Drivers for ATI Mobility Radeon 9700

[Nifty]

I have a recurring graphics problem with my laptop's graphics card. I occasionally get severe screen distortion when running 3D games, its apparently random and no amount of settings tweaking can fix it.

On attempting to locate some replacement drivers for my GPU i came accross the problem that there are no drivers designed for my Sony by Sony or ATI. Can i just download the latest drivers from ATI and use them or will that be just as unstable becuase they are not intended for my Sony system?


Maybe my problem is not GPU related (although i reckon it is). I can only describe what i see as lots of artifacts as if my GPU is overheating but they are everywhere and i mean everywhere, pixels seem to get drawn in the wrong place resulting in almost a blender effect. The problem even spills over into the desktop so when i close the game all my icons are fuzzy and distorted, but other areas are fine. This problem can happen as soon as i boot a game so im certain its not simply GPU overheating.

Its not a serious problem; it only happens occasionally and a reboot fixes it, but i would like it not to happen in the middle of playing games!

[TygerTyger]

You would think if it was a driver problem then every A117s would be like this. It's possible that the original driver has become corrupted, try simply reinstalling it from www.vaio-link.com.
As for new drivers, this is a common question here. Short answer is there are no new drivers, and it may be a very long time before there are any. Sony rarely release new driver versions because they are crap. If you go into the notebook section and go back through the threads far enough (there is no search here sorry), I gave details to modify the standard Ati desktop drivers so they would work on a laptop, it was for a 9200 but it works the same. Come back if neither of these solutions works.

[kee-lo_]

Sony need to make more support for graphics cards.

[nick_pan]

the ATI standard GPU drivers released from their site won't work on their mobile set of chips..

if you're looking for a new set of drivers for your gfx card, you can try the ATI catalyst drivers

http://downloads.driverheaven.net/index4.htm

and see if they make a difference...don't expect a performance increase cause theyre called 'catalyst'..tho these drivers do give u the option to overclock your card. bad idea on a laptop

if your still having problems, could be a gpu fault

[kee-lo_]

Be careful with those drivers though - some people have had issues.

[TygerTyger]

I really REALLY wish we could have a sticky on this, I would re-post my instructions on modifying the desktop drivers if only someone could FIND THEM AGAIN A WEEK LATER. DO YOU HEAR THAT SONY.

[kee-lo_]

Amen to that Tyger .... STICKY PLEASE CLUBUSER !

[nick_pan]

guys i agree with that..

some of us are beginning to sound like broken records here

[cynicalmoose]

ATI will not release Mobility Radeon drivers as they should be adjusted by product manufacturer. However, modded drivers will work on Mobility systems (the chipset is in fact the same, so it's a very small mod, just to get the driver to install). ATI's recommended source of modded drivers is: www.omegadrivers.net

The producer of Omega Drivers is an ATI beta tester, and has knowledge of the chipsets involved. You can overclock your card with these drivers, however, the thermal environment of a laptop is very tight, and the performance will have been maxed out to what the fan can take by Sony.

[TygerTyger]

No way do Ati recommend Omega, they'd get their ass kicked as soon as someone had their computer screwed up by beta drivers.

I would agree, overclocking a laptop in any way is a really bad idea, and also putting your resolution higher than the OEM specification is seriously not recommended.

I say again, unless you have a really good reason to do so, stick with what you have got until/if Sony release some new drivers.