Last updated: March 27, 2008
How to install your motherboard chipset drivers
Your motherboard contains a CPU, some RAM, and expansion slots. But it also contains some chips which make all of those parts work together. The most important of these chips are called the motherboard chipset. The chipset has a driver which can affect the speed and stability of many of the devices built into your motherboard. It is fairly common for computers to be running with old chipset drivers or to use the basic default drivers built into Windows. If you're having any kind of stability problems with your motherboard then it's a good idea to install the latest chipset drivers. AGP slots are especially susceptible to flakiness caused by old chipset drivers. Even if you don't have an AGP motherboard, it's a good idea to be sure that your chipset drivers are updated to the latest version.
The chipset is usually made up of two chips: the northbridge, and the southbridge. The northbridge is the main chip and the southbridge is a support chip. Sometimes there's just one chip in which case it's still called a chipset. Most of the time, people just refer to the chipset as a group and don't worry about the individual chips. Most chipset drivers come as a single package which contains the various drivers for each chip. You just install the chipset driver and it takes care of setting up drivers for each of the chips. But sometimes you have to load one driver for the northbridge and a separate one for the southbridge. When people refer to the name of the chipset, it's actually the name of the northbridge (the main chip). Most programs and websites use the term "chipset" but some use northbridge.
To install your chipset drivers, the first thing you have to do is figure out which chipset is used by your motherboard. CPU-Z is a free program which can identify the chipset on almost all PC motherboards. CPU-Z comes in a compressed zip file so you'll need to unzip it. In the rare cases where CPU-Z doesn't work you can try Sandra Lite.
Execute CPU-Z and then select the "Mainboard" tab. CPU-Z uses the term chipset rather than northbridge. In this case the chipset is an Intel i875P. The southbridge is an Intel 82801EB which is also known as the ICH5. Sometimes people shorten the chipset names. The Intel i875P may also be referred to as an Intel 875 or Intel 875P. So when you look for the matching name on a website you may have to be shorten the official name a little. Usually the websites give a list of all chipset names so it's obvious which one you have to pick. Common manufacturers of motherboard chipsets include Intel, VIA, NVIDIA, SiS, and AMD.
Once you have the name of your chipset, you have to find the right driver. The best drivers you can get are the "latest and greatest" drivers which can be downloaded from the website of the manufacturer of your chipset. Those drivers are often more recent than the drivers you can download from the maker of your computer or motherboard. The process of installation is usually quite simple. You just download a file, unzip it if it's a .ZIP file, and then run it. For most chipset drivers, you do not need to uninstall your old chipset drivers before installing the new ones. The cases where you need to uninstall first are noted in the table below. Be sure to read any instructions on the download web page or in a readme file in case its steps are different than the ones listed below.
If you're updating an AGP driver then it may be referred to by many different names. It may be called the AGP driver, AGP miniport, or GART driver.
Keep in mind that most driver updates work perfectly but sometimes things can go wrong. You should only be doing this if you currently have problems. If you want to play it safe, then you should make a system restore point (as explained here) before fiddling with your drivers. Then if something goes wrong, you can roll Windows back to the state it was in before you got into trouble. To install most drivers, you must have administrator rights. This page explains how to make sure you have the appropriate priveleges. It's also a good idea to disable your anti-virus software before changing drivers.
| Chipset Maker | Chipset Driver Instructions |
|---|---|
| AMD | Start here. Under the "AMD Athlon XP, AMD Athlon & AMD Duron Processors" section, click the "AMD Chipset Drivers" link. If you are just trying to solve AGP problems then select the "AGP Driver" or "AGP Miniport Driver" which matches your operating system. Otherwise you can download an "AMD Driver Pack" which contains various drivers for your motherboard. Download the file, execute it, and reboot Windows. If you are installing the driver pack then be careful if you have a motherboard which has an AMD northbridge chip and a southbridge not made by AMD. Those motherboards are fairly common. In that case, only get the AGP driver from AMD for your northbridge and any other drivers must come from the company which made your southbridge. Download and install those southbridge drivers separately. The most common case is a motherboard with an AMD northbridge and a VIA southbridge. In that case you get the AGP driver from AMD as described above. Then you get the Hyperion 4in1 driver from VIA as described below and install everything but the AGP driver. |
| ATI |
Start here. In the left column, click on your operating system. Then in the center column, click "Integrated/Motherboard". Then in the right column, click the specific kind of chipset. Then click the green button which says "Go" at the lower right-hand corner of the three columns. That will take you to a page with some drivers. ATI's site handles chipset drivers in various different ways depending on which operating system and chipset you're using. Some of their methods update the display driver for your integrated graphics and others don't. If you use a method which installs display drivers then you must first uninstall your old display drivers. This page gives detailed instructions on how to uninstall your display drivers. If you use a method which doesn't install display drivers then you don't need to uninstall anything first. In some chipsets, the driver page will contain the Catalyst Software Suite which includes your chipset drivers along with display drivers for your integrated graphics. The "Package Includes" column tells you what is included in the suite. If it includes "Display Driver", "Catalyst Control Center", or "Control Panel", then the suite includes your display drivers along with your chipset drivers. If so then remember to uninstall your old display drivers before installing the suite. Some chipsets don't have a software suite which includes everything. Instead, they take you to a page which includes the individual drivers. Normally, that page includes both the various chipset drivers along with the display drivers if you have integrated graphics. If all you want to do is update your chipset drivers then just download and execute everything except "Display Driver", "Catalyst Control Center", or "Control Panel". You don't have to uninstall anything first because you're not updating your display drivers. |
| Intel | Start here and click "Chipsets" on the left. Then click "Desktop Chipsets" or "Laptop Chipsets". Then click the name of your chipset. Then select your operating system and click the "Go!" button. Download the newest version of the "INF update utility". There is both a .EXE version and a zip file version. Just get the .EXE version because it's easier to run. Execute the file and follow the prompts and then reboot Windows. |
| NVIDIA | Start here. Go to the "Product Type" box and select "nForce". Then in the "Product Series" box select the series of your chipset. If your chipset number starts with a "5" then it's in the "nForce 5 series" and similarly for the other series. The in the "Product" box select your specific chipset. Then set the "Download Type" box to "Driver" and set the "Operating System" box to your operating system. Then click the "Search" button. Download the chipset driver. NForce drivers are a little different from most other chipset drivers in that you are supposed to uninstall the old drivers before installing the new ones. Uninstall the old drivers by going to the Windows Control Panel and then open the "Add/Remove Programs" window. Then uninstall the "NVIDIA Windows nForce Drivers". Reboot and execute the file you downloaded from NVIDIA and reboot again. |
| ULi(ALi) | Start here and find the integrated driver for your chipset and operating system. The driver with the highest version number is the most recent. Download the ULi integrated driver, unzip it, run it, and reboot. |
| SiS | Start here and select your operating system in the top box. Then the center box will display a list of the various things you can download for that operating system. If you're trying to solve an AGP problem then select "AGP (GART) Driver". There are also other kinds of drivers like audio drivers, IDE drivers (for hard disks and optical disks), sound drivers, network drivers, etc. Download whichever ones you need to solve your problem. Once you select a kind of download in the center box, another list will appear in the bottom box. In some cases it will be a list of the specific chip names whose drivers you can download. The AGP driver is a unified driver which covers most of their chipsets. Make your selection in the bottom box and then click the "Go" button. Download the driver, unzip it, run it, and reboot. |
| VIA | Start here and select your operating system and then "Chipset or Platform driver". Unless you have a very old motherboard you should download the "VIA Hyperion drivers". You may get better performance with the "Retro chipset VIA 4in1 drivers" if you have one of the old chipsets listed on that page. If you're not sure which to use then just get the Hyperions. They work for all chipsets. Just download the zip file, unzip it, and run it. |
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