I don’t know if anyone else has had (or is having) this issue, but I can’t seem to get Matcaps to work in Blender 2.79. It always makes the object I’m working with have a shadeless white coloration regardless of what matcap I’m using.
Are you in Solid shading? (Material and texture shading will show the object’s material/texture)
Yes, I’m in solid shading.
Why? Should I be in Textured or Material shading modes?
No… But if you’re in solid shading, the problem is somewhere else and you need to post at least a blend file where the problem is happening, and detailing the specs of your machine.
Oh, it happens in every .blend file I try to work with (and I’m sure it’ll work on your machine too, so it may just be me).
Computer runs Windows 7, 8gigs ram, no graphics card save on an onboard Intel processor. But I can share some images:
(Solid view, works fine, no problems there)
(Metcap view, notice how the model turns all white)
That may be a problem of the Intel chip… Don’t know the minimum OGL requirements for the matcaps, but I had an old laptop with an old graphic chip that couldn’t render the matcaps also (thought this was in the 2.72, irc). That may be the issue.
Check what version of OpenGL does your intel supports, and if possible upgrade its drivers.
(cannot figure any other possible reason for such a problem 
)
I can’t. I can’t find out how to access the OpenGL information, and I can’t update my drivers because there’s no updates available.
(Intel chipset in question is the Q45/Q43 Express Chipset, and unfortunately, it’s discontinued)
your hardware is just too old.