FSC Amilo Mx438G updates

I'm owned M3438G for a while now but have not updated anything but the nVIDIA driver (I'm using Forceware 7.8.1.0 from FSC) and the InstantOn (I'm using the 3in1 update). Because my notebook sometimes freezes in games or 3Dbenchmarks and because I want to keep my notebook updateted, I want to update some of the other drivers as well.

BIOS:

There are five choices in FSC download page but I've understood that the ' BIOS Package - AMILO Mx43x - Win' update is the right one. By the way, I want to make it clear now that I'm really a rookie when it comes to anything that is more complicated than updating by clicking the .exe file. Anyway, could someone please give my advice on how to install this BIOS update.

Intel Chipset:

Chipset - Intel® 915PM + ICH6M -update is also something that I no nothing about so I want your advice on this too. How do I install it? I downloaded this from FSC but I'm not sure if there is a newer version in intel.com.

Realtek Audio Driver:

This I downloaded from realtek's homepage because there you can get the newest version (FSC's newest version is not actually the newest). I downloaded the beta versio. Do I install this simply by running the update from Windows? Do I have to uninstall anything first?

nVIDIA driver:

I have to one from FSC and am satisfied with it. Perhaps sometime I'll try the ones in laptopvideo2go (with INF files) but for now I'll stick to the FSC Forceware.

I think these four are the most important updates. Of course there's the VIA chipset, modem, touchpad, WLAN, LAN et cetera but as I don't even use the WLAN of the notebook.

So you can post any new updates to this notebook here. Right now, I'd appreciate it if you could tell me (like you would tell to someone who has never updated chipset or BIOS) how do I install the first three updates that I mentioned, especially the Chipset and the BIOS.

Thanks, you really did help me! However, I need additional advice.

First of all, have you updated the Intel Chipset ( Chipset - Intel® 915PM + ICH6M)? Could you tell me how this update should be installed?

Secondly, I'm having trouble opening the ZIP-file that contains the BIOS update from FSC download page. When I try to unzip it Windows (XP Home SP2) won't let me saying that it may contain harmful files or something. I tried to make it unzip following the instructions on how to open these potentially harmful files, but couldn't follow the instructions for some reason. This is weird since all the other ZIP files have unzipped no problem (even those from FSC).

I have updated the WLAN driver (I got this from Intel's homepage and think it's the one you mentioned that you had problems with) and the Realtek audio driver (I installed the newest 'beta driver' from Realtek's homepage). I could update the modem, touchpad, Lan or the VIA SATA RAID, but I don't think they offer any improvements.

The bottom line, I'd really appreciate it if someone would offer some help with my ZIP-BIOS-problem and shed some light on how the Intel Chipset update is installed. Thank you!

First of all, I did download the Intel chipset driver from the Intel homepage, so I think it's the latest driver.

As for the UZNIP app, I'm not using any special program, just the one that comes with Windows XP. Is it WinRAR?

Okey, I managed to install both the BIOS and the Chipset driver. I downloaded Winrar and, just as you did, ran the .exe file of the BIOS and everything worked out. The same with the Chipset driver (wow, the installation was over in one second). Thank you, you were very helpful to me.

Cheers!

Maybe I'd better take your advice on the Forceware. I ran my benchmark programs and 3DMARK05's score had drop from around 3670-3695 to 3619. I'm still using the Forceware from FSC. I think next I'll try the Forceware you recommended from laptopvideo2go.

Amilo_M3438_G, I need help from you one last time. I downloaded the Forceware 81.95 from nVIDIA's homepage and then went to laptopvideo2go to get the INF-file. But which one should I get? Modded INF, Quality INF and Performace INF. Do you have install all of these or just one? Which one did you get?

I downloaded the 81.95 Forceware from nVIDIA homepage and then the INF file from laptopvideo2go. For some reason, I couldn't get the driver to work. I copied the INF to the folder I made for 81.95 and ran setup.exe (before this I of course deleted the old Forceware) but for some reason the installation process froze up and I was left with an empty black screen. I'm back using the FSC Forceware for now.

Has anyone updated the VIA SATA RAID driver (or whatever it is). I downloaded the update (the file's name I downloaded is VIA_RAID_V520A which I guess is the right one) from VIA's homepage. Is this update installed the same way as the others (unzip and run setup.exe)? Do I have to make any kind of adjustments as I have two harddrives (2x80Gt) or is everthing in order after the update?

Do I have those kind of problems? Well, in graphic applications (for me, HL2, CS and 3DMARK05) there are no performance 'glitches' but every now and again the notebook freezes up. For example, if I play Counterstrike, all of a sudden the picture freezes up and a terrible and cointinuing sound occurs. After that, there is no choice but to boot.

I guess the 'glitches' you were talking about occur, for me, in using Firefox. When I open a page and, say, want to scroll down, it may take a while before anything happens. I think this is the glitch you were talking about: when the notebook, for a couple of seconds, seems to load stuff when there's no stuff to load. That's weird.

Anyway, thanks for the info on VIA SATA RAID -update. The updating-process of my M3438G is almost complete. I would like to ask someone to give a link to the newest Gigabit LAN update in Realtek's homepage. I tried to find it but wasn't sure which driver update was the correct one.