Question Blender crashes on starup on an old laptop

[Denaredor]

Currently I'm using Lenovo Ideapad Z575 laptop. My laptop specs are AMD A8-3500M APU (1.5-2.4 GHz) with integrated Radeon HD 6620G, 8 GB RAM. Discrete graphics card stopped working about 5 months ago and it's probably dead. Also wanted to add that the only graphics driver I can use is dated 2013. The later ones just refuse to work at all. The operating system is a well-optimized Windows 10 Pro 22H2. I also tried to use Linux (many distros, including Linux Mint Mate, XFCE, Cinammon, Arch Linux, Fedora, Manjaro, Zorin OS etc.), but they appear to work even worse than Windows.

At the moment we're learning Blender in computer science classes at school. Everyone including the teacher uses the latest version of Blender (if I'm not mistaken, it's v3.11). When I try to run it on my crappy laptop the window closes itself after a few seconds of waiting. I did a research and found out the latest version of Blender I can use is v2.79. It works well, but the main issue is that it has a terrible user interface. All the instructions the teacher gives us are intended to work on the latest version of Blender. Furthermore, my native language is not supported for Blender v2.79 which makes the learning process even more difficult.

Don't give me any trash pieces of advice like "go and buy yourself a new laptop" etc. The financial situation is really bad therefore I can't afford even an used device. If it's not possible to put Blender to work then give me some alternatives that are pretty much similar to Blender v3.11.

 

[COLGeek]

It will be hard to learn Blender, if not using Blender, especially if that is what is used in class.

There really isn't a way to make your rig meet the hardware requirements:

Requirements & Compatibility — blender.org

Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

www.blender.org

Have you tried any of these? https://alternativeto.net/software/blender/

 

[Denaredor]

It will be hard to learn Blender, if not using Blender, especially if that is what is used in class.

There really isn't a way to make your rig meet the hardware requirements:

Requirements & Compatibility — blender.org

Home of the Blender project - Free and Open 3D Creation Software

www.blender.org

Have you tried any of these? https://alternativeto.net/software/blender/

Thank you for a quick reply.

I just tried using Wings 3D and it runs smoothly as it should be. The only issue is that Wings 3D is completely different from any version of Blender. Now I'm hesitating whether I should proceed with using Blender v2.79 or try something new.

My computer science teacher recommeded me using TinkerCad but it runs so laggy that it's almost impossible to work there. It is neither comfortable using TinkerCad on my phone because the screen is too small.

And of course, my laptop does not meet some of the Blender requierments. First of all because it's about 12 years old, doesn't support 1920x1080 screen resolution and has only 512 MB VRAM (my discrete graphics had 1 GB, but as I said earlier, it stopped working for an unknown reason).

 

[COLGeek]

Do you have the option to use a computer from your school?

 

[Denaredor]

Do you have the option to use a computer from your school?

Unfortunately, I don't have such an option since I'm studying from home because of war in my home country.

Anyway, thank you for trying to help me as much as it's possible, really appreciate that.

 

[COLGeek]

Unfortunately, I don't have such an option since I'm studying from home because of war in my home country.

Anyway, thank you for trying to help me as much as it's possible, really appreciate that.

You are welcome. Understood on your situation. Stay safe.