivers on it. If you do not have a CD that will install these drivers you will need to continue to the next step to identify the chipset and download the chipset drivers from our motherboard page.

Motherboard identification

If you do not have any product documentation the next best method of determining the type of chipset the motherboard has is to identify the type of motherboard installed in the computer. Additional information about how to identify the motherboard can be found on document CH000504. Once the motherboard and model of motherboard has been identified you can visit the motherboard manufacturers page for online documentation or a software utility to determine the chipset. A listing of motherboard manufacturers can be found on our motherboard links section.