Do I need Windows 7 drivers ?

Hi,

I have Dell Optiplex GX 620 System with following hardware.

Intel Pentium (D) 3.0 GHz

2 GB RAM

256 MB ATI Raedeon X600 Video Card

SoundMAX Integraded Digital Audio

My Question is :

(1) Do I need Video Drivers ? If yes can someone please Provide Download link ?

(2) Do I need an Audio Driver ? If yes can someone please Provide Download link ?

Any other drivers ?

Thank You.

 

It appears that Windows 7 has built-in drivers for the X600 video card, but you can try using the Vista drivers if the default drivers aren't working right. Did you check the Device Manager? Do you have any yellow question marks ? or exclamation points ! showing? If so, these would be devices for which there is no driver currently installed, or the currently installed driver isn't functioning correctly. So, if you have no marks in the Device Manager, and if the sound is working OK and the video is OK, then you probably do not need drivers. You can usually use Vista drivers with Windows 7 if no drivers for a particular device have been created for W7. You didn't post which version of W7 you're using -either 32bit (x86) or 64bit- so I can't be too specific, but the ATI web site has Vista drivers (both 32 and 64 bit) for the X600 video card. If you search the ATI site for W7 video drivers, it links you to the Vista drivers.

To be sure the video driver has been installed by Windows, go to the Device Manager and click the little plus sign next to 'Display Adapters'; if it doesn't list your video card, then a 'generic' driver is installed and you'll need to install the video driver from one of these links:
Windows 7/Vista 64bit Driver: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...px?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.19&lang=English
Windows 7/Vista 32bit Driver: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...px?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.19&lang=English

As to the sound driver, if the sound is working, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you have any devices with ! or ? in the Device Manager, post them here and we'll try to get 'em installed.

 

Hi dlb,

First thank you so much.

Here is the info you requested.

Sound works fine.

Video seems to work but while scrolling a web page it scrolls like a wave instead of smooth scrolling.

Also no matter what resolution or Font size I try, IE 8.0 in Win -7, alaways have a huge horizontal scroll. It seems the web page does not fit & all the web pages seem very very large.

To help you help me better here is some more info.

I have dual installed XP PRO SP3 & Win 7 in Partition 1 & 2 respectively.

I am not getting any yellow question marks in device manager.

I have installed 32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate ( The Last build 7264 ) before it was RTM.

I tried searching the links you gave but was confused so if you can help, that would be great.

Thank You Again.

 

:confused I don't understand what you found confusing.... the links I posted above are to the ATI downloads for Windows 7. As you scroll down the page, you'll see the items available for download. The first section is labeled "Option 1" and is the full ATI software suite; it includes the drivers, the Catalyst Control Center, and some other stuff. The next section is "Option 2" and is the same software as Option 1, but it's split up in to smaller downloads, so if you don't want the full software suite, you can download the individual components individually. The 3rd section is optional software, and only 'HydraVision' is included, and it requires the video driver to be installed first. More info about Hydravision's features and what these features do can be found at this link. Anyway- in your situation, you'd be best off downloading and installing the full software suite from Option 1, and be sure you download the 32bit version.
:-D

 

dlb you should be aware that ATI no longer supports the x600 and nor dos windows 7

you can try the legacy drivers for vista no idea if they will work under 7 but they should in theory

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx

 

Yup, you are correct. The drivers I linked to above are the legacy drivers recommended by ATI for use with Win7.

 

Please forgive me. I am not a techi.

I had downloaded Vista drivers back in 2007.

Would it hurt if I just went ahead & installed them ?

Also I have XP in Partion 1 & Windows 7 in partition 2 as a dual boot. So if I install Vista drivers in Windows 7, will it affect XP ?

Thank You.

 

They should be OK. If they don't work, just boot in safe mode and remove 'em. Then try the drivers I linked to above if they're different from the drivers you have already tried.

Nope. The 2 different Windows versions are totally separated from each other. Installing a bad driver in W7 will not have any effect on XP (the opposite is also true). You can install all kinds of programs and download whatever you want with one OS and it will not effect the other OS (some viruses and/or malware can jump from one OS or partition to another, but even this is rare). You can move files from one OS to the other, but this won't happen unless you manually perform a file copy/move, so don't worry about something 'automatically' jumping from one Windows version to the other.

 

dib,

I installed the Vista frivers but in device manager it still shows the Microsoft drivers.

Then I reinstalled the Windows 7 & now the default Microsoft drives are working ok in some applications with certain resolution & font size but not so good with other resolution ( especially with Low Resolution ) & font size. I guess those application vendors will Re Program them according to Windows 7 code ?

In any case you have been very kind & I really appreciate your help.

George