I tried installing 2.56a on one of my older machines. 2.56a from blender.org main page.
It crashes on startup.
2.49b runs fine on the same machine.
Windows XP Service Pack 3
Pentium 4 CPU 2.4GHz
768 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
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Detailed info below:
System Summary:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DIMENSION8250
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Dimension 8250
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~2386 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A04, 1/9/2004
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
Time Zone Mountain Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 768.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 174.70 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.83 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Display Info:
Name NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0172&SUBSYS_015A10DE&REV_A3\4&6B9BF1C&0&0008
Adapter Type GeForce4 MX 420, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
Adapter RAM 64.00 MB (67,108,864 bytes)
Installed Drivers nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version 6.14.10.5216
INF File oem2.inf (nv4 section)
Color Planes 1
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1024 x 768 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xFC000000-0xFDFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xF4000000-0xF7FFFFFF
Memory Address 0xF3F80000-0xF3FFFFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 16
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nv4_mini.sys (6.14.10.5216, 1.48 MB (1,550,043 bytes), 12/29/2009 7:05 AM)
Description
Event Timeline
Unfortunately opengl doesn't allow to check on available graphics memory, and we default for 2.5 on "triple buffer".
For nvidia cards, this check is always 'true'... assuming it has sufficient memory.
Googling for NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420, it appears to be 9 years old.
You can test if this is is the issue by opening a tiny window via command line (640x480) or so. Then set user preferences to use "Draw overlap" which is same as for 2.4x
I will keep track of this issue, maybe we can find a nice way to detect older systems...
(moved to opengl tracker).
I tried popping it open from the command prompt with blender.exe -w -p 0 0 640 480 but no luck. Crashed with every size I tried.
You're right, the card turns 9 at the end of this year. I know it is old, but since 2.49b runs on it (with the exception of GLSL), I thought I'd put in the bug. Blender has always been amazing at the range of systems it actually runs on, but maybe this is asking too much!
Then try this: save on another system a startup.blend with triple buffer disabled (set "draw overlap" in user prefs -> system).
Copy that startup.blend to the same location on the other computer (I dont use windows... this file is ehh somewhere, it prints path in the dos box on save :)