Video card not showing
 

Bought an ACER 3820TG-3022 laptop from Staples last week.
Specs on this showed it is supposed to have an ATI mobility radeon HD 5470 video card. But when I go into the device manager, it only shows the Intel HD driver.

I went back to Staples and their display model showed the Intel driver and one for the ATI video card. I asked them to check my laptop and 2 different guys went through the laptop and couldn't get the laptop to show the ATI line. I tried downloading the driver from ATI's website and when I go to install it, it says not compatable with hardware/software.

Is it all in my head and the video card is working, or do I need to get one of the Staples setup laptops for $99 more, or return it for my money back?

You should definitely not be paying any extra money to get a laptop that you just bought fixed...

Sounds like there is definitely something wrong about the computer not recognizing the video card.. Is there a battery save mode that keeps the computer using the onboard video card instead of the 5470? If so, try activating it, and see if the computer recognizes the 5470 then... Otherwise, clearly there is a problem you need to get sorted out.

maybe they have the wrong spec?

and trying going into bios and make sure to select external video card instead of onboard video.

I would return it, never had a good experience with Acer

Went into Bios and it is set to switchable gpu. Shows the 4 gigs of ram and the 512 from the video card.

Right now I have the power setting on full performance but I can't tell if the ATI card is working or if it is running off of the intel graphics.

Right click the desktop and there should be something called configure switchable graphics
Posted via RS Mobile

Setting is set to switchable, but I can't get the laptop to recognize the ATI gpu. Right now, under device manager, the only option is the Intel HD graphics

I"m not sure what you mean by your setting is set to switchable because when i click configure switchable graphics, this pops up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...210/atigpu.jpg

I rarely have to go in here because the the ati card automatically enables when my notebook is plugged in and if I'm running on battery I would have to enable it through that window.

That is the problem. When I go into that screen, it only shows Intel HD as the only option. I cannot switch to the ATI card.

This is my second one with this problem. But the 2 Staples that I went to all show the ATI option under their device manager.

try installing the drivers from the acer website, drivers from the ati website wont work. click the link, choose your model and download the two vga drivers (one intel and one ati).

http://gd.panam.acer.com/home/

lol this is a ridiculous problem, i'd complain to acer right away whether or not you fix the problem by yourself... two in a row lol they shouldn't be letting customers get confused like that =/

Just go to Staples and exchange it..

Thanks Jonwon. It's working now.

Tegz, you are right. This is stupid. For people who don't know, they would be using the crap Intel graphics