Windows 7: can't log in since installing

[Solerossa Cyberstar]

Can anyone help me? I can't log in SL anymore.

After catching a very bad virus on my PC last Spring, my friend formated my HD and installed Windows 7 on it. I tought going from Windows XP to Windows 7 was going to be an improvment. It actually was, except that, since then, I haven't been able to log on Second Life with any viewer (I tried them all). It tells me my graphics card's drivers didn't install properly blablabla...

I tried to get drivers but I'm unsure how to go, I'm no tech geek and my many searches on forums lead me to many links, tried this and that but the situation stayed the same: I'm stucked in RL

... It's an old PC running an AGP graphics card that used to be identified by analyze softwares as an ATI and I don't remember what series... cheapo I spose; On Windows 7, the graphics card cannot be identified precisely. All PC Wizzard sees is this:

Manufacturer :    ATI Technologies
Model :    Standard VGA Graphics Adapter
Bus Type :    AGP

There don't seem to be any drivers available for this.

Is my case hopeless? I thought of getting another graphics card, but these are expensive, even second hand, and I'm never sure what I'm getting as the graphics card world is totally wicked for a non tech like me. And its an AGP slot so...  I'd rather invest on another PC.

Is this the only solution for me, getting a new PC?

Here is more details about my PC if anyone cares 

Mainboard :    Unspecified K8 Neo
Chipset :    nVidia nForce3 250
Processor :    AMD Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2200MHz
Physical Memory :    2560MBDDR-SDRAM
Video Card :    Standard VGA Graphics Adapter
Hard Disk :    Maxtor 6Y080P0 ATA Device (82GB)
Hard Disk :    Seagate ST3500413AS ATA Device (500GB)
CD-Rom Drive :    DTSOFT Virtual CdRom Device
DVD-Rom Drive :    LG DVD-ROM DRD8120B
DVD-Rom Drive :    PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-109
Monitor Type :    NEC Technologies AccuSync 900 - 18 inches
Network Card :    Realtek Semiconductor RTL8139/810x Fast Ethernet Adapter
Operating System :    Windows 7 Ultimate Professional Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
DirectX :    Version 11.00
Windows Performance Index :    1.0 on 7.9

 

Well thanks for your time

Hope I posted at the right place

:-)

Soli

[Innula Zenovka]

See if you can identify your graphics card this way.

Open the control panel and choose Hardware and Sound

Then go to the Device Manager,

and then expand the entry for Display adapters, and that should tell what's there.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Solerossa. The faster way to identify your graphics card is the command:

Start button --> Run --> Type there "dxdiag" (without the quotation marks) --> OK --> Open the Display tab (2nd one). There you see your graphics card.

[Solerossa Cyberstar]

Thanks Innula and LoveAngel,

The 'Run' trick worked, thanks so much (well that's a start), I now know what graph card I have, it's an ATI Radeon 9200 So I guess I'll start seeking for a pilot for that. My system is in French... on the lower right corner on the image, it says Pilot Model: unknown

:-)

Soli

[Kobuk Farshore]

I'm not that tech-savvy so anything I say may be completely incorrect, but if you're still having issues after you've made sure you're ATI 9200 driver is the most current, there was a post on the NVidia forums where someone upgrading their machine to Windows 7 couldn't install Radeon drivers. You have an NForce3 chipset and apparently that isn't officially supported under Windows 7.

Hopefully someone cleverer here than I can help you get SL working again, Solerossa. It's frustrating not to be able to get inworld, but good luck! :}

[Nalates Urriah]

You are bit below the system requirements. AMD 9500 is considered a minimum. However, it is more likely an OpenGL thing. So, you might get by with a 9200.

Google for GPU-Z and download it. When you run it it will give you all the data on your graphics card. It will show if your CPU has SSE2 and if the card is using OpenGL. If you are missing either of those, you'll have a problem.

SSE2 is dependent on your CPU. Your Athlon 64-3200 CPU has SSE2, so you are good there.

OpenGL is installed with your video driver. ATI was purchased by AMD. You can get drivers from AMD.

GPU-Z will tell you which version of OpenGL is installed or not. If it shows you have an OpenGL 3 or better, then it is a Win7 issue.

The driver downloads are here: AMD/ATI Video Drivers

Your Win7 64-bit is the problem. There is no AMD driver for the Win7 or Vista OS. This means the install is NON-STANDARD. That is what the viewer is seeing and not understanding.

I can't see AMD building a driver for this old card. So, you are out of luck on this point. I would say get a new video card, but your card is AGP. New cards are PCI. That's a problem.

You can however pick up a Radeon 9550 on eBay for US$25+/-. There are legacy drivers for Win7.

The easy way out may be to put Windows XP 64-bit in the computer and use the AMD drivers made for XP. But, whether the new viewers will run with a 9200 is a question. Search this forum and SLUniverse for others that may be using the 9200.

OR... win the lottery and buy an awesome game machine.

[Solerossa Cyberstar]

Thanks very much Nalates and everyone :-)

And see you in a bit inworld, somehow

:-)

Soli

[Up4 Dawes]

Hello,,, Since you recently installed windows 7 it installed service pack 1 , uninstall service pack 1 for windows 7 there are conflicts between nvidia drivers and open gl drivers made worse with windows 7 service 1

[Solerossa Cyberstar]

Thanks Up4 Dawes

I just bought a second hand ATI Radeon 9600Pro on e-bay (30$) but your suggestion might become handy down the road when I try to install it.