Minecraft - bad video card drivers!
 

Ok, this sort of relates to the Lego thread in J.B. A poster suggested Minecraft as worth a look, a sort of digital successor to Lego. Well, I thought I would try the demo. I have created an account but have hit a snag with running the demo.

Firstly, I get a Java security alert which I ignored. I have the latest version of Java. The demo starts to load but I get the message:

Bad video card drivers!
-----------------------

Minecraft was unable to start because it failed to find an accelerated OpenGL mode.
This can usually be fixed by updating the video card drivers.


I have checked and a newer AMD driver is available (AMD Autodetect). My question is, what is the risk of downloading/installing the latest driver? Everything else is working fine as it is, I don't want to mess things up. Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit. I guess I should backup and set a restore point or something but this is an area I can't seem to get my head around:ugh:.

I have a 250gb ext. drive available. I can give more system details if needed. Thanks! I didn't whether to post here or post on the Lego thread.:ok:

Just update to the latest driver.

When I do it, I tend to download the new drivers to the desktop, make a restore point, uninstall (don't use delete) the old drivers, restart and then install the new drivers from the download on the desktop.

You will then be prompted for a second restart.

I have found in the past that Catalyst Control Centre sometimes gets upset if you just use the update driver facility.

Windows sometimes whinges that it has found new drivers when it restarts (can't remember if that is the case with AMD) but don't let it do that - you want to install the latest drivers from the AMD site, which are on your desktop.

finncapt, thanks for that info. I think I need to get myself familiar with back-ups and restore point stuff first. I'm assuming I can do a restore from a back-up on an ext. USB drive. I really am rusty with all this!

You do not need a back up for this task.

A back up is a totally different thing.

With a backup, you are making a second copy of all, or part of, your file system, on another hard disk or whatever, in case your hard disk fails.

You just need a restore point, which allows you to return to the point at which you created the restore point, if something goes wrong while installing the new driver - you haven't lost the hard disk.

Whenever Windows does an update it creates a restore point before it does it, automatically.

There is a menu item to create a restore point.

Google "create a restore point in windows 7" for instructions.

fc - thanks. This is where I was getting confused. I understand the difference between a backup and a restore point now, it's so helpful to be told the basics.

I do a scheduled back up to an external of system drive C, though not really sure what files are being backed up.

I also do a manual back up of my documents on drive D.

I did actually turn off the restore point setting as I thought it was taking up too much space but have now turned it back on and made a manual restore point.

Sorry about the repetition here as there are 2 current threads on the restore/back-up subject. I've been through those and hopefully understand a bit more now. I realise I'm drifting off my own thread here but I've been wanting to tackle this backup/restore stuff for sometime before something goes wrong.

Am I right that a System Image is different entirely? I also saw a reference to Shadow Copy but not sure where. My EXT. is formatted FAT32 as I share it with the Mac. I understand that to save a system image the format must be NTFS.

I know it's possible to create 2 partitions on the drive each formatted differently but to do that now I think I would lose all data stored, I'm not sure.

Still looking forward to trying digital Lego. Cheers all.

Before you get your hopes too high, Pelikal, Minecraft is not digital Lego. For that, you need to use Lego's own Digital Designer platform where you can build everything and anything, never run out of bricks and, if the humour takes you, order instructions to build in real life the masterpiece you've created in your virtual world. It used to be possible to order the entire collection of pieces needed to build the model but that service was discontinued last year; now you have to make your own shopping list and order the pieces in a separate process.

Minecraft it the antithesis of Lego: you start with the blocky world and chip away at it for hours, days, weeks, months on end to create glorious caverns, unearthing treasures and horrors as you go. The clue is in the prefix "Mine" :}
Beneath it's gaming façade, for those that choose to look, Minecraft is a introduction to computer programming and server management. It has absolutely nothing to do with physical engineering, but applies the "get 'em while they're young" aspect of Lego/Meccano to IT.

And this is what you can do while you're on work-experience! Minecrafting with OS OpenData | Innovate | Ordnance Survey

Simply, a system image is a snapshot of the Win7 system files at the moment when it was made.

It would save you having to reinstall windows with all it's updates to bring you back to where you were (very time consuming), again, if you bricked your hard drive or did something really catastrophic to the windows installation - if you use the win7 backup option it will ask if you want to backup your system image in addition to your files.

You really only need restore points for the c drive - the menus allow this and you can limit the number of restore points by limiting the space available - I think I mentioned this on the bios thread - mine is about 3.7gb? and I had 4 or more.

Yes, I imagine you can formatt different partitions differently but I've never tried directly.

If one installs a linux system on the same drive as windows, unless you instruct it differently, it will do that, so I have done it but never thought about it in that way.

Shadow copy I have not heard of but I will read up about it now you mention it.

Must make dinner for mrs F so not till tomorrow!!!

So basically you're not doing a backup. :ugh:

The old rule of thumb is to backup the stuff you can't afford to loose and don't backup the stuff you can (i.e. OS and software which you can, and should, reinstall from scratch rather than trying to restore).

Also, as I've mentioned elsewhere... System Restore / Shadow Copy / whatever you want to call it IS NOT a backup mechanism. It cannot be relied on, has minimal real-life uses, and only works 50% of the time when you want to use it.

I wouldn't bother with snapshot backups unless you want to waste un-necessary storage space. Just establish where you keep your most prized files (docs, images, music etc.) and back them up .... everything else filling up your drive really does not matter !

I appreciate replies, thanks.

mixture,
I guess I have to agree with that! However to clarify, I was referring to the Windows back up which I think is only backing up system drive C. I don't know what is being backed up there or how useful it could be. It seems to be spread all over the place.

I do, however, manually back up my important docs and pictures on the D drive as you suggest, so in this instance I do know what I'm backing up. Thanks for making the picture clearer, perhaps I'm not so far off with strategy! Just a bit nervous about updating the drivers just to run Minecraft with no guarantees. Cheers.

Just update the drivers - it will be alright.

You remind me of those old BOAC captains who could never decide when to divert -they would have run out of fuel rather than make a decision.

Thank goodness we had a flight engineer to help us poor copilots.

Sorry if I sound harsh but it will be alright.

Updating a bios though should not be done lightly.

finncapt, love the analogy! Probably why I never became a pilot...Will try updating tomorrow.

and

I know an engineer who was tasked with the relatively simple task of installing print drivers on a server for a Lexmark printer......

....which turned into an epic ten hour job filled with blue screens and crashes !

Turns out that in all their wisdom, Lexmark, unlike most other manufacturers on the planet, decided to write kernel mode drivers for their printers. Something which apparently they were not very good at doing either.

But I digress, I don't want to scare Pelikal too much ! :E

Moi? Scared? It only took me 10 months to network an iMac on Panther to a Windows 7 machine.:O (by the way that is working so well now thanks in part to the help here).

edit:
Ok, I am scared....

It appears I have the latest drivers installed, so no Minecraft for mehttp://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ies/boohoo.gif