trouble with the Home Page
Thu, 2009-03-26 21:46
After installing ZINC on my computer, which was deemed compatible, I have only empty white boxes on the home page. None of the graphics which show the Internet tv stations or other content is visible. However, I can click on any one of them and the program works. How to I fix this problem? I have a Dell XPOS One with the AZTI Radeon2400HD graphics card. I have the most recent driver, and it still will not display the items. I already tried reinstalling two morre times.
Fri, 2009-03-27 08:47
#2
I installed as Firefox plugin on Vista SP1 laptop. I see the same thing - white boxes instead of graphics on all pages. Also, clicking on Applications crashes Firefox.
Mon, 2009-03-30 14:21
#3
Hi all,
I believe I have the "white boxes" issue tracked down and fixed. It's caused by graphics cards that state they support texture compression, but do not.
We will soon be releasing a patch that will address this and other issues.
(For the techies out there: the graphics drivers are reporting that the chipset supports the "GL_ARB_texture_compression" extension, but they don't actually support any compressed texture formats. Much like a Monty Python Cheese Shop doesn't actually have any cheese.)
Mon, 2009-03-30 15:46
#4
Jeff, That's good news. How will I know when the patch is available? Will it be posted here?
Tue, 2009-03-31 07:38
#5
I also installed Zinc on an HP laptop with nvidia graphics, the home page installed perfectly, graphics are visible, no white boxes. Seems to be unique to the dell with the ATI 2400HD graphics card.
Mon, 2009-04-20 06:40
#6
Need to be careful with Dell. They have been known to deliver video with restricted capabilities on their machines. Toshiba used to do that on some of their laptops also, but haven't bought one of those in a few years now. These outfits aim many computer models at the business environment. 2-3 years ago higher graphics capabilities were the domain of gamers - not business people. So they could shave a few cents off their costs by cutting back on the graphics capabilities on their business oriented models. I'd think that practice would have been stopped by now, given how important graphics has become in the business environment.
Sun, 2009-05-10 22:15
#7
What phillfri says is absolutely true. Big computer vendors such as Dell and Toshiba and Sony sometimes deliberately downgrade or disable functionality on their graphic chips.
How they do it:
(1) Take a perfectly nice and functional graphics chipset.
(2) Have the graphics card company (Nvidia/ATI/Intel) change the model number to be custom - for example, if the graphics card company makes a chipset called the "Super Graphics Card 1200", the vendor will distribute the "Super Graphics Card 1250" - which is exactly the same except the device information is different.
(3) Alter the drivers to disable key functionality.
We've seen this in a LOT of cases, to do all kinds of things from cutting back performance so they can charge you for updates, to preventing certain resolutions from working so they cannot be used as media center PCs. (Fun note: we played with several laptops where 1280x720 was not a supported resolution, but 1280x719 works just fine. Sony had deliberately altered the drivers to disable that special resolution. Shame on them!)
A key on how to recognize this:
(1) Go the the chipset manufacturer's website - Nvidia, ATI, or Intel
(2) Try to find drivers for this chipset
(3) If they say you need to go to your computer vendor's website instead of downloading from there - that means the company has messed with the drivers.
Sat, 2010-01-09 02:49
#8
i am having a terrible time getting the zinc app to work i think i may be suffering from the above mentioned molestation of my Graphics card. i have a sony viao notebook, supposed to be compatible with zinc but cant install the newest drivers, either from intel or from sony...what can i do is there a way to hack this?
~~~~~ Also if there is a response to these please e-mail me at:
thekelleyfamilyemail@gmail.com
Thank You~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are investigating.
Carl @ ZeeVee
Carl
Zinc Project Lead