Cool VL Viewer forum

Hi. I recently changed my computer with a new one: HP PAVILION 6233 INTEL CORE QUAD - WINDOWS7 Home Premium - and tryed to download SL (as with my old computer I never could get to SL cause the wrong graphic card). So I specify that I did my account-avatar a long time ago, but never used it before today cause of my too old computer. Few days ago I downloaded SL from the official website ( saved it on my desktop, then click on it to install) and then I started the game from the appropriate icon on my desktop. The SL applet window appears showing an infinite Loading...that never goes to succesfull end.
Now, I am not an expert user but my questions are:
1. Can I get SL with ATI RADEON HD 4650? Because my doubt is about the graphic card: again I cant get SL because of it?
2. If this graphic card is not correct, please, which card do I need as best?
3. Do I have all this problems because of Windows7 Home premium?
4. Can I download your Cool SL viewer even I already downloaded the official SL ?
5. Last one: I have a new generation computer, a new OS and still cant get SL? Do I need to give up?
Thanks for your help.
Ciao
Bea

Please, note that this forum is for support related to the Cool SL Viewer only. Questions related with Linden Lab's official viewer should be directed to Linden Lab, via they support ticket system...

ATI graphic cards (and more exactly, their driver) are known to have issues with OpenGL games (and not only SL).
But you should nevertheless be able to use ATI cards to connect to SL, provided that you turn off the "AI" feature in the ATI driver (somewhere, most probably in its advanced settings). Also, some ATI cards/drivers are known to have broken VBOs: you can turn VBO off in the Preferences floater, Graphics tab, "Hardware settings" sub-floater of the viewer (uncheck "Enable OpenGL Vertex buffer Objects").

NVIDIA graphic cards are the best choice for OpenGL games/applications...

I didn't hear of any incompatibilty, but I can't say for sure (Linux, here...).

Yes, but it won't be of any help if you can't connect with the official viewer in the first place. In fact, it's even a bad idea if you want to open a ticket, since Linden Lab would then close your ticket saying "we don't support third parties viewer", not even caring that this is not the actual problem... So, my advice is to first connect to SL with the official viewer, then only once you have been successful doing so, you can install the Cool SL Viewer diff files package over it (see the Windows installation FAQ, please). Note also that you can install several different viewers on the same computer (simply install them in different directories).

This question should be directed to Linden Lab, but I don't see any reason why you won't be able to connect. To get further hints about what is going wrong, please have a look at the log file the viewer provides (see the Windows FAQ for where the logs are located), and do attach it to any ticket you would open.

Thanks for your reply. I downloaded the official SL then your Cool Viewer and for the first time I could logon in SL.
I customized my avatar and I got my first fly. Then I logged off using the Disconnect bottom.
Now, going to log on again the problem it again the same: infinite not ending Logging on (see pic enclosed).
My thought is: if i have a hardware (graphic card) problem I never could get once in SL, but I did. So why it happens this?
I tryed more to log on with a second nickname that I did thinking my first one was too old and maybe SL deleted her. With this second nickname the program shows a message: Unable to autenticate your account.
No words.
Bea

And please, can you explain better what is "AI"? I am looking for it but cant find anything.
Sorry, I know I am a computer noob.

Perhaps a network problem... If your connection to Internet goes through an Ethernet card on your PC, check your MTU (maximum transfer unit), which is often set at 1500 bytes per default but is too large for most ADSL connections (which usually require a MTU of 1492), resulting in packet losses (another symptom of too large a MTU are seemingly unresponsive/slow to load websites while browsing them).
To know how to do that, simply Google for: "Windows 7" MTU
I found this link, for example.

Also, it could be a flacky DNS server taking too much time to resolve the address of SL's login server (a bad DNS would also cause long delays when browsing to a new website, or right out failure with "could not resolve host name" errors in your browser).

Finally, a look at SL's grid status blog is always a thing to do when you got troubles logging in... See this message, for example...

As for "A.I." I would guess its stands for "Artificial Intelligence". It's a setting in the ATI drivers which is supposed to help speeding up 3D intensive applications by dynamically adjusting the various quality settings of the graphic card, depending on what is being rendered on your screen. The problem is that applications such as the SL viewer do not particularly appreciate that some OpenGL features/functions are suddenly turned off by the driver, and this usually results in a crash... Here again, Googling for ATI ".A.I." would give you more answers and advices.

My guess would be ATI Incompetence...