here are my specs i seem to meet min requirements

can i run sl sucessfully?

Specifications
Part Number: 4997Gateway 7330GZ Notebook

System Gateway® 7330GZ Notebook
Processor Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 532 with HT Technology
(1MB L2 Cache | 3.06GHz | 533MHz FSB)

Determine Your Processor Speed
Chipset Intel® 852GME
Screen 15.4-inch Widescreen Ultrabright TFT WXGA

* Maximum Resolution: 1280 × 800
* Maximum Color Depth: 32-bit (16.7 million colors)
* LCD maximum refresh rate: 60 Hz

Memory 512 MB DDR (1 × 512 MB), 333 MHz, DDR
Expandable to 1.5 GB
Video Intel® Extreme 2 Graphics
Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) supports up to 64 MB shared video memory
Audio PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Hard drive 80 GB HDD (4200 RPM)
Optical drive DVD +/- RW Multi-Format

* Write maximum: 8X DVD +/-R, 4x DVD +/- RW, 24x DVD+R DL, 24X CD-R and 10X CD-RW disks
* Reads maximum: 8X DVD-ROM Disks, 8X DL/+RW, 24X CD-ROM disks

Media reader 6-in-1 Digital Media Manager
Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultimediaCard (MMC), Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, and Memory Stick Pro
Modem 56K ITU V.92 ready Fax/Modem
Network 802.11g integrated wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps integrated Ethernet LAN
Pointing device Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
PCMCIA 1 - Type I or Type II; Card Bus
Interfaces

* 4 - USB 2.0 Ports
* 1 - VGA External Connector
* 1 - IEEE 1394 port
* 1 - RJ11
* 1 - RJ45
* Microphone In
* Headphone/Audio Out

Battery 8-cell Lithium-ion
Dimensions 1.6-inches H × 14.0-inches W × 10.4-inches D
Weight 7.5 pounds (8.65 pounds total travel weight)

If it runs, it will run very poorly, but it may not even run with that graphics processor. It's weak, to say the least.

Wel thats the most extensive list I have ever seen. There's a few troubling things, you have half a gig of RAM, which may be problematic. And a 60meg video card. If you do go into your preferences and set absolutely everything in the SL client to the lowest settings, you should be able to successfully log on. Will it be enjoyable, not likely. You really need about 2 gigs of RAM to handle the main client, a stroger video card would help, but will just speed up your loading really. My laptop isn't that much better, and I have travelled on business and been able to log in on it. But I really can't walk or get anything more than a few frames of video per minute.

your video card is technically not supported so its a craps shoot

Yeah, you seem to meet the minimum system requirements that are stated on the web site..........but those minimums were listed at least 2 1/2 years ago. SL has become much more demanding since those were drawn up.........LL really needs to update the requirements. But that's a different discussion.

I see serveral real problems with that computer for use with SL. First the processor.......it's a P4 with 3 gigs. The problem is the front side buss speed........533 megs. Pretty slow for a program like SL.


Second the RAM. Only 512 megs at 333 megs speed. Not only low but slow too. Your computer will accept 1.5 gigs......maxing it out will help a lot.

Third the graphics. Intel intrigrated graphics are poor quality to begin with but in your case the graphics, itself, has no video RAM at all......and can only "steal" 64 megs from your system RAM. Not only is 64 megs not enough, it's taking your very limited system RAM to do it......effectively lowering the overall ability of your computer to run SL.

Fourth you hard drive. The 80 gigs is adequate depending on how much you have on it (though a little small with the size of todays programs). It's the speed that the hard drive spins that would present a problem for you. 4200 rpm is just over 2/3 the speed of the average hard drives in computers of today......5400 rpm is almost unheard of anymore, let alone 4200 rpm. SL caches almost everything you see in the game. At that speed it will take almost twice as long to cache it.........plus when it comes time to retrieve the data that is cached it will take almost twice as long to get it to where you can see it on your moiitor.

Your system will lag terribly if you can even get it to run at all.

Bad news, I know........but that's what I see as problems with that computer for SL.

If you are using wireless you have a whole new set of potential problems to deal with. Mainly outside interferrence and/or weak signal producing more packet loss......causing even more lag or connection problems.

its faster than the computer that ive been running SL on, that fsb is only 166mhz (megahertz) * ddr = effectively 332mhz (megahertz) i do just fine


yes get as much as you can

but the ops ram is the same speed as mine, i have no "deal breaker" issues



the extreame series chips are on the "dont bother" list, it may or may not work for you

64mb of video ram is the bare minimum sl will work with, just means your going to have alot of fuzzy textures poping in and out, but your going to have that anyway with a non supported video card

also your mainboard ram is tons slower than real video ram adding another bottleneck

your quibbling over milliseconds on seek times only, if everything is nice n defragged they probally wont even notice

the only thing that could keep this computer from running sl at a decent framerate is the lack of ram and the unsupported video card, even with a ram upgrade the video card IS the deal breaker, it might run, it might not

my old beater computer with its 1.9ghz cpu and 1gb of pc2700 ram and a Geforce 6600GT runs SL quite happily @ 64m draw distance, all the options up 3/4 (cept for trees i hate trees in SL) and after my little tweaking session last night does it at 38fps average

ram and video are the only advantages i have over the ops laptop

We're talking about a snowball effect here. The OP has limited RAM on a relatively slow processor that is giving up 64 megs of that sparse RAM to the graphics accelerator which means there is a huge amount of virtual memory being written to a slow spinning hard drive. Depending on what is happening in the background, how fast the data is coming in, how much the viewer is trying to bring into view, and any number of other things that "milliseconds" you are talking about absolutely factors in. The system is on the edge anyway............it could put successful use of SL out of reach. Plus, there is also the possibility that with all that work the CPU is doing and having to wait for processing to be done, writing to virtual RAM and retrieving that back, etc.........all the while the data never stops coming in. Huge potential for packet loss......and another hurdle to overcome.

It's not a quibble but a factor that will slow down a slow system even more......something that could very well be disasterous for successful playing of the game.

If the system was stronger, yeah it would be a quibble......even with a loaded and fragmented hard drive. But we don't have a stronger system here.

well we both already told him to upgrade ram, the cpu is far stronger than mine, and i do ok (but i have a real gpu), and it doesnt matter anyway becuase the chances of that video chip actually working are next to nothing

Secondlife does not require a 1ghz +fsb dual core 4 gb machine with 3 video cards to run! altho it really makes it nice

if the op had a gpu and upgraded the ram it would be perfectly fine

A 3GHz P4 is more than powerful enough for SL, and a 533MT/s bus isn't that bad. More than adequate for SL. No performance hit will come from either of these.


You raise a good point here. 512MB RAM is the minimum that I'd run SL when using a dedicated graphics adapter...and the OP isn't using one.

Normally RAM speed isn't terribly important, but since the GPU is using it, speed and latency become very important.

5400RPM drives are still very common in laptops, and 4200RPM drives are common in ultra portables (such as the Macbook Air).

The HDD speed will not affect cache writing, as SL will not upload data at more than 1MB/s, which the HDD is certainly capable of achieving.

HDD speed will affect reading from the cache, and paging, both of which will be common when running with 512MB RAM.

WiFi isn't a big enough deal to warrant mentioning unless latency issues crop up (assuming SL even runs).

Now, for my personal opinion, I think that the OP would be better off putting any upgrade funds toward a new computer. Maybe a desktop, you can get powerful ones for pretty cheap these days.

I had 512mb when I started playing SL and could not understand why it was soooo slow and nothing downloaded, I'd take about one step every 30seconds. I had my laptop updated to 1gig and I have no more issues with it. Even though the grapic card properly isn't a very good one

Robot, why is it that we always seem to get in some pissing match? Everything I mentioned about the computer in question was stated assuming that the computer is the computer wanted for using SL.........without upgrading to overcome the short comings. Take any one, single, concern I mentioned independantly you are correct that it would not prevent the use of SL.......it's the cumlative effect of all that is the issues.

I"m beginning to think you enjoy tearing apart everyone's posts.......is that to prove just how much you know about computers? Or simply because you like to argue?

Oh, by the way, I found out why I got a performance boost on my computer a couple weeks ago with a power supply replacement. It was NOT that "placebo" crap you mentioned. My CPU has three buss speeds.......533 Mhz being the lowest, 1066 being the highest. My voltages were low due to the heavy load I was putting on my overloaded PS causing my CPU to not get the maximum voltages which caused my CPU to run slower. I did get a performance increase.......it was not my imagination like you said. So, as far as I'm concerned, you know absolutely no more about computers than I do. And I freely admit I know very little.

It's not that I enjoy "pissing matches" so much as I like seeing people get the most accurate information possible. If I see something not quite right, I make a comment. I fully expect people to analyze my posts and make corrections if I say something that isn't accurate (although that's not an invitation to pick apart everything just for the sake of it. Make sure it's really an inaccuracy first).

So if I make a post somewhere, and I say something inaccurate, point it out. I do it, so you should feel free to do the same.


BIOS misconfigurations are hardly the fault of the PSU, nor is dynamic FSB switching (if supported by your northbridge and enabled).


You're well within your rights to doubt my knowledge and experience. It's not a "pissing match" as you called it, I really don't care if you think I know my stuff. But that doesn't mean I won't point out inaccuracies (or expand on something you say). And it's not just you, I do it to everybody. It happens to you more, because you two tend to go more into detail when you say things.

EDIT: If you take offense to people pointing out mistakes you make, you aren't fit for technical support on forums (or anywhere else). It is very much one of those things where a mistake can cost a lot of money, or lost data (or it might just cost time), so pointing out mistakes is something that is very important.

Just try and not take it so personally.

Okay, I got you now . Your job is "correcting" any statement you percieve as inaccurate. I made no inaccurate statement in my post.......yeah some or all of them may not have been relevant to the problem but not incorrect in the context of the problem as I understood it. Why not try to help the OP out instead of scouring the other people's post for "inaccuracies"?

You know that computer, as it is right now, will not run SL.........it's quite obvious since the OP has posted several times in other threads of the problems that she is experiencing that is preventing SL from running (know you know this because you have posted in those threads too). Offer help to the people asking instead of disputing everything you see that you either don't agree with or find "exceptions" that only confuse the issue.

To the Maggie..........no, you cannot run SL successfully on that computer as it is right now. You MIGHT be able to get SL to run with some major upgrades........but it will never run SL in a satisfactory way.

Blunt and to the point.......and, for me, a little hard to tell someone. Sorry for the bad news. It's my opinion, of course.........but I'm sure I'm correct in this opinion.

Eh...calling it a "job" sounds bad, but it works.

It does help the OP, though. If I told the OP that their computer would run SL fine if they upgraded the RAM to the maximum the computer will support, and nobody corrects me, prompting the OP to buy the upgrade (computer that old, probably at least $50), then the OP will be $50 in the hole with almost nothing to show for it. If someone corrected me, the OP would still have that $50.

It's also a learning experience for everyone involved.

And I told her to upgrade the RAM and everything would be hunky dorey? I think not. In fact I've all but told her that her computer is crap and will never run SL.......which is my real opinion.

Stick to helping...........forget about finding fault with other people's ideas. Actually, people are not nearly as stupid as you think they are.......they really don't need you to "protect" them.

Oh, and Mr Technical Support Supervisor.........do I get severance pay for my work so far on this "Technical Support Forum"? I thought I was volunteering my amateur insights........never knew I was a real "Tech Support" employee.............

Oh, wait!!!! This is the "Technical TALK" forum. I guess I can stay.

Geeze, I just love know it alls

Yes, you did. What I said was an example. Not related to anything you or anybody else in this thread has said.

Informing the OP of errors in another post can be considered helping, considering the OP may take a persons advice to heart (and if there is an error, then it can lead to bad consequences).

I didn't tell you to leave. I suggested you not take corrections so personally.

In fact, if I may be so bold as to suggest it, you may perhaps see them as a learning experience. Not that I would suggest you take everything I say as fact (although I do try and be as accurate as humanly possible, you should still double check things), but it furthers you as a technical support person, and considering you like to post in the technical support forum, learning is good.

Nobody said otherwise, except you.

I can't say the same. I'm also not a fan of folks who take everything, especially non-malicious things, to heart, and treat them as personal insults.

You forget, my friend, in another thread you told me I was being less than honest.....in other words you called me a liar. I remember. You know the thread I'm speaking of. Go check to refresh your memory.

And, I'm still waiting for any helpful information you might have on my question presented in that thread.........oops, you had none, did you? All you could find to say was that what I was seeing and experiencing was in my imagination or I was lying about it. Thanks for all that helpful information by the way.........it got me to search for the answer myself. I found it too..........you were wrong.

You told me I called you a liar. I did not. I don't appreciate folks putting words into my mouth. I don't do it to you, so don't do it to me. It's one of the few things that really gets on my nerves.

I said that it was probably a placebo effect.

Placebo Effect != Calling you a liar

In fact, after you told me that I called you a liar, I informed you that I did not think you were lying.

If you still believe that I called you a liar, go for it. But I didn't.

I informed you of what occurs in an under powered computer.

Whether you believe me or not is up to you. But I provided an answer based on the information you provided. It was not my fault that you provided faulty information.

You can say I was wrong, but you didn't give us the whole story (before and after the replacement). In fact, one could theorize that the whole thread was a trap, considering the impossibilities (lower RAM utilization), and the omitted facts (not mentioning the underclocked FSB).

EDIT: You know what, this is stupid.

If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but it's not my problem. I don't mean any offense or anything like that, but I'm not going to bend over backwards to make you happy.