JIM HOLSONBACK wrote in a message to CHARLES ANGELICH:

JH> Hello, Charles.
JH> 
CA> How do we determine what 'chipset' we have, assuming we get this 
CA> stuff used with no schematics etc. to go by? Are there markings on 
CA> the chips themselves, a utility that will report this information, 
CA> or ???

JH> I see RJT has already written about Intel FX and VX chipsets - 
JH> markings on those chips are usually painted white. The HX and TX 
JH> chipsets are much harder to read - small letters just engraved into 
JH> top of the black material of the top of the chip.  Same with the 
JH> Intel chipsets for Celeron, PII and PIII boards - very hard to 
JH> read, and even with a bare board, I have to use a mag glass and 
JH> hold the board at just the right angle in the light in order to 
JH> read them.

JH> For a board which gets video but won't boot, there is usually a 
JH> clue in the "Bios String" which appears onscreen during POST. There 
JH> is info on reading those in websites like WimsBIOS page.  I hardly 
JH> ever use that method.

JH> For a board which will boot,  the freeware utility CTBIOS.EXE will
JH> report back on the chipset.  For example, it tells me that this
JH> machine I'm using now has an ALADDIN5 chipset.  That's the utility
JH> I use the most for "unidentified" mainboards, since it usually will
JH> tell who made the board, and often even suggests a manufacturer's
JH> URL to go to for starting to look up manuals, jumper info, drivers
JH> and etc.

While rebooting the one system here several times yesterday,  I did notice
that it mentioned the VX chipset pretty prominently on the splash screen
that came up on reset,  dunno how common that is as I don't tend to reboot
systems here a lot ,  but it might be another place to look...

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