unusual amount of crashes. i'm getting sick of it!

[josh43701]

I'm usually able to stay on all day, (yea, i know i need to get a life) but now i'm crashing after a few hours.

i'm using windows7 home pro and the singularity sl viewer, version 1.7.2. I don't know what more info i can or should give you. Anything else you need to know, just reply. Thanks for taking the time to read this...if you did, that is. :)

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Are you crashing or are you getting disconnected from the servers?  There's a difference and it's an important difference.  It will help if you provide some computer specs.  The easiest way I know is to launch the viewer and under the "Help" menu click "About Second Life".......copy the specs given and paste back here.  Computer specs will help more for crashes.  For disconnects your connection to the Internet is probably a little more important than system specs.  Things like a home network and how you connect to that network (wired or wireless), the connection speed (try using http://www.speedtest.net/ with tests to both San Francisco, CA and Dallas, TX.  The download speed is more critical than upload).

 

[Knowl Paine]

I only use the Official Second Life viewer. Looking at the 3rd party directory, I see that the singularity talks about the "latest and greatest", while the catznip talks about stability. Maybe you could try that viewer.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory

 

from the Knowledge Base:

 

Tip: Maintain your computer by:

• Routinely removing unwanted files and programs from the system.
• Defragmenting your disk drive regularly.
• Using anti-Malware software to remove spyware, virues, and other malware.

 

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-improve-Viewer-performance/ta-p/1316923

 

 

 

[josh43701]

Thanks for the quick reply, Peggy.

 

CPU: Intel® Core2 Duo CPU     E7500  @ 2.93GHz (2926.01 MHz) Memory: 8157 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601) Graphics Card Vendor: Intel Graphics Card: Intel® G45/G43 Express Chipset Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.15.0010.2302 OpenGL Version: 2.1.0 - Build 8.15.10.2302

Viewer SSE Version: SSE2 libcurl Version: libcurl/7.21.1 OpenSSL/1.0.0g zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.7.1 J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.635, Runtime: 1.4.0.635 Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.42.02 Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded) Packets Lost: 2914/104920 (2.8%)

I have a wired connection. download speed is 0.88mbps. upload speed is 0.96 mbps

[Knowl Paine]

That  seems really low, I just ran a speed test, my download speed was 16.25 Mpbs

the upload was blocked by firewall ...so idk

 

Edit: In your bill, from your internet service provider, should be a detail of your service plan, and the advertised speed you should get. I have friends in SL who cannot visit when it rains in rl.

The graphic card on the motherboard, is not the best type of pc for SL.

 

Are you using a dial-up service?

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Your specs say to me that you are close to not being able to run SL at any setting above low.  I'm sure you could run at medium with some significant hits in the lag department (only you can determine if that's acceptable).  Your graphics is an on motherboard chipset (intergrated graphics processor or IGP).  I have a computer with that IGP and I know it was capable or running SL using that video chipset....not well but it ran SL at medium settings.  But that IGP could not run the newer viewers.  I had to use the very old SL viewer 1.23 or (at that time) Imprudence.......nothing else would run SL at all (I could not log in).  You need to find a viewer that is based on the old SL 1.23 code and those viewers are getting more and more rare.  For a list of the TPV's check http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory .  And don't expect much luck with settings beyond medium (at the most).  Another thing in the specs.........your system memory is 3 GB.  That's just barely enough for a Win 7 machine and SL.  You have a x64 operating system so you an use more memory........up to the maximum your motherboard will support (it probably supports up to around 16 GB).  If you can get 8 GB it would help tremendously....but only going up to 4 would help significately.

Your connection speed is okay but make sure you don't see the bandwidth in preferences more than about 500 kbps to avoid the risk of getting into a packet loss situation.......which will cause disconnects.  I gather that's a DSL connection since most cable connections are at least 5 mbps.  If possible I would either get a higher speed DSL or a cable connection...depending on which is cheaper (upgrade your DSL or get cable).  For any reasonably solid connection you need a minimum of 1 mbps download speed..........you're close to that so that's why I say it's okay (but setting your bandwidth too high in preferences will likely cause problems for you).

[Peggy Paperdoll]

If he was using a dial-up the speed would be something like .056 mbps at the max.  I think it's a DSL connection.......probably the lowest speed the provider sells.

[Knowl Paine]

Now I feel spoiled with getting 16.... It's not cheap.. I could pay less, and get less.

 

When I had a problem, the Company couldn't answer my question, because my service plans was no longer offered, because it was so slow.

When I asked why they didn't upgrade me. They said that they presumed, I was happy with it. I was paying more than I should have been paying, for an inferior service, because I didn't understand.

And they weren't going to tell me! :smileymad:

 

:smileyhappy:

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

There was a period when I was getting upwards of 30 mbps download and my plan was for 10 mbps!!!  I always knew they would eventually figure it out and bring my speed back to my payment level.....they did after about 2 months.  But, I actually could not see a difference in SL (or, for that matter, anything I did on the Internet).  The Internet only goes so fast and I think all that speed the providers hype is nothing but a way to get more money from you.....a selling point to hook you into paying more.  I'm still at the 10 meg level with tested speeds at around 9.8 to 9.9 consistantly..........I'm happy with it.  You don't need much more than 1 mbps for SL anyway....5 mbps is more than SL will ever deliver to you by about 5 times.  More certainly doesn't hurt but it really doesn't help either.

[Sephy McCaw]

Just to clarify that he already has 8 gigs of ram in his system, it is more then likely the the last update with that viewer has caused the IGP over heat.

If your system is not a laptop could you possible get yourself a cheap graphics card to help your system so you arnt running on an old IGP. (make sure its nothing second hand cause there could be any sort of faults with it)

 

a cheap uptodate card for example http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0084LE1XY/ref=asc_df_B0084LE1XY11476644?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B0084LE1XY

[josh43701]

Thanks, everyone for replying. especially Sephy for actually trying to help, instead of assuming i'm running on a bad system or bad connection. i'll try to get a new graphics card. one question though. i live in the states. will there be difficulty or extra cost to ship over here? btw, to others that assumed i was using a DSL connection, i'm using a cable modem. i wouldn't even attempt to run SL on anything less.

[Theresa Tennyson]

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josh43701 wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply, Peggy.

 

CPU: Intel® Core2 Duo CPU     E7500  @ 2.93GHz (2926.01 MHz) Memory: 8157 MB OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601) Graphics Card Vendor: Intel Graphics Card: Intel® G45/G43 Express Chipset Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.15.0010.2302 OpenGL Version: 2.1.0 - Build 8.15.10.2302

Viewer SSE Version: SSE2 libcurl Version: libcurl/7.21.1 OpenSSL/1.0.0g zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.7.1 J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.635, Runtime: 1.4.0.635 Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.42.02 Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded) Packets Lost: 2914/104920 (2.8%)

I have a wired connection. download speed is 0.88mbps. upload speed is 0.96 mbps

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Those numbers tell me you've got problems with your cable connection. It's extremely rare to have a download speed slower than an upload speed and you're also losing almost 3% of your packets. We aren't "assuming" anything with numbers like that.

Do your crashes consistently happen in the same locations? Another possible source of crashing could be your viewer choking on textures it can't decode properly. There are certain locations where I crash instantly using a viewer that uses OpenJPG decoding (most third-party viewers) but that I have no problems with on viewers that use KDU (Firestorm and LL Viewer 3.)