How the bleep do I change settings???

I've used SL before, so I know hte problem and why it wont start... but...

I cant find the freakin configuration tool!

I can _NOT_ I repeat _NOT_ run SL in a window. I cant tell you why since everything else is reccomended settings or higher, but I cant...

The instant SL starts in a window it crashes.

I looked throught he files and cant find anything... though I might be looking in the wrong place...

If I understand your question I think what you are looking for is in the "edit" menu under preferrences. I'm pretty sure SL defaults to run in a window but you should be able to change it there on the log in screen.

no... I dont have a prefernces, I dont have an edit, I have a crash... I _cant_ _run_ in windowed mode... that's why I'm looking for the configurator --- an external program that reads the files, displays the settings, and lets you change them without loading the client. The client crashes _every_ _time_

If you are crashing before the log in screen I don't believe that has anything to do with running SL in a window...............I could be wrong though.

As far as I know there is no way to set your preferrences unless you can at least get to the log in screen.

In the folder where SL saves the settings (C:/users/yourname/AppData/Roaming/Secondlife/user_settings on Vista) there is a file called settings.xml that might have a setting for fullscreen in it. I couldn't find one, and I don't know how safe it is to edit the file, but it might be worth a look. there are several settings about fullscreen resolution and so on in there. There are different settings files for each version of the viewer you have installed.

There isn't a configuration tool as such, or at least I've never seen or heard of one.

Can you just uninstall, and then reinstall ?

I don't believe that will work for the OP's problem. SL defaults to play in a window and that is what is crashing him.

Thank you, that solved the window problem

However, now I get a mesage box and then it crashes...

I may need to start a new thread for it, but... I get a box saying my settings have been optimized for my display, then the SL crash logger appears, goes thorugh "connecting" then "connecting to alternate server, try 1" then it vanishes, then the windows box appears saying that SL has crashed...

Soemtimes I dont even get as far as seeing the box saying my settings are now optimzed...

I think I found the problem though, SL decided not to support ATI cards and I ahve a Radeon 9250... But at the same time, I have an on-board S3 Prosavage and it still crashes when I use that graphics chip, so....

Any ideas? (and do I need to start a new thread about this?)

I really need to get this working, if possible, by Wed. because I told a friend I'd show him around then... Any suggestions?

LL does support ATI cards; not every one of them, but many of them.

The 9250 is supported for XP, but not apparently for Vista.

You might need to update your ati drivers.

Possibly you need to disable the onboard video.

Information on your system might be useful.

I know the 9250 card worked a couple years ago............I had one. I've heard that the drivers for ATI listed as Catalyst are somewhat problematic in SL. Try one of the Omega dirvers. The ATI folks here might be more help though.

And, no you really don't need to start a new thread unless you just want to. People who pay attention to this forum section usually browse the older threads to see if anything new has come up.

TRied Omega drivers, still wont load that the omega drivers produced a "cannot find suitable display device" error in WoW, which I _pay_ for, so they had to go (sad, becaus eI loved all the extra features...) I will check to see if tehre are any newer drivers but I *think* these are the newest... meanwhile...

system info (Direct X diagnostic tool):

Time of this report: 6/17/2008, 21:59:01
Machine name: HADES
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model: P4M266-8237
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.93GHz
Memory: 992MB RAM
Page File: 220MB used, 2169MB available

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9250
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON 9250 (0x5960)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5960&SUBSYS_01201092&REV_01
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: HP vs15c LCD monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1024,768
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6614 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 5/3/2006 12:51:00, 258048 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 5/3/2006 12:50:42, 1540608 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-1A20-11CF-F46A-2A21A0C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x5960
SubSys ID: 0x01201092
Revision ID: 0x0001
Revision ID: 0x0001
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D9 Test Result: The tests were cancelled before completing.

Card name: S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR
Manufacturer: S3 Graphics, Inc.
Chip type: S3 ProSavage DDR
DAC type: S3 SDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_5333&DEV_8D04&SUBSYS_70951462&REV_00
Display Memory: 32.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Default Monitor (DPMS)
Monitor Max Res:
Driver Name: s3gnb.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.0033 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 8/13/2004 13:42:08, 401280 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: s3gnbm.sys
Mini VDD Date: 8/13/2004 13:42:22, 167168 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B75DD3-CE44-11CF-F377-9F50A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x5333
Device ID: 0x8D04
SubSys ID: 0x70951462
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_D
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

If you need sound/input/etc from the file, let me know, I'd post the whole thing but if I upload it I lose all the hard returns and it becomes one runon sentance, and if I post it it usually is too long to fit...

Hit CTRL P in the boot screen, it will fetch your preferences. I assume you can't even get into the grid. They just hid the preferences, not sure why.

cant get that far, before ANY input is logged I crash. for a while I had a box showing up saying somthing about "display settings optimized for your system" with a "close" button, and I'd hit ENTER before anyhting else and even tried hitting it as the window was spawning, but it never recieved the input. INSTANT crash

Installed latest drivers and now I get an error that my drivers are out of date or not supported... not to mention my system acts like a 500mhz with 32mb ram now (cant scroll smoothly, popup info boxes fade in around 1 min instead of 2 seconds, etc)

Frye, lets back up a bit. You keep having issues that are seemingly different each time. That is very odd. Have your run any anti malware and anti virus scans recently? You may be having something interferring with the whole operation of your computer. And I know a lot of people run instant messagers while on SL.......if you are doing that close them.

Everything points at a graphics problem. It could be your card is just giving up.......but the symtoms you discribe don't really point that direction.

Got to hand it you........you are one patient human being.

Maybe its your virtual memory settings. Go to your start menu, right click on your icon for my computer goto properties, and pop up the expanded menus. Advanced tab, performance. Try and max out your virtual memory. SL is a hog hands down.

Turned off EVERYTHING except my wifi client and some MS services.

*might* be malware but I highly doubt it... will run a scan before bed (takes a long time because I have 3 drives hooke dup, 2 being externals)

I'm hard-pressed to believe the video card is giving up since I'm running Maya 2008 without a hitch as well as World of Warcraft. However they may be special cases and may be being ofset. I'm also running Halflife 2 without problems and I know it's a graphics intense game.

heh maybe patience has to do with not being human

Honestly, though, I like WoW and similar games. I played SL because I was told to, and people claimed there were worlds liek WoW/EQ down to spells, monsters, and lifebars. As far as I can tell though, there are not, it's just one MASSIVE graphical chat with a few gimics like the cars, the flying, and the unusual weapons. The reason I'm tring to run it again is a friend asked me to show him round and get him aquainted with the game, so here I am. Really I have more fun playing WoW (which also happens to WORK without hours of tech support...)

If I had unlimited time and money so I could buy land I probably woudl be on SL more and would build my own 'world' based off the ideas in games like Zelda, with enimies and puzzles, but also marketplaces and magic. However because land is reaching prices close to RL land, that's not an issue for me now...


-----------

I tried maxing out the virtual memory, still crashed.

I'm trying the lightsmark program reccomended in another post. I seem to recall that a LOT of games are written in DirectX instead of OpenGL, so perhaps I have a problem with OpenGL support. Will post the results when it finishes downloading.

Found problem. Something wrong with driver/card.

Site claims my card is 100% compatable with OpenGL, but Lightsmark says it cant run because there is no OpenGL compatability.

I'm out looking for the proper driver again... wondering if I got the wrong one by mistake...

EDIT:
Nope, uptodate. Apparently it just does NOT support OpenGL 2.0 (neither does my on-board card, as per Lightsmark) so untill I decide to buy a new system in a few years...

Thanks for your help everyone! I am sorry it turned out this way...

SL does not use DirectX at all. So any game you compare to SL should be OpenGL based for any validity............WoW is not one of those games.

I'm really sorry you can't get SL of work. Despite what you might think I'm coming to the conclusion that it is, in fact, your graphics card. I know most (not all, but most) reasonably speced computers can play SL successfully. However, it's beginning to look like your's is one of those that can't.

But, I'll commend you again on your patience. After all the dead ends you still have a sense of humor. I wish more were like you.

Good luck,

Oh GOOD!!!

i can summerise every MMO to date since ive been playing them since 1993

mine the ore

run the level treadmill

mine the ore

get l00t

run the level treadmill some more since your wanting more l000t


ever notice every thing in a typical MMO looks the same at some point

thats becuase it is

SL on the other hand isnt, its all dynamically driven by non "professional" end users

your machine will take a substantial hit, considering its not rendering maybe 8 different scenes, in any number of campaigns ( i ran WOW with a 500mhz computer, its not all that intense)

you have a celeron, which i wouldn't wish on my worst enemy

second you have a video card that was crap alost 6 years ago

third if you think so lowly of SL why are you bothering

ive been running the current windlight client, mostly full detail on a 1.9 ghz computer with a gig of ram and a 3 generation old powerful 3d card @ 30 fps, and ive got 2 generations of machines more powerful .. for less than 100$ each

your machine being budget from case to core probally just cant handle it anymore

sorry, edited instead of posting... posting so everyone will see...

My card *does* have hte most uptodate driver avalible. Apparently it's OpenGL 1.0 ready but not 2.0 or something.

As I said above, thank you all for your help, I'm sorry it turned out to be like this. I would try on my laptop, which *does* use an Nvidea chipset, but it's 1ghz with 384mb ram, so I know it would not be workable since my 2.97ghz/1gb ram desktop has issues at times...

Maybe in a few years when I upgrade to Vista and a 64-bit dual core... Or if my vieo card fries (unlikely as it is)

But again, thank you all for the help!

I do agree with you on the MMORPG plan, that's prety close to what it is... but atleast there is a goal...

Yes, but I paid $200 for this whole system (minux GFX card) 4 years ago, so at the time it wasn't that bad.

Video card is good enough to run Maya 2008, which I dont think anyone will say is a crap program...

I was playing SL because a friend wanted me to show him around...

i can tell you this, a 1ghz p4 will usually outrun a 3ghz celeron

Just for s***s and giggles I might try SL on my laptop then, since it IS a 1ghz P4...

And yes, I do agree WoW isn't nearly as memory/CPU intensive as it seems, I ran it on my 1ghz laptop without any issues except inicial load time, which was probably due to my low ram...