The program SecondLife.exe stopped Initializing VFS.

[ZalLoy Core]

I have already done everything suggested in the first 3 answers, and it works sometimes but not very much. I am back online now after tweaking a bunch of stuff and disabling some 3D Services. Still have NO idea what is going on.

 

I have cleared Cache manually. installed and tweaked drivers and settings. rebooted 100 times, wiggled my nose and nothing works consistently. all of those things have worked at least once.  I have an NVIDA GForce  Graphics card w/ latest Drivers. Windows7 64bit Intel i7 3.2 Gz processor with 6 cores, 32gb ram. This has been going on for months now and I am becoming very frustrated. THIS IS HOW YOU LOSS CUSTOMERS.

Here is some stuff from the event log.

The program SecondLife.exe version 3.5.0.11300 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 2228
Start Time: 01ce385f1eda16e1
Termination Time: 11
Application Path: D:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLifeViewer\SecondLife.exe
Report Id: 835d19ca-a453-11e2-8e82-c86000cb2747

-

System

- Provider       [ Name] Application Hang

- EventID 1002       [ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 101

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated       [ SystemTime] 2013-04-13T16:02:23.000000000Z

EventRecordID 25684

Channel Application

Computer Home

Security

-

EventData

SecondLife.exe

3.5.0.11300

2228

01ce385f1eda16e1

11

D:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLifeViewer\SecondLife.exe

835d19ca-a453-11e2-8e82-c86000cb2747

55006E006B006E006F0077006E0000000000

---

Binary data:

In Words

0000: 006E0055 006E006B 0077006F 0000006E
0008: 0000

In Bytes

0000: 55 00 6E 00 6B 00 6E 00 U.n.k.n.
0008: 6F 00 77 00 6E 00 00 00 o.w.n...
0010: 00 00     

[Lindal Kidd]

See this thread:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Viewers/SLV3-stops-on-Initializing-VFS/qaq-p/1672601

A search of the Answers blog on "VFS" will give you lots of other threads on the subject too.

ps - the "you" you are speaking to is a group of residents like yourself who provide volunteer help here.  No Lindens are reading this forum, so "This is how you lose customers" is going to the wrong address!

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Uninstall normally then manually remove the hidden Second Life folders in AppData.

Enable Hidden Files & Folders:

1) Open Control Panel
2) Open “Folder Options”
3) Open the “View” tab
4) Check “Show hidden files, folders, and drives”

Press OK and close control panel.

Accessing AppData:

Browse to the path below that corresponds to your operating system:

Windows XP - C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\

Windows Vista - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\

Windows Vista Home Premium - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\

Windows 7 - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\ 

Inside the AppData folder:

1) Open the Local folder and delete the entire Second Life folder.

2) Go back one level to the AppData folder.

3) Open the Roaming folder and delete the entire Second Life folder. If you wish to save existing chat files you've had with other avatars, move the Roaming > [avatar name] folder elsewhere on your computer and drag any chat text files you wish to retain into the new Roaming > [avatar name] folder once Second Life is reinstalled and you've logged in at least once. Ignore if you don't want to save any.

4) NB Restart your computer.

Now download a fresh copy of Second Life and install it.

[ZalLoy Core]

I have gone through this process many times. sometimes it even works. mostly not.

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Well, then it sounds like this is a conflict in your computer system rather than one with the Second Life installation. Have a read of this thread and see if the OP's explanation and solution (see Last Edit - Problem Solved at end of her post) or something similar could apply to you.

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Technical/VFS-initialization-error-continues/qaq-p/1591381

Have you tried an alternative viewer to see if the same thing happens with it?

[ZalLoy Core]

I have tried alternate viewers. It may well be something specific in my system that is conflicting but I expect responsible software to identify the conflict and at least provide some feed back.

[mysteriousdots]

or just go to start > run > and type in %appdata% then do what the blonde lady in red told you to do

[KarenMichelle Lane]

ZaliLoy - you mentioned "but I expect responsible software to identify the conflict and at least provide some feed back" ! This is the job of the Operating System not the application software. The Progress step Initializing VFS tells a lot in regards to the area where the SL program fails. Please say you allowed the SecondLife Crash Logger file this crash with the SL Crash server? - What "NVIDA GForce Graphics card " do you have in this PC?

[ZalLoy Core]

Do you mean did I let it return to LL, yes. Do I know where it is, No bu I would like to.GeForce 9800 GTX is the graphics card and the driver was refreshed yesterday.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Thank You ZaiLoy, OK that Graphics Card is kind of at the bottom of the pack in it's category:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+9800+GTX%2F9800+GTX%2B

Here are some obscure pointers regarding nVidia GCs:

Note about NVIDIA drivers

NVIDIA graphics cards may cause driver-related problems. After installing the latest NVIDIA drivers, the Second Life® Viewer may crash with an error message that states: "Second Life is unable to run because your video card drivers did not install properly, are out of date, or are for unsupported hardware." This appears to be a problem with the NVIDIA drivers' initial installation: the first time the install process is run, something fails silently — a file or set of files doesn't copy properly, but the installer doesn't give you any notice that something went wrong.

There is a solution: ensure that all of your applications are closed, and install the NVIDIA drivers again. For some reason, the drivers almost always install correctly the second time.

If these steps do not solve your problem, please see NVIDIA's Driver Installation Hints.

 

Here is some additional information regarding your PC GC

GeForce 9800 GTX

On April 1, 2008 the GeForce 9800 GTX was officially launched. It was basically an 8800 GTS 512MB with two SLI connectors, higher clock speeds, and support for Nvidia Hybrid Power, a technology that allows the discrete GPU to shut off during non resource intensive applications, and instead use the integrated GPU. With these extra features though, a high price came too.

Taken from an eVGA specification sheet:[20]

• 128 Stream Processors.
• Clocks (Core/Shader/Memory): 675 MHz/1688 MHz/1100 MHz
• 256-bit memory interface.
• 512 MB of GDDR3 memory.
• 70.4 GB/s memory bandwidth
• Texture Fill Rate of 43.2 (billion/s).
• DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 3.3, and PCI-Express 2.0.
• Supports 2nd generation PureVideo HD technology with partial VC1 decoding.
• Outputs include two DVI ports, an HDMI output(Using Nvidia DVI to HDMI adapter(included)), and S/PDIF in connector on-board for routing audio through the HDMI cable.
• Release date was 2008-04-01.[21]
• Launch Price of $349.[22]

In July 2008 Nvidia released a refresh of the 9800 GTX: the 9800 GTX+ (55 nm manufacturing process). It has faster core (738 MHz) and shader (1836 MHz) clocks. Since March 2009 this design is manufactured as GeForce GTS 250.

 

This GC should run SL fine. Try that double install of the Display Drivers for the GC and see if that helps.

 

[Nyll Bergbahn]

VFS stands for Virtual File System and you can read about it here http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/VFS

 

If your computer is getting to VFS initialisation when opening Second Life, the loading sequence is already past probing the hardware including graphics card. According to the SL gpu_table, the Nvidia GTX 9800 should default to High so still fine with system requirements. Try a clean reinstall of the driver though as KarenMichelle suggests.

 

I wonder if your ongoing issue with initialising VFS relates to either not enough virtual memory or a shortage of hard disk space but it's beyond my knowledge now. If you have Premium membership, you can open a ticket with LL Support on login issues.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Nods - Yes that clean reinstall of the driver followed by a reinstall on top of it sometimes does the trick.