Force driver update on a mobility radeon graphic

Solution 1:

On 2 Sony VAIO different laptops (5 times installed) I was able to do the following:

  1. Download the full AMD driver package. not the ~1MB "detection"/verification tool. They are usually a bit hidden but can be found nonetheless. The file should be ~100MB (32-bit) or ~150MB (64-bit) Current 64-bit, 32-bit. (Windows Vista/7)

  2. Start the installation and install as normally. This finished it on 3 of my 5 installs (both laptops, seems to be hardware, windows version and catalyst version dependand)

  3. If that doesn't work, go to the device manager

  4. Select the Radeon display adapter device

  5. Select "Update driver"

  6. Select "Let me pick"

  7. Select "Have disk"

  8. Select the package extract directory, defaults to: "C:\AMD\Support\XX-X_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_whql" and go to the "Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF" subfolder

  9. Select the proper model (if different options are available). If none are shown you can uncheck "show compatible hardware" but then be very careful as your driver might not work or you have incompatible drivers.

  10. Continue installation

Note that this might make your laptop unusable, depending on how compatible the driver is. Best case you only disable some very minor vendor-specific features, worst case you'll need to reinstall the vendor driver (using safe mode) or even reinstall windows if you don't succeed with that. I'd recommend at least making a restore point.