At 01:35 AM 9/30/04 , Ton Heeren wrote:
>Sir, ma'am
>after my computer crashed due to a virus, I had to
>format my hard drive and install Winsdows [xx] again.
>My problem is now, the on-board (AMP) sound-/videocard
>is now presented as a ? in the list of hardware.
>Windows does not recognize the type and I believe the
>driver is lost.

Your computer may have come with a rescue CD that you can use. You should=
 also be able to open your computer case and find the model of your=
 motherboard. Then, you should be able to find drivers at the motherboard=
 manufacturer's website.

Also, searching for "hardware identification utility" at www.google.com=
 leads to a plethora of programs you may want to try out, including these=
 pages:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads9.html
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23043,00.asp

>I heard NetBSD is able to run an application with
>which I can identify my soundcard. If that is so, can
>you please forward me the details of this application
>(can I download it ?) so I can identify the details of
>my soundcard and try to get the proper driver for it.
>It you have other suggestions to solve this problem,
>they are more than welcome !

Well, not really... But, many unix-like operating systems, including NetBSD=
 and Linux, do typically print useful information during boot-up (which can=
 be accessed after boot-up with the "dmesg" command). If you're interested=
 in exploring that path to identify your hardware, you probably want to use=
 a bootable install CD, or something that is known as a "LiveCD", and not=
 actually install a different operating system to your harddrive. To do=
 this, you would download an ISO image and burn it to a CD (taking care to=
 make sure you tell the burning software that you're using an ISO image).=
 You can download the NetBSD install ISOs at http://www.netbsd.org/Releases/=
 (you probably only need the first one for your purposes). However, a better=
 option for you would probably be something like Knoppix ( www.knoppix.org=
 ), which is a Linux-based Live CD; it will boot your computer into a=
 user-friendly graphical mode where you can get a command line (a.k.a=
 Terminal / Terminal Emulator / Console) to run the dmesg command. As a=
 bonus, you'll get lots of free games, an excellent Photoshop-like program=
 called The Gimp, a great word processor, and all kinds of other stuff.=
 Whether or not you use it to identify your hardware, Knoppix is an=
 excellent way to try out a new, Free, operating system!

Good luck,
Tim Musson



p.s. List Members - I only replied on the list so that people searching the=
 archives in the future will know that this is not the correct forum for=
 help with non-NetBSD operating systems. Note: I modified one part of the=
 quoted material to reduce search hits for such operating systems.
--=20
Timothy A. Musson
Software Engineer
Zin Technologies
NASA's John Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field
timothy.musson@zin-tech.com
216-977-0608 =20