Acer 7740G VGA question

snowdweller · **Acer 7740G VGA question -** 12-13-2011, 05:26 | posts: 492 | Location: Sydney

Hey guys, got a TravelMate 7740G with an AMD 5650m and for some reason will not take the latest driver.

I had it on 11.2 and not sure if I got it like that or I updated it to that a while ago, anyhoo decided to update it because battlefield kept complaining and now I can only either uninstall the driver completely to auto install a Windows certified driver or install the AMD one and get the screen really blocky and device manager telling me its a generic device.

Acer website has VGA drivers from last year which I will reinstall if I can't get the AMD one working somehow.

Anyone else have this laptop they can shed some light on it?

Laykun · 12-13-2011, 05:50 | posts: 3,205 | Location: New Zealand

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowdweller

Hey guys, got a TravelMate 7740G with an AMD 5650m and for some reason will not take the latest driver.

I had it on 11.2 and not sure if I got it like that or I updated it to that a while ago, anyhoo decided to update it because battlefield kept complaining and now I can only either uninstall the driver completely to auto install a Windows certified driver or install the AMD one and get the screen really blocky and device manager telling me its a generic device.

Acer website has VGA drivers from last year which I will reinstall if I can't get the AMD one working somehow.

Anyone else have this laptop they can shed some light on it?

Laptops require the mobile version of Catalyst drivers, installing the desktop version will not work. You CAN get modded desktop drivers that work just fine in most cases, I think they are probably your best bet as the mobile installer for the Catalyst drivers works for a small range of laptops.

snowdweller · 12-14-2011, 01:00 | posts: 492 | Location: Sydney

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laykun

Laptops require the mobile version of Catalyst drivers, installing the desktop version will not work. You CAN get modded desktop drivers that work just fine in most cases, I think they are probably your best bet as the mobile installer for the Catalyst drivers works for a small range of laptops.

AMD site has them separate and I definately picked the Mobility drivers as opposed to desktop ones. I have read elsewhere that some vendors actually block you from installing AMD/Nvidia drivers and only allow the vendor drivers. I know thats not the case for me as I did have catylist CP on it previously so there were AMD drivers on it at one stage. Very annoying...

smashly · *Last edited by smashly; 12-14-2011 at 05:24.*

Hi,
You could try using the OCL (Open Core License) version of the Catalyst driver.
I'm not an ATI user so I've had little experience with their drivers.

I had the same issue with a friends Dell laptop HD 5470M graphics.
(Dell offers a 1 yo driver and any driver from AMD just doesn't install and leaves you with Standard VGA driver after reboot)
Same problem with another friends Toshiba laptop with 5430 had the exact same problem trying to install current Catalyst driver.

I used ocl versions of the Catalyst driver and they installed and worked in the above 2 instances.

I think the problem is that the laptop Manufacturer doesn't wan't to pay for license fee for every newer version video driver that needs compatability testing and driver signing so they don't give permission for AMD to add their Manufacturer/Vendor ID to the driver inf.
Hence the laptop manufacturer release their laptop with a driver they offer and then they never seem to update the video driver for their laptop after that.

It may also be that the laptop manufacturer prefers to handle driver updates themselves so they aren't swamped with customers bitching that the current driver doesn't work properly with their brand of laptop.

Either way it always boils down to manufacturers just don't want to spend more money on keeping their customers happy with the old product that they have already taken your money for.
They want the customer to spend more money on a newer version of their laptop to keep the manufacturer happy.

I found links to current AMD/ATI Catalyst Mobility 11.12 WHQL OCL drivers here: http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/110...catalyst-1112/
But I haven't tried any of these at all, so I can't say if they will work or not.
Drivers I tried were 11.11 from some other site I found through google.
(11.12 weren't out when I installed on my friends laptops)
Oddly I can't seem to find OCL reference at AMD website at all when I search.

Hope it helps, if not then hacked inf file can achieve what your after, but that's upto you to work out.
Good Luck

snowdweller · 12-14-2011, 10:12 | posts: 492 | Location: Sydney

Quote:

Originally Posted by smashly

Hi,
You could try using the OCL (Open Core License) version of the Catalyst driver.
I'm not an ATI user so I've had little experience with their drivers.

I had the same issue with a friends Dell laptop HD 5470M graphics.
(Dell offers a 1 yo driver and any driver from AMD just doesn't install and leaves you with Standard VGA driver after reboot)
Same problem with another friends Toshiba laptop with 5430 had the exact same problem trying to install current Catalyst driver.

I used ocl versions of the Catalyst driver and they installed and worked in the above 2 instances.

I think the problem is that the laptop Manufacturer doesn't wan't to pay for license fee for every newer version video driver that needs compatability testing and driver signing so they don't give permission for AMD to add their Manufacturer/Vendor ID to the driver inf.
Hence the laptop manufacturer release their laptop with a driver they offer and then they never seem to update the video driver for their laptop after that.

It may also be that the laptop manufacturer prefers to handle driver updates themselves so they aren't swamped with customers bitching that the current driver doesn't work properly with their brand of laptop.

Either way it always boils down to manufacturers just don't want to spend more money on keeping their customers happy with the old product that they have already taken your money for.
They want the customer to spend more money on a newer version of their laptop to keep the manufacturer happy.

I found links to current AMD/ATI Catalyst Mobility 11.12 WHQL OCL drivers here: http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/110...catalyst-1112/
But I haven't tried any of these at all, so I can't say if they will work or not.
Drivers I tried were 11.11 from some other site I found through google.
(11.12 weren't out when I installed on my friends laptops)
Oddly I can't seem to find OCL reference at AMD website at all when I search.

Hope it helps, if not then hacked inf file can achieve what your after, but that's upto you to work out.
Good Luck

Mate, I could KISS YOU!!! right now!!! Thanks heaps man! That was exactly what I was after and even an explanation, love your work!

Cheers again dude!

smashly · 12-14-2011, 11:33 | posts: 963 | Location: Australia

Glad it helped, sorry for my opinionated long winded explanation ... lol
Wish Guru3D would host the Catalyst Mobile OCL drivers, so Guru readers wouldn't have to go through hoops to get em when or if needed.
Cheers and happy portable gaming bud.

discy · 01-22-2012, 06:19 | posts: 15

Quote:

Originally Posted by smashly

Hi,
You could try using the OCL (Open Core License) version of the Catalyst driver.
I'm not an ATI user so I've had little experience with their drivers.

Are you positive that OCL stands for Open Core License? And not for OpenCL? (Open Computing Language)

If you look at the official catalyst download page you see the first package also has the OCL acronym:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/11-12_vi...dd_ccc_ocl.exe

If you then look at the individual downloads, you again find the OCL acronym for the OpenCL driver.
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/11-12_vista_win7_64_ocl.exe

The packages that do not include the OpenCL driver, also do not have "OCL" at the end.

Could you confirm that after the installation; if you check in CCC, that after "driver packaging version" there is the driver version of the mobility driver package you downloaded? For 11.12 this is 8.92.

Here are some modified drivers that should work : http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/top...catalyst-1112/

snowdweller · 01-24-2012, 00:46 | posts: 492 | Location: Sydney

Quote:

Originally Posted by discy

Are you positive that OCL stands for Open Core License? And not for OpenCL? (Open Computing Language)

If you look at the official catalyst download page you see the first package also has the OCL acronym:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/11-12_vi...dd_ccc_ocl.exe

If you then look at the individual downloads, you again find the OCL acronym for the OpenCL driver.
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/11-12_vista_win7_64_ocl.exe

The packages that do not include the OpenCL driver, also do not have "OCL" at the end.

Could you confirm that after the installation; if you check in CCC, that after "driver packaging version" there is the driver version of the mobility driver package you downloaded? For 11.12 this is 8.92.

Here are some modified drivers that should work : http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/top...catalyst-1112/

I'll check but what Smashly said did work. Is there a difference?