As I could see in this (and other) forums, there are many out there, having similar problems with the ASUS 7100 Deluxe Combo Card trying to activate the TV tuner. While the tuner works fine under Windows 98, there are a lot of problems with Windows XP. These problems could be: no picture or no sound or distorted noisy sound when trying to watch television on this card.
I was ready to throw away this card, but I spent one more weekend, to give it a last try. And I found a solution!
My solution solves the problem with the ASUS driver software and does not include the trivial stuff, such as having the sound cable connected correctly to the sound card. I assume, you got your Asus 7100 working under Windows 98 - now, you want it to work under Windows XP.
Here you go:
First, you have to check, which version of the 7100 Deluxe Combo card you have. Remove the card from you computer, take a close look at it and write down the different component numbers - and put the card back in (you should be familiar with safely removing and inserting cards on your computer...).
Here are my numbers:
TV tuner (the little metal box): Philips FQ1216ME/P
Sound processor (rectangle chip next to the tuner): TDA 8425
Video processor (small square chip besides tuner): SAA 7113
These components are part of the PAL version (Germany, Netherlands, ...). If you have different chips, my solution may not work, or may require different modifications! So, watch out for the correct component numbers.
To watch TV you need the following software, which you can download from support.asus.com - just search for 7100 in the download section:
Asus Digital VCR (version 2.3.5.2)
WDM driver Version 1.19 - never use version 2.11!!!
The graphics card driver does not seem very relevant for watching TV - use the Windows standard NVidia driver or one of the newer ASUS drivers.
Install the Digital VCR software - but do not install the WDM driver that comes with it!
Install the WDM driver version 1.19
After rebooting, you can use the VCR software to watch TV. However, if you have the above components, you most likely face the problem of no picture, and/or no sound and/or distorted sound.... This is because the WDM driver is incorrectly programmed to support the PAL version of this card - Shame on ASUS!!
Here's what you have to do - again, you should feel a little bit comfortable editing system files:
Go to the Windows/inf directory. There you find 4 files related to the Tuner-support of the ASUS 7100 card - you may want to make backup copies of these files:
NVCAP.inf
NVTUNEP.inf
NVTVSND.inf
NVXBAR.inf
You have to modifiy these files to make the tuner work.
Let's start with NVCAP.inf - open it in Notepad. Scroll down to the section:
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Decoder related values
; All values in the decoder key and subkeys are string values
;---------------------------------------------------------------
[nvcap.AddReg]
There you can find the setting for videostandard, which is set to NTSC (or AUTO) by default. Change it to:
HKR,,VideoStandard,,PAL ; "NTSC", "PAL", "SECAM",
Scroll further down in this NVCAP.inf file to the sections for AudioTuner - these sections are coded completely wrong. Here is what they should look like to make your TV sound work:
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudTuner
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudTuner,NumCmd,,3
HKR,AudTuner,Cmd0,,W/82/8/cf
HKR,AudTuner,Cmd1,,W/82/0/fb
HKR,AudTuner,Cmd2,,W/82/1/fb
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudLineIn
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudLineIn,NumCmd,,1
HKR,AudLineIn,Cmd0,,W/82/8/ce
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudMute
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudMute,NumCmd,,1
HKR,AudMute,Cmd0,,W/82/8/ef
;HKR,AudMute,Cmd0,,W/b4/6/18
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudUnMute
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudUnMute,NumCmd,,1
HKR,AudUnMute,Cmd0,,W/82/8/cf
;HKR,AudUnMute,Cmd0,,W/b4/6/40
For the techies among you, the command W/82/... writes the sound parameters into the TDA 8425 chip - 82 is the address of that chip. As you can see from the original values in the inf file, the "b4" address cannot work on that chip!
That's all for the NVCAP.inf file. Save it.
Open the NVTUNEP.inf file. Scroll down to the [nvTUNEP.AddReg] section. Modify the TunerType value to 0x6:
;TV Tuner (only used when eeprom does not have correct tuner type id)
; 1=fi1216 (b/g)
; 2=fq1216me (multi)
; 3=fi1236 (m/n)
; 4=fi1246 (i)
; 5=fi1256 (d/k)
HKR,,TunerType,,0x6
Yes, TunerType has to be 0x6 - no idea why... Just trial and error.
Safe the NVTUNEP.inf file.
Open the NVTVSND.inf file. Scroll down to the [nvtvSND.AddReg] section. Change TvStd to 0x1:
;TVStd
; 1=pal b/g
; 2=secam L
; 3=ntsc m
; 4=pal i
; 5=pal d/k
HKR,,TVStd,,0x1
Safe the NVTVSND.inf file. We're almost done!
The NVXBAR.inf file does not need any modifications.
Now, you only have to re-install the driver with these changed parameters. Make sure that your modified ".inf" files are all in the Windows/inf folder.
Go the the Device Manager: Right-click on "My Computer" - Manage - Device Manager. Open the section "Sound, video and game controllers". There you should have 4 devices starting with "NVidia WDM". Right-click on each and select "uninstall".
After you uninstalled all 4 NVidia WDM devices, right-click on "Sound, video and game controllers" and select "Scan for Hardware Changes". Windows will re-install all 4 devices with the new settings - you have to accept the warnings, that the software has not been tested by Microsoft...
Your TV tuner should now work fine with the Asus Digital VCR software. (You may still want to re-start Windows, but this should actually not be necessary).
Enjoy your working TV Tuner!
Cheers, Matt
I was ready to throw away this card, but I spent one more weekend, to give it a last try. And I found a solution!
My solution solves the problem with the ASUS driver software and does not include the trivial stuff, such as having the sound cable connected correctly to the sound card. I assume, you got your Asus 7100 working under Windows 98 - now, you want it to work under Windows XP.
Here you go:
First, you have to check, which version of the 7100 Deluxe Combo card you have. Remove the card from you computer, take a close look at it and write down the different component numbers - and put the card back in (you should be familiar with safely removing and inserting cards on your computer...).
Here are my numbers:
TV tuner (the little metal box): Philips FQ1216ME/P
Sound processor (rectangle chip next to the tuner): TDA 8425
Video processor (small square chip besides tuner): SAA 7113
These components are part of the PAL version (Germany, Netherlands, ...). If you have different chips, my solution may not work, or may require different modifications! So, watch out for the correct component numbers.
To watch TV you need the following software, which you can download from support.asus.com - just search for 7100 in the download section:
Asus Digital VCR (version 2.3.5.2)
WDM driver Version 1.19 - never use version 2.11!!!
The graphics card driver does not seem very relevant for watching TV - use the Windows standard NVidia driver or one of the newer ASUS drivers.
Install the Digital VCR software - but do not install the WDM driver that comes with it!
Install the WDM driver version 1.19
After rebooting, you can use the VCR software to watch TV. However, if you have the above components, you most likely face the problem of no picture, and/or no sound and/or distorted sound.... This is because the WDM driver is incorrectly programmed to support the PAL version of this card - Shame on ASUS!!
Here's what you have to do - again, you should feel a little bit comfortable editing system files:
Go to the Windows/inf directory. There you find 4 files related to the Tuner-support of the ASUS 7100 card - you may want to make backup copies of these files:
NVCAP.inf
NVTUNEP.inf
NVTVSND.inf
NVXBAR.inf
You have to modifiy these files to make the tuner work.
Let's start with NVCAP.inf - open it in Notepad. Scroll down to the section:
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Decoder related values
; All values in the decoder key and subkeys are string values
;---------------------------------------------------------------
[nvcap.AddReg]
There you can find the setting for videostandard, which is set to NTSC (or AUTO) by default. Change it to:
HKR,,VideoStandard,,PAL ; "NTSC", "PAL", "SECAM",
Scroll further down in this NVCAP.inf file to the sections for AudioTuner - these sections are coded completely wrong. Here is what they should look like to make your TV sound work:
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudTuner
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudTuner,NumCmd,,3
HKR,AudTuner,Cmd0,,W/82/8/cf
HKR,AudTuner,Cmd1,,W/82/0/fb
HKR,AudTuner,Cmd2,,W/82/1/fb
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudLineIn
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudLineIn,NumCmd,,1
HKR,AudLineIn,Cmd0,,W/82/8/ce
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudMute
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudMute,NumCmd,,1
HKR,AudMute,Cmd0,,W/82/8/ef
;HKR,AudMute,Cmd0,,W/b4/6/18
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; Subkey for AudUnMute
;---------------------------------------------------------------
HKR,AudUnMute,NumCmd,,1
HKR,AudUnMute,Cmd0,,W/82/8/cf
;HKR,AudUnMute,Cmd0,,W/b4/6/40
For the techies among you, the command W/82/... writes the sound parameters into the TDA 8425 chip - 82 is the address of that chip. As you can see from the original values in the inf file, the "b4" address cannot work on that chip!
That's all for the NVCAP.inf file. Save it.
Open the NVTUNEP.inf file. Scroll down to the [nvTUNEP.AddReg] section. Modify the TunerType value to 0x6:
;TV Tuner (only used when eeprom does not have correct tuner type id)
; 1=fi1216 (b/g)
; 2=fq1216me (multi)
; 3=fi1236 (m/n)
; 4=fi1246 (i)
; 5=fi1256 (d/k)
HKR,,TunerType,,0x6
Yes, TunerType has to be 0x6 - no idea why... Just trial and error.
Safe the NVTUNEP.inf file.
Open the NVTVSND.inf file. Scroll down to the [nvtvSND.AddReg] section. Change TvStd to 0x1:
;TVStd
; 1=pal b/g
; 2=secam L
; 3=ntsc m
; 4=pal i
; 5=pal d/k
HKR,,TVStd,,0x1
Safe the NVTVSND.inf file. We're almost done!
The NVXBAR.inf file does not need any modifications.
Now, you only have to re-install the driver with these changed parameters. Make sure that your modified ".inf" files are all in the Windows/inf folder.
Go the the Device Manager: Right-click on "My Computer" - Manage - Device Manager. Open the section "Sound, video and game controllers". There you should have 4 devices starting with "NVidia WDM". Right-click on each and select "uninstall".
After you uninstalled all 4 NVidia WDM devices, right-click on "Sound, video and game controllers" and select "Scan for Hardware Changes". Windows will re-install all 4 devices with the new settings - you have to accept the warnings, that the software has not been tested by Microsoft...
Your TV tuner should now work fine with the Asus Digital VCR software. (You may still want to re-start Windows, but this should actually not be necessary).
Enjoy your working TV Tuner!
Cheers, Matt
