There is rainbow glitches in the game on my buttons and everything is spazzing.

[MissLunna]

I can log in and move but anytime I do anything, it glitches like no other. Around the buttons and on the taps that I open is a weird rainbow like thing that will flash on and off and cover the hole box of what ever I have open. I just recently got windows 8 and it just started. I have even logged into other computers to see if it was just my account but it was perfect any other time I logged on except for when I got on on my windows 8 lenovo laptop. I have even downloaded multiple viewers to see if it was just the one I was using but it happened on all of them. It one that acted the least was the original viewer you first download. I constantly crash anytime I telephoto or move too much. Nothing is loading all the way either. It is all a big head ache and I can't seem to stop it. If anyone has any help at all, it would be much appreciated. 

P.S. I play Skyrim and World of Warcraft this lap top with no problems at all. That is why I am confused if it is my ghaphics card.

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

Windows 8 is still pretty new.

You have forgot to mention your exact hardware specifications, but i can see you are using a laptop.

First of, as far as i know older viewers will not run on windows 8. It has to be a viewer based on the SL official viewer code V3. So make sure you try either the official SL viewer above 3.0 or a thirdparty viewer based on this code.

The other thing you can try is to run the viewer.exe in compatibilty mode:
Right click>Properties>Compatability>Run Program in compatability mode > choose vista or windows 7, or try others as well.

Next thing to check is your graphic drivers and make sure they are on the latest update.

And since i don't know your exact specifications, please have a look here if your hardware fullfills the requirements: 
http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php

Additionally you can browse this forum for "windows 8" there have been many threads with this subject , which could give you more tips on fixing this.

PS: if you want to update your information use the EDIT function on your post. Do not start a new thread.

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

Sounds like you have an Intel graphics chip. The rainbows are a known problem with Windows 8 and Intel chips - that ball's in Intel's court, where it will probably stay until weeds grow up around it. The simplest thing you can do to get rid of the rainbow effects is go to "Settings" - "Advanced" and turn off "Basic Shaders."

Did you install WIndows 8 on an existing computer? If so, unless you have a compelling reason for using it you may want to go back to your old OS. Windows 8 is a semi-necessary evil on a new machine but I see no reason to use it on an older machine at this time - there are too many driver issues with older hardware.

The loading problems sound like either a case of running out of memory or a connection problem. When you crash, does it do it suddenly or do you hang up until things turn black-and-white and you get a "Darn..." message? If it's the former it's a probably a lack-of-memory issue and the latter means it's a connection problem. Please edit your initial post with additional information.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

The specifications that Codewarrior requested are essential for much help.  But, by your description of the problem mentioning "rainbow" colors on your screen is a great big red flag that your graphics adapter/card is failing.  A driver update will not help (in fact, it may hasten the failure of the GPU).  It has nothing to do with Windows 8.

The most common cause of graphics failure is heat.  Laptops are especially prone to heat issues so running any graphically intensive program (with SL is probably about as graphically intensive as anyone can run on a computer),  Anyone using a laptop with SL should always use cooling pad.......and get some hardware monitoring software to keeps tabs on heat on all hardware devices in the computer (especially graphics and CPU's).  The problem with heat caused issues is that by the time you get the symptoms (rainbow colors is a very common symptom) it's too late......your GPU has already sustained some damage.  Typically, that damage accelerates the more you continue to use the computer.  Further, using a program that uses the GPU as much as SL really shortens the time until complete failure.......your computer will not boot until the GPU is replaced.  Take your computer to a repair facility now, before it fails completely.

[Etaoin Barcelona]

I also saw this. It's some interaction between the Intel HD 4000 graphics chip and some BIOS settings. Intel has released a BIOS update but my mobo vendor hasn't released an update.

In the meantime the latest version of firestorm (4.4.0) has fixed this; they mention this fix in the release notes and earlier versions of Firestorm still have the problem. The SL Viewer 3.5.1 still has the problem.