What exactly is Mobility Modder?
ATI have for many years had their hands tied with laptop manufacturers (OEMS) who request that ATI do not offer support for their device in the Catalyst Driver. This may seem strange, however makers such as Dell may have implemented their own support system and they do not want their customers downloading "reference" drivers from ATI's home page.
Terry Makedon: AMD Manager for Software Product Management Graphics Product Group issued Driver Heaven with the following statement in April of 2007:
"AMD (formerly ATI) introduced the concept of Catalyst Mobility which is a generic driver that works decently for most laptops. The only way we are able to do this is through permission by a laptop manufacturer (OEM) to include their device in the Catalyst Mobility. We were the first company to provide graphics drivers for laptops to the general public, and we believe there is great value in this. At this point we only have permission from a few vendors and I personally wish more of them would let us. My suggestion is you contact your manufacturer and ask them to have your laptop included in Catalyst Mobility. As for Vista specifically we do not have permissions yet, but as soon as we do we look forward to releasing Vista drivers for laptops."
Mobility Modder, the evolution
Unfortunately if you have just spent a few thousand $/£ on a new laptop and you want to keep your graphics drivers updated this leaves you in a bit of a pickle and many people frequently are waiting for their OEM to furnish them with new drivers. Right now the only option is to keep emailing your OEM to request that they update their drivers on a regular basis. However, we all know in real life that this rarely makes a difference.
This is where Driver Heaven comes to the rescue and has done now for years with our FREE Mobility Modder for Windows XP. Over 2,000,000 downloads would suggest that many people wanted the newest ATI drivers on their laptop, with good reason.
With the release of Windows Vista, things have changed, our old mobility modder didn't work correctly as many people on our forums reported, so we have created a new release which is specifically made for VISTA. Currently this has undergone internal testing only so please if you are unsure about running beta software please wait a while until it goes to final build. We would however appreciate feedback on the application in our forums. With your help we can make it better!
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