I've tried to install Blender on a laptop running Windows (to continue a project started under Linux). Blender has never been installed on that laptop before.
Tried first with latest release (2.59), successively with the ZIP and the EXE versions (32-bit). In both cases Blender installed fine, but crashed systematically at startup (texts such as menus, .... get blurred or even invisible, and sometimes I don't even get the UI and the splash screen, the crash occurs beforehand). The Microsoft crash/bug report utility that pops up under such circumstances always points out "atioglxx.dll" (the ATI OpenGL driver) as the culprit.
Downgraded to 2.58a Blender release : the same.
Downgraded again to 2.58 release : this time no problem, Blender runs fine.
What happened in the 2.58 => 2.58a move that makes the ATI OpenGL driver fail ?
Regards.
Description
Event Timeline
make sure you have the latest driver installed. Further your report lacks vital info (OS, video card).
Blender runs fine on my Windows 7 (64bit) machine with ATi cards (two ATi HD 5550 with 4 monitors attached).
Driver Packaging Version 8.861-110524a-119606C-ATI
Catalyst Version 11.6
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1162
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0003
Direct3D Version 7.14.10.0841
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10834
AMD VISION Engine Control Center Version 2011.0524.2352.41027
Sorry for forgotting this basic info (I had some trouble to get my account on blender.org first, so when I finally got it, I simply forgot to give these items).
OS = Windows XP Home SP2 (32-bit).
Graphics card : ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (in fact, this should be the graphics chip - as I mentioned in the first message, this PC is *not* a desktop but a *laptop*, so don't expect a separate video card of the latest generation, but rather a video chip embedded in the motherboard... Additionnaly, Catalyst 11 does not support this "card", which is supposedly considered "too old" (and for a laptop, changing the video card is not an option...).
What surprised me (that's the reason why I posted this) is that Blender release 2.58 (dated 21 June 2011, that's just 2 months ago) works perfectly well with this "old" card and its so-called "old driver"... The issue traces to the release of 2.58a (3 July 2011).
Should I consider sticking with Blender 2.58 ?
Regards.
Hi,
Could not reproduce on my ATI Radeon 9600XT with legacy Catalyst 10.2 drivers, system is Windows XP Professional 32-bit and zipped 2.59 from blender.org. My card has issues at least with VBO's (specifically mapping them to memory and in general using them in the first place); now that I checked it even the default cube seems to go missing if I enable them and I've had crashes with my own code which do not happen on other cards.
If you've enabled VBO, I'd try using 2.58 to disable the setting, save user preferences and test with 2.58a. 2.59 has it's own config-folder with a startup.blend, on my system there is a folder in Documents and Setting\<your login here>\ Application Data\ Blender Foundation\2.59\config ... maybe just remove the startup.blend there in case it's copied settings from earlier versions.
A bit adhoc but I hope it helps.
No reply in 5 days..
Most probably it's driver or videocard fault. We've got plenty of familiar reports a;ready. Moving to OpenGL tracker. Feel free to poke me if additional information would be known.