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    Acer Drivers or Realtek

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by GP-SE, Nov 20, 2010.

  1. GP-SE

    GP-SE Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys, what drivers should I be using, the Acer Drivers on the acer website, or the latest drives from realtek?
    what about drivers for the synaptics mouse? Is it better to use the acer drivers, or the synaptics driver?
    both realtek and synaptics say I'll loose manufacturer customizations if I install the non acer driver.
     
  2. Apex84

    Apex84 Notebook Consultant

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    I've installed the Realtek and Synaptics drivers and can't see any loss of functionality. I think the Synaptics drivers even added something, can't remember what though.
     
  3. GP-SE

    GP-SE Notebook Consultant

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    cool I'll download the latest releases from synaptics and realtek then
     
  4. shakennstirred

    shakennstirred Notebook Evangelist

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    the acer driver are just realtek drivers with a version number change
    i use the latest off the realtek site
     
  5. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    Grab the MSI drivers of laptop using the same Audio codec.
     
  6. Jayayess1190

    Jayayess1190 Waiting on Intel Cannonlake

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    Both drivers add more functionality than the default Acer drivers. For example with my 3810T I remember getting more scrolling options with the Synaptics driver, and with Realtek you get better enhancements and settings to make the sound louder and more clear.
     
  7. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    For Audio Drivers I recommend Realtek Audio Drivers from high end laptops that share the same codec as you laptop because they include third party dlls that enhance audio. Realtek OEM driver doesn't comes with Driver customisation like these.
     
  8. shakennstirred

    shakennstirred Notebook Evangelist

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    yes they do, the standard realtek drivers have maxxaudio 3rd party dlls and DTS dll`s
    having checked the msi alc888 driver and the alc269 on that site against the OEM realtek r2.53 drivers, they are the same as the OEM realtek drivers off the realtek site and dont have any upgrades to make the sound better, if your sound was better using the msi drivers then you wasnt using the latest oem realtek drivers off the realtek.com site
     
  9. GP-SE

    GP-SE Notebook Consultant

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    I installed the latest 2.54 from realteks site, audio sounds the same to me. Also when I tried to install synaptics off the synaptics website, it said my current acer ones are newer. I checked the version and my acer installed version is indeed newer.
     
  10. shakennstirred

    shakennstirred Notebook Evangelist

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    yeah synaptic are really bad at updating there drivers on there site
    your better off going here
    Latest Synaptics Touchpad drivers - LaptopVideo2Go Forums
     
  11. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    They are not the same just after decompression if you compare the size it is different.
    Even if you take out the HDMI folder in the MSI Driver and compare the size again it is still bigger.
    I just downloaded both drivers to retest what I discovered a long time ago.
    And the MSI Driver sounded vastly superior to the realtek ones(on good speakers 5ohm 2 Watts).
    Using the MSI Driver the whole laptop vibrates...
     
  12. bernieyee

    bernieyee Notebook Evangelist

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    I used the Realtek drivers for my audio, and it gave more functions in the control panel. However, it broke the microphone in Ventrilo, so I reverted to default MS drivers.
     
  13. shakennstirred

    shakennstirred Notebook Evangelist

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    if you take out the wdm folder which is more realtek files the file size is the same 162mb
     
  14. ser_renely

    ser_renely Notebook Guru

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    interesting
     
  15. weinter

    weinter /dev/null

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    But the WDM folder has legit Realtek installation infs and drivers so you cannot discount that.
     
  16. Jayayess1190

    Jayayess1190 Waiting on Intel Cannonlake

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    What berniebennybernard said, you get extra functions and using them you can get better audio.