Graphics Driver BSODs

Have a c. 2010 PC with a 1st gen i3 and an ati Radeon HD 4350 graphics card. Keep getting a blue screen, so I am submitting this information to see if anyone can explain how I should proceed. PC blue screens at indiscriminate times. I could be using an internet browser (usually Firefox) or there might not be anything open and running.

Apparently, ati now has a download program for its driver updates that costs $29.95 to use. The AMD site is doing the same thing. I would like to see if there is another way to update the driver for the HD 4350. PC Manufacturer won't be of much use, because it's an off brand (Transource). It's a very good PC with an Asus motherboard and all, but download support is limited to the drivers that were on the PC originally.

Here is an analysis:

DriverMax says the Catalyst driver is up to date. Is there a way to find Radeon drivers that I haven't tried? I haven't been able to find anything.

Also, if anyone sees anything important in the blue screen analysis, I would really like to know. One strange thing. Adobe reader automatically updated (I checked the date on the .exe) on 5-8-14, and the blue screens started 5-9-14. Two on 5-9, 1 on 5-14, and three on 5-21 (all basically identical crash reports). Also, Firefox updated automatically on 5-9 (blue screen analysis refers to plugin-container.exe, which I know is Firefox) . This is strange to me. Before that, nothing that I know of any time in the recent past except Flash player to version 13 many weeks ago. Temperature is fine at 45-50 C for the graphics card. Adobe reader seems to be working fine and Firefox, too.

Head is spinning, thanks for any input...:eek

 

I don't know what's currently wrong at the ATI/AMD website; going to http://support.amd.com/en-us/download results in Sorry, something went wrong

I suggest to try again tomorrow.

 

pwillener...

Thanks. I was able to get through and update.

Turns out when I Google searched to "Download ATI Radeon HD 4350 Drivers", the first entry was for a site that actually gets away with using the ATI logo on the top of the page site. It looks totally official, but to actually use the software is $29.95. I didn't look at the url closely enough, or I would have noticed that it wasn't the ATI site. It was 3 AM sorry...

OK so when I saw the price tag, I Googled for AMD drivers. Same exact thing happened. First Google result was again a phony site. The name of the driver software was different, but it looked exactly the same in the pictures, and the process is identical to downloading drivers from the AMD site. The cost to update drivers was again $29.95.

Honestly, I thought I was through being fooled, even at 3 AM, but I really honestly thought ATI and AMD were now charging for driver updates.

Just posting this for information and not as links. If anyone runs across urls that look like this:

official-drivers.com/installer/drivers

or this:

driversinstaller.com/

They use the OFFICIAL logos of the authentic hardware manufacturer, and these turned up first in a Google search for ATI drivers and for AMD drivers. This is honestly quite aggravating, and I would have thought ATI and AMD would have been able to put an end to this before now. Hope they do in the future...

 

Whatever you are googling for, with Google as search engine, the top hit is always an ad in my experience.

 

Me too Earthling...like in the pictures below...

I attached some pics to show what this is like. I was sooooo tired last night when I was doing this. I was so tired that the small yellow Ad banner looked to me like an AMD logo in the first search. I have seen them in different colors.

The thing is...I scrolled down and nowhere was the actual official download site for ATI in that search or for AMD in that search. I saw the words ati followed by official in the first one and that was all it took. The pages looked like an official download page to me in my state at the time (not intoxicated I promise...just beat tired)...

It would be nice if AMD and ATI could find a way to cut this software creator out of using their official logos to promote this software...

 

I have had quite a few problems getting the right driver on those occasions when there isn't any choice - something has to be done. I have tried a couple of these programs that automatically scan your system and offer newer drivers but, after finding things not working correctly, or even at all after running them I definitely won't be using them again. There is always the support section of your manufacturer's website and imo that is the safest bet, or you can go to the device manufacturer's site. But on the two most recent occasions I've needed a driver I've simply used Device Manager and all has been good.

But I've given up on updating drivers unless I've got some issue that needs addressing.