Asus motherboard+Alcohol (120%)=problem

[Wiciu-17]

I would be extremely grateful for your help and thank you in advance for any of it given.

Since the problem is specific I posted a pretty detailed description of how it all came to be but at the very end of it I also included a shortened explanation for those who's time is precious.

After being persuaded by a friend to install a theoretically great program (which goes by the name of Alcohol 120%) I downloaded it and ran the setup during which some kind of error or another popped up, restarted my computer and left me with a problem.

It seems that during the corrupted file's installation it chucked out/deleted/eradicated drivers for PLUG AND PLAY BIOS EXTENSION (when I open my device manager by the icon of the extension I have a yellow exclamation icon).

Seemingly nothing else of greater significance happened until I turned on some games (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time if anybody is interested). It appears that my computer's video performence fell quite a bit (graphics are choppy, straight lines became visably edgy). This should not be the case since I have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton, Radeon Sapphire 9600 pro Atlantis, Asus A7V8X-X.

I do not know if the PnP and poor video performance are somehow connected but I noticed the fall of performance right after the problematic setup of the corrupted program.

Since I'm no Wiz I tried looking around for simple Plug and Play BIOS drivers to install and have the problem over with but I have not found any (if that is what I am supposed to do) and have turned to you for help.

Thanks again in advance, Wit

Shortened version:

1. Installation of corrupted setup program (Alcohol 120%)
2. Forced restart during setup (Alcohol 120% therefore did not fully install itself and what did I uninstalled)
3. Deletion of Plug and Play BIOS drivers and fall of video performance

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers Wiciu-17

First of all I would like to defend Alcohol 120% - it does a good job.

have you reloaded the motherboard drivers? (http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2) You need the latest hyperion 4 in 1 drivers for a via based motherboard. Having installed those and rebooted - you should now reinstall your video drivers and reboot.

If the ! is still there after that, uninstall the device and reboot - does it return?

[Wiciu-17]

First of all I'd like to thank you for the assistance.

Now, back to the continuing problem:

I followed the instructions (downloaded Hyperion4in1, installed it, rebooted, installed video drivers, rebooted) but there was no noticable difference in video performance.

Then I unistalled the Plug and Play Bios Extension and rebooted after which in the Device Manager the exclamation mark was gone along with the extension itself. No change in video performance here either.

What should I do now?

Wit

[NooNoo]

If it is no longer there, then windows misidentified something and removing it solved the problem.

Check the bios settings for your video card. (press del key or f2 to get into setup when the machine first starts)

[Wiciu-17]

But the thing is that the problem still remains-poor video peformance.

I entered BIOS and looked for settings for the video card but found none (must be because of the motherboard that in BIOS I only have the very basic settngs).

I played around with Catalysts and Omegas for the video card but nothing significant changes so I am guessing that the problem lies in the lack of the PLUG AND PLAY BIOS EXTENSION for which I did not have any drivers and therfore completely deleted the setting.

Personally my next step would be to try to get the extension back up and running on drivers somehow (upgrade of BIOS?). What do you think?

Thanks for the assistance, Wit

[NooNoo]

there is a bios update which address ATI card compatibility (http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7V8X-X)


asus notes on how to flash the bios (http://www.asus.com.tw/support/faq/qanda.aspx?KB_ID=80688&SLanguage=en-us)

Note that you flash the bios at your own risk.

[joevandam]

shut down the tower, open it up, take a look to see if the video card is seated correctly.