I re-installed windows, but neglected to note specifically what hardware devices i had (bone headed, i know...but it was late last night).  Anyway...I looked up the service code on the bottom, and got a list of some of the hardware, and pretty much everything is working now EXCEPT for my wireless networking.
 
Does anyone know of an app that will go in, and tell you what specific hardware you have, even if you dont have the drivers?  I remember a few years back i found one that did just that...but i cant for the life of me remember what it was, or even what to google to look for it.
 
FWIW, yes, i tried cntl f-11 before doing the fresh install, and i guess that either it wouldnt work with my machine, or it was made before they started putting that extra partition in.  And yes, it is way out of warranty.
 
Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you.

You shouldn't need an app to do that.  The computer should at least recognize that your network adapter is there.  Go Start, My Comp, click view system info, click on Hardware tab and click device manager button. This will list every device in your system. As far as applications go try this:
PC Wizard

Dude, u got Dell'd  

That isn' necessarily a dell problem if that's what you're saying. My brother has an Inspiron 9300 and re-installed XP twice with no problems. Anyway, if he can figure out what kind of network card he has, problem solved. Otherwise he can just buy a PC card adapter for around 30 bucks. Not a huge deal.