Graphics.

Ok. I use a Toshiba Laptop. And normally everything runs wonderful. But when I move to use Secondlife not only am I suddenly flooded with constant Internet Connection loses but most of the time while in world. Everything remains gray and undefined. Even other residents. They remain gray with no features what so ever. Then when I try to walk my avitar walks in stiff jerky movements which I am almost positive shouldn't be happening. My graphic card (ATI 200M or something like that)is a tad lower then minium requirement but this blindness to the whole sl world is just getting plain irritating. When I am shopping no graphics show up but rough outlines and the items preview (before right clicking to buy) does not show up at all.
There has to be a way to get better graphics. I would normally get a new computer but I just don't have the funds to do so. And since most of my income still comes from my parents I'd merely get yelled at for having 'broke' my computer when I ask for a new graphic card.
HELLLPPPP!!!!

Well there's a few possibilities. What I think it is is most ATI cards aren't very compatible with SL in my experience - I even had to exchange one I bought to upgrade my computer with for an Nvidia card. it's not so much that your computer is broke, but the Radeon cards tend to be less compatible with more games then the Nvidia ones.

You could exchange the video card for one of the recommended ones for SL. Some stores have policies that allow that.

If you are using a wireless connection, try using a wired connection.

If you can take your laptop to a friend's house, try logging in from there.

I use both wired (for home) and wireless when I'm on the go. Both times it's fried to a point I get so irritated I just log off. I really want to be on Secondlife. I've barely begun to experience it and can already tell I'm hooked but argh. This gray-ness is driving me bonkers. Oh does anyone know it a HP pavilion [xp, Desktop] but it has hard drive problems. Could I perhaps get it to work?

you switched gears there

SOME people usually like for you to say you have a wireless connection so they can insta blame all your troubles on that and be done with it, not the case i play all the time on both wireless internet and wireless lan, its a 768k internet connection so its a tad slow rezzing in, ive played on a wireless lan and hard wired,... cant tell the difference at all

on the laptop, it really should not be running, but if you can find out how much ram you have free, + how much the video card is using that would be helpful

on the desktop hp have made a pavilion model for 15+ years so your going to have to cough up some more info on that

What kind of hard drive problem do you have with the HP? If it's some bad sectors that could be a sign of a dying HHD.....but it also could last quite some time before it bites it for good. Most HHD "problems" are not really drive problems but software problems.....mainly operating system problems. A format of the drive might fix it for you. Or better yet a complete wipe of the drive (there are free wipe programs on the internet..........Killdisk is one and it works very well. Search Google for it). But once you do either a format or wipe you need to reinstall your operating system and you lose everything you had on the disk before you formated or wiped (there are utilities that can recover some, if not all data after a format but the wipe pretty much destroys everything and it's gone for good).

But, even with all that you might still be in the same boat if your graphics card is not up to running SL.

Give us a little more to work with and someone surely can give you some advice. We all are cheapskates here so it won't cost you an arm and a leg..........maybe a pinky finger, but that's all.

Ok. I'm deffintly not all that computer versed but I know a ok ammount about them. I don't know the exact type of hp it is. My mom would start screaming if she knew I have been opening her old computer. But I can read what's on the front of it. All it does say is. HP Pavilion a807w. With a little sticker that says AMD 64 athlon. Then the monitor says the Pavilion vf15. But anyway. When I turn it on. I can't enter anything. It goes to the splash screen then immediatly it's switchs to a black screen that has white text stating some sort of problem with the harddrive. I've tried several times to wipe it using the F10 key (entering menu and all) But it doesn't let my keyboard work until it's too late to enter menu. I'm so stuck. ; ;

buy a new computer...

its at least 3 years old and was junk new on.
01/05/2005

Bundle information
The HP a807w-b desktop PC bundle (part number PP174AA and PP174AB) includes:

*
a807w Desktop PC, part number PP173AA
*
VF15 15" flat panel TFT LCD display
*
HP FLC 2.0 speakers

Hardware
Base processor
AMD Athlon(64) XP 3200+ 2.2 GHz

*
1600 MT/s (Mega Transfers/second)
*
Socket 754

Chipset
SiS 760/964
Motherboard

*
Manufacturer: Asus
*
Motherboard Name: K8S-LA
*
HP motherboard name: Salmon-GL6E

Memory
Component Attributes
Memory Installed 512 MB (1 x 512)
Maximum allowed 2.0 GB (2 X 1 GB) requires the replacement of the installed 512 MB DIMMs
Speed supported PC3200 MB/sec
Type 184 pin, DDR SDRAM
DIMM slots Two
Open DIMM slots One
Hard drive

*
120 GB
*
7200 rpm

AND THIS WONT RUN SL, worth anything /
Video graphics
Integrated with up to 64 MB allocated video memory
Sound/audio

dunno, its actually better than my pc, less ram, minus the video card i have a geforce 6600GT (overclocked a bit)

all by my lonesome with graphics on "high" it will do 45fps, in a room full of people maybe 10 fps

while mine is not the ultimate SL experience, its better than alot of people with brand new machines


depends if it has an agp slot in it or not, and would it be worth it to you to plop down 20-30 bucks on a gig of ram, and another 40-50 bucks for a video card, that still going to suck a little

considering that you can get a mainboard with a almost decent video card biult in + meh but new technology cpu + 2 gigs of ram and even sometimes a new case for 100$ i personally dont think it would be worth while