W3j ACPI Driver Issues

I am having trouble with (I suspect) the ACPI drivers in Vista Ultimate with my W3j. The main issue I know about deals with the screen brightness. I can control it with the Fn keys (and the brightness option is turned on in the BIOS), but neither Windows nor Power4Gear eXtreme could control the screen brightness. If I set the options in Power4Gear they did nothing, Windows doesn't even list the option. I have tried several different versions of the ATK100 driver from the Asus website and I have the latest BIOS. Any suggestions for how to fix this? I am sure there are people with a W3j in Vista that don't have this issue.

 

The only thing I could think of is conflicting programs using occupying the ACPI. I would suggest you to uninstall P4G and see if Windows can handle your screen brightness.

You may want also look into other 3rd party programs to take care of this, like RMClock and NHC, so try those just incase. Let us know what happens.

 

I don't have p4g installed on my machine, but I do not see an option in the windows control panel under battery power where I can change the screen brightness. If you could point me in the right direction, I will check it out for you.

Also in reference to your drivers question, you can download the latest ATI desktop drivers from www.driverheaven.net. Once you have done that, download the mod tool which is also available from their website. It will allow you to use the latest ATI desktop driver with a laptop running Windows Vista.

HTH

 

I don't have Powre4Gear on now, I took it off this morning because it seemed mostly useless to me (I might have been wrong). On its own, Windows can't adjust the brightness (I have done it on other computers, and the option just isn't there now).

I really question the ATK drivers. If I go to the uninstall, I can't find just the ATK100 driver to remove. I can find the OSD, Hotkey, and Media ATK drivers, so I am questioning if something is wrong there. I do have HControl.exe running, and the DMedia.exe, ATKOSD.exe, and ATKOSD.exe are all running, and as far as I can tell, all of the buttons are working fine (one glitch, which I don't think is at all related).

Also, when I unplug the computer, the screen flickers real quickly, almost like it was going to decrease in brightness, but then didn't.

@Rosemarycane: I downloaded CCC this morning from driverheaven, but I still can't find the updated video drivers for vista.

 

Rosemarycane (or any other Vista W3j user): open the "Windows Mobility Center" there should be a bunch of different things, like sound, battery, presentation, screen orientation. Is there a slider for brightness there? Thanks.

Also, do you see the option to uninstall the ATK100 driver?

 

Hey, yeah there is not any brightness adjustment in the mobility center within vista. I don't use power 4 gear for power management, I let vista manage it.

As far as the driver goes, download the latest driver from driver heaven, the download the mod tool. The mod tool has the necessary files to allow you to use it with vista I believe. Read the directions on the mod page.

let me know if you need any other info.

 

I'm gonna let the driver go. I don't play games on this, so I don't need the best driver. Thanks though.

 

I did some experimenting, and I am not sure that the ATK0100 driver is really installing. I booted up a fresh install of Vista ultimate. No screen brightness settings, so I installed the ATK driver, and nothing. It didn't run any processes, and I couldn't find it in the registry (yes, I restarted after install) and the list of installed programs was empty. So, I installed the ATKOSD and ATK Hotkey drivers. They seem to be working right. The hotkey driver starts HControl.exe and ATKOSD.exe, the ATKOSD driver starts ATKOSD2.exe and I can find both of these in the registry. So, is there something about installing the ATK driver that is going wrong, or do I just not know what I am talking about? Please help me, I am certain that someone has gotten the ATK drivers working with the W3j (at least to control screen brightness properly).

 

Hi, I've been studying your issue for sometime and here's what I found in my W3J: exact situation as yours. I can set screen brightness through Fn-key (and the %-tage of screen brightness in P4GX adjusts accordingly), but setting the brightness via P4GX does nothing. I also checked 'Uninstall or change a program' box in Control Panel, it only shows ATK Hotkey, ATK Media, and ATKOSD2.

So we have at least 2 W3Js that behave similarly. However I don't think this annoys me, since I always set brightness via Fn key.

 

Oh, I just checked 'Device Manager'. I found 'ATK0100 ACPI UTILITY' under 'System devices' so I think this should be an indicator of a correctly installed ATK0100 driver. What do you think?

 

Yeah, I found that a few minutes after I posted as well. I guess this means then a driver problem? The brightness should be automatic under power4gear. Also, does P4GX change profiles automatically for you?

 

I'm not sure if this means a driver problem. P4GX does not change profile automatically in my W3J, I use 'High Performance' when plugged in, and when with battery, it's still 'High Performance'.

BTW I just read some posts in 'Asus Vista 32/64 Drivers' thread (look at post #452 by LMBfishingCT). It seems like this issue also happens to Z96J.

 

I suppose what we need now is someone with a W3j in Vista where this is working "properly" Anyone?

 

I download the driver from the vista driver page here in the forums. It did not install. However, the driver did install through a windows update so go figure. See if it installs itself that way.

 

I tried having Windows look for newer version from the device manager - but it didn't find any - explain your procedure more Rosemarycane.

Also, I emailed asus about this today.

 

Well, like I said I could not use the file posted in the forums, so I just installed everything else. Later on, Windows downloaded the utility in an update. It does not appear in my program and features tab, however if I look under device manager it is there.

 

Ok, so it appears that I have the same thing installed, but just to be sure, what version is the driver?

 

Okay, I see that I'm not the only one with this problem ^^;;. I'm thinking of just reinstalling XP again since this problem still exists. Has anyone come to a solution yet?

 

I keep trying to find new ACPI drivers from other notebooks, since Asus uses the same ATK driver across their entire line. But, so far, no luck.

 

Yeah, this problem is pretty serious. Without a proper ACPI the computer just gets really hot until restarted, and after its restarted the fan just stays on. =(

Really annoying problem.

 

Hey guys, I just called ASUS tech support to notify them of our problem.

The technician said that if enough people call about the problem, they will do something about it...

Here is the number if you're interested in calling.

Notebook Support:
Email: http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx
Notebook ONLY Hotline: 510-739-3777 ext. 5110

 

so.... any results? i recently upgraded to vista and P4G not changing screen brightness is bugging me.

 

In Vista, the brightness should be tunable straight from the power profile (Advanced options), so maybe you can use that as a workaround, and get rid of P4G. You could use RMClock for CPU control.

 

With ASus NB Keys you can even hot key the P4G button to control RMClock (add -nextprofile to parameters) to cycle through the different profiles.