Please include information about your hardware as well.

If you could try also our official test builds we're doing just prior to release of Blender 2.57: http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.57/ (later this week we'll have a real Release Candidate 1).

ok here is my hardware

3 gig of ram
toshiba satellite a205-s7443 with all default setups

windows 7 ultimate (cracked edition?)


Avg and spybot, are my computer cleaning systems, and ive already restored to 3 days ago (blender was working perfectly then) and it still had the same problem

the main statement is the
FAILED TO GET A CONTEXT...
statement i recieve when opening, in fact i can even post a video of me opening blender if need be.

dont know all the defaults for the a205 system, so im going to go get them now, brb:

heres the main specs for the default system of toshiba a205

System Characteristics
1
Part Number and UPC
• Part Number: PSAF3U-07P00V
• UPC: 032017978355
Operating System
• Genuine Windows Vista®
Home Premium (32-bit version)
Processor and Chipset
2
• Intel®
Pentium®
dual-core processor T2310
-1.46GHz, 1MB L2, 533MHz FSB
• Mobile Intel®
GL960 Express Chipset
Memory
3
• Confi gured with 2048MB PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM
(both memory slots may be occupied). Maximum capacity
2048MB
Hard Disk Drive
4
• 160GB (5400 RPM); Serial ATA hard disk drive
Fixed Optical Disk Drive
5
• DVD SuperMulti (+/-R double layer) drive supporting 11
formats
-Maximum speed and compatibility: CD-ROM (24x), CD-R
(24x), CD-RW (16x), DVD-ROM (8x), DVD-R (Single Layer,
(8x)), DVD-R (Double Layer, (4x)), DVD-RW (6x), DVD+R
(Single Layer, (8x)), DVD+R (Double Layer, (4x)), DVD+RW
(8x), DVDRAM (5x)
Display
6
• 15.4” diagonal widescreen TruBrite®
TFT LCD display at
1280x800 native resolution (WXGA)
-Native support for 720p content
Graphics
7
• Mobile Intel®
Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with
128MB-358MB dynamically allocated shared graphics
memory
Sound
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Sound Volume Control Dial
Input Devices
• 86 key US keyboard
• TouchPad™ pointing device
• TouchPad™ Enable/Disable
• Control Buttons:
-Internet button to launch default browser
-CD/DVD control buttons (Play/Pause, Stop, Prev Track,
Next Track)
Communications
• Modem8
• 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet
• Integrated Wi-Fi®
compliant wireless:
9
-Atheros®
802.11b/g wireless-LAN
Expandability
• 2 main memory slots. Both slots may be occupied.
• ExpressCard™ slot (ExpressCard/34 and
Express Card/54)
• 5-in-1 Bridge Media Adapter
-Secure Digital, Memory Stick™, Memory Stick PRO™,
MultiMedia Card, xD Picture Card [shared slots]
Ports
• Video
-RGB (monitor) output port
-S-Video output port
• Audio
-Microphone input port
-Headphone output port
• Data
-i.LINK™ IEEE-1394
-USB v2.0 – 4 ports
-RJ-45 LAN port
-RJ-11 modem port
Physical Description
• Dimensions (WxDxH Front/H Rear): 14.3” x 10.5” x
1.32” /1.55” without feet
• Weight: Starting at 6.00lbs depending upon
confi guration
10
• LCD Cover Color: Onyx Blue
Power
• 75W (19V 3.95A) 100-240V/50-60Hz AC Adapter.
-Dimensions (WxDxH): 4.25” x 1.34” x 1.85”
-Weight: starting at 0.67 lbs
Battery
11
• 4000mAh Lithium Ion battery pack
Software
12
• Toshiba Software and Utilities
-TOSHIBA Value Added Package
-Electronic User’s Guide
-TOSHIBA Confi gFree®
-TOSHIBA Disc Creator
-TOSHIBA DVD Player
-TOSHIBA Extended Tiles for Windows Mobility Center
-TOSHIBA Speech System
• Third-party Software
-TOSHIBA Game Console
-Microsoft Works Version 8.5
-Sun®
Java™ 2 Runtime Environment
-Adobe®
Acrobat®
Reader
-InterVideo®
WinDVD®
8
-Google™ Desktop
-Google™ Toolbar
-Google PicasaTM
-Yahoo! Music™ Jukebox
-Ulead®
DVD MovieFactory®
5 for TOSHIBA
• Trial Software
-Microsoft Offi ce Trial Home and Student 2007 Edition
(60-day trial)
-McAfee®
Internet Security Suite (30-day trial)
• Special Offers
-Microsoft Offi ce Live
-Shutterfl y digital photo service
-Napster®
music subscription service
-eMusic MP3 music subscription service
-VONGOSM internet video download service
-ebay®
-CNN Pipeline
Limited Warranty
13
• 1 Year Standard Limited Warranty
Memory Upgrade
PA3511U-1M51 Toshiba 512MB DDR2-667 Memory
Module
PA3512U-1M1G Toshiba 1GB DDR2-667 Memory
Module
PA3513U-1M2G Toshiba 2GB DDR2-667 Memory
Module
Battery & Power
• PA3534U-1BRS Toshiba Primary Li Ion Battery Pack
(6 Cell)
• PA3535U-1BRS Toshiba Primary Extended Capacity
Li Ion Battery Pack (9 Cell)
• PA3290U-3ACA Toshiba 120W Global AC Adapter
Expansion
PA3541U-2PRP dynadock USB Docking Station with
VGA port
PA3542U-2PRP dynadock USB Docking Station with
DVI port
Security & Protection
PA3567U-1ETC Toshiba Keyboard Protector
PA410U Targus DEFCON CL Cable Lock
Storage
PA3109U-3FDD Toshiba USB Floppy Disk Drive Kit
PA3560U-1M1G Toshiba 1GB USB Hi-Speed Flash
Drive, Ready Boost
PA3560U-1M2G Toshiba 2GB USB Hi-Speed Flash
Drive, Ready Boost
PA3560U-1M4G Toshiba 4GB USB Hi-Speed Flash
Drive
Wireless & Bluetooth
• PA3624U-1NMS Toshiba USB Adapter with Bluetooth
2.0+EDR capability
• PA3573U-1ETA Toshiba Bluetooth Optical Tilt-Wheel
Mouse (Black/Silver)
• PA3573U-1ETB Toshiba Bluetooth Optical Tilt-Wheel
Mouse (Black/Red)
©

thanks for a speedy reply, and also, if i open blender 2.49 i get a different error? should i post this as well?

oh and i upgraded my harddrive to 500 gigs about two months ago, hope this helps!

Did the problem persist also with the 2.57 version?

Ummm, I didnt know 2.57 was out....

But 2.56A and 2.56B both do the Failed to get a context. problem....O.o

so your saying 2.57 is downloadable now????!?!?!?!? thats awesome O.O
if youll provide a link as to where i can get that download, i would check as fast as i can O.o

2.57 RC0 : http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.57/ (not the final release, though).

Ok, downloading now, I will report any problems as soon as i get it installed, hopefully it will take away the startup problem thats been stopping me T~T

installed and this is the message it states upon startup (will upload images upon request of further info)

Failed to get a context...

Blender.exe has crashed. Restart?

If it's worked before then something with your graphics setup has probably changed.. check things like disabling anti-aliasing, changing monitor resolution/color quality (16bit/32bit) and make sure you're not running anything that might be messing with the graphics card (videoplayers, fraps, extra themes...).

It is possible that you saved a corrupt startup.blend with a bad build or so.
Locate it here:

%APPDATA%/Blender Foundation/Blender/x.xx/startup.blend
(According to Nathan people understand that :)

Then move the startup.blend away and test running blender again. If it then works fine, we need the startup.blend attached to tracker.

x.xx be the blender version, 2.56 in this case.

alright ill look directly at my files for a bad build Ton, Nathan ;D I understood, but thanks for more detail (this kept me up all night, so i had to sleep sometime lol!!!) and Juha Ill check again, but if you look at the Blender artists.org link above, I believe this was already covered, Windows 7 wont allow me to do much with the graphics card, and I 'Never' mess with anything to do with such, beings as I have never had this problem

Will post results to the two helps in about ten minutes :D

O.O I dont have a startup, look at the attached images and there should be 2 new ones

Ok here is my still original specs for the setup of my graphics card

Color 32 bit
Mobile Intel 965 Express chipset- working properly, no new updates, no recent updates(as in right before my problem, but i had one maybe a month ago)
all other controls are either A. Turned off (default option)
or B. set to default

Nothing has changed in occurence with my drivers or my graphics card, I have Python version 2.62 for 2.49 and python 3.2 for 2.7
everything runs properly, other than the fact that I cant run blender ;{

Jeff, if I’m not saying stupid things, the %APPDATA% folder is a global-system one, so you won’t find it under your downloaded Blender dir.

You should find it in C:\ProgramData,, or in your user dir, somthing like C:\Users\YourLogin\AppData, or …\YourLogin\Application Data… Else, try a global search over the whole C:\!

Anyway, you surely have one!

You are definately not saying anything stupid xD checking now
heres the results, wont allow me to use it so no results but i am posting it in the attachments directory for viewing

wouldnt allow me to submit without a comment for some odd reason ;P

would deleteing everything (including the appdata) and then reinstalling help me any?

First try renaming startup.blend to something else, like thiswasstartup.blend, then restart blender and see if it still works. If that doesn't work, rename the 2.56 directory to 2.56.orig and start the blender.exe from the RC0 self-extracting archive (and no other blender.exe).

alright, well ill do that and post results, but just so you know, I have team viewer, so if you want, you can view my computer and see it that way, might fix the problem fast lol , I have sopme computer knowledge, but not enough to write code (not like I havent tried though, thanks for all the help so far
Exspecially to nathan!!!

still nothing to both of those
renamed startup file thisisstartup.blend, gave me failed to get context
renamed driectory 2.56.orig still said failed to get directory, and that was with the 2.7 trunk download I recieved earlier via here

SOLVED:

Found a problem in the App Directory, completely deleted it, reinstalled blender, deleted it again, wiped all traces from my computer, and then reinstalled an Official Build of blender, Didnot reset computer, only went through and deleted everything that stated Blender or Blend
I have to start all my work ever created over, but at least it works now :D

Thanks for all your help guys
mostly Nathan and Bastiene! (im sorry if spelt incorrectly)

Although im quite unsure what the problem was in the app directory, i know it had something to do with the z (something something) DLL, when I scanned for any discrepancies, and scanned for compatability issues it named this as the problem

I reccomend looking into it further even though my problem has been solved, because it seems a few people have also had this problem, but had backed up their systems stuff so they just restored automatically

in 2.49 it tells you the icon is insane
in 2.5x it tells you it Failed to find a context...

I think this is an ongoing problem (as i have found another post that recieved the same problem in 2.49)

But I want to tell you that windows 7 doesnt allow for the driver acceleration to be turned completely off, so to make blender compatable, either find a workaround, or tell people to run in Windows XP compatability mode

Thanks again!!!

Good that you got a working Blender now!

The z(something).dll, would that be the zlib.dll?

Turning off driver acceleration should work pretty well by ensuring you use Windows Classic theme, and turn off _each_ and _every_ graphical gimmic the Windows interface might want to do.

I think that was the one, although its been about 32 hours since Ive slept, so excuse me if im wrong.... O.o so tired lol

yeah but even then the driver acceleration still wont allow feedback or even changing around, I recomment people run blender in windows xp compatability mode just to save time and hardship, if they do that then the driver automatically loses about 93% of its tasks, as compared to only about 85% when you run windows classic theme ;D works great though xD have to install every single addon I ever had though, which is really gonna suck

Thanks for all the help guys :D

Thanks for reporting back :) I'm closing this report now.