driver problems for graphics card acer m3802

[Unique]

i have an acer m3802 as one of my machines, and since a windows update a few months ago it's disabled the computers ability to use the hdmi output and only the VGA works. i had it set with vga to my monitor and hdmi to my tv for occasional use. i have system restore disabled and tried downloading a few old drivers but couldn't get it to work. i've read a few forum posts elsewhere and some people got it to work again but i haven't. it's win7 64 bit on the machine

after spending last weekend doing a clean win7 install on another pc and then reinstalling everything again, i'd rather not do that if i can avoid it, but i was wondering if i could use a spare HDD and do a clean install of windows onto that, and if that works with both monitors, can i take the graphics card driver from that install, stick it on a flashdrive or something, and then install it onto the original HDD install?

if so, how do i do it? do i need to change registry settings as well as find specific files?

the graphics card is just an onboard intel g45/43 -i could have stuck a cheap hd 5450 card to solve the problem but i'm using the pci-e slots for other more essential devices

any help appreciated, thanks

[kalniel]

It depends what the change is that caused the functionality to stop. If it's something as simple as a single third-party driver file then you might be able to drop the old one back in, though you should also be able to revert to a previous version on the file anyway without having to do the whole clean windows install hassle. If you can't do a simple restore to previous version then chances are the change is more complex than that - it could be that there are several components - motherboard drivers, windows display drivers, HDCP.. all sorts really. And yeah registry changes can be needed particularly if functionality changes.

Ultimately I think it'd be too tricky to try and fit in old version files with new bits of windows.. instead try and find the latest drivers direct from the manufacturers rather than windows update - so check out Intel, your motherboard make website etc. and maybe even BIOS update.