why don't SL viewer or firestorm work on my dell desktop?

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Well you can start by telling us what kind of computer you have, what kind of grahics card, your CPU, amount of ram etc.  Your computer may not be able to run SL at all.  We can't offer any advice to you without knowing your computer specs.

Please do not create a new post to add additional information. Edit your original post instead. You can edit your post to add additional information by logging in to the web site, going to the post you want to edit, then clicking "Options" at the top right of the post and choosing edit.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Well you can start by telling us what kind of computer you have, what kind of grahics card, your CPU, amount of ram etc.  Your computer may not be able to run SL at all.  We can't offer any advice to you without knowing your computer specs.

Please do not create a new post to add additional information. Edit your original post instead. You can edit your post to add additional information by logging in to the web site, going to the post you want to edit, then clicking "Options" at the top right of the post and choosing edit.

[Rolig Loon]

We cannot do much more than guess without more information, but Amethyst is right. Some portable computers are not designed for the heavy load that SL places on them.  Also, the drivers for some graphics chips in machines that are running Windows 10 can cannot be upgraded to be compatible with the OpenGL environment in SL.  (See http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005526.html ) We can only help you narrow down possible reasons for your problem once we know what your computer is like.

[Lindal Kidd]

Your computer probably has an early version of the Intel HD Graphics integrated graphic function.  This cannot be updated to work with Windows 10.  If you upgraded to Win 10, your machine is using the low quality "generic" graphics driver.  Your only options are to 1) revert to your earlier version of Windows, or 2) buy a new graphics card and install it, or 3) get a new computer.