[HP Pavillion dv6] Updating ATI video drivers

[Harry28]

Sad to hear that, is there any reason you need updated drivers so badly? The only game i had very small issues was with BF3, i think 1 or 2 maps terrain didnt load properly, but the game was still playable on nearly max settings.

Let me know if you find any updated drivers then!

[Alex_G]

Hello, guys. I had the same problem with ATI drivers.

Unfortunately HP doesn't respect its customers concerning updated video drivers for notebooks like dv6 series with switchable graphics. Because up-to-date drivers for gaming video cards being a must is common knowledge. And it seems that HP contracted with ATI cheaply, not paying them for up-to-date support. Because licence for each version of a windows 7 driver costs money and ATI won't pay it out of their pocket for nothing. At least that's how it appears to most of the HP laptop owners who tried to run recent video games for which our laptops are actually engineered, priced and perfectly capable hardware-wise. Only half-year or even older drivers are available from HP and it is huge for gaming industry. I've been on HP forums for several months already, since I got my dv6-6169er with a 2GB Radeon 6700M, and nobody from HP argued with what's written above. Guess why.

I always respected and will respect HP products, but next time I will look to other brands as well.

For now, only IT-enthusiasts help us. Like this Russian guy: http://leshcat.blogspot.com/ His packages work well and are up-to-date. However you have to disable driver licencing in windows (see paragraph above). Manuals are linked on the right side column in his blog. Do it at your own risk.

It you wish to download from official ATI website, try beta and pre-certified versions. Like this http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalystSoftwareSuiteVersion122PreCertified.aspx  It is compatible with our notebooks if you install it on top of official HP drivers (don't uninstall stock drivers), it will update all ATI components.You can get links for such versions from CatalystCreator twitter http://twitter.com/#!/catalystcreator This nice guy is employed with ATI and provides links from time to time.

With either method you keep switch option just like in stock drivers.

Don't forget to update BIOS to latest version from HP. Updated BIOS has an option to switch graphics card manually. I set this option to ATI card in Catalyst Control Center when updating drivers.

Drivers for all components other than graphics card seem to work well in stock version, so no need to update anyhing else, at least for me.

Sorry for my English as I am from Russia.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards, Alexander. A faithful HP customer for over 7 years.

[Harry28]

I have downloaded this "12-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc" from the ATI web site.

So far, i had to unistall totally my video drivers, use driver sweeper, and then install this one. This has the lastest up to date drivers, and i can still use the switchable graphics function.

The only downside it no longer recognizes my video card as at 5650, but instead as a 5500/5600 series, which didnt cause any issue.

[Alex_G]

Hi, Harry!

I currently use leshcat's 12.3 package. It identifies graphics card correctly and has the following driver version in Information -> Software tab of Catalys Control Center:

Driver Packaging Version 8.951-120308a-135750C-ATI

What's yours?

I by no means recommend to use unofficial software, just curious.

Alex.

[Harry28]

Info says 8.951-120308a-135750C-ATI from Catalyst control panel.

Also from Tera(a game) diagnostic i get this info about drivers:

Driver Version: 8.951.0.0
DDI Version: 11
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/9/2012 02:14:42, 958464 bytes

Considering i had 2010 drivers from default drivers, this is a huge update xD

[Alex_G]

Thanks for info. Looks like versions are the same, but I will try official version that you have and post back.

Now downloading from: http://www2.ati.com/DRIVERS/mobile/12-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe

I am not sure that this will work for my notebook, but let's have a try.

And they block Russian users from buying and playing Tera by IP address you know...

[Harry28]

Make sure you totally remove your old drivers with driver sweeper.

I had to install it twice, since the first time i installed them i couldn't use the switchable graphics feature, but after a clean install it worked nicely.

[Alex_G]

Well, it did not work for my laptop after a clean uninstall plus driver sweeper. http://tinypic.com/r/2zsb2c0/5

I guess it is because it does not include switchable components that driver from HP has. HP driver is ~340 MB and 12-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc is 160 MB.

It should work on top of HP driver (install without uninstalling stock drivers) just like pre-cert versions linked in CatalystCreator twitter. Such installation keeps Intel HD graphics and Intel Sandybridge chipset components and updates ATI components.

Maybe you are lucky to have AMD chipset. Anyways don't bother about this as we both could get latest drivers be it one way or another .

Did you find a way to get to a link to 12-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc from ati.com homepage? When I choose Radeon HD 6xxxM Series there, it gives me a link to a "Driver verification tool" which falis to pass checks. It bugs me that I can not get to a list of beta, pre-cert or "mobility" complete packages from amd.com homepage. I always have to google for links . NVIDIA has a full download available whch comes with an updater. More convenient IMO. And they suppport their Sandybridge configurations AFAIK. Maybe I am wrong. But that's another story.

[Harry28]

Gotta agree about ATI, their drivers are usually a pain in the ass to get and make work properly... I guess it worked for me with a clean install since the onboard video card is also from ATI.

About the download link, now that you mention i think the "12-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc" file was downloaded from the "AMD Driver verification tool", and it gave no problems when using the tool.

[Alex_G]

You are lucky to have onboard ATI card then. For laptops with Intel + AMD combo, drivers from AMD website don't work without extra effort and creativity . And such details are not even mentioned in vendors' description of a laptop. And money-back is not available in my country.

Thanks for a nice chat!