Installing ATI HD 5650 card on an Acer 5820G

Hi All,

Great forum, been reading for hours, but I still can't seem to solve an issue.

Just freshly installed Win7 Ultimate on a 5820G, that's the designation here in Australia anyway..

Can't seem to get the Ati drivers for the HD5650 card to "stick"...

Would not recognize the card at all at first past a Standard VGA, after disabling "switchable" in the BIOS I was able to install 10.8 Catalyst.

Trying to click CCC it gives the message that the card is not recognized or the drivers aren't installed correctly...? I've uninstalled and reinstalled many times using Driver Cleaner to ensure all traces are gone.. no luck

Is there a system for correctly setting up the HD5650? I'm not all that worried about the Intel HD card, I'd rather have the Ati card functioning correctly by itself... surely it can't be that complicated.

Any help much appreciated...

TM

 

Remove all of your drivers, use the Acer AMD VGA driver and install it. That should cure your problem. It will install a driver for both the Dedicated and integrated GPUs. If you want to upgrade the AMD driver after the Acer drivers are installed, you can. That's when you change settings to discrete and load the new dedicated driver.

Bronsky

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply,

I've downloaded the AMD driver from the Acer website, but if you try to update the driver in device manager it wants to look for an .inf file that doesn't exist? Not in that driver package anyway..

And no executable? So how do you update the driver?

Thanks for the reply,

TM

 

First completely remove Ati drivers including Catalyst Control Center then install Acer driver by starting EXE file and it will automatically add requested inf...

Hope this will help...

 

Hi all,

Not a lot of progress,

Unzipped the AMD files from Acer again, seems some files were missed the first time.. driver package installs but still Catalyst does not open, does not seem to install correctly as I've seen in other Catalyst installs.. CCC Will not initialize at all.

Device Manager finally reports the correct Ati HD5650 card but when you reboot into windows after the "Starting Windows" screen... the screen goes black.. off.. a min or so later I hear the Windows sound, so windows is booting, it's just not enabling the video card???

I've tried multiple reboots, moving between Discreet and switchable in the BIOS, but to no avail.. I can't get both card to report correctly in Device Manager and have windows boot correctly..

RANT..

This is pretty ridiculous, I don't really see the need for 2 video options.. just plug it in..!! This is what was happening years ago trying to get SATA and IDE drives to play together... multiple reboots, enable this disable that.. totally unnecessary in this day and age I would have thought! Just very frustrating.. end Rant

Sorry, long day in front of the screen,

Thanks to those who have replied, appreciate it,

TM

 

Hi again...
Well you could try this: download only catalyst control center installation (the one without vga driver) from ati`s site and then install it... it should enable catalyst center work fine...

Of course if you haven`t tried it already...

 

Thanks for the replies guys,

getting the latest Catalyst now, does the Acer need specifically drivers from the Acer site at first install? Bronsky mentioned this.. specific Acer tweaks drivers first then AMD Catalyst driver package.. in Discreet mode?

Discreet mode is the HD5650 card only?

Further,

Installed latest Catalyst 10.10
Card reports in Device Manager as HD5650

Catalyst does not start but Switchable graphics option is now available, Is this due to 10.10 package?

But, when booting into Win7 with Switchable enabled in BIOS.. it will stop at Starting Windows screen.. disc access but doesn't go any further?

Device Manager also has an exclamation mark next to PCI Somple Communications Controller.. not sure what this relates to.. Anyone know what driver or config package enables this?

Thanks again all, I know I'm hammering it but would really like to sort this Asap.

Cheers,

TM

 

Ok,

Pci Simple comms is fixed with install of Intel Turbo Boost Manageability package...


Thanks cykotoxik, for the post

 

where can I find that driver

 

Hi,

Acer website, Search model and operating system..

Turbo Boost_Intel_Manageability_6.0.0.1179_Win7x64...

Is the package name...

My link is..

Service & Support

It was in Windows 7 Ultimate 64 "Application" category..

Hope this works,

Cheers,

TM

 

More...

Card is recognized in Discreet as HD5650..

In Switchable mode in BIOS...

Windows boots ok, only Intel HD card is visible in Device Manager???
No ATI card at all.

If I change it to Discreet Windows stops at "Windows Starting" screen.. it boots into windows because I can here the windows sound as it loads the desktop.. but the screen freezes at Win startup.. any ideas?

Cheers,

TM

 

thanks!! .

 

More from me..

I'm at a loss..

Uninstalled.. reinstalled.. disabled.. I've tried everything I can think.. no luck.

With both cards recognised in safe mode, Windows won't boot(with any image on screen) It boots because I hear windows sound..

With external monitor plugged in I get the external display only.. nothing on the panel.. Is there no set way to install and enable the HD5650.

I'm not really worried about the Intel card but at the present it's what seems to work the best.

Thanks,

TM

 

try this:
uninstall all intel hd graphics drivers and amd drivers
reboot and set bios to amd graphics only.
install amd drivers, if that doesn't work, restart in safe mode open device manager and make sure it only shows AMD, and nothing for Intel, if it does, right click disable the intel stuff.

 

Hi,
Sorry been busy with work..

Ok I'll try the full removal. Thanks

Tm

 

Hey, what screen came in your 5820 ?

Mine came with a AUO40EC. It is REALLY REALLY bad.

 

Hi,
Screen is LED, seems pretty nice..

Where do you find the screen info? I'll look and post it for you..

Cheers,

Potts

 

Found it... Mines the same.. but the screen looks good here??

Cheers,

TM

 

Hooray, that's great!

You're welcome Tm Audio.

I'm so happy to know that my post helped you also.

EDIT: When you do the full uninstallation of the Intel & AMD video card drivers,
while in safe mode, use Driver Sweeper or Driver Cleaner .NET
to be certain everything is removed. Good luck!

 

UPDATE:

Bottom line is... does not seem to work..

Uninstalled both cards, ran Driver Sweeper..
Booted back into windows and had to stop Win7 from automatically finding and installing device drivers...

Corrected that setting.. Group Police BTW..
Set to Discreet in BIOS

Booted back to Windows, installed drivers from Acer package for AMD drivers from Acer website.. device reports as HD5650.. Windows asks for reboot.

Reboot.. gets to Starting Windows screen.. 4 pulsating colour screen, you know it, after 10-15 seconds animation stops and thats it, thats as far as Windows boots, restart, same thing.

Boot to safe mode, device manager still reports HD5650.. everything looks ok.

Tried to update to latest ATI drivers but I get an "error loading detection module" message and the installation quits.

Windows will not boot successfully at any stage with BIOS set to Discreet and the Intel card disabled and/or uninstalled...

Message to ACER, TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE SITUATION.

Anyone got anymore on this? surely someone has updated the ATI card successfully.. I don't have the time.. or really the patience to expirement for hours trying to get a video card to update.. as I eluded to in a previous post, this kind of stupid s**t is frustrating.. and should be unnecessary in 2010.

Cheers,
TM
Thanks to all those who have posted! I'm sure it will work eventually or this will be my first and last ACER laptop.. ASUS in the past..

 

More,

Updated the BIOS to 119, should have done this earlier methinks..
Found 10.11 Mobility Catalysts and installed, still in Switchable mode.. any move to discreet just meets with a black screen and hang on reboot.

Boots to Windows, shows, Switchable Graphics tab in taskbar and CCC seems to have installed.. promising.. HD5650 is disabled at this point..

If left enabled sometimes Windows boots normally, sometimes hangs..
Standard VGA adapter appears under hidden devices.. update drivers.. Windows seems to start loading 10.11 Catalysts then screen flickers and goes black.. off, not dimmed or backlit.. thats it, only reboot possible into safe mode.

At this point in time typing from my old asus as last safe mode reboot hung as well..

I imagine I could do it in some differing orders.. but switchable graphics seems ah... not well implemented.. shall we say..

Cheers,

TM

 

Update… This could be long so try to bear with me…
The HD5650 AND the Intel card are now both functional.. the Switchable Graphics function does seem to be working although once I have the Ati card working I never switch it back to the Intel.
I’m just after the ATI card, the laptop is on power 99% of the time.. and 2 hours or so on battery is plenty for me.
BUT,
The setup is not without.. ah.. issues.
The laptop WILL NOT boot with the ATI card enabled, you get either,
Windows logo, black screen, back to ACER screen and then to Windows startup repair screen.. because it didn’t boot properly.
Or.. Windows logo boot screen, black screen.. nothing.. stays black.. I mean off, not that “backlit” black you get when windows is about to go to desktop.
If I have to reboot the procedure is,
Boot into safe mode, disable ATI card in device manager, reboot, enable ATI card, Restart Runtime in Catalyst to see ATI properties. A tedious procedure.. Why this occurs I’m not sure.. The computer seems to have issues keeping the card powered and enabled and starting from reboot. If I leave the lappie for the day.. lid closed. Open it up, black screen.. reboot procedure as above.. Every power option I can find is set to always on, but if its left idle for more than a few hours (I haven’t an exact time).. screen is black.. mystery still.
So, how I got it working,
If you Google ACER, ATI, Switchable Graphics you get quite a few hits, indeed the Switchable Graphics thread on this forum is one of them. If anyone wants specific threads I’ll try to find them otherwise this post will be huge Any way one post mentioned Net Framework.. specifically that Net 4 is no good basically.. uninstall it.. reinstall 3.5 and update using Windows update.
Ok, did that then downloaded and installed Catalyst 10.11 full install. This install went fine, previous versions have come up with incompatible hardware or no compatible device type messages and cancelled the driver install.
These were the only 2 things I did, after removing old Catalyst’s and running Driver Sweeper. Not a very technical explanation, but that’s all I did, Net Framework and 10.11 Cat’s. Still no without some semi serious issues (the reboot procedure ). As mentioned in another thread the Acer and or Windows 7 seems to have some basic issues with the implementation of Switchable Graphics. I for one am not totally sold on the need for it.. especially if its, apparently quite hard to update and/or reinstall drivers.

Hope this helps someone,

Cheers,

TM

 

Hehe sorry to hear that. I've heard better impressions with Acer 5553G (with ATI 4250 onboard, and ATI 5650 discrete) which has a simple button adjacent to the keyboard that switches between the two, since the entire CPU-Mobo-GPU is all AMD there is zero conflicts.