Via 4-in-1/Hyperion drivers finally updated again

[VirtualLarry]

Available at ViaArena, you know the drill

Ok, very strange. Via's own web site mentions that both the AGP and INF drivers were updated, but that's only halfway true. The OS-named subdirs in the archive still have the AGP .3442 build, but the subdir named "AGP" has some new ones, .3443 build, but dated 2003. So I guess that they are only semi-new. The machine/chipset INF drivers are dated 06/2004 and 07/2004, so those definately were updated.

I guess I'll try the AGP 3443 drivers on my W2K SP2 box, and see if they resolve my strange video issues with my KT400 chipset and ATI Radeon 9200 card.

I'm going to install them manually using Device Manager, who the heck knows why the 4-in-1s include two complete, different, sets of AGP drivers. :|

Uh-oh, looks like Via's "excellent" quality-control at work here... guess that they don't consider the AGP 3443s to be "final". If you simply run the 4-in-1 installer, it auto-installs the AGP 3442s, which are digitally-signed by MS, but they are the old version. If you want to install the 3443s, you have to do so manually, and they are not digitally-signed.

Here's the official ViaArena thread

Zardoc's manual installation guide

PS. Hey look, forums.viaarena.com is now running FuseTalk like AT is.

Edit: Well, I haven't tried installing them yet, some people have claimed that installing them has disabled their AGP support entirely, and that they had to roll back to 3442. Here's the "official" word from Via staff.

Tue Aug 24, 2004 00:32 - Fiona Gatt VIA

The 443 AGP drivers in the Hyperion 4.53v package contain minor updates of device IDs for WinME and Win98SE only. They are not digitally signed because Microsoft does not do WHQL for those two legacy operating systems anymore. They will only update during a normal install of the Hyperion 4.53v if your system is running Win98SE or WinME. There is no reason to do a force install of the AGP to update from 442 to 443 if you are running Win2K or WinXP.

The VIA IDE filter driver contained in the Hyperion driver package has been version 1.20 since November 2001 and has been included in WinXP since the release of that operating system and has been contained in Microsoft service packs for other operating systems for years now. So you will not see any update of the IDE driver after running the Hyperion install. The inf file contains IDs for hardware devices.

(It looks like, unless your system chipset is unrecognized because it is so new, then you should not install these if you are running W2K/XP, as long as your existing 4-in-1s are running fine.)

 

[Mik3y]

whoa...

 

[Schadenfroh]

ahh, good ole via russian roulette. Test subjects?

 

[Kishan]

hmmm anybody take the plunge? is it worth it to upgrade to these? I have an ASUS K8V SE/A64 2800/BFG 6800NU? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Kishan

 

[Zepper]

Unless I'm having problems, I wait a month or so and let others catch the arrows. If you run mostly Win98SE when you have to, you want to run one of the older versions anyhoo.
.bh.