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Tutorial on ATI Drivers Website
Some users may be confused by the design of the page that they are taken to when they visit the official website of ATI, www.ati.com. You will be redirected to the domain www.amd.com, as these two companies are currently in the process of merging together. The business partnership formed between this graphics card producer and CPU production company began in 2006 and at this point the brands are not completely homogenous; ATI retains their previous company name for their lines of video hardware.
This website's home page shows different types of information from company news to a small product showcase, but we need to specifically find the driver download page. A navigation toolbar near the very top of the page contains a link to the main "Support & Drivers" listing, but if you'd like you can use the shortcut provided in its own space on the right hand side. The small window's title bar is labeled "Download Drivers" and inside it are a number of drop-down menus which will allow you to select different parameters to narrow your search down to the final product.
The first menu calls for you to choose which "Component Category" your product belongs to. These are fairly self explanatory and contain the CPUs and graphics hardware as mentioned previously, but also less common categories such as embedded systems and TV tuners. Choose the appropriate entry and move on to the next menu; this allows you to choose the operating system into which you are planning on installing the drivers, and all of the most commonly used upgrades and environments are included, such as Linux, Windows, and the Mac OS. Next up is the product line for the category which you have previously picked; once selected, the possibilities will be sufficiently narrowed down enough to choose the exact model you need drivers for. Hit the "View Results" button at the bottom of this section and you will be taken directly to the driver page for that product.
On this page you'll find quite a bit of information, and a recap of the choices you've made. Some drivers are compatible across multiple operating system variants, but double check to make sure that you've chosen the right version of yours before moving on to downloading the actual installation file. In a light gray table in the middle of the page is a review of the driver's revision details, which includes a unique sequential number as well as a date of release timestamp. On the far right end of this table is a download link shaped like a darker gray box. Right click on it and from that menu choose "Save target as..." to open a file manager which will allow you to pick an easy to find location to save the installer; I'd suggest placing it right on your desktop.
If you want to be sure that you can return to your previous driver configuration quickly and easily should your run into a serious problem during the installation process, it is a good idea to create a "System Restore" point. To run system restore, navigate to the System Tools folder in your start menu and click its entry. Using it is fairly straightforward, but if you have questions, consult the "Help" file.
Once the download is complete, navigate to the location you chose and run the installation executable, usually labeled "Setup.exe". If the installer file is not obviously labeled to you, view the "readme" file for detailed installation instructions. The program that installs the drivers has a graphical interface which will take you through various steps visually and intuitively. Just follow any on screen directions and you'll be done in no time. If on the off-chance you encounter an problem, chances are that the driver file(s) were downloaded incompletely due to a transmission error. Re-download the file to be sure that you receive it in one piece.