Hi! Just bought a new laptop: (HP Purple 17.3" Pavilion g7-1149wm Laptop PC with Intel Core i3-370M

[Storm Clarence]

That's a really big question for the answers section, and with so little information.  I can suggest that you tweak your preferences: raise bandwidth to 2500kbs, lower draw distance to <90, enable VBO, etc.

 

[Storm Clarence]

That's a really big question for the answers section, and with so little information.  I can suggest that you tweak your preferences: raise bandwidth to 2500kbs, lower draw distance to <90, enable VBO, etc.

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I really don't want to burst your bubble but I do question your statement about your new laptop being higher spec'd than your older computer.  First, I don't know the specs for your older computer but the fact that it runs SL better than your new HP laptop leads to believe the specs are higher on the older machine.  Newer is not necessarily better........though the vendors of the newer computer certainly want you to believe that.

 

The i3 CPU is a good processor...more than up to the task for Second Life.  Your 4 gigs of DDR3 system RAM is more than enough for SL..........as long as your system does not have to cough up RAM for your video.  And that's a problem with your video (it has no dedicated video RAM of it's own.........it must get the RAM it needs from your system RAM).  I looked up the specs for you notebook on HP's site........it's really skimpy on details (it's a shame manufacterers can get away with such "facts" but that's the way most manufacturers do).  All is says for your graphics is Intell HD graphics.....but not what HD graphics it has.  Being that the i3 is the lowest of the Intell "i" series CPU I would guess it's the Intell HD Graphics 2000 (3000 at the very most). 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02888157&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5118853#N22

 

I could not find much at all on the HD 2000 graphics but I did for the HD 3000.  That video adapter is quite low end for gaming performance with limited 3D ablilities.  It's on par with the nVidia 310M.......an entry level card that will barely run SL.  That's for the 3000 too..........the 2000 is a lower spec'd adapter.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html

 

The adapter is just not designed for heavy duty 3D graphics like SL.  It will run most of the popular online games at mid and low settings......those games have professionally made content optimized for DirectX rendering.  Second Life has almost no content that is made by professionals and I would guess the content that is not made by professionals (the user created content) probably only has less than 1% created with performance in mind at all.  And then there's the fact that SL does not run with the DirectX rendering standards (it's OpenGL instead....to enable Mac and Linux machines to run SL as well as Windows machines).  So the comparison to the popular games is almost meaningless except for the fact that a 3D invironment created by professionals will not run well at high settings says that a 3D invironment created by amateurs is really going to struggle at low settings (maybe mid.......but probably won't even run at high).

 

Here's one more bit of sad news.  I could find no indication that your new laptop has the expansion slot necessary for you to add a discrete video card that is higher performing to give you better video in SL (or any other game for that matter).  What you got is what you are stuck with.  That's not what you wanted to hear, I'm sure. 

 

What can you do to make SL as good as possible?  There are a few things.  First use a viewer that is coded to the 1.23 code.......either a third party viewer or the SL viewer 1.23 available on the viewer download page for the SL website.  You won't be able to see shadows or meshes.........your sparkling water reflections are also probably out of range for you to see either.  Things will probably rezz slow.  Set your graphics performance settings to low in preferences........then slowly, one feature at a time, increase the settings that are important to you until you get to a point that your performance drops off to the point that is unacceptable.  Lower your draw distance to 64 meters.

 

That's what you can do with your viewer to try to help.  What you should do with your computer is to make sure that you don't try to use the wireless connection to the Internet...use a Cat 5 Ethernet cable.  Shut down unnecessary background programs (email checkers, instant messengers, Skype, browsers...........anything you really don't need running while in SL).  And, get a better security suite.  Norton is one big resource hog plus it is very intrusive and tends to block much of what you need for SL.  There are many 100% free security suites on the Internet.  I use Comodo and have never had a problem with any program running.........it's a very good anti-malware and firewall (I unhesitantly recommend it).

 

Again, I know you don't want to hear what I said..........I wish I found better news for you.  Really I do.  Good luck.