I just recently bought an Acer Aspire 1D27 notebook. It came with Windows 7
starter, so I upgraded to the Home Premium 64-bit version. Everything installed
correctly, but now my computer doesn’t have a Sleep option and I cannot adjust
the brightness of the screen. This also drains the battery a lot quicker than
before. Is there a driver for this that can fix the problem? I’ve searched
everywhere on the net, but I can’t seem to find it. Also, my HDMI port doesn’t
work after the upgrade. Any help would be appreciated.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #21, I look at the best place to find drivers for an upgraded computer.
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Manufacturer drivers
The short answer is: definitely, there should be drivers for exactly what you’re looking for. You shouldn’t be searching the ‘net for them. You should go immediately to the Acer website, their support section, and search there. If needed, go ahead and submit a support request for that specific model’s drivers.
My guess is that there’s probably an open discussion forum that will be a little bit quicker to locate the drivers your looking for.
Sleep option drivers
Specifically, let’s see: the Sleep option should be part of the advanced power management control and drivers that relate to that.
Brightness & HDMI drivers
The brightness of the screen, and potentially the HDMI port, are issues that could be dealt with an updated video driver.
So, definitely go visit the Acer website and see what they have to offer: potentially use their support resources to locate what you need.
Next from Answercast 21- Why is my computer making a loud noise since I upgraded the motherboard?
Funny – this is related to this article, but just barely. Since this is an Acer question, the little Ad window has an Acer advertisement. But it is in (I presume) spanish. Not sure why, since there isn’t anything spanish on this page. [Acer – No es lo que piensas. Es Mejor.] Just think it is funny that it would do this.
Just to make it clear, your Windows 7 starter edition was a 32 bit operating system, and the specific hardware drivers you had provided with it are no longer usable when you upgrade to a 64 bit operating system (even though it is still windows 7). So Windows does the best it can, using whatever (normally generic) drivers that it has, and you lose access to a number of specific functions. Acer is the place to go. To be honest, you should seriously consider downloading their (64 bit Win 7) drivers for all of your hardware components.
I have an Acer (TravelMate 7530) with W7 Pro; the screen brightness is in:
Control Panel > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change advanced > Display > Brightness.
I also run XP and there I never found the brightness in native Windows; I had to download and install something called Acer Empowering Technology and its Power widget to get software control of the brightness.
I never did get the HDMI port working properly (but I didn’t try too hard since I could use the SubD connection OK.)
Hope this helps,
— Derek