Outdated driver alternatives when updating from 8.1 (64 bit)?

archz2 · 23 Jun 2016

I'm running Windows 8.1 (64 bit) on my Lenovo G500 laptop. It has AMD Radeon HD 8570 (2GB) graphics card, Intel integrated HD graphics, i5 processor, 500 GB SATA Hard disk and 8GB DDR3 RAM,

I want to upgrade to Windows 10.
Lenovo has not released any drivers for my laptop for Windows 10. Many times on the Lenovo community forums their officials have suggested not to upgrade to Windows 10 as the drivers aren't available. Users have been ranting about this but nothing happens. I don't know why they don't release the drivers. My laptop model is a 2014 one most probably.

Last year, for just experiencing, I took the risk and installed Windows 10 as it was recently launched. The only trouble I had was that my Bluetooth was not working because drivers weren't available.

This all It went smoothly for a month or so but then suddenly one day, my system got closed and I got BSOD with a sad face emoticon 😔 like this colon and bracket. It didn't allow me to start my laptop at all. After all that I went back to Windows 8.1 with great difficulty.

What methods do I have now to upgrade to Windows 10 safely? Any alternative drivers that I can download from the hardware manufacturers websites?

My key problems that can occur are related to wifi and Bluetooth as their drivers aren't released yet.

LMiller7 · 24 Jun 2016

Welcome to the forum.

A problem here is that OEM manufacturers often use customized hardware that may not be fully compatible with those provided by the chipset manufacturer. That is why it is best to use those provided by the OEM. In this case do not currently provide such drivers. IF the older OEM drivers do not work all you can do is use the generic chipset drivers (if available) and hope for the best. Not an ideal situation but when you wish to use an OS not supported by the laptop manufacturer that is the way it is.

archz2 · 24 Jun 2016

LMiller7 said:

Welcome to the forum.
IF the older OEM drivers do not work all you can do is use the generic chipset drivers (if available) and hope for the best. Not an ideal situation but when you wish to use an OS not supported by the laptop manufacturer that is the way it is.

What should I do to find the generic chipset drivers? Drivers are available specifically to operating system like windows 7, 8, 10 etc. And , don't I have an ideal solution currently to upgrade to windows 10? Microsoft windows update tool that shows up in system tray gave me confirmation that I can update to windows 10. I guess it's wrong.

LMiller7 · 24 Jun 2016

The only ideal upgrade situation is when the manufacturer provides all necessary drivers. That is not the case. Other drivers may be difficult to find, may not work well, or may not work at all.

Can't help you with drivers.

archz2 · 24 Jun 2016

LMiller7 said:

The only ideal upgrade situation is when the manufacturer provides all necessary drivers. That is not the case. Other drivers may be difficult to find, may not work well, or may not work at all.

Can't help you with drivers.

Some of my friends just upgraded directly to Windows 10 without updating any of their drivers. They claimed that Windows 10 automatically recognizes the drivers in accordance with previously installed Windows 7,8 or 8.1. They didn't face any trouble so far. Are they lucky or Windows 10 does something like that?

LMiller7 · 24 Jun 2016

One possibility is that you have a 32 bit OS and the drivers are 64 bit only. Or the opposite. Your system specs do not show what you have. A 32 bit OS must use 32 bit drivers and a 64 bit OS must use 64 bit drivers.

archz2 · 24 Jun 2016

LMiller7 said:

One possibility is that you have a 32 bit OS and the drivers are 64 bit only. Or the opposite. Your system specs do not show what you have. A 32 bit OS must use 32 bit drivers and a 64 bit OS must use 64 bit drivers.

I am running windows 8.1 (64bit) currently as I mentioned before in my post itself in the beginning.

Is there a better tool to scan my laptop thoroughly and check for incompatibilities with windows 10? Something on the lines of CPU-Z and Speccy? Yeah, i know that they just tell the hardware inside the machine but I'm looking for a scanner like that.

This will help me prepare in advance before I go for upgrade again and maybe know the reason why I got BSOD and failure to start my system last year.

alphanumeric · 24 Jun 2016

For what its worth, ASUS haven't released any Windows 10 drivers for my K75DE laptop and it works just fine in Windows 10 with the stock Windows supplied drivers. I don't have Bluetooth though. I just let it do its thing after a clean install and after 5 or 10 minutes it starts updating my graphics drivers etc. Everything except one hotkey to turn my touchpad off works as it should. Once I install the ASUS ATK utility all is good. My dual graphics are AMD - AMD which makes life easy. I can just use the regular catalyst driver and Windows installs it automatically. A clean install will often be trouble free, while an upgrade will have niggles.

TairikuOkami · 24 Jun 2016

archz2 said:

Is there a better tool to scan my laptop thoroughly and check for incompatibilities with windows 10? Something on the lines of CPU-Z and Speccy? Yeah, i know that they just tell the hardware inside the machine but I'm looking for a scanner like that.

You could try Driver Easy Free - Trusted Driver Updater, but it is not 100% accurate, 99% only.

It helped me to find drivers, which were not listed on manufacturer's webpage nor even on OEM's webpage.

archz2 · 24 Jun 2016

TairikuOkami said:

You could try Driver Easy Free - Trusted Driver Updater, but it is not 100% accurate, 99% only.

It helped me to find drivers, which were not listed on manufacturer's webpage nor even on OEM's webpage.

Thanks for suggesting this software. I'll have to install it when I get windows 10? Or can I hunt for Windows 10 drivers for my laptop using this software while still using Windows 8.1 on my laptop?