Solved Driver Updates on Acer Aspire 4741 Notebook

[sandpd]

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.

 

[richnrockville]

Sandpe, Welcome to the windows 7 forums, I agree that there are a lot of great helpers here.

You might want to go to Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 4741G where they
can tell you the latest drivers for your system.

Of course you might want to make sure that your Anti-Virus is up to date.

Rich

 

[Kaktussoft]

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.

check you mouse settings in control panel. I think your touchpad has special scrolling features enabled.

Can dvd drive read data disks? Can it read other dvd video?

 

[sandpd]

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.

 

[richnrockville]

Sandpe, I don't recommend updating the bios at the present time. You could mess your computer up completely if during the bios update something went wrong.

You might want to fill in your system specifications to let us know what you have on the machine.

Also, I do not recommend any of the "driver finders" that are on the market, There might be good ones but I suspect that there are some that harbour bad guys in them.
I recommend first downloading malwarebytes which is a free Anti-Virus to make sure that your system is clean of trojans and virus's.
Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware, anti-virus and spyware removal download

Rich

 

[gregrocker]

Are there any Important or Optional Windows Updates available?

Work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

 

[sandpd]

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

 

[alphanumeric]

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.

 

[richnrockville]

Sandpe, the acer support site says that there are no drivers for your model 4741, but I would try some of the other 4741 models. Most drivers won't install if the device that the driver is for are not installed.

you might want to download the acer driver checking pgm

http://global-download.gateway.com/FilesDownload/HWID/HWVendorDetection.exe

this should identify your hardware and let you see what it can do.


Rich

 

[alphanumeric]

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.

 

[sandpd]

alphanumeric

i feel more comfortable using a mouse so that's what i use most of the time. what i'm going to
try for this erratic mouse behaviour next is to select (check) the "disable internal pointing
device when external usb pointing device is attached" box in control panel and see if that makes any difference.

listen, the drives you've updated on your system....chipset, video card, dvdrom drive and
network....seems like the exact drives i want to concentrate on for now with special emphasis
on the dvd driver.

the reason being that if something should go wrong, i want to be able to use the system
backup i've created on dvds to reinstall. the way it is right now, i'm just not sure if the system
will be able to boot with these dvds.

the other reason is that i just downloaded the windows 8 consumer preview to try out....haven't
installed yet....but you know they first run a check to determine what "is" and "isn't"
compartible on the system. the result was that i need to install an app to play dvd. this more or
less confirms that there is something definitely wrong with the device.

i used pcwizard to gather these informations, hope it makes it easier to help me out.
1) Chipset--Intel HM55
2) Video Card--Intel(R) HD Graphics
3) DVD-ROM Drive--HL-DT-ST- DVD RAM GT30N
4) Network Card--Broadcom Netlink BCM57780 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
5) Network Card--Atheros Communications AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCIe)
6) Card Reader--Alcor ver 1.0.12.50

Rich
from the very first time i visited the acer 4741 download page, i downloaded the "HWVendor
Detection.exe" utility. problem is, the same four apps shows up all the time....Camera-Suyin,
Lan-Broadcom, VGA-Intel, Wireless-Altheros.

and your interpretation of the msg on the 4741 download page to mean there are no downloads
for 4741 have me a little confused.

the msg on the 4741 download page says:

"This page shows only drivers that are not contained in Windows 7".

well, i took that to mean the drivers listed on the 4741 download page did not ship with the
product but are available for download. pls correct me if i'm wrong.

thanks again for the responses

 

[gregrocker]

Most tech enthusiasts Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a superior install without the corrupting factory bloatware and useless OEM utilities which have better versions build into Win7.

In that case use the drivers given by Win7 installer and quickly updated by optional Windows Updates. Only import drivers still missing in Device Manager after updates are done, unless performance dictates doing otherwise. We can help you determine this.

 

[alphanumeric]

The "need to install an app to play dvds" message likely means "DVD Video disks". Movies and other media that may require a codec to be played, not regular data DVD's like the ones you use to install programs. I personally don't mind spending the extra time to hunt up the latest drivers for my gear. Some will say the default windows drivers are fine, and they are for most people. I guess I'm not most people. I ended up with just the "standard VGA adapter" for video so I had no choice but to hunt up a video driver. It was the only way I could get my LCD screen to the proper resolution. There were two or three other bits of hardware in my 5920 that windows didn't install drivers for either. I downloaded all that I could from Acer, it was just as easy to get them all as it was to just get the two or three I needed. I have them all saved on a thumb drive. The hard part is figuring out exactly what hardware you have.

 

[sandpd]

greg

all i can say is wow wow bow wow! i just checked out your tuts on clean install
and my reaction was....wow! this is just not fair....how can one person have all this knowledge and here i am, can't even figure out which drivers to download for my system. i'm now beginning to feel like i just emerged from jurassic park into the the land of the living. i'm just glad i'm here.

i read the post twice over, understood the instructions, but whether i'll be able to do it is another question. will love to do it but will wait till i can gather enough courage to attempt something like this. as of now, it's way above my league....don't laugh, ha ha.

seriously though, i sincerely appreciate the patience you guys have shown here....full respect and much appreciated.

greg is ccleaner reliable and can i use it safely to clean my system and what does it really clean? btw. the windows 7 "ISO file" i presume will be a compressed file. will you have to extract it after downloading or it can be used in the "ISO" format to do the install?

alpha

in the report from the windows 8 compartibility test, there was also a msg that my K-LIte Codec Full pack had and update available. so i went to the site and downloaded the update and installed it. i tried playing a pre recorded dvd after that but still no luck. i got a blank dvd-r used windows explorer to burn a folder containing some data files but when i tried mounting that same dvd to access the folder, again all i got was to "drag files onto the window to burn" which means it's still not reading data.

so my question is, how is the system back up data i have created on dvd any different from the folder containing data that i can't access? and alpha, since you've successfully updated those same drivers on your system, can i be bold enough to ask if you can help trace my model versions for me based on the infos i have posted.

mind you, i've no prblem at all doing the hunt myself, is just that i'm not too sure what to download. i've also been adviced to try a dvd disc cleaner to clean the lens. i have done that but it's obvious it hasn't yielded any positive results.

one quick question, what does "device has a bad block mean"? is it a software or hardware problem?

 

[gregrocker]

CCleaner is perfectly safe which is why it's in the tutorial.

The download IS an ISO file. Burn to DVD or flash stick with tool provided.

 

[alphanumeric]

I always start with the chip-set driver as its the foundation of your PC.
There is only one listed for your 4741, Intel Chip-set Driver 9.1.1.1025.
Not sure if this link will work but chip-set is at the top of the list.
Download < If this link works there is a link to an Acer Updater in red. I've never really had much luck with these utilities but if it works it may save you some time.
If you see more than one listing for a specific driver like the 3G one, that means you have to figure out which one was installed in your laptop. Even if you can't figure it out, if you do happen to try to install the wrong one you will usually get a "hardware not detected" or "hardware not supported" error message and the install will stop. Device manager may help you ID a lot of whats there. Even if it is listed as Unknown Device there will be a hardware ID in the properties that you can Google.

After chip-set I do Video and Audio. Then I just pick away at whats left like, Network, Wifi, Touch pad, etc.

EDIT:
Well the link didn't work the way I wanted but if you type 4741 in the enter a model name box and click search, you should get to where I was.

 

[sandpd]

finally!

yes i've managed to get my dvd's playing again and hoping it stays that way. i haven't tried all of them (some 200+ dvds) but the ones i've tried so far seem to be playing alright.

first of all let me thank all of you for coming to the rescue....alpha, greg, rich, hanna and everybody else, thanks again guys.

i ended up on the acer "4741 forum" site through my search for a solution and quite frankly, i didn't realise there were that many people experiencing this same identical problem.

anyway i came across this particular post....some guy who has found a solution to the problem....apparently, he was going through the same sxxt. and he had this link Hey I have an Acer Aspire, Win 7/64 byte, HL-DT-ST-DVDRAM GT30N - JustAnswer
in the post to the site where he found the solution, so i tried it and it worked for me.

alpha, buddy thanks for encouraging me to go ahead with the driver updates and yes! i have actually successfully updated a couple of them....chipset, sata ahci, realtek hd audio etc.

but folks, one thing i'll like to find out is, if you update your chipset and some drivers and then sometime afterwards you do a....sfc/scannow....command prompt, does it affect the updates? in other words does it reverse the updates to what they were before?

i was also checking my "base score" after these updates and there was a msg for me to click on a button to refresh the base scores because the computer has noticed some changes, which i did. i'm just not sure if the score i have now is healthy or not. maybe you guys can enlighten me on this:

base score 4.0
---------------
1). Processor--calculations per second > 6.4

2). Memory(Ram)--memory operations per second > 5.5

3). Graphics--desktop performance for windows aero > 4

4). Gaming Graphics--3D business and gaming graphics performance > 5.1

5). Primary Hard Disk--data transfer rate > 5.7

obviously, the one i'm concern most about is number 3 (Graphics). i have updated the "intel vga" driver just not sure if that is supposed to improve the desktop performance for windows aero. if that is not so, could you guys pls hint on what drivers i might have to look out for?

thanks again folks for all the help. oh yes! one more thing, can anybody point me to a utility that makes it poissible to play dvds from all regions?

 

[gregrocker]

Did you run for awhile with the drivers given by the installer and optional Updates, before importing any other than those still missing?

Unlike XP, Win7 is pretty much the authority on which drivers it wants.

If you don't know if your scores were any different before updating drivers, it's not that important as these are not technical benchmarks. actual performance is more important. But you can try the latest Display driver from Support for your card as well as Acer to compare. I'd even roll back to the installer driver to see if there's a difference.

 

[sandpd]

hi greg

thanks for the post. not very sure i understand the first sentence:

"Did you run for awhile with the drivers given by the installer and optional Updates, before importing any other than those still missing?"

if you are refering to operating the system all this while with the drivers provider by windows update before doing these manual updates from acer site, then the answer is yes.

and greg what will i be looking for, graphics driver or display driver? for score number (3)

 

[gregrocker]

The system name for a video card, graphics driver, GPU, etc. is Display driver. That's how it is listed in Device Manager.

You can see all of your installed drivers to revert in Device Manager>Display>Update driver>Browse>Let me Pick.