So, um.. The SL 1.6 Preview won't even open?

I was wondering if 1.6 would run on my computer, but I figured if it didn't, I would at least get some sort of system error or it would run and then crash. I just installed it (with no problem) and now it won't even open the program. It gives me the regular pointer+hourglass for a few seconds, and then it.. does nothing. I restarted, thinking maybe that would make it go, but it still won't open.

I've been surprised I can run SL at all for a while now, since I'm on ME. Is this the end?

Are you running with local lighting turned on?

I never have local lighting turned on.

And the program won't even -open-. Like, I click on the SecondLife Application and nothing happens. Local Lighting is supposed to -crash- the 1.6 preview, but I don't even get a program to begin with.

It is highly likely that 1.6 won't run at all with Windows ME. Due to core operating system enhancements, only Windows 2000 and Windows XP run Second Life properly.

That.... sucks. :|

Thank you for your response, Lee.

Any idea when we can expect 1.5 to not be operational anymore? I need to close up loose ends if I'm not going to be able to use SL anymore..

I had the same experience and am on windows ME also, so its pretty clear that those of us stuck with ME are gonna be out of luck and SL pretty soon! *sigh*, but since ME was never supported...guess we were lucky SL ever worked for us at all : D

Agreed. ^^ It's sad, but we were lucky to begin with. So I can't complain.

It's a bit of an unfortunate circumstance, but we do have to draw the line somewhere in terms of what hardware we support. It's uncanny sometimes that certain rare unsupported configurations can manage to work somewhat acceptably. Of course, since we don't know the user's doing it (since they don't report problems) and they often don't realize they're not supported (who reads system requirements, really?), it only comes up when something breaks.

Inevitably, as Second Life is updated, including updates to the technology that improve performance, stability, and/or features for supported hardware, some unsupported-but-usable configurations stop working. To ensure the best possible compatibility with Second Life, it's important that you meet the system requirements (and exceed them when possible).

I knew when I signed up for SL that I had an EXTREMELY slim chance of it actually running, since I'm on WinME with 128MB of RAM, an NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model64, and usually less than 200MB of free space on the hard drive.

At first, it hardly did work, but I updated the drivers and messed with the settings, and eventually I got it to hobble along well enough. I have yet to experience SL in a non-perma-lagged environment. But I'm still hopelessly addicted, anyway.

Even though I can barely afford to eat these days, and I'm disabled, so I can't get a job, I'm still going to find some way to get the money for a new computer, because SL is extremely important to me. (Probably more than it realistically should be.)

Anyway, I'm a bit bummed out that 1.6 isn't going to work on my computer, especially since we're trying to set up something of an educational institution, and I'm in the middle of a few different building projects, but I really can't complain, because it's not LL's fault that I run SL on a modified Easy-Bake Oven. :)

1.6 sounds incredibly awesome, and thank you to LL for it! It's going to make a lot of people happy, and I'm really glad of that. :) I will probably have to just work the forums for a few weeks while I pool up [beg for] some money.

Upgrading my hardware will be beneficial in a many ways aside from SL, anyway. But, I'm looking forward to seeing the -full- capabilities of 1.6... eventually. :)

Most likely what did it was the Unicode support in 1.6. That's what caused the company I work for to drop Win98 support -- 95/98/ME simply don't support Unicode in any way.

Update: I don't know what it is, but it doesn't seem to be Unicode.

By checking the SecondLife.log file, it seems that SL is looking for a file that is installed in the wrong place, not finding it, and quitting. Moving the file to the location SL expects causes SL to stars taking up 90%+ of the CPU, while not visibly doing anything.