Asus M2NPV-VM system setup

[mikeh49]

Regarding the CoreAVC decoder: according to Wikipedia, it is only a H.264/MPEG4 decoder. The PVR150 produces MPEG2 and US ATSC broadcasts are also MPEG2. So, I'm not sure the CoreAVC decoder is much help for the OP in the US. If does do MPEG2 and works as well as people say, that would be great.

[kricker]

..Also, remember to set qfan in the Asus Probe II software, in order to get the CPU fan spinning down when there's nothing going on. Plus I guess the cool and quiet driver. Also, Minimal Power Management mode needs to be set in the Power Options in Control Panel to activate the CnQ.

Can't think of anything else at the mo!

Good luck

If Cool and Quiet is enabled in the BIOS, CPU drivers from AMD are installed, and Minimal Power Management is active I don't think you really need Asus probe to slow down the fan. I don't use it and my CPU fan throttles just fine.

Regarding the CoreAVC decoder: according to Wikipedia, it is only a H.264/MPEG4 decoder. The PVR150 produces MPEG2 and US ATSC broadcasts are also MPEG2. So, I'm not sure the CoreAVC decoder is much help for the OP in the US. If does do MPEG2 and works as well as people say, that would be great.

It doesn't take much CPU power to decode MPEG-2. I use Gabest Open Source mpeg decoder, you can find links to it here. I use ffdshow and the Haali splitter for all my HD needs. I haven't used CoreAVC in ages, and probably won't since the newer builds of ffdshow work great for me.

[SLR_65]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the GREAT tips!

I was going to play tonight but the world has conspired against me - I keep all my important software in a red cd case . . . my spare copy of XP Pro was in it and it's of course decided to walk off! Grrr! I may have to rethink this "eggs all in one basket" thing! :o

I'll dig more tomorrow, though I think my son has ran off with it . . . if I can't find it soon I'll just order another copy -> I want to play, this is killing me!!!

Thanks again, I'll post back how things go once I find a Windows XP Pro OEM System disc (I did find the Product Key).

TTYL,

Steve

[kricker]

...I may have to rethink this "eggs all in one basket" thing!

For that reason, I also keep disc images of the various flavors of XP on a hard drive. If my CD/DVD disappears momentarily, I can at least use the image to make a new copy to get up and running.

[SLR_65]

For that reason, I also keep disc images of the various flavors of XP on a hard drive. If my CD/DVD disappears momentarily, I can at least use the image to make a new copy to get up and running.

Yep! That's a GREAT idea! I was kicking this around last night, heck an 8 gig flash drive is fairly cheap these days so I'm thinking multiple copies of the CDs, copies on the hard drives of each machine in the house, and even on a flash drive may be the move!

Nothing more frustrating than this! I've really not had a problem in the past, I always pick up a wallet when I get a new machine and every piece of software that goes on it gets it's cd put in the wallet or it gets burnt to cd and put in the wallet, then it gets put in the hutch cabinet - it's always worked. It's a tower machine, not a lap top so I have no idea why the discs would take a walk.

Oh well, things happen (I'm reminded of the Family Circus cartoon with the "Not Me" gremlin running around!), I found a couple places on the net that I can order a disc without a product key fairly reasonably so if worse comes to worse I'll just order a disc.

I was so proud of myself too - I actually dug up a working floppy drive and disc and had it ready to go for the SATA drivers, had all my notes ready to go -> I was hoping for an easy install!

Well off to go software hunt some more - I'll post back when things have been more productive!

Take Care,

Steve

[SLR_65]

Oh this is getting FUN . . .

Still haven't found the blanking XP Pro cd, but a friend spotted me a copy of XP Home SP2 OEM (with product key of course) and I figured that would work just fine.

When I boot it up and press F6 it gives an error message that says something to the effect of it can't find anything that needs a driver and prompts me to press S to select a driver. When I do that it spins the floppy and shows me two drivers and both have (required) behind them. I select them both and it loads them both. I can then format the drive and all the files seem to copy to it just fine during installation. However, when Windows gets done and reboots I get a blue screen of death that says it's an unmountable drive. GRRR!

How can it format it and copy files to it and then not find it later?

Anyway, any hints??? An XP Home problem that finding that blanking XP Pro disc would fix?

I'm out of time for tonight . . . I'll pound away at it tomorrow.

G'night!

Steve

[kricker]

I just changed the way the BIOS handles the SATA drives. I don't think I even had to do the F6 driver setup at all.

[SLR_65]

I just changed the way the BIOS handles the SATA drives. I don't think I even had to do the F6 driver setup at all.

That would be the ide extension setting in the bios?

As you can tell I decided to play further tonight . . . who needs sleep?

I think the drive is doa and I've already got an rma from NewEgg.

I've tried both using the F6 and drivers and not using them, and you're right - it doesn't seem to make any difference -> it finds it, will apparently format it (I tried both slow and fast formatting), install files, etc. to it. Everything seems to work fine until it goes to reboot, then the Windows screen comes up, the little Knight Rider light thingie makes one and a half passes and it gives the blue screen of death and complains about an unmountable boot volume.

Booting off the Windows CD and waiting for the Welcome screen, then hitting R to enter the recovery console and then running a chkdsk /r doesn't help either - it finds unrecoverable errors.

I replaced the data cable and used another power cable and made sure I was plugged into SATA socket 1 on the motherboard. I played with all the bios settings to no avail.

One interesting note - according to the sticker on the drive if there is a shorting block on the two farthest right pins on the pins by the power cable then it's locked in SATA I 150 mode, having no shorting block installed at all gives SATA II 300 mode . . . mine came default with the shorting block installed . . . interesting . . .

Anyway, I made zero headway tonight and it looks like I have to rma the drive so it will be a bit before I get to play. I have a spare 80 gig ide drive, I may install it just for playing till the replacement drive arrives.

G'night all!

Steve

[kricker]

Heck ya. Just install that, then clone it over to the new drive when it arrives. If the BIOS is setup properly, I believe it should still boot from the SATA as if it was an PATA drive. Plus by then you'll have the SATA drivers installed anyways.

[SLR_65]

Hi Guys,

OK, found an XP Pro disc and got XP Pro installed on the ide drive (the 750gb SATA is on it's way back to NewEgg).

I loaded up XP Pro SP2. I didn't register it or do any updates as I figure I'll be loading everything on the SATA drive when it gets back.

I loaded up the drivers from the ASUS mb disc.

I read where the 8x series of the NVidea drivers wouldn't allow for overscan correction when using the SVHS out so I went over to the NVidea web site and found they had brand new drivers out this month - 175.16. I loaded it up without incident but when it was done I found that I didn't have a video resolution below 800x600 available. Fortunately I set restore points so I backed up to 169.21. Same thing, nothing below 800x600 available. Grrr! OK, I restored again and backed up to 93.71 and found that it now has the lower resolutions so I'll start from there. Has anyone used the newer drivers with SVHS out put? Does it sense a SVHS connection and then allow the lower resolutions or something?

I'm going to load up a virus scanner and firewall and then probably PowerDVD tonight. I dunno if I'll get to the Haupaugge PVR-150 tonight or not - I'll keep ya posted . . . . wish me luck!

Steve