# ATI Radeon 8500 driver for Windows 7



## imdaprodigy (Jan 17, 2010)

I just recently upgraded to windows 7 ultimate and i can't seem to find a driver for my video card. It's an ati radeon 8500 (LE) with 128mb. I already downloaded the generic package driver from ati for w7 with no success, and i even tried using an XP driver which was almost "fatal". I already read somewhere that the card was discontinued over 3 yrs ago along with any driver updates. Only thing preventing me from upgrading to a newer card and the main REASON for looking for the driver is that i use the s-video out port a lot. I would settle for even a 3rd party driver as long as it works... if no luck im going to need to downgrade back to XP :4-dontkno


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## babelon (Feb 9, 2010)

I spent about an hour on this and found a solution. Go to ATI's support site:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/radeon-prer300-xp.aspx

Download that package, extract it but DO NOT INSTALL IT. Then open device manager and click on "Update driver" for the graphics card, which in my case was reading "Generic VGA blah blah blah." Then, click on "Browse my computer for driver software." Specify the location which you have extracted the catalyst software to, the default being:

C:\ATI\SUPPORT\6-11-pre-r300_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_38185\Driver

It will install the new driver automatically. Restart and bazinga. 

Note: The first time I reinstalled my screen freaked out like it had short circuited. However, I also made many other changes before restarting. Upon restarting in safe mode, uninstalling the driver, and then booting up normally and installing only the Radeon 8500 drive everything worked fine. I recommend setting the resolution to the lowest possible numble, 800x1024 or something before restarting to ensure you do not encounter maximum resolution problems that your monitor may not be capable of supporting.


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## imdaprodigy (Jan 17, 2010)

Yeah I had already done the same thing almost with success except... and a big "except," was that whenever any video played, pink bursts of color shot all from the window... youtube videos were all in pink which isn't a fav color of mine, etc. I had already downgraded bck to xp. Let me know if u have any of the same problems. Maybe I needed to update flash and directx etc. Thanx for the response. if allz well with urs maybe ill try and put 7 ultimate back on.


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