Second Life has killed my monitor twice

[NJMike]

The first time it happened I wasn't doing anything any different than usual, then all of a sudden my monitor just went black. I could still hear all audio but I got absolutely no video from the monitor. I tried turning the monitor off then back on again, still no video. My only other option was to reboot the computer from the tower, so I did, and came back and the game was fine and it continued to run fine, when today I log in for the first time today and the monitor gets killed after SL gets done loading everything.

I don't know what could possibly be causing this besides some random graphics issue. But I've played this game for a month so far with no problems and just recently it's giving me weird smudgey dots forming around the screen like static giving the game an appearance of an old-time movie in color and now it's killing my monitor. I just only started getting these weird issues since two days ago.

I'm using Viewer 2 if that helps.

[Dresden Ceriano]

It's not your monitor, sounds like your graphics card is overheating.

When was the last time you cleaned out your computer, sometimes that's all it needs. Dust builds up and prevents air from circulating and cooling your components correctly. Google computer cleaning and there will be tons of information on how to do it.

Of course this is a first step, if it doesn't work you know there's something else wrong.

Good luck... Dres

[NJMike]

Oh god I don't know lol. Maybe I'll do that then; thanks for your advice :3

[Linda Brynner]

Indeed i do second that.

SL has even killed my notebook screen i had the impression, but in turned out to be a faulty connection of some VGA- connectors adding to the screen-die-misery (my brother found out LOL) :smileyhappy: I just want to play SL.

Sometimes it can be VGA-cable connectors or even a BIOS failure when temperaturs of the graphics card can go sky high as i understood from info from specialists.

Do mind that SL consumes massive resources even on the most modern computers is what i have been experiencing in the last 4 years.

At least do assure excellent cooling inside your computer. Remove dust inside at least every 1/2 year. If you have a notebook, raise the back up under an angle and even place a special air cooling device under it. On older notebooks remove the battery will lower temperatures as older style batteries generate a lot of heat.

Optimized cooling will raise your FPS (frames per second), meaning the inworld experience will look more fluent, and your screen does actually stay in a healthy state.

 

 

[NJMike]

Interesting. I will have to get to this sometime.

By the way, if it helps, here are my computer specs:

http://i52.tinypic.com/65a4p4.jpg

[Dana Hickman]

I'll third what has already been suggested. Blast out the dust buildup in the video cards heatsinc with a can of compressed air, and possibly pull the card out and reseat it back in. Check and tighten both ends of the monitor cable and keep an eye on your video card temperature. Video artifacts such as blocking, tearing in rendered surfaces, stuff rendering in front of things they shouldn't be, and so on are almost always the first sign the card is running too hot.

On a technical side-note, the Radeon 9250 is just about bare minimum to run SL.. I have a 9200 mobility in my old laptop (which is almost identical) and it WON'T run SL at all anymore. That should also be a red flag that your poor old chip is working it's little butt off struggling with SL, and another clue that heat might be an issue (more work = more heat produced).