How can I identify my netbook's chipset?

I've purchased a no-name netbook from malasia; and for the last year used Ubuntu on it just fine. I had a little trouble finding the Wireless driver, turns out the RT-3090 one worked.

But now I've come back to the dark side; whiped off Linux and installed WindowsXP. And belive it or not; no drivers. Dang. not even ethernet.

The netbook has no brand, make, or model. It's entirely no-name.

How can I find the chipset drivers?

Thanks!

Dean Rather

Posted 2010-11-01T22:27:55.090

Reputation: 2 499

Yes, USB thumb drives are working :) – Dean Rather – 2010-11-03T01:34:32.273

Answers

I prefer the lightweight CPU-Z

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Moab

Posted 2010-11-01T22:27:55.090

Reputation: 54 203

As the only solution which is free and doesn't require me to download/install linux onto a specially formatted usb drive -- CPU-Z is the winner! – Dean Rather – 2010-11-03T01:39:17.230

Boot a live Linux distribution on the laptop somehow - either make a bootable USB stick, or burn a CD and boot fromm that. I would recommend downloading an Ubuntu iso and using the "Try out" mode, or something like Knoppix.

Once you have linux running, open a root terminal and issue this command:

lspci

Assuming your distro is relatively recent, this should enumerate your chipset and pretty much every piece of hardware on your mainboard. You might want to issue this command

update-pciids

to update lspci's database beforehand for the best information.

LawrenceC

Posted 2010-11-01T22:27:55.090

Reputation: 63 487

Everest is probably the most comprehensive tool for this.

fideli

Posted 2010-11-01T22:27:55.090

Reputation: 13 618

2He'd have to install Windows and install the drivers in order to download and install that on the netbook, which is what he wants the software for to enable him to do in the first place. – paradroid – 2010-11-02T00:48:09.553

I thought Windows XP was installed… – fideli – 2010-11-02T01:30:51.360

But he has no network drivers to download it. I suppose he could transfer the software to the netbook using a USB flash drive though, if he has access to another computer. – paradroid – 2010-11-02T02:45:46.173

@jason404: Assuming he has working USB. Which is usually the case, but I've dealt with hardware where Windows wasn't able to enumerate all the buses without vendor drivers, and so some of the multiple USB controllers were unreachable. – ephemient – 2010-11-02T02:56:14.897

@ephemient: Yeah, he's best off putting Linux back on it and using some tools from there. – paradroid – 2010-11-02T03:03:00.110

Speccy's a pretty good lightweight one too

blsub6

Posted 2010-11-01T22:27:55.090

Reputation: 867