Monday, June 4, 2012

Rebuilding a notebook with AMD Radeon 6290 graphics

As I have stated on another post, I have archived the drivers for the AMD HD 6290 graphics processor unit (GPU) that forms part of an AMD Brazos APU.


My experience in the past is that when a fresh copy of Windows is installed on a computer with a configuration such as this, there is a problem with obtaining the correct drivers. The consequence of this is that the newly configured computer will be restricted to a Standard VGA video adapter. This means that the maximum resolution of the computer is only 800 by 600 pixels (regardless of the capabilities of the display).

In addition this combination of APU, in this case an AMD C-60 with Radeon HD 6290 and Atheros AR5B125 Wireless Adapter, there were other problems in getting the wireless adapter to connect to the Internet. This is particularly important when a fresh install is performed as it is my experience that most systems will connect to the Internet even though the most up-to-date driver is being used. This initial connectivity is extremely important as it is the primary method that current drivers are found.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really liked your posts relating to the service turn-round that you had with Acer (Canada).

I was impressed that your AO722 was repaired and returned within 3 days. Acer get a bad rap for customer service but your experience was impressive.

Anonymous said...

Hi, are you also having troubles with flash content on your AO722? im having some trouble myself and its pretty frustrating. I have already installed a fresh copy of the GPU drivers but its still having problems. I am planning on reformating the unit although i dont think it will solve the problem..

UK Musings said...

No, Flash content seems to work just fine on my AO722.

What are the symptoms of you problem? Is Flash content not working at all or is it just choppy and inconsistent?

The problem I was seeing was that the screen resolution for everything was 800 by 600 max and that was after I did a complete reformat of the unit. If you are contemplating that be prepared for that to be the case.

If you have a copy of the GPU drivers you should be Okay to re-install Windows. You will also need the drivers for the wireless adapter, the card reader and any other Acer specific components. Unless you are using the Acer recovery partition as all that should be there. What I did was to install a fresh-clean copy of Windows 7 as I wanted to get rid of all the "bloatware" that came with the AO722