Driver Updates on Acer Aspire 4741 Notebook  

hi
i'm a bit of a novice when it comes to dealing with computer maintenance and i'm so afraid of messing up my system....by taking chances....so it comes like a breath of fresh air to know that there is a forum like this for windows7. i don't know why it took me so long to trace you guys.

btw. on behalf of all the novices out there just allow me to say a quick thank you thank you for the help you're giving us. i've learnt so much within the couple of weeks that i've been here. great job guys and thanks again.

i have an "Acer 4741 Aspire Notebook with intel core i3," operating on Windows7 64bit Home Premium. recently i've noticed some slight changes occuring on my system:

1) when i have my finger pressed on the mouse perharps a bit too long (i don't even know what too long is) the screen flickers (shakes up and down). i'm just not sure if this is normal.

2) my dvd device suddenly does not seem to be able to read media on my pre recorded dvds that use to play perfectly well without any problem. what happens now is, when i slot in a pre recorded dvd, a dialog box pops up asking how i want to burn my media even though there is media already on it. i ran a couple of test and ended up with a report that says my device has a "bad block"....whatever that means.

i'm now thinking maybe i should update my drivers and my bios but the problem is how to correctly indentify this drives.

standing by, ready to provide more info if somebody can find the time to help me out here.
thanks.

hi guys, thanks for the quick responses

Rich,
i've been on acer's driver download site already and "yes" i became a little confused. i was only able to positively identify the audio driver which i downloaded and installed. i'm not so sure about the others because some of the names ain't exactly what i see in device manager. for instance, if you click on the "bios tab" you'll see a whole bunch of bios versions with different names displayed. there is one that just simply says "bios>acer" and is a more recent version than what i have on my system which is:

BIOS-Phoenix Technologies LTD V1.12
Version-2.6
Date-5/4/2010

i'm just not sure if this "bios>acer" is the right one to download....knowing the risks involved in updating with the wrong bios.

what i can do is to post a list of the drivers on my system and then maybe i can be pointed to the right ones to download. i have seen the links to the "driver detective" site from this site and i have downloaded the app but i just haven't installed it yet....because of a bad experience with a similar app that almost messed up my system....i know it's asking a lot but i'm just afraid to take chances.

Kaktussoft,
no it's not reading media. i'm able to burn media....files and folders....with windows explorer but when i mount the same dvd and try to access the media on it, all i get is "how do you want to burn media on this dvd?" and then when i launch win explorer and double click on the dvd icon, a dialog box pops up alerting me to drag files onto the window to burn.

now, i bought this notebook in Trinidad....in the West Indies....and all the pre recorded dvds i have were bought there. i'm now in West Africa. when i got here all the dvds were still playing all right, no problem. but then i've since bought two pre recorded dvds here which are STILL playing alright.

this led me to think that perharps i needed to change the region...i haven't done that yet....but my question is, if it's just a question of changing regions, then why after running microsoft fixit 4me, the report was that "a problem was detected but could not fix>device has a bad block"

my next question is, under the "region" tab in device manager, i realise i have 4 changes left. is 4 the defaut number? because i have't done any changes at all since i got this notebook.

Mouse Settings:
Propertise:
1) Buttons-no microsoft mouse detected
2) pointer options-a little over halfway
3) enhance pointer precision "checked"
4) disable internal pointing device when external usb pointing device is attached "unchecked"

just selected what i think is relevant, if you need more info pls let me know.

Are there any Important or Optional Windows Updates available?

Work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

hi Rich, buddy thanks for sticking with me, much appreciated.

you're right! i think it will be best to leave this bios thing to those who know what the hell they're doing....certainly not for clowns like me ha ha. point well taken though.

is Aspire 4741 the same as 4741G? my model says 4741 but the link you posted took me to 4741G.

below is the drivers listed in device manager. i've left out "computer, disk drives, system devices and processors" not sure how safe it will be to attempt those....pls advice.

1) Display Adapters
--------------
Intel(R) HD Graphics
Ver. 8.15.10.2104
Provider--Intel Corporation

2) DVD/CD-ROM drives
--------------------
(Standard CD-ROM Drives)
HL-DL-ST DVDRAM GT30N
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft
there was another driver listed here....HUAWEI Mass Storage USB Device ver. 6.1.7600.16385/ provider: Microsoft....but for some strange reason, that just vanished.

3) Human Interface Devices
----------------------
(Standard System Devices)
USB Input Device
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft

4) IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
------------------------
Intel(R)5 Serires 4 Port SATA AHCI Controllers
Ver. 9.5.6.1001
Provider--Intel

5) Imagine Device
---------------
1.3M WebCam
Ver. 6.1.7600.16543
Provider--Microsoft

6) Keyboards
--------------
Standard PS/2 Keyboard
(Standard Keyboards)
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385

7) Mice and other Pointing Devices
------------------------------
HD Compliant Mouse
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft

8) Synaptics PS/2 Port Touch Pad
Ver. 14.0.6.0
Provider-- Synaptics

9) Monitors
------------
(Standard Monitors)
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider-- Microsoft

10) Network Adapters
-------------------
a) Atheros AR5B93 Wireless Network Adapter
Ver. 9.0.0.173
Provider--Atheros Communications Inc.
b) Broadcom Netlink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet
Ver. 12.4.0.3
Provider--Broadcom

11) Sound, Video, Game Controllers
a) Intel(R) Display Audio
Ver. 6.12.0.3047
Provider--Intel(R) Corporation
b) Realtek High Definition Audio
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft

12) Batteries
-------------
a) Microsoft AC Adapter
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft

b) Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Controll Method Battery
-------------------------------------------
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft

c) Microsoft Composite Battery
Ver. 6.1.7600.16385
Provider--Microsoft

I own an Acer 5920 that is now running Windows 7. The track pad on it does have a scrolling feature in it. If I run my finger up and down on the extreme right hand side, the onscreen cursor will change and the page will scroll up and down. As mentioned, I wouldn't update the BIOS unless you have to. Updating your BIOS is more involved than just updating a driver.
The drivers I updated on my 5920 were, chip-set, video, sound, wireless, Bluetooth, touchpad, card reader, web camera, modem, and infrared. Most of these devices were working OK with the default windows 7 drivers. If you only have one or two devices that aren't working you could consider just installing the drivers for those devices. What I found, especially with laptops, is the manufacturer supplied drivers often give you custom functions that the generic drivers don't. For instance, my media keys wouldn't work until I installed the Acer supplied synaptic touch pad driver.

If you have a device that is not working try looking for a Vista driver. If the Vista driver won't install try compatibility mode. If you know what your chip-set is you can go to the manufacturers website and look for drivers. I went to the Intel site for mine. Same deal with video and sound, if Acer doesn't have it and you know what make and model device it is you can go to AMD, or NVidia for video, or VIA or Realtek for sound drivers.