Video Card requirements for Google Earth

[KenB]

Hi Ray

 

Use the NVidia site

click here

 

Use the Auto detect ( option 2 )

 

Lets see what that comes up with.

[Ray1000]

NVIDIA Driver Downloads

 

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[TD=class: gridHeader]Product[/TD]

[TD=class: gridHeader]Current

Installed Driver[/TD]

[TD=class: gridHeader]Recommended

Update[/TD]

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[TD=class: gridItem, width: 150]GeForce4 MX 440[/TD]

[TD=class: gridItem]93.71[/TD]

[TD=class: gridItem]Your PC currently has the latest driver installed for your GPU. No driver update is necessary at this time.[/TD]

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[KenB]

Hi Ray

 

I had a full head of hair when I started this thread - now most of it has gone :)

 

You have probably done this - but humour me .....

Start > type in ....dxdiag .....ENTER

Click the Display tab, and then under DirectX Features, check to see whether DirectDraw, Direct3D, or AGP Texture acceleration are enabled.

[Ray1000]

You are right Ken I had checked it at your suggestion ... double checked ... they are enabled and it passes the 3D tests as well.

 

It might be best to draw a line under it ... we seem to have covered every angle ... if it mysteriously comes back you'll be the first to know ... at least I have GE working on a tablet if I need it.

 

Thank you very much for your help.

 

Ray

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Ray, it would be interesting to know how well this works, first go to Google's main page, then at the top click on Maps, if you then hover your mouse pointer over the small map icon on the top right, you should see first the Google earth, click that and the window opens asking you to download the GE plug in, ignore that, you should see in the place of "Earth", the word "Satellite", if you click on that it will give you at least the ordinary satellite photo's.

From the photo's, zoom in to wherever you want and provided on a public road it should go to "Street view"

it isn't of course the full 3D, but at least you can view places and things directly from your browser.

 

Nev.

[Ray1000]

Thank you Nev,

 

It's the first time I've tried Maps on the Google page so I don't know how good it should be.

 

The buildings are in 3d and the street view is just as it should be, but the transition from one thing to another is quite slow.

 

Ray

[KenB]

The buildings are in 3d and the street view is just as it should be

So 3D is actually working ( in a fashion ) ?

 

the transition from one thing to another is quite slow.

This could be due to the amount of RAM you have.

[Ray1000]

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj161/JRD81/3D.jpg

 

Ram 1.25GB

 

The first picture is from the satellite option of Google Maps.

 

I notice there is a Google Earth option on the Google maps page ... it took it about 30 - 50 secs to load but it works strangely.

 

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj161/JRD81/GMapstoGEarth.jpg

 

The plot thickens ...

 

Ray

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Ray, at least that works, and like Ken suggested an increase in the amount of RAM, may help.

 

I suggest having a look at the Crucial website, then run their scanner, it will tell you how much extra RAM you can fit and what type is needed.

 

http://www.crucial.com/

 

look for their System scanner, if using Internet explorer it should work directly I think, or if using a different browsre such as Firefox, you may have to download to run the scanner.

 

You don't need to buy from them, but take note of what they recommend.

 

Nev.

[Ray1000]

Thank you Nev ... I'll have a look.

 

Ray

[Ray1000]

Recap ...

 

After a re-format on my desktop I couldn't get any version of Google Earth to work even though the computer is capable of projecting 3D images from Google Maps onto the Samsung SyncMaster 172v monitor.

 

With your help we tried everything imaginable to solve it.

 

Having brought the bottom half of a modern laptop back to life - Dual Core processor - 4Gb of Ram and Windows Vista but no screen, I was sure Google Earth would be a piece of cake ... but I get the same response, when coupled to the same monitor ... I wonder if it is the monitor causing the problem somehow?

 

In the meantime I'll couple the laptop to a different monitor and see what happens ...

 

Ray

Edited April 20, 2013 by Ray1000

[KenB]

If the monitor is a common factor Ray - it is worthwhile trying another.

 

( Don't go out and buy one :) )

[Ray1000]

It is a common factor Ken,

 

The laptop coupled to the desktop monitor gave all the same messages as the tower did while failing to start Google Earth.

 

Connected the laptop to the older LG Flatron 1510S 15" monitor and it loaded and worked almost normally ...I say almost because the initial picture has a series of powdery white bands encircling the globe ... these disapear as you zoom in, and the 3D street view scenes are perfect. (I'll Google this to see if there is a simple explanation)

 

I'll continue to look at the Samsung monitor and drivers and see if I can spot something amiss.

 

Ray

[Ray1000]

Giving Google Earth another try on the desktop I notice the change in screen colour I mentioned earlier in the thread is due to the setting in Display changing to 8bit the moment you try to start the program.

 

I found the following on Google ... Someone else with the same problem from 2008 ...

 

I have a very odd problem with Google Earth.

 

I work at the University of Tasmania doing tech support, and one of

our clients uses Google Earth to display maps for her teaching.

However, when she starts it up, it switches her display to 8-bit

colour and won't let her use DirectX mode. OpenGL mode still switches

to 8-bit, will run, but at a very poor framerate.

 

This is not a driver issue! I have installed the latest drivers that

Dell have provided for this model, and Google Earth works fine when

signed in to the domain under my username, and an unpriveliged test

user account.

 

It's almost as if just -her- account causes Google Earth to completely

forget the installed drivers. I have tried uninstalling, reinstalling,

deleting application data, removing registry entries between installs.

I'm stumped.

[KenB]

Based on what has been said here ,,,,,,,,,,,, try creating a new account and run Google Earth from there to see if you get the same problem.