Let me in!!!

I'm a trial member but I can't seem to get in to secondlife from the desktop icon after I install it. I get a message saying 'unable to run fullscreen at 1024x768. running in Window. Then it says 'secondlife requires True Color (32bit) to run in a window. Then it tells me how to set to 32 bit, which is not available in my display settings even though I'm running Windows 2000. it continues on saying 'Alternately, if you choose to run fullscreen, Second Life will automatically adjust the screen each time it runs. I can't figure out how to set it to run fullscreen and I don't have a 32bit option available. What do I do to get past this so I can run the game???

Please help Piper, she is an RL friend that I've been trying to talk into joining for over a month now.

Thanks,

Carr

This sounds like you don't have a good enough graphics card. Please post what type of graphics card you have and the drivers. Also, any other specs which may help us solve this

Neomagic MagicGraph 256AV driver is what it says as my display adapter.

Alright, as far as I know, that is not supported. You will need to upgrade your graphics card before you can play. A compatible graphics card, the GeForce2 MX w/32MB should only be about $65USD and not that hard to install into your machine. Good luck!

$65? I would suggest checking www.mwave.com:

AA14121 ASUS V7100 PURE GeFORCE2 MX-400 64MB 2X/4X AGP SDR VGA (White box) Detail Spec (*While Supplies Last!) $37.00 YES

AA17810 ASUS V8170MAGIC GEFORCE4 64MB AGP4X MX-420 W/GAMES/TV OUT(Retail) Detail Spec $49.00 YES

AA20990 ASUS V9180-MAGIC GEFORCE4 64MB 8XAGP NVIDIA MX-440 DDR W/TV OUT(Retail) Detail Specs $55.00 YES

I do believe that $37 GF2 MX w/ 64mb of ram will do nicely in SL.

Wow! Great prices!

Thanks, Si!

I'll make sure she reads your posts tomorrow. Those are awesome prices Si, thanks!

I did a little bit of digging, in case more people are having graphics problems. If you're willing to risk stores i've never personally shopped through (not usually a huge risk):

I think this are the bare minimum to get SL running:

APOLLO GEFORCE2 MX400 64MB SDR AGP VIDEO CARD (G400-64M)
$ 31.00
http://www.pcmicrostore.com/part-detail.asp?id=410345

This, is a pretty nice card/current model. It would likely be worth the extra $24:

eVGA nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB DDR 8X AGP, $55.00 on sale.
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/xg5200128.html

If a Linden is hovering over this thread at all, or anyone with experience using the GF2 MX cards in SL, can you comment on how well they work? I've seen people say they work, but never a mention of what problems/how well. I may be off base on the listings of these cards as SL compatible, though the GeForce FX i'm certain of.

Just a few quick pointers on graphics cards...

In general, I would recommend avoiding any nVidia GeForce 2 or MX based cards - this is because they don't have vertex programs, and only have two texture stages, which means that they won't be able to run the newest games coming out as well as newer cards with these features.

In particular, if you're buying a graphics card right now, I would recommend buying one that supports the full DirectX 9 features set. This includes all GeForce FX cards, as well as all ATI Radeon cards >= 9500 (I think).

If you can't get one of these, I would recommend at least getting a non-MX GeForce 3 or 4 card, or the equivalent Radeon (8500/9000).

- Doug

Thanks, si! Now I need to go check the couch for spare change

I used to run SL with a GeForce 2MX with 64Mb, and it was fine. You don't get the ground textures (the ground is sort of green/brown), and it couldn't really cope with the lighting (so I switched local lighting off), but if you need a cheap card to play then it will do the job quite nicely. I ran with the latest drivers and never had a problem with avatar holes or anything like that.

My new GeForce 4Ti4800 is much better