[SOLVED] Old laptop OS upgrade; missing drivers on website

subterminal303

Commendable
Oct 13, 2017
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1,530
Howdy folks,

I'm going to be helping someone upgrade their painfully slow Acer Aspire 7551g laptop. My plan is to replace the HDD with an SSD and throw Windows 10 on it. I found a few old threads (circa 2015) that showed issues with Windows 10, but nothing from recent so I'm assuming updates have fixed issues. However, if Windows 10 doesn't work, I plan to just reinstall Windows 7. I went to Acer's website to download the drivers ahead of time and noticed that it's missing some important ones such as the chipset.

My question is can I just go to AMD's website and get them from there? The laptop has an AMD Phenom II X4 N930 for the CPU.

Also, any other potential issues that I may not be thinking of? Thanks for your time!
 
Solution
i have something similar with windows 10, no driver issues (emachines e640g - basicly teh same thing)
gpu driver:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-non-gcn-16-2-1-beta
chipset driver:
https://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd-chipset-drivers_18.10_0830.exe
sound card:
https://realtek-download.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/0009-64bit_Win7_Win8_Win81_Win10_R282.exe

network card (lan) u can use provided from microsoft update

as for wifi...which one u have? atherosor broadcom?
as for touchpad is it synaptics or alps?
for this check your current drivers in device manager
wifi should be located in network adapters and touchpad in mouse section
i have something similar with windows 10, no driver issues (emachines e640g - basicly teh same thing)
gpu driver:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-non-gcn-16-2-1-beta
chipset driver:
https://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd-chipset-drivers_18.10_0830.exe
sound card:
https://realtek-download.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/0009-64bit_Win7_Win8_Win81_Win10_R282.exe

network card (lan) u can use provided from microsoft update

as for wifi...which one u have? atherosor broadcom?
as for touchpad is it synaptics or alps?
for this check your current drivers in device manager
wifi should be located in network adapters and touchpad in mouse section
 
Solution

subterminal303

Commendable
Oct 13, 2017
64
0
1,530
as for wifi...which one u have? atherosor broadcom?
as for touchpad is it synaptics or alps?
for this check your current drivers in device manager
wifi should be located in network adapters and touchpad in mouse section

Thanks for that! I'm really banking on Windows 10 working and not having to go the Windows 7/manual driver route. Happy to hear you've had luck. And thanks for looking that stuff up for me!

As for which wifi and touchpad... I'm not sure. I'll have to check it out when I get over to their house. Fortunately, Acer did have both wifi and touchpad drivers on their website, so I grabbed all of those.
 

subterminal303

Commendable
Oct 13, 2017
64
0
1,530
please dont do that, its different WDDM then win 10 using, either it wont install or u just get issues

I might have lost you - don't do what? I'm not planning on installing any drivers if Windows 10 installs and everything works correctly. If Windows 10 doesn't work well, that's when I'm planning on Windows 7 and installing drivers.
 

Husky hunter

Reputable
Feb 22, 2016
27
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I think windows 10 should work just fine cause after install windows will install the drivers through its updates.

If windows 10 doesnt work instead of going back to 7 i would recommend just installing linux on it like ubuntu or kubuntu which is really lightweight cause windows 7 will be discontinued by 2020 that will leave windows 7 vulnerable to hackers
 
Last edited:

subterminal303

Commendable
Oct 13, 2017
64
0
1,530
If windows 10 doesnt work instead of going back to 7 i would recommand just installing linux on it like ubuntu or kubuntu which is really lightweight

I think Windows 10 will work as well.

As for linux... if it was my laptop, I would. But it's for an older guy who uses it to access his Wix website and process CC payments for his business so I need to stick with what he's familiar with. Although Mint is kinda window-user friendly...