New Graphics Card, forced to quit or get new computer

The need for a new graphics card is going to leave me no choice but to quit 2nd Life . I have a Power Mac G4 it has all the needed system requirements except for the new graphics card. After several days I have figured out there is no graphics card that I can get that will work with my computer (consulted local Mac store).

Is anyone else having this problem?

Anyone have any suggestion, other than a new computer?

You'll have to buy a use card if you want to keep using that computer for SL. Cards exist that meet the minimum requirements, but you'll likely have to turn the graphics options way down.

after trying to put in a new graphics card and then having to return it, there isn't a card that is compatible with my computer.

Am I the only one having this problem?

Eek! Can't let you get away with out a fight.

What card does your G4 have now (& what flavor G4 do you have)? Also, what version of OS X are you running? (They just killed support for Panther, need to use Tiger or Leopard now - mentioning this on the off chance that you are getting a false error message about the video card.)

To buy you some time while you try to get this sorted out:

Official 1.19.1.4 viewer (the first one that had Windlight)
http://download-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/SecondLife_1_19_1_4.dmg

Official 1.19.0.5 viewer (that last version without Windlight)
http://download-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/SecondLife_1_19_0_5.dmg

Nicholaz edition for Mac (this patches 1.19.1.4 to allow the new build heights etc.):
http://radio-boomslang.shacknet.nu/~bb/articles/nicholaz-edition-mac/


(Edit to add: the 1.19.0 and 1.19.1 viewers are still supported by LL, Nicholaz is of course unofficial - but simply skip the upgrade notice if you see it, if should let you proceed.)

I'm running SL on a G4 with a GeForce MX2 card right now. It's remarkably slow and ugly, but SL runs and doesn't give me warnings about the video card not meeting the system requirements.

It's going to be really tough to find a new Macintosh G4 compatible AGP 4x video card, so you will probably have to find a used card somewhere. An ATI Radeon 9800XT would probably do a pretty good job.

I'm using Mac OS X Tiger. Power Mac G4

and I tried the ATI Radeon 9200, but it doesn't work with my comp. Some G4s it won't say so on the packaging So I have a feeling there aren't any ATIs that would work.

The ppl at my local mac store seemed think there wasn't any card they could get for me--leaving used which I'm a little hesitant about, I don't have money to waist if something went wrong-if I did I'd just get a new computer, lol.

another? if anyone has a clue-after I removed my old Graphics card put in the new one-then had to take it out and put back my new one, I now have a new problem. The Game MYST V End of Ages will no longer run on my computer-it keeps unexpectedly quitting. Any ideas as to what went wrong?

Tried these no go
Official 1.19.1.4 viewer (the first one that had Windlight)
http://download-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/SecondLife_1_19_1_4.dmg

Official 1.19.0.5 viewer (that last version without Windlight)
http://download-secondlife-com.s3.amazonaws.com/SecondLife_1_19_0_5.dmg

Radeon 9200 is still supported on Mac for SL, they have it listed here:
http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php

So, this is definitely something to push onto SL support.

For the Myst thing, that's weird, anything interesting in your Library/Logs folder that might point to a crash reason? Since you've changed hardware around, this is one of those times when zapping the PRAM might do something useful. (it might not hurt to reseat the card first, to make sure all the fingers are making good contact. There is almost certainly a bit of dust in there with a computer that's been around for a few years.)

what does zapping the PRAM mean how do you do that?

and what would I look for in the MYST logs that would point to a crash I don't know how to deal with any of that?

The PRAM (parameter RAM, it's probably flash memory these days, but they still call it PRAM) is a little area where a Mac stores various hardware settings. Clearing it forces the system to re-read everything. Here is an Apple article that explains in more detail, including how to do it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

(Edit to add: you may want to peek in System Preferences at your display settings after all of this, to make sure the OS guessed correctly about the number of colors and resolution and all that fun stuff.)

Sorry, I missed the Myst thing. Under Library/Logs, there should be a folder called CrashReporter, and there will be a text file in there for each program that has had problems (since, oh, forever, if you've never poked around in there before).

If you open one of those, it should bring up the Console program, and show you lines and lines of dump gobbledygook. If you scroll up several pages, you should find some lines that follow this pattern:



... with a bunch more following. The exception and codes might be interesting by themselves, but after that is whre it tells you what really crashed. there will be a bunch of lists (Thread 0, 1, etc.) and one of those "Thread X" lines will say "crashed" on it, hat is the part you want to know about. The first few lines will usually tell you what you need to know, just the name of the framework where the crash happened migh be enough to tell you if it was a video problem or something else.

I can help decipher it if you like, you can drop that crash log (if you have one) on [email]holydoughnuts@gmail.com[/email] - unless things start working before that!

I'm going to take a guess and say you have a quicksilver 2002 with something like a 1GHz G4 which is the same machine i started sl on. I'll be up front and say that while you can upgrade this machine to get good enough performance in sl it's not really worth it. To start with you need more ram!! Then a faster cpu which will cost a few hundred. And then, finally, a faster video card, look for a radeon 9800pro, not the fastest, but cheap and easy to come by these days. As for the cpu have a look at these places

http://eshop.macsales.com/
http://fastmac.com/
http://yourmacstore.com/shop/default.asp

I may have access to a part out a G4 with good graphics card. IM me in world. Dr Debruyere.
Anna