Upgrading an Acer Aspire 5535 to W7 - Drivers comaptible?  

Hey all,

I've been given a laptop by my father-in-law for the kids to play with but it's as slow as hell and is in some real need of TLC. It's running Vista 32-bit at the moment but I have a spare 7 upgrade 32-bit disc which I had installed on my old PC (which has since been decommissioned) and thought i'd install that on the Aspire to give it a new lease of life.
I searched the Acer website but they don't carry Windows 7 drivers for that model, only Vista drivers. I was just wondering if the Vista drivers would be compatible and OK to install onto a Windows 7 install? Pretty random question I know but if anybody has any insight into this I'd be extremely grateful.

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Booz.

Hi there .. I would go ahead with the Install and any Drivers Windows does not find ... You should be able to use the Vista ones they work in most cases ..

Cheers Maxie, much appreciated mate. I thought the Vista drivers would be OK but thought I'd double check with the experts first. I'll get them gathered and set about installing W7 over the next few days, a little thing called Christmas will probably get in the way but I'll update the thread on how it goes.

Most welcome mate .. Just had a look at the Specs there not to shabby considering its age

Vista drivers don't work most of time. The machine isn't that old btw. I think all drivers are built-in in win7 install (?)
Use this to identify unknown devices and post their hardware-id Device Manager - Finding Unknown Devices
Most important is de LAN device, called "network controller" or something alike. If that driver has been installed you can access the internet WIRED. Windows Updates will install a lot of missing stuff automagically, so check windows updates!

Best thing to do now is: Boot to that VISTA instance and run "device manager". Expand all branches (except "system devices") and post a few screenshots so I can see.

If possible do a clean install with the upgrade dvd Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Performed a clean install of 7 and connected via WiFi, so far so good. I'll update as I go along! Thanks for the replies lads.

Boozad said:

Performed a clean install of 7 and connected via WiFi, so far so good. I'll update as I go along! Thanks for the replies lads.

Wifi drivers installed automatically?
run windows update. Open "device manager" . Many things under "other devices"?
Which "display adapter" in device manager?

Right, everything's running perfectly. I've run a couple of rounds of Windows updates and there are no in Device Manager at all. It was probably the easiest installation of 7 I've ever done actually. I'll check the display adapter shortly, I've turned it off to charge as the battery was down to 4%.

Graphics adapter:
The auto-detect tool gives you the option to download the latest official driver.
Name File Size Revision Number Release Date Download Link AMD Driver Autodetect 774KB, 1.0 7/17/2011 Download Description:

AMD Driver Autodetect detects your graphics card and operating system and tells you if a new driver is available. If there is a new driver, the tool will download it with a click of a button and start the installation process.
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Are the Fn special keys working as expected (I don't think so)?
If not working install LaunchManager Dritek LaunchManager Application 4.0.12, 6.1MB 2010/08/18 Download

Reboot. Now it works?

Cheers mate, I'll get onto that shortly. The display adapter is an ATI Radeon 3200 so not too shabby for the kids. Mind you, they do have an ASUS HD7850-DC2T in the rig in their bedroom!