i rolled back all the way to version 8.15.10.2476 and now characters are displayed. from my understanding this driver works for hd graphics 2000-4000. heres a link from were i got the driver its under vga. dont know if you have to have an asus to use this driver installer though. extract all files then run setup.

http://support.asus.com/download.asp...=en&p=3&m=X54C