New Graphics card, can't get it to work

vorbroker · 19 Jan 2011

I just purchased a new graphics card. I have a Lenovo Y710 Laptop. It came with an ATI radeon HD 2300 and I got an ATI radeon HD 4550. I was eager and stupid and didn't install any drivers or update the BIOS. swapped out the cards and it didn't work. so i switched back. I got the drivers installed but now i can't get the BIOS updated. I'm trying to update to 08ET33WW which I got from the Lenovo website. Lenovo says to right click on the file and open as administrator. That didn't work, I get "open flash.sys fail" so i go to Google and see that i need to extract and try again...same problem. back to Google and it says to make a bootable CD with DOS on it and try from there. with both the extracted and not extracted files i get "must be opened under win32" and "cannot be opened in DOS" I'm clueless. Help!....I will give more info if needed. Thanks a bunch

TVeblen · 19 Jan 2011

Hello Vorbroker, Welcome to the Forum.

Why do think you need that BIOS update to install the video card?
Flashing the BIOS is serious business and an error can brick your computer. You should do this only if it is necessary and only if you clearly understand what you are doing.

I visited the Lenovo website and looked up the Ideapad Y710 and saw that there is only one BIOS available (v1.0). So I am concerned about where you got this new BIOS from. They are not mix and match. You must only use the BIOS for your model laptop!

Important: You need to check the specs on your laptop. Newer laptops have "Dual Graphics" capability. In addition to the video card there is also a integrated graphics processor, either on the motherboard, or built into the processor. You need to know if this is the case with your laptop, because if it is so you will need to install either the dual graphics drivers package from Lenovo, or do a more complicated dual install. Let us know what you've got.

If there is only the graphics card in that laptop you should be able to install just the AMD/ATI drivers.

To install a new video card it is very important to follow proper procedure, as follows:

Go to the ATI website and download the most current driver for your new card and save it to an easy to find location.
Go into Start > Control Panel > Remove a Program and uninstall all programs for the video card. For ATI, select “ATI Catalyst Install Manager” and click on “Change”, then “Uninstall All Components”. Do not restart the computer at this time.
Run DriverSweeper to uninstall all video remnants Guru3D - Driver Sweeper .
Shut down computer and remove the battery.
Remove the old ATI card, install the new ATI card. Make sure all auxiliary power connectors are plugged in. Some cards need 2. Read the manual.
Reinstall the battery, plug in the power supply/charger, and boot the computer.
When it reaches the desktop Windows will find new hardware and will install it's own WDDM1.1 driver. Let it. You will be asked to restart. Do it.
Once back on the desktop you can now install the ATI driver package for your card.

Hope that helps.