Reveal Your Unknown Video Card
Have you ever discovered an unknown video card, long forgotten at the bottom of your hardware pile? It would be great to use for a home server or simple media PC – but there are no distinctive model numbers or product labels anywhere on the PCB, so how do you know which drivers to use!
Sure, one could just download all the driver revisions and do a guess and test – or spend the time installing a number of different software utilities in hopes that one just might work… or you could run a simple command line script that should give you all the information you need to know.
1) Start by opening the Run dialog box and launching the command prompt.
This can be achieved by going “Start>Run” or ”Windows Key +R” and typing “cmd” into the text box.
2) After launching the command prompt set the debug switch on by typing debug into the prompt
3) Start the process by typing in d c000:0000 (*those are zeros, not the letter O)
This will give you the first line which will most likely not contain any useful information
4) If necessary, continue the process by typing in d
5) If still necessary, continue the process by typing in d
By the third repeat, you should obtain some relevant information which will often narrow down the manufacturer and model of the video card. Look for common names such as “nVidia” or “ATI” , or popular companies such as eVGA, Asus, Gigabyte, or Sapphire.
Be warned that some video cards may only show the chip that the video card uses and not the exact model. Such as “RV670″ or “NV40″ – Putting these numbers into your browsers will typically return results that help you narrow down the card’s product series, whereby you can determine the appropriate drivers and install them
