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    Can someone help me update my Drivers?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Jarasloft, Sep 20, 2008.

  1. Jarasloft

    Jarasloft Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay, I need a little hand-holding. I've been following guides but I'm supremely confused.


    I have an Asus M51VA, installed with Vista Ultimate 32bit. The graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650. I've been trying to work out where I download the drivers from. According to the Catalyst Control Centre, in the Graphics Software tab, this is the driver I have:

    Driver Packaging Version 8.476-080328a-062508C
    Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
    2D Driver Version 7.01.01.747
    2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
    Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0567
    OpenGL Version 6.14.10.7415
    Catalyst® Control Center Version 2008.0328.2322.39969

    I followed the link to http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html, and selected Vista 32-bit, but I get stuck at the next stepp. When I select the Mobility Radeon, theres no 3600 series cards listed. There are under plain Radeons, but I don't know if I'm suppose to download them, and even if I do, what one. There are many options to choose from. I'm guessing I'd choose the top option?

    Could anybody check the link out and provide any assistance. IT would be greatly appreciated.
     
    Jarasloft, Sep 20, 2008
    #1
  2. Prydeless

    Prydeless Stupid is

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    ATi doesn't support the mobile versions of their cards and it's up to your laptop's manufacturer to provide the latest drivers, but they don't really do that either so what you need to do is get the desktop version of the Catalyst drivers and use the mobility modder from http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php to get the latest drivers. Make sure to follow the instructions on that page and uninstall your current drivers before installing the new one.
     
    Prydeless, Sep 20, 2008
    #2
  3. Jarasloft

    Jarasloft Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thank you. I think I was successful! This is the proceedure I went through, never done it before. I hope I did it right.

    What I did was downloaded The Mobility Modder and Catalyst Software Suite (32 bit) English Only from ATI. I went into the Device Manager, found the GPU, went into properties, driver tab, then to uninstall. It went to black screen than turned back on and my resolution was down to minimun. Pretty sure that removed the driver right? Than I went to User Accounts and turned UAC off. I restarted. I then went to the ATI driver, started it, and let extract to the ATI folder. When that was done and the installation process started, I exited. I then started the Mobility Modder, navigated to the ATI folder then to the Driver folder, and hit modify. It said it was successful so then I navigated into the driver file, doudle clicked the driver and went through the installation process. There were some tense moments. When it was installing, it went to black screen, and stayed there. I though oh f*ck i've ruined my computer. What seemed like an agonising time later, it turned back on and said the install was successful. I then rebooted at its request, and the shutdown took ages. Bloody scary. It stayed on that screen for a long time and I got that bad feeling in my gut, and was actually flicking through my manual to see how to turn off manually when it finished. Relief! When I logged back on I check my card and now it displays as being:

    Driver Packaging Version 8.53-080820a-068905C-ATI
    Catalyst® Version 08.9
    Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
    2D Driver Version 7.01.01.821
    2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Class/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
    Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0612
    OpenGL Version 6.14.10.7976
    Catalyst® Control Center Version 2008.0820.2135.36847

    That pretty much confirms I done it right, right? I checked the Welcome Center/Performance Information and Tools to see how well my newly updated computer performs. Curiously, the area said:

    Graphics Desktop Performance with Windows Aero

    dropped from 4.8 to 4.7. Everything else stayed the same mind you. Why is that?

    Anyway, I think I notice an improvement in game perfromance. The reason I wanted to update was The Witcher: EE - wanted to get the best play I could.

    So, does it sound like I've done everything right?

    EDIT: I went into dxdiag and it says this in the display area:

    Driver Name: atidxx32.dll,atidxx64,atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.cap,atiumd64,atiumd6a,atitmm64
    Driver Version: 7.15.0010.0142 (English)
    DDI Version: 10.1
    Driver Attributes: Final Retail
    Driver Date/Size: 8/21/2008 11:33:15, 2143744 bytes

    Also, Can You Run It? says:

    Your driver version number is: 7.14.10.612
    does that sound right?
     
    Jarasloft, Sep 20, 2008
    #3