Incredibly confused with AMD card...

[whitelines2]

For the life of me i cannot work out how to properly install the drivers for an AMD graphics card. I have an Acer laptop with a Radeon HD 6550m in it.

I go to the official AMD support site (after a clean windows 7 64 bit install), select notebook graphics, Radeon HD series, Radeon HD 6xxxM series, Windows 7 64 bit then finally display results.

I see 'Catalyst Software Suite' available for download (1.1MB file size) revision 11.9. I download it and install it and then BOOOOOM, it says 'AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software on your computer. The version of your graphics adapter is not supported.'

Umm... what? I know for sure i have a HD 6550M as it says so in device manager on my windows 7.

So then i try clicking on the 'individual download' tab on the amd website and find something called 'Catalyst Control Center'. File size 87mb, revision number 11.9. I install it with express settings but it says: 'installation complete warnings occurred during the installation.' Here is the log:

http://pastebin.com/Te7L005g

I did not truncate that, that is the entire log file even after refreshing my browser several times.

So after that install nothing has changed, the screen didn't even flash during install. I still do not have a functioning graphics card. I can't even view my desktop at proper screen resolution for my 14inch screen.

So what is going on here? What is the correct way to install this card? What is the difference between 'Catalyst Software Suite' and 'Catalyst Control Center' and which am i supposed to download and install?

What a nightmare... i'd just like to be able to enjoy some Starcraft 2 (so hopefully i can get absolutely most up to date driver for this card.) Thanks for any advice.

PS. Here is a screenshot of my laptop after my futile attempts:

http://imagebin.org/181230

 

[hang-the-9]

Get the drivers from Acer not AMD.

Read this from the notes for mobile drivers:

AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility
Catalyst™ Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support for system vendor specific features. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, users may have unwanted experiences.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unwanted experiences occur while using Catalyst™ Mobility, it is recommended to revert back to the driver provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

 

[jaguarskx]

For laptops it is better to get drivers from the laptop's manufacturer.

This is especially true if you have a laptop with switchable graphics which is pretty common is many currently laptops. For example, my Lenovo IdeaPad Y470 has switchable graphics, I can either choose to use the Intel HD 3000 graphics core, or included the nVidia GT 550m discrete graphics card.

Laptop graphic drivers from AMD and nVidia are "generic" driver that do not work with laptop with switchable graphics capabilities.