please help :( ...... i cant figure this out

ive tried... EVERYTHING. from system restore... to avoiding windows vista service pack 2 update... to system recovery... ive even reset my laptop to factory default settings... and at first it did seem to solve the problem and SL ran just fine... but then after being on for 20 minutes it crashed and forced me to fill out a crash log report.

ever since then... ive tried many different times to log into SL... but it keeps on instantly crashing. the reason why this makes no sense (even tho the warning told me when i uninstalled and did a clean re installation of SL that my laptop did not meet the system requirements... that is a LIE)

and the reason why its not true is cuz i checked my computer ,... the system... and all of its hardware and device drivers to ensure that EVERYTHING was up to date for the video and sound card as well as the graphics card... and my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1545, brand spankin new, and checks out with all the minimum system requirements SL needs in order to run smoothly with no crashes. I AM AT A LOSS HERE. Im about ready to tear my hair out... ive asked for so much help from so many people...

even LL themselves.. and NO ONE can seem to give me any answers other than "youre comp must not be compatible with SL" and "it must be an SL program issue with the latest release"... can ANYONE OUT THERE PLZ TELL ME how to get my SL up and running on my laptop and how to KEEP IT RUNNING so it doesnt crash? I just dont know what to do anymore....

heres my computer's system information... you will see it DOES check out with SL's compatibility requirements:

windows edition: windows vista home basic
service pack 2 (used to be service pack 1 but even then SL was malfunctioning)
manufacturer: Dell
model: inspiron 1545
rating: 3.2
processor: pentium (R) Duel core CPU t4200 @ 2.00GHz
memory (RAM): 3.00 GB
system type: 32 bit operating system

in device manager info -
display adapter: Mobile Intel(R) 4 series express chipset family

this is all the info i knew how to gather... hope this helps...
PS: I dont always check these forums... so if you post here and i dont answer... please send your help to my e mail address: [email]thedarknessbecomesher@yahoo.com[/email].

thank you so much in advance for those who try to help me!!

~shykitty foxclaw

SL does not really support Intel graphics.

Do you at least get the login page up OK?

If you do, go into preferences, set the graphics to the lowest settings, and then try to log in. The Intel graphics chips are not 100% compatible with SL, but I cannot remember off the top of my head which settings cause the problems, so experiment.

Rock

Edit: Now I remember, it was to do with the chipset not handling occlusion. Here is the workaround:

Find the "user_settings" folder under your Second Life folder that is under AppData or Applications Data. (It may be different whether you have XP or Vista. Note also you will have a folder with your Avatar's name. Don't change the settings.xml file in that folder - change the one in the user_settings folder.

Find this folder on your system: \Users\myname\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\user_settings\settings.xml. You will have to manually add the command to disable Object Occlusion to this file. The lines to add are:
<!--Enable object culling based on occlusion (coverage) by other objects-->

Save the setting.xml file and then try to connect to Second Life.

I think this may also be possible via preferences: In the graphics settings, choose Rendering and uncheck Object-Object Occlusion. This will be stored to your settings file.

Try a non LL viewer. Some are designed for lower end graphics.

Does "Old School" still work? http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/2008/05/version-overview.html

FYI posting an appeal for help and then saying you may not bother to come back so go send an email to your yahoo account is not exactly conducive to an appeal.

also be VERY careful about heat. SL tends to cause alot of heat buildup in laptops which ultimately can kill em fast. Get it up off the desk grab a couple of books and point one at each end of the laptop to get it up off the desk with air underneath like a bridge. the books are the support and the laptop the span. Heat From SL killed my viao years ago VERY quickly. It was a similar kind of thing on SL for about 20 minutes then crash out. The difference was it would not even turn back on again till it cooled off. Well Until the day it just stopped turning on at all. IF you get the laptop working with SL again I STRONGLY advise getting one of those stands to put it on that has fans built into the base and gets it up off the desk. But the books are a makeshift till you do.

SL REALLY didn't get on with Intel graphics back when I had that laptop. I don't honestly know if it has got any better about it or not. I had to dial EVERYTHING back to minimum back then and that was BEFORE Windlight. The suggestion about finding another bare bones viewer and dialing back the graphics is a VERY good one.

Meeting the minimum specs for SL is kinda like saying ok the game will probably start for you but what you see wont be fun and odds are moving is going to be interesting. LL is not famous for updating those requirements promptly. Being honest when I shop for a machine I shoot for the optimal specs and if thats impossible financially at the time upper end of the mid level. And I try like heck to stick with NVidea graphics. But I will never run SL on a laptop if I can avoid it again.

i will definitely try all that you suggested to me... ill see if i can get it up and working... ive tweaked with the edit preferences settings so many times and not one option seemed to work so ill try the user_settings option... and if that doesnt work... where can i find a low easy viewer for computers with lower graphics and such? does such an SL program exist? and if so... where can i download it? thank you all for your help!!!

ill see what i can do on my end now with your suggestions

~shykitty

EDIT:

ok so i tried everything you guys suggested. one major problem... i found:
C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings\settings.xml
but it wont let me type in the page or add any lines at all... it doesnt let me altar anything on there.... also... i tried looking in edit preferances from the main screen and did not find a RENDERING section in the graphics tab.... help me find it? its just not there i guess... and also .... i dont know where to download a lower performance version of SL for a computer with less graphics capabilities... where can i find this download? thanks everyone.

~shykitty

Rock Vacirca wrote:

"The Intel graphics chips are not 100% compatible with SL, but I cannot remember off the top of my head which settings cause the problems, so experiment."

REPLY:
well heres the weird thing... my other laptop which is an OLDER laptop by about a year from now has THE SAME everything on the insides of it as this one... its just a Dell Inspiron 1525 and not a 1545... and SL ran PERFECTLY FINE on that one.... but for some reason on this blasted 1545.... its failing... which makes NO SENSE to me.... how can it run fine with an intel chip on that model... but not with one on THIS model? oh and ive tried EVERY variation of the settings... but still... no cigar... :/

~shykitty