I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see what
SPRITE1001 wrote in alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus and:
Any useful input would be great.
I've had a great time with this board over the past couple of weeks...
if you search for my posts you'll find most of the story.
When I bought it my plan was to install it using all of my original
hardware (including my original hdd) and upgrade stuff like processor,
memory etc over time. I also planned to use the "Windows Repair" method
which turned out to be partly successful. I can't remember why I decided
to do this but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I think I tried
to do it this way to preserve all of my windows settings and programs
and...durrr... save myself some time.
Anyway... after I'd got it running I then installed the latest 3.13
Nvidia unified drivers (including their IDE controller) which I think,
because I used the windows repair method, did cause some problems with
CD burning and ripping. This may have been due to lots of legacy
drivers, bits and pieces, registry entries etc etc hanging around in
Windows
I then rolled back to standard Microsoft ones which worked but failed to
recognise any of my devices by name...
I then installed the updated IDE drivers from nvidia and CD burning
stopped again so...............
On Tuesday I bit the bullet and did a full reformat and reinstall of
Windows... using the Asus driver CD that was supplied with the
motherboard and it's sweet... everything's fast and stable and more
importantly... everything works as it's supposed to do. Fortunately, I
have extra hard drives on which I make regular back-ups of my documents,
email and settings, downloaded progs and favourite
utilities/programs/drivers so after installing windows I could get the
machine up and running the way I like it after an hour or so. In fact
it's as clean now as it ever was because reformatting gave me the
opportunity to ditch most of the junk I'd installed (and seldom used) in
the past.
So now I have just three CD ripping progs installed (where there used to
be about 10) and now I only have Paintshop Pro 8 (where there used to be
loads of versions right down to 4.14). This "spring clean" has certainly
helped.
I'd recommend this board... but if I installed it again I'd go straight
to the complete reformat and reinstall of windows method and I'd use the
drivers that were supplied with the board. Until, of course, I was sure
that any newer drivers were fully stable... and this group is probably
the place to hear about that.
Good luck
Dave G
