Troubleshooting

[Leogecko]

I successfully installed windows today on my new PC, but as you might imagine, it's full of holes right now. After installation, I downloaded and installed drivers for the soundcard and the video card, and installed chipset drivers from the motherboard cd (in no particular order). For some reason I can't get Asus Update to install, which I think is needed to update the BIOS. When I start the installation, it says it doesn't recognize the board as an asus board... anyone know what's going on?

There is no sound coming through the headphones from the sound card. (I'm pretty sure I have it connected to the right port) Right now I don't have normal speakers to test it, but I'll try to find a pair.

Also, game performance on some of the more demanding games (like Doom 3) is kind of choppy, and the colors on most of my games look off.

What else do I need to do? I'm getting a virus scanner soon so that should be taken care of. What other drivers do I need to get?

On a side note, I noticed that the motherboard has several 3 pin fan connectors, though I don't see any wires on the fans for connecting to the motherboard. What are these used for, and is there any way to connect them?

Here are the specs

Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD X2 4400+
NVIDIA 7800GTX
2 Gigs Corsair RAM
Sony Floppy
Lite-On Opticals
250 Gig SE16 WD HDD
100 Gig Maxtor HDD
PC P&C 510 SLI PSU
CM Stacker Case

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Leogecko I successfully installed windows today on my new PC, but as you might imagine, it's full of holes right now. After installation, I downloaded and installed drivers for the soundcard and the video card, and installed chipset drivers from the motherboard cd (in no particular order).

After Windows is installed you should install the motherboard chipset drivers followed by the video card drivers, the sound card drivers and then the drivers for the other devices that need drivers to work.

Originally Posted by Leogecko For some reason I can't get Asus Update to install, which I think is needed to update the BIOS.

You can update the BIOS with a bootable floppy disk instead. That method is actually better than updating the BIOS through Windows.

Originally Posted by Leogecko When I start the installation, it says it doesn't recognize the board as an asus board... anyone know what's going on?

No.

Originally Posted by Leogecko There is no sound coming through the headphones from the sound card. (I'm pretty sure I have it connected to the right port) Right now I don't have normal speakers to test it, but I'll try to find a pair.

Headphones plugged into the light green port?

Originally Posted by Leogecko Also, game performance on some of the more demanding games (like Doom 3) is kind of choppy, and the colors on most of my games look off.

That points to video drivers or DirectX. But it might be because you installed the video drivers before you installed the chipset drivers.

Originally Posted by Leogecko What else do I need to do? I'm getting a virus scanner soon so that should be taken care of. What other drivers do I need to get?

You should get the latest Critical Updates from the Windows Update site.

You should also get spyware blockers like SpywareBlaster and IE Spyad.

Originally Posted by Leogecko On a side note, I noticed that the motherboard has several 3 pin fan connectors, though I don't see any wires on the fans for connecting to the motherboard. What are these used for, and is there any way to connect them?

You use those only if the case fan have 3 pin power connectors. If your case fans have 4 pin power connectors don't worry about the 3 pin headers on the motherboard.[QUOTE=Leogecko]

Cricket

[Leogecko]

So should I uninstall all the drivers and then start from scratch? How do I do this? I had downloaded all the windows updates after I had installed all the drivers; do I need to remove these as well?

I'm assuming that drivers for onboard devices are in the same league as the chipset drivers, is this true? (As in I should install those drivers at the same time as the chipset drivers)

There are no colors on the ports on the soundcard, but I looked it up in the manual and confirmed that it's in the right port. I also made sure that the card was set for headphones.

[Leogecko]

Tried flashing the BIOS in DOS, but it said it couldn't open the ROM file...

[Leogecko]

I was able to flash the BIOS using a different version of AFUDOS, but when the computer rebooted, it came up with a "checksum error" and gave me the option to either go to the setup or load default values. I chose the latter, don't know if there's something I need to do.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers from scratch in the order that Cricket gave me, but game performance is still the same. I have DX 9.0c and version 81.98 for the video drivers.

Sound is still a no go. I do have the onboard sound disabled.

[doctorgonzo]

When you flash the BIOS, you usally erase all the settings you had before. That's why you got the "checksum error". If you had any custom settings, like overclocking, memory timings, that kind of stuff, you will have to go into your BIOS setup and put them in again.

Is the sound card showing up in Device Manager?

[Leogecko]

I'm starting to get sound from the card, though it was only going through one speaker out of the set of two I tested, and sound is very static with my headphones.

The first time I installed the drivers, I accidentally installed the Geforce Go drivers instead of the normal Geforce drivers. Could this have damaged the card in some way? Game performance is still mediocre.

I noticed a sort of pattern while looking at the fps in Doom 3; it seems to be capped at 60 fps in small, confined areas, while out in the open it never goes past 30 fps.

[Leogecko]

I ran 3DMark05 and PCMark05 and here are the results:

----------------------------------

3DMarks: 7925

HDD - XP Startup 8.31 MB/s

Physics and 3D 162.62 FPS

Transparent Windows Test failed

3D - Pixel Shader - 311.68 FPS

Web Page Rendering - 2.96 Pages/s

File Decryption - 38.18 MB/s

Graphics Memory - 64 Lines 1866.09 FPS

HDD - General Usage - 6.44 MB/s

Multithreaded Test 1 / Audio Compression - 2110.75 KB/s

Multithreaded Test 1 / Video Encoding - 309.89 KB/s

Multithreaded Test 2 / Text Edit - 125.82 Pages/s

Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Decompression - 25.02 MPixels/s

Multithreaded Test 3 / File Compression - 6.11 MB/s

Multithreaded Test 3 / File Encryption - 18.78 MB/s

Multithreaded Test 3 / HDD - Virus Scan - 26.74 MB/s

Multithreaded Test 3 / Memory Latency - Random 16 MB 9.61 MAccesses/s

----------------------------------

[Leogecko]

Does anyone have ideas?

[blue60007]

About? That looks like a good 3dmark score.

Do you have the headphones plugged in all the way? (seems silly, but you never know)

Originally Posted by Leogecko I noticed a sort of pattern while looking at the fps in Doom 3; it seems to be capped at 60 fps in small, confined areas, while out in the open it never goes past 30 fps.

You probably have VSync on, it keeps the frame rate in line with montior's refresh rate.

[Leogecko]

I found that the headphones don't work through the extension cord with the attached volume adjuster; though even though it works without it, the right and left audio channels seem reversed. Not to mention the cord isn't nearly long enough by itself.