Its time for us gamers to voice our needs

Its not uncommon for drivers to be never updated on a laptop manufacturers website. rarely do they have time or money to spend to have someone work to get the best out of a driver for a single model of a laptop. Especially when they have so many different varieties of laptops. This has been the case with any laptop I have bought. At least MSI is nice enough to point you to a mod program to modify your downloaded files to work with your laptop. However this has changed for ATI cards. ATI has changed their driver model and their INF structure. not once now but twice. 9.2 catalysts could not be modded since the inf was changed to a new format. so the mod tool had a beta patch made by a volunteer guy who doesn't even get paid to do this. This worked if people would spend the time digging through forums to find this patch on his website. Now 9.3 came out they changed it again to a "Unified" structure. well that means an entirely new format to the inf file. and the mod tool is once again completely useless. ATI/AMD will not support laptop GPU's they in turn tell you to goto the manufacturer and get updates from them. Manufacturer has no resources dedicated to this and refers you to a 'hack' program by a guy who does it as a hobby. Why can't ATI just release a "GENERIC" driver like the desktop class. why must i have to plow through inf files to get support for a GPU made by a manufacturer who won't support any laptop class GPU's yet Laptop sales now outpace desktops. so >50% of thier customer base has *NO SUPPORT* and the laptop manufacturer cannot afford to spend the incredible man hours to support over 100's of different models of laptops they carry every time the GPU manufacturer throws up an update. later most games will not run if they are patched unless you use X version of driver so in the end. The consumer is left holding the bag with this problem. something needs to be done. Somehow ATI *MUST* find a way around this dilemna. Its their GPU. It's their drivers so the responsibility lies with them.

This also happens with Nvidia solutions. people have to goto laptopvideo2go to get "modified" drivers. GPU manufacturers need to realize now that >50% of all gpu's are going into laptops now. we need a better driver model to support THEIR laptop GPU's. I am tired of being the one holding the bag and having to manually modify inf files just to get the drivers working. Voice your concerns to the manufacturers. like on catalyst feedback page or Nvidia feedback page. if we can get people to do this they will listen but one voice cannot make change. a crowd can. please help yourself. and help your fellow gamers. use your voice.

 

Im still using stock 8.56 drivers hehe, although i do agree, ATI need to release matured drivers rather then half finnished stuff that just works, there have definately been performance gains with new releases, and i will definatly leave ATI feedback on this subject.

I mean how hard can it be, they have the desktop drivers released, wont take them too long to release some good mobility ones, the 4850 mobility in my Advent is basically a desktop 4850 just undervolted and clocked, thats it.

 

I'd still be on November 2008 drivers if I hadn't ditched Asus' update system.

 

Asus is in a league of it's own when it comes to sub-standard updates. That website is abysmal.

 

lol AW has the 9.3 working in our section ...just dont use the custom 9.3 because itsonly for 3870's

you will se a nice jump in fps

 

yea I support this thread. I dont know to whom we all should email or call to show our support. Just writing on this thread doesnot goanna help.

 

Nvidia releases quarterly official notebook drivers that support nearly all notebooks. They currently have a few issues (mainly with sleep), but for the most part, they work just fine.

 

I love official drivers than the modded one because official focuses on the heat rather than performance.

 

nvidia releases official mobility drivers.

they are awesome. use them, do not use laptopvideo2go.

 

Please reformat your original post so it is readable. My eyes are going buggy. But I agree with masterchef, nvidia mobility drivers run great.

 

LIke most people, you probably don't understand everything about drivers - then again, if most users did, a whole industry might collapse overnight.

Those drivers that are updated on the Support Site for your particular system (whatever 3rd party vendor - HP, Dell, etc.) are drivers that have been certified for use with the OEM component (in your case a GPU) in your system. Drivers obtained from any other location, even the OEM site (NVIDIA) are NOT certified for use in your particular system configuration - since most people don't bother to read the legal stuff that goes with the driver download, they don't realize that; or, most think they're smarter than the engineers who designed the system and modified the driver for the GPU so it could be used in your particular system configuration.

All OEM components like an NVIDIA GPU that go into systems aren't exactly the same as the GPU you'd get if you bought one OTC at a store or directly from NVIDIA; they've been customized for use within their own particular designed system. This is why people always have problems when using a driver "update" from a different source than the vendor support site - those drivers weren't modified for use in those systems. What they ARE for are OTC and direct sale units that haven't been prepped for use in a 3rd party system.

The lone exceptions are Intel and AMD (at least Intel). Since the majority of systems are actually designed around their CPU's, they don't modify their CPU for use in any system - it's the other way around. Vendors design their systems for use with a given Intel CPU (or AMD). At least in Intel's case, if you look sometime at their firmware updates, their listed as 'generic' updates, meaning they can be used on any Intel CPU the update was designed for. However, if a particular update isn't, it will tell you so.

Sony's drivers are a good example - their BD-ROM firmware updates are clearly marked that they are not for use in 3rd party systems, only in Sony OEM original components or in Sony systems. If you try to flash their firmware in one of their drives that falls in those parameters, the firmware flash will halt itself before frying the PROM.

Where people have problems is that they see a driver update on the OEM site for the model component in their system and think that it's okay to use in theirs, and like you can't understand why the system vendor doesn't update at the same time. Again, just because the OEM of the GPU has made an update to the driver in the same model doesn't mean that update is necessarily going to either be good or will work properly in your system. If it's subsequently added by your system vendor, then you're good.

There isn't a week that goes by where I don't respond to a client or a user on a support forum having a driver issue of some sort. The other problem is updating just because there's an update available - and again, just because the OEM has updated their original component doesn't mean it was or is meant for yours. Their are driver services on the 'net and tech services making a fortune off of this simple misconception. You likely won't see a more than 2 or 3 updates for any given component during the serviceable warranty period of most systems, which for extended contracts is usually 4 years. After that, companies drop active support for a system but maintain the information online for users just in case.

If you're thinking "Okay smarta$$, what if I replace my GPU with an replacement that's an OTC model or one I got direct from NVIDIA?" It would depend on whether or not the replacement was obtained as an original replacement part for your system, or if it was sold to you as an original, unmodified version from NVIDIA. If it's an unmodified model, then you'd use the drivers posted on their site - but keep in mind if you did so, there might be some things on your system that might not work completely 100% since it was designed to work with a custom unit modified for use with your particular system.

These kinds of updates can also apply to full programs (a driver is just a mini-program anyway) modified for use in 3rd party systems. HP's QuickPlay is a good example of this - it's actually just a customized version of Cyberlink's DVD software, modified for use in HP systems. In that case you can obtain an update directly from the Cyberlink site, but it's not in the normal driver download area; the QP updates have specific links on the HP site to Cyberlink.
Many people have stupidly removed QuickPlay thinking it was crapware, only to find that no other players would work for BD movies, and that QuickPlay WAS the program for BD and DVD playback. Duh... On some components, you can get away with using OEM updates from an OEM site like NVIDIA's. But it'll likely give you a problem somewhere down the line when least expected.

In answer to your question about why there aren't Generic drivers for GPU's and other components - since there are literally hundreds of systems and configurations that total into the thousands, it's impractical to expect to make one program to make every possible combination work. Systems are different by design - if they weren't it would be a pretty boring world. Each system is unique, and so too must the drivers be for that particular configuration the component finds itself in. It's actually simpler to modify the original driver by a small amount to customize it for use with the many different systems it will be installed in than to try and write the impossible - program so good and generic it'll run everything.

There's also the other factor that companies won't mention, but it's the same reason you'll never see a cure for Cancer or any other major disease - industries don't want to change things that make them money. Sick people are big business bucks, and so too are drivers for some businesses. As I said at the beginning, since the majority of users don't understand about drivers, their overall place in the world and how they're updated and why, people are always getting into trouble and installing improper drivers into their systems, causing problems. Problems means most will take it to get fixed, when the only thing that needs fixing is the user's understanding. Those users tend to take their systems to a place like Best Buy or some other fixit joint where the 'techs' are DeVry graduates or something along those lines, and in the end usually wind up with even more problems than just the simple driver problem they went in with.

In the end, some businesses rack up a lot of $$. Personally as a professional in the industry, I think it's nothing short of low and just plain greedy; but on the other hand, people have to take responsibility and learn about the things that they own.