Laging bad or getting a black screen

[Shar Moanalo]

As it says this is what I've been getting most times in places that have a lot of people and I assumed it was cos of so many people in the sim but then I went to a place called Spare Parts and only one person was on the map and I was lagging like hell and even at time's my screen went black on SL viewer not the entire screen only the SL viewer.

Then it flicks to show what I was seeing before only to go black again and does this repeatedly until I can move abit and still lag.

So what's going on =/

also here's my graphics card not sure if this is what you need to help me also got my quality on Low and still does this I've had it at high mostly then put it on Medium last week then about a few days put it low and still does it >.<

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295

My RAM is 6144mb thought id add that

[Orca Flotta]

Shar, the 295 is still a very capable gpu and with 6 GB of RAM you're on the safe side as well.

That leaves us with 3 possible candidates responsible for your lagging problem:

 

1) your machine, drivers, OS, usage

Are you actively maintening your computer? Clear the registry regularly (assuming you're on Win)?

Do you run a lot of other software as well, while being logged in SL? Torrents, surfing, rendering jobs in photoshop ... all that crap?

Are your drivers up to date? That's kinda important. You can even tell Nvidia on their website to send you an email once a new version becomes available.

Are your components maybe running hot? Clean your computer regularly cause only clean hardware is cool hardware.

You got some antivirus crap active? As we all know they do more harm than good. Back when I was still on Win I never had it on. The best virus protection sits right between your ears. :matte-motes-nerdy:

 

2) your connection

Have you done a speedtest, tracert? If they don't show the expected results complain with your ISP.

Are you plugged in or connecting wirelessly? Always plug in!

Sharing the connection with others? Kick 'em off when you are on SL!

 

3) your viewer settings

There is a manual (I forgot where to find it) that shows how to set up your gpu on the hardware side and what graphics settings to chose in viewer.

Are you on a recent viewer? Only the latest version will do!

 

Please send your system info as well so the experts here can help you better: start SL but don't log in - upper menu bar - Help -  About [your viewer]. Just copypaste the whole text and send to this thread.

[Shar Moanalo]

Well im on windows 7 I don't have much of anything on except a few web pages and Gom player that's about it.

My driver is up to date which im not sure if that fixed the problem or not SL was working smoothly at first but then it started it again I don't get it straight away but after like ive been in the same sim for like 10 minutes its starts doing the lag and black screen crap oh and im on avast but the thing is I didn't have any of this problem before hand .

Im wireless which I wish I wasn't and my speed is ment to be 30mb download / 10mb upload but its 10mb dwnld / 1mb upld

but still like 2 weeks ago I didn't have this problem been at my brothers for like 2 weeks playing sl on the laptop and I used the same portable harddrive I use for my pc for sl on the laptop then used it back on my pc and its been doing this lag crap I dunno maybe its the new SL viewer for Firestorm Beta but on the Release which I used before the 2 weeks was acting the same so I dunno whas going on ;.;

[Orca Flotta]

Well, now I'm as flabbergusted as you. Let's wait for the technical experts to chime in.

[Marigold Devin]

I'd have said your symptoms were suggestive of you needing to download the latest drivers for your graphics card, as Orca suggested as part of her reply, but as you've already done this, it could be a sign that your graphics card is getting overheated.

When did you last clean the fluff and dust out (if its a tower)?  With a laptop, you'd no doubt benefit from a cooling mat.

When Orca asked what else you might have running in other windows. A pertinent point. Also, over time, you do need to ensure you carry out regular disk cleanup and defragment to keep everything running as fast and smoothly as possible.

 

Edited to add:

You will get a black screen, and slowness, if you're logged in when a lot of other people are also sharing your internet connection.  If you run a console window, it might give you further clues, ie will let you know that you're losing your connection. To run a console window, have a look in Advanced (or it might be in the develop) menu next time you log into second life. You'll need to relog for the console window to show, but it can be quite enlightening.

 

[Shar Moanalo]

Well the clean up is the only thing probably not done but with the cooling system its got I wouldn't expect the graphics card to get any dust.. although.. not used for 2 weeks while I was at my brothers it might of got quite abit of dust so.. **bleep**.. erm might get my sis bf to check it out as he knows more about taking care of the stuff and im more afraid I might damage something if I open it up

[Shar Moanalo]

Oh and about that edit comment kinda forgot that for a second I shouldn't have any problems really because my sis and her ex bf used to both play wow on two pc and I could play SL properly although then that was my old pc now ive got my sisters.. so maybe a change in the settings maybe im not sure but I havnt had the black out and lag problem as ive been using this for like 4-5 months and the lag and black out happened only after I came back from my brothers after the two weeks.. so I dunno.. why do PC gotta be gay at times for no reason >.<

[Dresden Ceriano]

The problem could very well be your video card.  For a long time, that is the card that I had and it never seemed to play well with the newer elements being introduced to SL technology.  The 295 is, in reality, two cards put together using SLI, which is great for most applications, but not SL, since SL cannot take advantage of both cards.  So what you end up using for SL is one card with much lower specs than what you actually have.

I've tried a myriad of things to fix the issues I had with that card and none of them fully worked, but some did help a little.  I'll list the ones which I can remember.

Turn off HTTP texture fetch:  In Preferences/Graphics/Rendering, under Texture rendering, uncheck "Use HTTP for receiving textures".

In Preferences/Graphics/Hardware Settings, uncheck "Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects".

At this point, you might want to manually clear your cache, restart your viewer, let your inventory load and see if that helped.  Meanwhile, I'll look up some of the other things I tried in case it doesn't.

Though, I can tell you that your best bet would be to upgrade to a better card with only one GPU.

...Dres

P.S. Since you may just be ignorant of the fact that using gay in such a way (as an adjective to describe something undesirable) is considered offensive by most gay people and should be avoided at all times, I'll let it pass for now.  But please, keep this in mind for future reference.

[Marigold Devin]

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Shar Moanalo wrote:

Oh and about that edit comment kinda forgot that for a second I shouldn't have any problems really because my sis and her ex bf used to both play wow on two pc and I could play SL properly although then that was my old pc now ive got my sisters.. so maybe a change in the settings maybe im not sure but I havnt had the black out and lag problem as ive been using this for like 4-5 months and the lag and black out happened only after I came back from my brothers after the two weeks.. so I dunno.. why do PC gotta be gay at times for no reason >.<

---

All in all, it sounds like the graphics card gets hammered to the max. Just like everything else; your kettle, your washing machine, anything and everything is subject to wear and tear, and really your symptoms sound more due to this than anything else to me.

 

 

[Dresden Ceriano]

---

Marigold Devin wrote:

---

Shar Moanalo wrote:

Oh and about that edit comment kinda forgot that for a second I shouldn't have any problems really because my sis and her ex bf used to both play wow on two pc and I could play SL properly although then that was my old pc now ive got my sisters.. so maybe a change in the settings maybe im not sure but I havnt had the black out and lag problem as ive been using this for like 4-5 months and the lag and black out happened only after I came back from my brothers after the two weeks.. so I dunno.. why do PC gotta be gay at times for no reason >.<

---

All in all, it sounds like the graphics card gets hammered to the max. Just like everything else; your kettle, your washing machine, anything and everything is subject to wear and tear, and really your symptoms sound more due to this than anything else to me.

---

I think so too, but turning off HTTP fetch and VBO did help for me, so it's worth a shot.

@Shar: Can you tell me which operating system you use?  I'm looking for instructions to do something else that I did that helped which is specific to Windows 7, so unless that's what you're using, I'm looking for it for nothing.

...Dres

[Dresden Ceriano]

Alright, I found what I was looking for and it appears to also apply to Vista.  Try this... link.  It disables the Aero feature in Vista and Windows 7 when you open your viewer (Aero is what gives your interface the glass look).  This seemed to help me a great deal.  Since Aeros eats up GPU resources, disabling it will enable your computer to use those resources for SL instead.

Hope this helps.

...Dres

P.S. This will have to be done on the shortcut for each viewer you have installed.

[Shar Moanalo]

Nope still doing the same thing and sorry havnt replied sooner didnt check this till like a week or so ago and only done what you said yesterday I thought it helped abit but then it started all over again so it doesnt fix the problem sadly to say.

Also sorry about the Gay comment didnt mean for it to be offensive or anything it was just a saying but I will just go with why do pc gotta be so crappy.

[bravo2zero]

Hi i keep getting a blackout screen. Heres my details below.

Could you please tell me why im getting this problem as it always happens on second life. But never had a problem before on the basic viewer.

Firestorm 4.6.1 (40478) Mar 10 2014 02:44:13 (Firestorm-Release) with Havok support
Release Notes

CPU: Intel® Pentium® D CPU 2.80GHz (2793.12 MHz)
Memory: 2045 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 7600 GT/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 9.18.0013.0783
OpenGL Version: 2.1.2

RestrainedLove API: (disabled)
libcurl Version: libcurl/7.24.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1e zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.10.0
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.3.2
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.26
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
Settings mode: Firestorm
Viewer Skin: Firestorm (Grey)
Font Used: Deja Vu (96)
Draw distance: 64
Bandwidth: 500
LOD factor: 4
Render quality: Low (1/7)
Texture memory: 512 MB (1)
Built with MSVC version 1600

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

I would say your graphics card, in fact that's the model I fried with SL in 2007, well mine was a 7600GS.

The rest isn't much better to be honest. If you want to give lowering your settings a go, it might be worth lowering your LoDfactor. I keep it at 2. I suggest with your specs, keep it at a maximum of 1.

btw, you're talking about a "basic viewer". As far as I know that thing was scrapped by LL years ago.

[MrJules Sixpence]

 Hey!

 

 It looks like  you  have  the graphic driver what windows  installed  for you and not  the nvidia  driver.There is a  clash.Remove the windows driver and install the proper one  for  your graphic  card

Also  maybe install  directx  9  on your  pc  as    your  graphic card  does not  support  DX11  and  that  makes  your  card  working  hard