Why we don't come back

HotRodJohnny Gears · July 6, 2011

Linden labs keep advancing SL faster than we can keep up. I was away for about two weeks and now I can only log in with VWR 1 on a PPC G5 Mac that is way below the minimum spec requirements. Two weeks ago my 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Mac mini ran SL great. But now, the new VWR 2 fails to log in. Phoenix and Firestorm takes forever to do anything. With the new VWR 2 generation viewers I get a busy cursor for 15-30 seconds after ANY click/input. Move, wait for 30 seconds to see if I moved. Click on Inventory, wait 30 seconds for the window to open. Click on a folder, wait 30 seconds... After 15 minutes of watching my cloud avatar stand around not moving, not chatting, not getting dressed, I log out.

VWR 2 is a bloated pig of a viewer.

The day VWR 1 accessibility is turned off will be my last day in SL.

Hitomi Tiponi · July 6, 2011

Have you thought that maybe your problem is related to your own computer or a specific bug that you are having? Many people are still running fine with Viewer 2.

Dilbert Dilweg · July 6, 2011

I kind of have to agree a little with Hitomi

Perhaps you do have an underlying problem with your PC you are not aware of yet

I have no problems and fast speeds and connects with all the viewers you used

Sounds a bit network related to me,,,

Cybin Monde · July 6, 2011

HotRod, i would suggest looking over the release notes. More specificlaly, these two points:

Crash & Performance Fixes
SH-1618[c] [PUBLIC_JIRA_USERS] Lighting and shadows crash ATI macs

DNS Error May Prevent Login for Mac OSX
EXP-687[c] Second Life viewer will not work on my laptop - A possible workaround is to add the free Google DNS servers to your network configuration, as described below.
Open 'System Preferences' -> 'Network' -> 'Advanced...' -> 'DNS'
Click "+" and type 8.8.8.8
Click "+" and type 8.8.4.4
Close 'System Preferences'
Restart Second Life

The first one is supposed to be fixed, but may be worth checking out to see if it makes a difference. While the second one is under Known Issues and may be the issue you are experiencing.

I hope this has helped!

HotRodJohnny Gears · July 7, 2011

I have run SL fine for a year and a half, using both VWR 1 and VWR 2, Emerald, Kristens and Phoenix. I stayed off SL for the last two weeks. When I tried to log in yesterday I had no luck with any viewer. The only thing I did was download the newest Phoenix and Firestorms viewers. This is a 2.26 GHz Intel core 2 Duo Mac mini, that has worked fine for 1-1/2 years. This computer runs all other programs with no problems whatsoever.

This is not an ATI Mac, it's a NVIDIA Mac. The DNS resolves perfectly. The two JIRAs referred to are not my problems.

Cybin Monde · July 7, 2011

HotRod, is it possible that your preferences were reverted to Default settings? More specifically, the Bandwidth and Cache settings. I'm not sure if that could be the issue, but might be worth checking out, just to be sure.

The only other things i can think of is the possibility that you may need to update drivers for your graphics card and/or router firmware. I would say try uninstalling Phoenix and Firestorm, since that's the only change you made (unless you've installed anything else that's not SL related?), but i doubt that would make a difference either. Again though, it could be worth seeing if it helps to revert any changes made between 2 weeks ago and now.

Lastly, if you haven't contacted support, it couldn't hurt to see if they could offer any help.

HotRodJohnny Gears · July 7, 2011

Macs don't get updates for drivers as such. The DSL modem and router work fine. I can use my Mac PPC G5 (which is way below minimum system requirements now-used to not be...) and VWR 1 successfully, except for some small lag issues. I now remember doing a Mac OS system update for security since last using this Mac for SL. That might be it, but everybody using OS 10.6 should have also done this update.

Well, I closed my club and abandoned my land back in February so I'm not really missing much. Some friends do want me to DJ for their club, though. As long as I can still use my outdated Mac and VWR 1 I can still DJ...

HotRodJohnny Gears · August 8, 2011

I am fed up.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-26560

http://jira.phoenixviewer.com/browse/SUP-4586

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E72vAPtkWA

HotRodJohnny Gears · August 10, 2011

WOW! This seems to have done the trick. I didn't get the DNS not resolving message, I got the message that something had gone wrong. I added the two DNS servers in System Preferences and, voila!, I logged in, and the other viewers weren't as laggy, either. Funny that the Lindens on JIRA duty don't talk to each other, especially about Mac problems.