Error: 'darn. You have been logged out of second life. This region may be experiencing trouble...

[WendyStormy]

A couple of years ago, I had an avatar named Stormy Washborne. She started having problems logging onto SL but would eventually get on if I changed her location before logging in. I did that for awhile until eventually it quit working. All I got was the message, 'darn. You have been logged out of second life. This region may be experiencing trouble. Please check your connection to the internet.' Then I would be automatically logged out. It's happened on every computer I had tried.

I contacted Linden Labs about it, they took awhile to get back to me then told me to clear my cache, reinstall the SL viewer and try again. Then they informed me that they were closing my case, as they don't support "free" accounts. They only support those who are on premium accounts.  By this time I had spent several hundreds of dollars on SL from shopping and buying clothes and items from various retailers and vendors there.

I had checked the forums and had noticed this was not an isolated issue. It seems there were a lot of theories about what might cause this. It was anything from working from a Dell laptop (which I have) to clearing the cache (which I've done) to some sort of phantom or ghost avi being left behind, therefore you can no longer log in. If that last one is the case, that would have been a Linden Lab/server issue, and not anything I could do anything about.

I waited months and months for a server update to correct this issue, and periodically tried to log in, but to no avail. I thought I would try making a new avatar to see what happened. It worked! I made one named Brighten11, and was able to log in for several months. I even put more money into her and started buying clothes, etc. for her.  Then it happened again. Again I was unable to log in, and was getting the same error messages.

I quit for about a year. But I did occasionally try logging in from time to time. About a week ago I decided to try making a new avitar to see what happened. It worked again! I've been going back online to Second Life using my new avatar WendyStormy.

Since I can log on using a new avatar, it seems to me that this problem would be strictly a Linden Lab/server issue. It seems to me that if I am having issues like this, it's likely many other people are as well. Even if I don't pay Linden Labs directly, being a customer to their clients (and a possible future retailer/client), wouldn't it be good business sense for them to make sure everyone is able to access Second Life without losing their previous avatars/friends/money and inventory?  Why wouldn't Linden Labs be interested in this issue?  Has anybody here experienced this, and is there anything I can personally do to make sure I don't lose my latest avatar like I did the others?

 

Thanks for dropping by to read!

[Ariel Vuissent]

The short answer is - it happens. It's happened to me once or twice, but thankfully only short-term, quickly resolved.

You CAN submit a ticket and ask LL to check and see if you are ghosting. If you are, they can log you out through their side, and that should resolve the issue. If, however, it's another issue, it does get tricky, since as you found out they offer very limited support to non-Premium members. (I assume you can still log in to the website. If you can, you can temporarily upgrade your account to Premium for one month. You'll be charged $9.95 USD, but then you'll have access to live support. You can downgrade again as soon as the problem is resolved, and only be charged for that one month.)

Things you can try: Do a complete clean install of your viewer. You said you reinstalled, but not if you did a clean reinstall. Reinstalling a new viewer on top of an old one often doesn't help. For instructions on how to do a clean reinstall, see here. Reinstall only one viewer; running on multiple viewers can sometimes cause issues.

Try another viewer. If you're using the official viewer, try a third party viewer instead. I use a TPV, and as I said I hardly ever have this problem

If you are using a wireless internet connection, try plugging your computer directly into the router if you can. It's a more stabe connection.

Remember to delete your notifications from time to time. (I dunno - I looked up suggestions, and this was one of them.)

If you succeed in getting inworld (try a low-lag region like Smith or Pooley), IMMEDIATELY detach everything you're wearing. Reattach things one at a time.

To prevent it from happening again - I honestly don't know, since there is no one set cause, or even a list of definitive causes. I would strongly recommend using a wired internet connection, instead of wireless, though.

[Lindal Kidd]

If the problem was a "ghosted" (improperly logged out) avatar, you will be happy to know that LL did address that problem.  I have not heard of it happening for months now.

[Marigold Devin]

I get the strong impression that Linden Lab support staff can often be as baffled as us regular residents when certain error messages persist.  Clearing cache and checking your internet connection is stable should have been enough to enable your main avatar to be able to access Second Life successfully, and indeed any of the subsequent avatars with which you have been having the same problem.

To my mind, it is ridiculous if Linden Lab are only giving limited help to accounts that are not premium members (I have even sent a snail mail to Linden Lab Head Office in the past showing graphically how there are plenty of non-premium residents who actually spend a lot more inworld - as you have done - than many premium members do). Better customer relations would be developed if there was more goodwill from Linden Lab, and more residents would be retained, but it is what it is, and who am I to criticise the policies of the people who own and run Second Life? :matte-motes-not-entertained:

I cannot be 100% sure what is going on with the avatars that you are having problems with, but its interesting that there is a repeating pattern, and it is something that LL could easily advise on, but they do expect residents to help each other here on the Forums/Answers. 

When an avatar is newly created, if a new resident finds themselves unable to log into Second Life at all, it is usually because their system is not adequate either in graphics capabilities or with sufficient RAM.  Of course we can rule this out in your case as you have been able to log in with all your avatars for at least the first few months of their existence.

Over time, though, we all accumulate things. Our avatars' inventories become very full, and occasionally we may need to clear cache to bring everything together again.  Also,  we are back to the internet connection issue too.  Anyone who has a less-than-stable internet connection may encounter many more problems than other residents.  If you find you can only remain logged in for short periods of time and then are logged out, it is usually because there has been an interruption in the internet connection.  And so it is vital that you are able to have stability,, hence why you have already received the advice in this thread to be on a wired connection rather than on wireless. 

Going back to the point once again that you made about LL's attitude towards non-premium members, if they don't realise by now the value of ALL the residents, then it is unlikely they ever will.  They have in the past asked residents to complete surveys, asked for suggestions how they can retain new users, and have tried different things such as having a basic viewer (failed miserably) and two sims that were dedicated to, and accessed via, a button that would teleport people directly to a set of volunteer helpers (failed miserably), but the one thing that always seems to fall on deaf ears is this lack of proper support for non-premium members who may be paying many hundreds of US dollars per year.

We here on the forums give advice based on our own experiences and what we have learned. We are not privy to what goes on behind the scenes, and I personally often feel that it would not be so hard for LL to deal with some queries that go through via support tickets quite quickly and professionally rather than bounce people back here, or simply shut a virtual door in their faces.

I hope some of the advice given in this thread will help you.

Once you have checked your internet connection is as stable as can be, do ensure you have plenty of RAM available.  Check your graphics card drivers are up-to-date.  Do a disk cleanup of your computer and defragment to tidy everything up as much as possible.  Physically clean inside and outside if you are able using air duster spray (video how to do this if you've never done it before is no doubt available via Google or youtube).

Wishing you loads of luck and a more successful future in SL.