new laptop..old vga driver version??!!!

I just bought this new aspire 7741g-5877 and it came with version 8.62 AMD Radeon 5650 card. I ONLY bought a new computer to play FFIV and I am unable to load the benchmark without the computer stating it is unable to work properly and must close the program. From doing research I am to understand that it is because I need to update my vga card to version 10.7. I called AMD support and they said DO NOT TRY TO INSTALL UPDATED DRIVERS FROM THEIR SITE FOR LAPTOPS. I contacted Acer and they say they are not able to give me a time frame of when 10.7 will be available for download from their site. Anyone have any additional information that can help me please?

 

That makes no sense - one of the recent changes in AMD's driver releases is that there is a mobile driver specifically for notebooks, and can be obtained readily from their website. Why on earth would they say not to use their own drivers?
Catalyst 10.8 for your ATI Radeon HD 5650 can be found here for 32-bit Vista/7, and here for 64-bit Vista/7.

 

I Just called AMD support and they did recommend trying the download from the site for some reason this time after explaining what you wrote and my issue. I saved the file and after clicking start download and finish when it was done. Now what am I supposed to do? I restarted and still have version 8.6

 

The ATi drivers are labeled different depending on where you view the info.
Note that the latest 10.8 drivers (32bit) show 8.762 in device manager.
You need to look in CCC for all the info

Driver Packaging Version 8.762-100803a-103697C-ATI
Catalyst™ Version 10.8
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1059
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0775
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10151
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0803.2125.36577

 

So if I uninstall the catalyst driver and then install the new version from the download from AMD, will it work for my Acer Aspire 7741G? I just do not want to go through the hassle of uninstalling, installing, not work, have 800x600 screen resolution until I have to contact Acer support to either install the old catalyst driver again or system restore..

 

Catalyst 10.8 should install without any problems on your machine.
If you're really concerned, go grab the "old" Catalyst driver from Acer's website beforehand.

Changing the driver isn't as much of a hassle as you're making it out to be; dozens of power users do it in order to ensure they have the latest ATI and Nvidia drivers working without the cruft left over from previous installations.

EDIT: Holy smokes, this is my 3,500th post! I need to get a life...

 

yeah your talking as if its 6-7 years ago when the drivers were a pain to install, these days its fine to install over the top of the old drivers.
i never uninstall the old driver and i never have a problem

 

TehSuigi.

I basically followed the driver installation guide from AMD website. I uninstalled catalyst control center. I clicked the driver I downloaded from the link you provided. It has installed. The problem I mentioned I am now experiencing. Resolution 1600x900 is now gone. It is in 1152x864. The screen is flickering everytime I press a key. What more am I supposed to do???!! I cannot beleive Acer sells laptops with old vga drivers >:OOOOO

 

You might need to add 1600x900 as a custom resolution in order to get that working.

Be glad you're finally getting regular drivers direct from AMD and Nvidia; in the old days, you were stuck with getting drivers from the computer manufacturers only, and they almost never updated.

 

How do I go about doing that? I doubt it will help at all regardless. I ended up going to device manager right clicking the driver and clicking update, it installed something, now I am back to 1600x900 and back to version 8.6 (well never even changed from 8.6) after restarting and the game still not working. Simply Put, Acer sells products with out of date drivers which is THE reason I am unable to play the game I have been looking forward to for months and months. I Wish I could get my $800 dollars back..To be honest because of this whole fiasco I have NO faith in buying any new computer..I mean who sells crap like this..the world we live in is mest up! Its not just Acer it is other manufacturers as well..Ugh.

9/23/2010 Geek Squad supervisor at Best Buy was able to successfully install new drivers and get it to work . I bought it off newegg; if I had bought it at Best Buy I would have gone there sooner. Guess there is hope after all! I would edit some of what I posted above but it is the truth, should be referenced one day, and you people have no idea what I went through with Acer support..dont even wanna get started on that..

 

Hi, I make a question, can you tell me which dvd reader is? please let me know to change a blu ray reader. So you see it in windows I need to know which model is the dvd reader.

 

Welcome to the forums, jose_max. Keep in mind that this topic hasn't been posted in since September, and the member who started the topic hasn't been on since.

You would be better off to start a new topic asking 7741G users what model of DVD drive they have.