Updating AsusV8200 GF3 drivers... how to???

[eden]

1)I need some help in knowing how the hell do you update the drivers for the 8200 Deluxe GF3...
Well I haven't gottent the card yet, but since I know that some probs occured on the 12.10 when trying it with my uncle's PC, I thought to update them once I get the card installled from my PC shop. So anyway I went to DL the 12.60 drivers from Asus' site. But damn I don't get any of the instructions! Anyone please DL it, open the zip and read the readme file to see so. My situation in those driver update options would be: To update them while having the card already installed and its original CD drivers. How to do so? Will that keep the Asus apps in place and all that? And what are all those VXD files and EXE inside for, if the INF file is only needed for a driver detection, plus to that why the hell do they tell us that we can update them from the CDROM autorun if the damn CD ROM has the old drivers! How dumb is this? I am taking into account that you have indeed seen the Readme, or have the card and have updated the drivers to this version, all the while having already the old drivers installed! Hopefully someone can direct me how to do this, starting from beginning, like what do I do with the content of that ZIP file downloaded from Asus' drivers's site to rebooting for the last time and finally starting to play!

2) If you do have these new drivers, how are they? Do they cause any problems?

3) Say I wasn't satisfied with the performance of all the drivers by Asus, and I wanted to install instead the Detonator XP drivers, why can't I simply do so, and then install some Asus tweak or apps without the card drivers? Unless then it would think it is a Nvidia GF3 not a V8200? Cuz I don't wanna remove all this and lose the 3d VR glasses for nothing!

Please bear with me with this long text that obviously left some confused... But I desperatly need to know the most out of the card I will get soon, and not by splurging money for deluxe stuff that I won't or CAN'T use! Cuz right now this driver updating instructions and methods thingy by their readme file is nothing but confusion to me....
Thanks,
Vic.

 

[Guest]

I have the V8200, but the pure version. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way to have both the performance gains given by the DetonatorXP drivers and the ASUS utilities. (I'm only mostly sure here....) The utilities use the drivers for the commands and queries. Without drivers written to accommodate this, the utilities don't work.

So we are stuck with the choice of ASUS utilities and ASUS drivers with a little less speed, or maximum speed with the reference (detonatorXP) drivers with less utility. :/

To update, use display properties and change drivers to "Standard PCI Adapter (VGA)" then boot your machine in safe mode and use control panel add/remove programs to uninstall all the video card stuff that you were previously using. Now boot in normal mode. The downloaded drivers will be in a self-extracting form, but I prefer to unzip them to any directory and then use display properties and change adapter, telling it to display drivers in a specific location and pointing to this directory.

now re-boot again and you are done. (you may need to re-set your desktop resolution and refresh rate)

 

[Guest]

hi,i have just bought a 8200 pure.i have had a lot of trouble getting drivers for this card,it cam3 with 12.60.emailed asus they said to get the 14.10 from their site which is their most recent,unfortuantly i have tried for two days to get it without luck the link on their site,is maybe overused or faulty.i have also tried the det 4's but this gave a performance drop of 10%.asus say that they are still benching the det4's so who knows when they will be ready bearing in mind the age of the 12.xx drivers.

from your thread it seems you can use the det4 if you do not use the asus utilites.if that is so,how do you do this.

finally,in hindsight i would buy another gf3 card.

thanks
addoj

 

[eden]

What do you mean by self-extracting? I got them zipped, so then I should unzip to a folder? What of the exe files inside? Such as the ANVSetup.exe or such?
And since you tell me to uninstall the utilities in safe mode, then this means that the drivers in the zip file also contain the utilities updated? And how do you install them? Unless when I point to the directory it runs the INF and some install program with what I want? If so then good.
And why is the other guy who posted below saying the 12.10 are newer??? That's old! And is Asus is telling you about the Det XP benching, then what do they have in mind? Trying to include them in their next reference drivers along with their utilities?
Thanks again insidious I know it's the second post about this, although different, cuz I really need the full info to make sure I know how to update these ever so confusing drivers... Damn, Nvidia simply makes one file, you run it and it updates! While those are full of VXD, Exe files you never know when to run them...
I remember updating my Voodoo, running an exe that extracts some other files, and all I did was just run the damn setup in Windows, without switching to PCI adapter, nor rebooting to safe mode. After install I simply rebooted once, and all was set!
Sad thing is I just want the 3d glasses to work too, and to have no game that runs badly, like what I experienced at my uncle's Midtown Madness 2 problem which crashed and Deus Ex with choppy unknown Frame skips... And since Nvidia has the drivers that work so well, so greatly, Asus yet packs the best software and value to a deluxe card... Has anyone tried the glasses? How are they? Do they feel like you are inside the game? Do they make eye pain?

 

[Guest]

OK, here's what I did... (remember I am on Windows 98 SE)

now, I was changing from another card to the GF3, but the steps are the same... just pretend your original ASUS stuff that you installed is the old card.

do Start => settings => control panel
double click the 'display' icon in control pannel (this pops up the display properties window)
now click settings => advanced => adapter => change =>next
select 'display a list of all the drivers in a specific location.
on the next window select 'show all hardware'
on the left select standard display types, on the right select 'standard PCI adapter (VGA)
click on next install these windows drivers (they will take the place of your ASUS drivers)
Windows may give you a warning telling you these drivers are not as good and ask if you want to install them anyway.. say yes and let the system re-boot when it wants to.
now, boot one more time, but in safe mode this time (holding down the Cntrl key during boot should get you there)

when it comes back up let it finish booting and then go to the control panel again and double click on add/remove software, select the software you installed for your card when you first got it and then click remove.
when/if the system wants to re-boot, let it.

OK, now we are ready to install the DetonatorXP drivers. if you haven't already, unzip the detonator XP drivers you downloaded from NVidia into a new directory (name doesn't matter).

do the same steps you did to change over to the standard PCI adapter except this time instead of selecting them, click the 'have disk' button and browse to the directory where you put the unzipped detonatorXP drivers. select OK and follow the directions on the screen. after the machine boots, the detonatorXP drivers are now installed.

IMPORTANT: double-clicking the detonatorXP driver file you downloaded is not unzipping it. That would perform the automatic installation bundled with them. (that's what the .exe files in it are)

if you don't want to do the unzip thing, you can perform the automatic installation at the point in the process above which is immediately after the boot following uninstalling the programs using control panel add/remove programs. (some people say the automatic process has given them problems, so I recommend the unzipping method. Although I have done it both ways with the same results)

I hope this helps you.

 

[eden]

I think I may have misled you there, bub.
I meant the Asus ZIP file drivers! The Det XP drivers, are one EXE file simply by Dling it from Nvidia and running it, which will install the right drivers. But if you have seen the Asus ZIP file it contains literally dozens and dozens of file, including DOS EXE files, VXD, one INF for all Asus cards and some HLP files which I dunno why they are named differently while opening any of them triggers the Windows 98 Help file not the HELP inside those files.
This is where I am lost!
I know how to change to normal PCI mode, how to uninstall drivers, so you don't need to explain that anymore! But the only part missing, is after having uninstalled it all, returning to Windows, is where I need help. I dunno if first Windows will ask it has detected a new card, or I just go in a PCI display mode to Settings and do the steps you always tell me, and find the folder I extracted all the content of the Asus 12.60 ZIP drivers, but what I wanna know is from then on what do I do. So it finds the INF file and uses it recognize my Asus 8200 card, but what's next? No installation file? Nothing? How to put the apps and tweaks back? It's those EXE files that I'm suspicious of, but since they are DOS ones, I wonder how it all works...
I hope now you know what my main worry is about, and can tell me how you updated the ASUS ones not to Det XP, because that is in my head now!

EDIT: Ok this just in, after having posted this I decided to try first extracting the zip content, cuz I remembered a lot of zipped files once extracted create new different content, which is what happened now, it made a Win9xME folder with less stuff in it.

2nd EDIT!!: Oh my god now I am really starting to understand here... if I am right on the following "theory", then I have indeed understood!! : I was reading through the Asusnv9x.INF file, when I think I finally know what happens. Upon the Display Adapter change, when it asks to locate the INF directory, what it does is read inside the INF to find all the files in the newly created folder which was made by extracting the ZIP content. From there on the INF tells it to execute all the drivers (VXD) necessary from the package (let's call it Asus DRVextractedZIP folder or ADRVEZ) then uses the DLLs in that ADRVEZ folder too, while also installing the tweaks and the Display settings application interface only for Asus stuff, thus once restarting, it's like having what I had in the first place before having switched to PCI, uninstalling old drivers and apps/tweaks and then running the Windows driver change ! AM I RIGHT? PLEASE! I hope this is it, or else I dunno what is!
One last thing too, if all goes as thought, what of the extra Video editing softwares by Asus, such AsusLIVE, Video Detection for office security? Whew that was long...
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Eden on 10/15/01 09:20 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

Ok, you made me curious enough to d/l the latest Beta driver (w9x1290.zip) and take a look.

When I look at it's contents with winzip, there is a readme.txt file in there. It has great instructions!

do the stuff I explained about switching to standard PCI adapter (VGA). Then uninstall any of the ASUS utilities showing in control panel add/remove programs. then boot

Use Method 2 from the readme.txt file. (print out a copy so you can refer to it)

then, instead of pointing to the CD as it describes, point to the directory you unzipped your driver download to.

after it's done installing and you have re-booted, re-install the ASUS utilities.

viola'

 

[eden]

Huzzah I did it! Well not did it, but knew it!
Well now I know for the driver thingy, I wanna know, this installs everything in the Display Settings right? So the only thing that remains is to install any utility from the Asus CDs, but the VR Glasses options are all there included in the Display Settings huh? And the Smartdoctor, and Tweaks? Cuz I do remember some strings in INF file that had reference to these...
If this is all, then great.
And if the drivers are a pain, then I guess I should use the Detonator XP, but I will be really pissed at Asus for making my VR Glasses unusable anymore, unless...?

 

[Guest]

I haven't installed anything that came with my card, so I don't really know the answer you are looking for. (I went straight to the detonatorXP drivers)

Try this, do the drivers. See what is there.. install anything you need from the CD that isn't put there by the driver install.

 

[Guest]

Do you know if the Drivers for the Deluxe Asus V8200 are the same as for the regular V8200? I'm trying to find out if the Deluxe card is basically the same as the normal one but with a few bells and whistles. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Yep, my curiosity continued. This afternoon I removed my detonatorXP drivers and installed the 12.90 beta drivers from ASUS. (I also installed their Tweak and Smart Doctor utilities)

the result: Ok, the utilities were cool and I really did like them, BUT it cost me a full 1000+ 3DMark2001 points with EVERYTHING else the same. (this was with the utilities turned on, and a second try with them turned off, and a final try with them uninstalled... it wasn't the utilities, it was the driver!)

So the answer is, the ASUS driver for the V8200 series is the same whether it is Pure or Deluxe version.

next answer is.... the DetonatorXP (21.83) teamed up with RivaTuner gives nearly all the utility with MUCH better performance.

 

[eden]

Excuse this late post reviving thread, but what is RivaTuner for? Like what was that answering for Zeena?
I've yet to know any way of using the 3d Glasses if I need the Asus drivers then... maybe they are different drivers by a different company? If so then I hope...
Damn what tough choices I have to go through...

 

[Guest]

RivaTuner is a utility for tweaking that can take the place of ASUS Tweak program if you are running DetonatorXP drivers.

I think you will want to use the ASUS drivers and utilities if you plan to use the 3D glasses

 

[eden]

Oh cool, but is it licensed or something known legal?
Anyway I'll see by judgement once I get the card, how these glasses operate and whether I should switch to Det XP or not, thanks.

 

[Guest]

This is where the RivaTuner can be found:

<A HREF="http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/" target="_new">http://www.guru3d.com/rivatuner/</A>

you can read about it there.

I am curious about the glasses.... when you try them, send me a message and tell me what they're like.

have fun!

 

[eden]

I'm curious too, I think I'll create a new post here asking about it. I'll also ask Asus of any awareness of ways to use 3d Glasses should I use Detonator XP, once I get the card.

 

[Guest]

Eden,

I found it!

Its in my reply to your other post about 3D glasses