Asus VivoTab ME400C - wiping and clean reinstalling of

Windows 8 Pro
Hello,
I have had some strange issues with my Vivotab Smart ever since day 1 - in spite of several
resets of the OS from the default Asus recovery partition, the issues remained. I have even
upgraded to Windows 8 Pro, but the problems were not solved.
So this time I went to the extreme and wiped out all the existing partitions (including the Asus
recovery partitions) and reinstalled a clean, plain vanilla Windows 8 Pro from scratch. This
wasn't too difficult and now everything looks like it should - no freezes, no crashes and no
unexpected sluggish behavior. Everything works as before, all the sensors are functioning, all the
drivers are in place, camera, sound, everything. It seems obvious to me that something in the
Asus installation of Windows 8 or possibly some of the bloatware that the tablet comes
preinstalled with caused these issues.
So I thought I would give you a short description how to go ahead.
This is what you need:

One 4 GB USB flash drive

Windows 8 Pro 32-bit

Windows 8 Pro activation key

An USB OTG cable

An USB hub (to be able to use at least three USB units)

An USB keyboard

An USB mouse

The ASUS Vivotab V1 driver package (do not use the V2 package, it contains a
different driver set)

1. You first need to make the USB flash drive bootable. This is easiest performed
with using DiskPart command. Google for it and you should find it easily.
2. When done, copy the content of the Windows 8 Professional DVD to the memory
stick. It should be the complete installation package, not just an ISO image!
3. Download the Asus Vivotab driver package from Asus (ASUS VivoTab Smart Tablets & Mobile - ASUS). Unzip and copy the content of the package to the USB
flash drive.
4. Plug in the USB OTD cable and the USB hub into the micro-USB port of the
VivoTab. Plug in the USB flash drive, a keyboard and the mouse into the hub.
5. Reboot the tablet, and hold down the power and volume down buttons until you
get to the Boot selector screen. You should be able to see the name of the memory
stick. Scroll to it by using the volume button and select it by clicking the
Windows button.
6. Now the tablet should start using the memory stick as a boot device and initiate
the installation sequence.
7. Perform a regular Windows 8 installation. If you wish to wipe out all the existing
partitions, feel free to do so, that was what i did. You will not be using them
anyway, so you will gain more than 8 GB of storage space (from 50 GB to 58
GB).
8. When the installation is finished, you will have a basic Windows 8 installation,
sans most of the drivers. You will not have Wifi, camera, sound, GPS and most of
the other stuff you need. If you look in the Device Manager, you will see a
frightening array of unrecognized devices. Don't worry, this is taken care of in the
next step.
9. Locate the Asus driver executable on the USB stick, and double-click on it. As it
runs, it will find all the devices and load the required drivers for them. After this
step, only two unidentified devices will be left. These will be fixed in the next
step.
10. Connect to the internet, and run Windows Update. Download all the hotfixes. This
part takes quite some time, but when done, all the missing drivers have been
installed.
11. Since the key for Windows 8 is prestored in the BIOS, the Windows installation is
already activated. This is however not the Pro version of Windows 8. If you wish
to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro (e.g. to be able to join a domain or to be able to host
Remote Desktop connections), you will need to use the Add Features in the
Control Panel. Enter the activation key number of your Windows 8 Pro license,

and the upgrading process will start. It takes some while (30 mins or more), so let
it run through its course.
12. Install all you applications and set up the tablet to your liking.

No more Asus bloatware. DONE!

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/asus/57433-asus-vivotab-me400c-wiping-cleanreinstalling-windows-8-pro.html
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=ASUS+VivoTab&os=35
http://www.asus.com/Tablets_Mobile/ASUS_VivoTab_RT_3G/HelpDesk_Download/