Cannot launch Second Life Viewer

[steggiec]

I first joined the community and downloaded the software on 10/28. My first day was successful in navigating the area. It is currently 10/29. I logged on, launched the viewer, and my avatar appeared as a white floating blob resembling a spirit or ghost of sorts. No effort to display a body was successful. What is the first step in resolving a computer-related issue? Turn it off and on again. I quit the application, restarted my computer, and attempted to launch the viewer. I received this message:

"Second Life is unable to access a file that it needs.

This can be because you somehow have multiple copies running, or your system incorrectly thinks a file is open. If this message persists, restart your computer and try again. If it continues to persist, you may need to completely uninstall Second Life and reinstall it."

I completely uninstalled everything related to Second Life. I restarted my computer, and I reinstalled Second Life. Upon relaunching the viewer, lo and behold I receive the same message. Nothing seems to work. I am on a Windows 8 PC with plenty of space for the application. Is there a remedy to this issue or should I give up and leave the SL community?

 

Thank you.

[Rolig Loon]

First of all, that white cloud is normal.  That's what your avatar always looks like for the first second or so until you are fully logged in.  If it gets stuck -- a common condition called "bake fail" -- there are a few simple solutions that almoist always clear it.  Read http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_bake_fail .

If you have bake fail problems often it generally means that you have a flaky Internet connection.  Your bandwidth is probably fine, but the connection itself is unsteady or simply losing data.  You should be able to improve things quite a bit by rebooting both your modem and your router.  Just unplug both of them from the power for a few minutes, then plug them back in and restart everything.  Also, if you have been using a wireless connection, don't.  Some people have absolutely no trouble with wifi -- especially if they have new equipment -- but Linden Lab does not support wifi.  (See https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Wifi-and-satellite-connections/ta-p/1296823 and note that the same is true for satellite connections.)

Now .... How to recover from the confusion that you are in at the moment.  You should not have reinstalled SL.  There's a decent possibility that you left hidden files behind and that the new installation is mixed up.  At this point, the thing to do is a CLEAN reinstallation, removing all hidden files first.  Here's how >>> https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-Second-Life/ta-p/1375231

[Nalates Urriah]

That it worked one day and not the next with a missing file error suggests this may be a problem with your anti-virus. White list the SL install folder and the viewer cache in your AV software. If your paranoid about security, white list just the slplugin.exe file.

Install: C:\Program Files(x86)\SecondLifeViewer\

Cache: C:\User\[Windows_login_ID]\AppData\Local\SecondLife

With those white listed, turn off you AV and reinstall viewer. You should be able to  install over the top of the existing install. Once installed you can enable your AV.

Some AV programs really don't like the SL Viewer. Webroot is generally a problem.

Clearing the viewer cache is an absolute last resort. Clearing aggrevates many of the problems common to SL users.