How to find what hardware is installed in the computer

Question

How to find what hardware is installed in the computer.

Additional information

A user may need to find out the hardware that is installed in the computer for any of the below reasons.

  1. Interested in purchasing a computer and would like to verify specifications.
  2. Attempting to install or setup a hardware device and need to know the model and manufacturer of the device to properly install it.
  3. Interested in selling the computer and need to know all the specifications on the computer.

Answer

Below is a listing of different hardware devices in the computer and different methods of determining additional information about the hardware device. In addition to the below documents explaining how to detect the hardware there are also several free software programs to detect hardware and other system settings.

CD-ROM drive
Controller
Floppy disk drive
Hard drive
Memory (RAM)
Modem
Monitor
Motherboard
Network Card
Power Supply
Printer
Scanner
Sound Card
Video Card

CD-ROM Drive

Reference Question
CD-ROM CD-ROM help and support.
CD-R CD-R help and support.
CD-RW CD-RW help and support.
DVD DVD help and support.
CH000495 How do I find what CD or other disc drive I have?

Controller

Reference Question
CH000550 How do I find the computer controller I have?

Floppy disk drive

Reference Question
Floppy Floppy disk drive help and support.
CH000496 How do I find what floppy diskette drive I have?

Hard drive

Reference Question
Hard drive Computer hard drive help and support.
CH000497 How do I find the hard drive type and specifications?

Memory (RAM)

Reference Question
Memory Computer memory help and support.
CH000149 How to determine system resources or RAM available?

Modem

Reference Question
Modem Computer modem help and support.
CH000498 How do I find what computer modem I have?

Monitor

Reference Question
Monitor Computer monitor help and support.
CH000499 How do I find the monitor or display I'm using?

Motherboard

Reference Question
Bus AGP, PCI, and other computer bus help and support.
Motherboard Information and help with computer motherboards.
CH000307 Determining the PCI Version.
CH000308 Determining the AGP Version.
CH000504 How do I find what computer motherboard I have?
CH000632 Identifying an unknown PCI card.
CH000634 How to determine the motherboards chipset.

Network card aka Ethernet adapter

Reference Question
NIC Computer network card and networking help.
CH000500 How do I find what network card and network I'm using?

Power Supply aka PSU

Reference Question
PSU Computer power supply help and support.
CH000800 How do I determine how big my power supply is?

Printer

Reference Question
Printer Computer printer help and support.
CH000501 How do I find what computer printer I have?

Scanner

Reference Question
Scanner Computer scanner help and support.
CH000502 How do I find what computer scanner I have?

Sound card

Reference Question
Sound card Computer sound card help and support.
CH000503 How do I find what computer sound card I have?

Video card aka Graphics card

Reference Question
Video card Computer video card help and support.
CH000258 How do I know what computer video card I have?
CH000307 Determining the PCI Version.
CH000308 Determining the AGP Version.