Stellarium

Won't start in Windows 7 32-bit

Asked by Louis Keiner

Hi! We've been using Stellarium with a lot of success in our introductory astronomy classes, using laptops with Windows XP. I have also installed and run it successfully on my Windows 7 64bit desktop.

Our department has purchased a new set of laptops with Windows 7 32bit. We installed Stellarium on these laptops, but it will not run after installation on any of them. The running process appears in the Task Manager for a few seconds, and then disappears without an error.

I have tried running it under XP and Vista compatibility settings, but have gotten the same result.

Here is the log file - it ends at the same point where I use XP, Vista or Windows 7 mode:

====
2011-05-18T11:31:22
Windows Vista
Compiled with GCC 4.4.0
Qt runtime version: 4.7.1
Qt compilation version: 4.7.1
Addressing mode: 32-bit
Total memory: 1023 MB (unreliable)
Total virtual memory: 2047 MB (unreliable)
Physical memory in use: 26%
Processor speed: 2660 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 560 @ 2.67GHz
Processor speed: 2660 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 560 @ 2.67GHz
Processor speed: 2660 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 560 @ 2.67GHz
Processor speed: 2660 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 560 @ 2.67GHz
C:\Program Files\Stellarium\stellarium.exe
 ---------------------------------------------------------
[ This is Stellarium 0.10.6.1 - http://www.stellarium.org ]
[ Copyright (C) 2000-2010 Fabien Chereau et al ]
 ---------------------------------------------------------
Writing log file to: "C:/Users/Biology Faculty/AppData/Roaming/Stellarium/log.txt"
File search paths:
  0 . "C:\Users\Biology Faculty\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium"
  1 . "."
Config file is: "C:\Users\Biology Faculty\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/config.ini"

====

Any ideas?

Thanks!

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Stellarium Edit question
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Solved by:
Matthew Gates
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Best Matthew Gates (matthew-porpoisehead) said : 		#1

This sort of issue is usually a video driver problem. Try updating your video drivers direct from the card manufacturer's website (often, OEM drivers such as the ones from Dell or other machine assembly / sellers are older than those availabale direct from the video card manufacturer's site).

What kind of video hardware do these new machines have?

Revision history for this message
Louis Keiner (lkeiner) said : 		#2

Yes, this fixed the problem. Let me give details for the benefit of others who may see this.

This is a Dell Latitude 6410. with an Intel HD Graphics Adapter. I had already checked the video drivers in the Windows Device Manager utility before I asked the question, and the utility checked and said they were up-to-date (2010).

After your answer, I looked a bit harder. The Intel website said they do not provide any drivers for OEM cards like this Dell. The Dell site, however, had an updated driver for Intel HD Graphics that came out in 2011. I installed that, and Stallarium now works perfectly.

Thanks very much for your quick and helpful reply!

Revision history for this message
Louis Keiner (lkeiner) said : 		#3

Thanks Matthew Gates, that solved my question.