Floating shapes

[tammyr119]

I'm suddenly seeing weird floating shapes, and opposite colors, numbers in the floor, etc.  What do I do to reset?

[Rolig Loon]

The last time I dared to use my ancient laptop to come in world, it did the same thing.  It was overheating rapidly.  I shut it down and have not used it for SL since.  Overheating is no joke.  It can wipe out your graphics card or components of your motherboard permanently. 

If you have a desktop machine, be sure that you open it up once a month and use a can of compressed air to blow out any dust and cat hair that has accumulated.  Invest in a couple of good fans, too. (I have four in my tower, counting the one that's mounted on the GPU.)  If you are using a laptop, it's harder to clean inside.  Do the best you can, though, and be sure that your machine is always well-ventilated and raised up off the table (not on your lap). You can buy a laptop support or you can go the cheap route and just put a couple of pop bottle caps under the back edge of the machine. 

[Lyra Blackthorne]

This happens to me when my graphics card gets overwhelmed.  I clear cache, log out.  Shut down my system for 30 seconds or so then reboot and login.  Has always worked for me