Graphics card unrecognized

I tried to update my ATI driver and uninstalled the old ones first. When I went to download the new drivers, it said it "The version of your graphics adapter is not supported." I went to check in Device Managers, and now under Display Adapters it no longer lists my ATI HD 5650 graphics card, neither does dxdiag (which i ran a week earlier and it did detect the graphics card). Also, 'Standard VGA Graphics adapter' has a yellow "!" but when I tried to update the drivers for it, it says I already have the most recent ones but still has the "!". I am so confused on so many levels...please help!

I have. I rebooted once i uninstalled, and when it started up the resolution was terrible. I updated my intel(R) graphics driver and that's what I'm running on now, but I don't know how to make it run off of my ATI card

This a desktop or a laptop? Filling out your system specs,

https://www.sevenforums.com/profile.php?do=extra

would help immensely.

Oh sorry. I've filled out what I know of so far. Using an Aspire 4820TG laptop.

Pretty sure that model is one of those that has switchable graphics, meaning it uses the Intel graphics for light or low power use and uses the AMD graphics from more demanding applications (games, etc. If that is the case then you have to use both the Intel and AMD/ATI driver from Acer, in order for both to work properly. You cannot use the driver directly from AMD as it hasn't been modified to work with the switchable graphics and even says that it won't work with such configurations right in the release notes,

AMD Catalyst

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

• Any notebook launched after this driver release
• Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.
• Toshiba® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Sony® VAIO® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
• Panasonic® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

AMD Mobility Product Family Compatibility

Catalyst™ Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support for system vendor specific features. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, users may have unwanted experiences.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unwanted experiences occur using Catalyst™ Mobility, it is recommended to revert back to the driver provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

Then why is it just a week ago the DxDiag showed the ATI graphics card and now it only shows the intel graphics card? Also, I just tried to download an acer driver program, but as with any other driver program I've recently dl'd (sweepers and updaters), this "driver detective" thing keeps popping up...

I've recently dl'd (sweepers and updaters)

Hope you didn't use more than one of those. It doesn't happen often but is does happen where one of those driver cleaning programs can and do remove more than they do, which usually results in a repair install of Windows at best, and a complete re-install of Windows at worst to repair the damage. That can be avoided by either,

A. Having a good backup in place to revert to if it happens, or hope that System Restore will get it back.

B. Not using driver cleaner programs of any kind, unless prepared to deal with the risks.

If you haven't yet try running System restore to before you tried installing the latest driver and when things worked as they should. If that works and gets things back, might be a good idea to then leave well enough alone until you confirm with Acer whether it does use switchable graphics or not. If it does then you are stuck with using whatever updates Acer puts out for it.

As for most if not all driver updating types of programs, most are comfort-ware at best, and some can wreck havoc as well (older drivers, incompatible, etc). Do yourself a favor and check in Programs and Features for the updater program and once found, uninstall it.

the sweeper program requested payment so i just uninstalled that right off the bat, never used it. I never created a restore point which now makes me feel really dumb. Is my best bet now to just scrounge around for an acer driver for the switchable graphics and hope the driver forces the OS to recognize the graphics card?

No need to scrounge as Acer already has the one you need,

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 4820TG

even has the Intel driver already integrated into the AMD driver.