He had it on our laptop before, he's been playing for a year, he's a fairly advanced player, I think. I am fairly clueless. He is having trouble putting Minecraft on the PC I bought him. I tried to make sure it could run it. I'm very computer literate but I get lost in Minecraft stuff. Can you guys tell by the stats listed below if there is some glaring obvious reason why he can't download Minecraft on it? He says he got as far as the launcher, but then it sat there forever and would never really load. Something about loading one word at a time. This was his birthday present, and he's a little worried it can't do what he most does on the computer: use Minecraft!
Model............................Dell Optilex 740 Small Form Factor
Mega lesson here > NEVER BUY COMPUTERS OR ELECTRONIC PARTS/DEVICES OFF EBAY! Sorry to say this; You probably got suckered to unimaginable levels here (since buy price is not listed, I have to say "probably").
NVS 210S (6150LE), is severely old to say. It is not even an GPU that is meant to run games at all. This system I hate to say, is only good for lite web browsing and non demanding tasks like word processing. The GPU is not able to run Minecraft sadly or any game for that matter.
The CPU could suffice to a limit and ram, but the GPU will outright not work.
He had it on our laptop before, he's been playing for a year, he's a fairly advanced player, I think. I am fairly clueless. He is having trouble putting Minecraft on the PC I bought him. I tried to make sure it could run it. I'm very computer literate but I get lost in Minecraft stuff. Can you guys tell by the stats listed below if there is some glaring obvious reason why he can't download Minecraft on it? He says he got as far as the launcher, but then it sat there forever and would never really load. Something about loading one word at a time. This was his birthday present, and he's a little worried it can't do what he most does on the computer: use Minecraft!
Model............................Dell Optilex 740 Small Form Factor
I'd recommend returning it, and just being honest and saying it doesn't work for your purposes. then order a new one off of BestBuy or NewEgg (BestBuy for prebuilt, or NewEgg to build one yourself. NewEgg's prices are better on components)
Thank you for the responses. I will ask him about the launcher log. As for buying on eBay, it's the third or fourth computer I've bought on eBay, and I've never had an issue. It's got to be something that isn't readily see-able because the basic specs on Minecraft's site are met with the system, It exceeds the recommended, which exceeds the minimum:
Minimum: OS: Windows XP/Vista/7 OpenGL: 1.4 Processor: 2GHz (Single Core) RAM: 512MB(XP), 1GB(Vista/7) Hard Drive: 500MB Video: 128MB
Recommended: OS: Windows XP/Vista/7 OpenGL: 2 Processor: 2GHz (Duel Core) RAM: 2GB Hard Drive: 1GB Video: 512MB
These are what i checked before I bought it. He has friends running even older systems that are working fine with it, so I don't believe it's simply the age of the system. I'm not a total idiot where the PC specs are concerned, I'm only lame where Minecraft is concerned. My bachelors is in IT database programming and software design and my job requires me to know the ins and outs of my computer(s) very well. So since the PC i bought meets the requirements, is there some other reason? The internet connection isn't quite as fast up in his room because it's on the opposite side of the house. But it was running fine on the laptop he had previously. I can get the log from him tomorrow, he's already gone to bed for now.
Seewry, so you're saying it's the video card that's the issue? Neither of our other systems, though newer, have special video cards, just standard, and my computer was purchased refurbished last year so it is not a brand new system.
To be completely honest, that's a bad computer and you got it off of ebay... the CPU is outdated. DDR2 RAM is outdated not to mention you have 2 GB which is next to nothing. And is the storage is outdated as well (SATA III is what's normally used now.) Integrated graphics normally aren;t very good either. Minecraft isn't a demanding game so I'd assume you could still run it with those specs. Maybe file was corrupted while downloading. Normally when booting up minecraft for the first time, it downloads all the necessary files so maybe he wasn't patient enough. I'd recommend returning the computer, going on newegg, and finding the parts so you could build a computer of higher quality and for a better price. Or maybe even the same quality and for a lower price.
Minimum Requirements:
CPU: Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz
RAM: 2GB
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics or AMD (formerly ATI) Radeon HD Graphics with OpenGL 2.1
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT or AMD Radeon HD 2400 with OpenGL 3.1
They're definitely not going to let me return it since there's nothing wrong with it. It's exactly what they said it was. A new computer is not an option, there's not enough money to do that. I know he'd need more if he were doing other games, but it's only Minecraft that he's interested in. I can work on selling it and getting him another one but I hate that his bday present isn't working. It should though, that's the problem that is irritating me. It should run it fine. I'm capable of building a computer, but with a newborn, being a stay at home homeschooling mom, plus working from home 30 hours a week, that's not happening right now.
Kyletics, are those your suggested minimums or are those newer MInecraft minimums than what I Was finding? I will certainly re read the seller's policies, but I can't see them letting me return it b/c I didn't get what I needed.
Quote from littleangelfire»
Seewry, so you're saying it's the video card that's the issue? Neither of our other systems, though newer, have special video cards, just standard, and my computer was purchased refurbished last year so it is not a brand new system.
One should never listen to minimum/maximum requirements for software. They normally are absurdly rated and normally always are.
The 6150LE (NVS 210S) was released in 2003. While yes technically it "supports" OGL2.1, requirement for Minecraft 1.7.4+, it also is awfully weak. It is possible to optimize the system and game (optifine on lowest settings @ 800 x 600 resolution) so it can run somewhat ok but probably no better then 20~ frames a second at best. The GPU is almost on par with an Intel GMA965 performance wise through benchmarks.
To put in non laden terms. Yes, it can work but is likely just missing its driver. DXDiag can show what OS and what is current installed software and driver wise on the machine and proper configuration can be done from there. I just seriously hope you paid no more then 100~ USD for such system.
OK so the seller does say I can return within 30 days for any reason, I just have to pay shipping. So I may have to do that. But my budget for this was $120, that's it. My son was insistent on having Windows 8, not XP, Vista, or 7, that's why I chose this one, it was the best priced one I could find with at least the minimum specs required and Windows 8. Any other ideas? I appreciate the help. I'm so bummed his gift isn't working out, it's the only gift he got b/c the whole family chipped in on it. And shipping back I'll bet will be expensive.
OK so the seller does say I can return within 30 days for any reason, I just have to pay shipping. So I may have to do that. But my budget for this was $120, that's it. My son was insistent on having Windows 8, not XP, Vista, or 7, that's why I chose this one, it was the best priced one I could find with at least the minimum specs required and Windows 8. Any other ideas? I appreciate the help. I'm so bummed his gift isn't working out, it's the only gift he got b/c the whole family chipped in on it. And shipping back I'll bet will be expensive.
If this machine has Windows 8, that hurts it even far more due to fact it does not meet requirements for Windows 8 on the DirectX level. As well there is likely not an driver for it on Windows 8 either as it is legacy end of life hardware.
littleangelfire, before purchasing a new CPU or returning your son's computer like others suggest, I'd recommend that you post the launcher log so we can help out. I'm fairly certain that your son's computer is capable of playing Minecraft, as I have tried it on much older systems and it has worked fine. It's probably a software issue, not a hardware issue.
They're definitely not going to let me return it since there's nothing wrong with it. It's exactly what they said it was. A new computer is not an option, there's not enough money to do that. I know he'd need more if he were doing other games, but it's only Minecraft that he's interested in. I can work on selling it and getting him another one but I hate that his bday present isn't working. It should though, that's the problem that is irritating me. It should run it fine. I'm capable of building a computer, but with a newborn, being a stay at home homeschooling mom, plus working from home 30 hours a week, that's not happening right now.
Kyletics, are those your suggested minimums or are those newer MInecraft minimums than what I Was finding? I will certainly re read the seller's policies, but I can't see them letting me return it b/c I didn't get what I needed.
One should never listen to minimum/maximum requirements for software. They normally are absurdly rated and normally always are.
The 6150LE (NVS 210S) was released in 2003. While yes technically it "supports" OGL2.1, requirement for Minecraft 1.7.4+, it also is awfully weak. It is possible to optimize the system and game (optifine on lowest settings @ 800 x 600 resolution) so it can run somewhat ok but probably no better then 20~ frames a second at best. The GPU is almost on par with an Intel GMA965 performance wise through benchmarks.
To put in non laden terms. Yes, it can work but is likely just missing its driver. DXDiag can show what OS and what is current installed software and driver wise on the machine and proper configuration can be done from there. I just seriously hope you paid no more then 100~ USD for such system.
I guess I should've remembered that from other things I've run and thought the minimums weren't enough. I didn't think of it. I paid $120, I'm suspecting a larger portion of what I paid was for Windows 8. DXDiag sounds familiar, I believe I've used it before. I couldn't find anything with Windows at and the needed memory for less than that.
If this machine has Windows 8, that hurts it even far more due to fact it does not meet requirements for Windows 8 on the DirectX level. As well there is likely not an driver for it on Windows 8 either as it is legacy end of life hardware.
I'll admit I bought the system in a hurry, failed to look up the actual release date of the system, and didn't realize its age nor that it was a system originally sold with XP and later upgraded to 8. But that does make sense.
littleangelfire, before purchasing a new CPU or returning your son's computer like others suggest, I'd recommend that you post the launcher log so we can help out. I'm fairly certain that your son's computer is capable of playing Minecraft, as I have tried it on much older systems and it has worked fine. It's probably a software issue, not a hardware issue.
Thank you for this helpful bit!! I'm not sure how to get into the log, but hopefully my son does or we will figure it out so we can post it. What you said was exactly what I keep thinking. He's got all these friends who are playing Minecraft and I know for darn sure these kids 10 and under are NOT playing on new machines. I know we oculdn't get it to work on a couple older systems previously, but they were even older, 2004-ish.
We need to see what is in your Launcher Log, which can be found on the second tab of the launcher. We also need to see what is in your Game Output (if it exists), which can be found on the last tab in the launcher with your Minecraft username.
Quote from littleangelfire»
Thank you for this helpful bit!! I'm not sure how to get into the log, but hopefully my son does or we will figure it out so we can post it. What you said was exactly what I keep thinking. He's got all these friends who are playing Minecraft and I know for darn sure these kids 10 and under are NOT playing on new machines. I know we oculdn't get it to work on a couple older systems previously, but they were even older, 2004-ish.
Not all is lost though as this system can work to a limit. An yes, you probably paid only 20 USD for the actual machine itself, 99 USD for the Windows 8 OEM license. However, no harm in not trying to get it to work.
As Cestislife has said twice so far. Open the Minecraft Launcher and go to the Launcher Log tab and copy and paste the text here into a spoiler.
Thank you guys! The computer is in his room where he's sleeping so I will get it tomorrow and paste here and see what you guys think. Thank you for being willing to help. Thank you for the instructions on how to get to the log, since I'm not sure if he knew where it was or not.
The 6150LE (NVS 210S) was released in 2003. While yes technically it "supports" OGL2.1, requirement for Minecraft 1.7.4+, it also is awfully weak.
Though it's weak for sure (I think my older GeForce 4 Ti from 2001 might have been better...), it's a bit newer than that. The GeForce 6 series debuted in early 2004 with the much higher end GeForce 6800 series, and the GeForce 6150 series came a couple of years later (looking it up as I post this to confirm, it seems it was mid 2006). The GeForce 6 series is said to support OpenGL 2.0 (not 2.1), but I can't find much on it the much later GeForce 6150 supports 2.1, which came around in 2006 as well, and how important it is that it supports 2.1 and not just 2.0.
In any case, older versions may work, but you're kind of going short on him to give him the game limited to older versions if that GeForce 6150 isn't up to task of newer versions. Even if it does work, I can't imagine anything other than abysmal performance to be honest. Keep in mind that the GeForce 6 series is also no longer supported by drivers from nVidia.
There's already a lot of information in this thread, but I just wanted to emphasize the point that the single easiest way to make an older computer NOT run minecraft, is to upgrade the OS. This gets you into unsupported driver land. The forum is full of people who upgraded to Win 8/8.1 and their computers stopped running minecraft because there are no fully functional drivers for their hardware on that OS.
NVS 210S (6150LE), is severely old to say. It is not even an GPU that is meant to run games at all. This system I hate to say, is only good for lite web browsing and non demanding tasks like word processing. The GPU is not able to run Minecraft sadly or any game for that matter.
The CPU could suffice to a limit and ram, but the GPU will outright not work.
I'd recommend returning it, and just being honest and saying it doesn't work for your purposes. then order a new one off of BestBuy or NewEgg (BestBuy for prebuilt, or NewEgg to build one yourself. NewEgg's prices are better on components)
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
OpenGL: 1.4
Processor: 2GHz (Single Core)
RAM: 512MB(XP), 1GB(Vista/7)
Hard Drive: 500MB
Video: 128MB
Recommended:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
OpenGL: 2
Processor: 2GHz (Duel Core)
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drive: 1GB
Video: 512MB
These are what i checked before I bought it. He has friends running even older systems that are working fine with it, so I don't believe it's simply the age of the system. I'm not a total idiot where the PC specs are concerned, I'm only lame where Minecraft is concerned. My bachelors is in IT database programming and software design and my job requires me to know the ins and outs of my computer(s) very well. So since the PC i bought meets the requirements, is there some other reason? The internet connection isn't quite as fast up in his room because it's on the opposite side of the house. But it was running fine on the laptop he had previously. I can get the log from him tomorrow, he's already gone to bed for now.
Seewry, so you're saying it's the video card that's the issue? Neither of our other systems, though newer, have special video cards, just standard, and my computer was purchased refurbished last year so it is not a brand new system.
Minimum Requirements:
Kyletics, are those your suggested minimums or are those newer MInecraft minimums than what I Was finding? I will certainly re read the seller's policies, but I can't see them letting me return it b/c I didn't get what I needed.
One should never listen to minimum/maximum requirements for software. They normally are absurdly rated and normally always are.
The 6150LE (NVS 210S) was released in 2003. While yes technically it "supports" OGL2.1, requirement for Minecraft 1.7.4+, it also is awfully weak. It is possible to optimize the system and game (optifine on lowest settings @ 800 x 600 resolution) so it can run somewhat ok but probably no better then 20~ frames a second at best. The GPU is almost on par with an Intel GMA965 performance wise through benchmarks.
To put in non laden terms. Yes, it can work but is likely just missing its driver. DXDiag can show what OS and what is current installed software and driver wise on the machine and proper configuration can be done from there. I just seriously hope you paid no more then 100~ USD for such system.
If this machine has Windows 8, that hurts it even far more due to fact it does not meet requirements for Windows 8 on the DirectX level. As well there is likely not an driver for it on Windows 8 either as it is legacy end of life hardware.
https://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/325948-minecraft-system-requirements
that's the link where I got those specs from but SeaWry is most likely right about them being exaggerated
I guess I should've remembered that from other things I've run and thought the minimums weren't enough. I didn't think of it. I paid $120, I'm suspecting a larger portion of what I paid was for Windows 8. DXDiag sounds familiar, I believe I've used it before. I couldn't find anything with Windows at and the needed memory for less than that.
this is totally unfamiliar to me, but I will look it up, thank you.
I'll admit I bought the system in a hurry, failed to look up the actual release date of the system, and didn't realize its age nor that it was a system originally sold with XP and later upgraded to 8. But that does make sense.
Thank you for this helpful bit!! I'm not sure how to get into the log, but hopefully my son does or we will figure it out so we can post it. What you said was exactly what I keep thinking. He's got all these friends who are playing Minecraft and I know for darn sure these kids 10 and under are NOT playing on new machines. I know we oculdn't get it to work on a couple older systems previously, but they were even older, 2004-ish.
The folder is at C:/Users/<name>/appdata/roaming/.minecraft/logs/
Not all is lost though as this system can work to a limit. An yes, you probably paid only 20 USD for the actual machine itself, 99 USD for the Windows 8 OEM license. However, no harm in not trying to get it to work.
As Cestislife has said twice so far. Open the Minecraft Launcher and go to the Launcher Log tab and copy and paste the text here into a spoiler.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/support/unmodified-minecraft-client/tutorials-and-faqs/1871677-obtaining-a-dxdiag-log
Then go there and follow those instructions and paste those contents in a separate spoiler.
Though it's weak for sure (I think my older GeForce 4 Ti from 2001 might have been better...), it's a bit newer than that. The GeForce 6 series debuted in early 2004 with the much higher end GeForce 6800 series, and the GeForce 6150 series came a couple of years later (looking it up as I post this to confirm, it seems it was mid 2006). The GeForce 6 series is said to support OpenGL 2.0 (not 2.1), but I can't find much on it the much later GeForce 6150 supports 2.1, which came around in 2006 as well, and how important it is that it supports 2.1 and not just 2.0.
In any case, older versions may work, but you're kind of going short on him to give him the game limited to older versions if that GeForce 6150 isn't up to task of newer versions. Even if it does work, I can't imagine anything other than abysmal performance to be honest. Keep in mind that the GeForce 6 series is also no longer supported by drivers from nVidia.