3.2.5 (247236) SL viewer RAM gobbling on Windows 7

[Lyllian]

I use the 3.2.5 (247236) SL viewer. Is it normal that it uses more than 1 GB of RAM on Windows 7? Are there ways to reduce that amount? It makes me crash a few times a day. My system has 4 GB and does this for no other program.

[Rolig Loon]

This may be the answer to your problem (or not) >>> http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=100_cpu It's worth a shot, anyway. :smileywink:

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Lyllian and welcome to SL Forums. You didin't report something about your graphics card and about your internet connection. 2 top causes for crashing. However, some general suggestions below:

1. If you are new to V3 and your recently download it, i would suggest you to log in a quiet sim like Smith or Exeuxoa. If you can't select a different region, in your log in screen give the command: Menu Me --> Preferences --> General Tab --> Enable "Show on login" --> OK.  After click the down arrow where it says "Start at" and choose <Type region name> --> Smith --> Login. Stay there under the water open your inventory and the recent tab and wait fetching all your items till the last one. Sometimes it takes time but no so long as in Phoenix. Avoid during this process to do something else like teleporting for example.
2. Be patient when you teleport to a region especially if you visit it for first time with the new viewer. Everything arround you are textures and even you can't see some of them like for example under the floor of a house, the server must cache it and download it to every client viewer, both in your sim and in adjacent sims. If you are not patient and you try to move immidiately, in fact you "force" your computer to download stuff faster, so crash happens.
3. When you download every viewer, it has some default settings under menu me --> preferences. One of them the maximum bandwidth (default to 500). Although, according LL 500 kbps is enough to run SL without problems, you can increase it especially if you have fast internet connection. This way you increase the maximum rate that the Viewer can download contnet so everything arround will be loaded faster. However if you notice packet loss you have immidiately to set this option to lower. With few words experiment with this option till to find the best for your computer / laptop (under preferences --> setup).
4. If you crash during teleporting you have to follow the suggestions here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Troubleshooting_teleporting
5. Make sure that you use the last version of Viewer 3 (currently the version is 3.2.5 where bugs got fixed and no the beta version, no the development viewer). Check out also your viewer's crash logs to see what causes the crash. More about how you check them out here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Finding_Log_Files
6. Another top cause for a crash is overheat. Try to set your graphics to lower under Preferences --> Graphics and generally to disable everything you don't need like voice for example. Check out also if your computer adequately cooled. If you dont know how to do that (checking that your fans for example are clean and work) ask a friend to help you.
7. Make sure that you have the last updates for your graphics card. SL is a very demanding application. If you need a link about it let us know.
8. Check out if there is a problem with your connectivity. Visit http://speedtest.net/ Avoid downloading and generally to run other applications when you are online in world. You need at least 1Mbps. If it is lower, contact your ISP to see if there is a problem with your line. Also if you use wireless, avoid it and prefer direct cable connection.
9. If the problem remains clear your cache manually out of SL and having your viewer closed. Always it helps. If you don't know how to do that, let us know.
10. If you are a Premium you can also submit a ticket asking for techniqual support or also mail to: support@secondlife.com   You can use also the LiveChat reporting the problem there.
11. If you still can't find a solution don't hesitate to create a jira: https://jira.secondlife.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa  --> Create issue. Usually there you have official answers by the Lindens

[Lyllian]

(Finally found how to answer)

 

Answer 1: My card is an ATI Radeon 3100 256 MB, probably a bit weak for SL, but it worked well until this particular viewer started gobbling my RAM. The antivirus solution didn't do much and frankly, I'd rather not "protect" parts of my HD unless Norton says it's fine, and they don't. Kudos though!

 

Answer 2: Lots of stuff, thank you. #3: I raised my bandwidth to 1,000. Can't hurt I guess, my connection is currently 8.45 MBps download, 1.04 MBps upload (that answers #8). #5: apparently no crash log, so I guess it's on my side that things happen. #6: I set my graphics to lower, OK I guess. Later I'll try to add a bit distance though, 64 meters is sad. #7: I get all my updates installed automatically. #9: I did that two days ago.

 

So I'll see what happens now (SL is already using around 480 MB) and report again if needed. Kudos to you too!

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Yes, your card is old enough but it doesn't mean that you can't run SL. It has shared video memory, with simple words it just "borrows" from your RAM --> you end up having a little less RAM than you would if you had a dedicated card (as with all intergraded video cards). Your internet connection is fast so you can increase more your maximum bandwidth (i have mine this moment to 5,000 with slower connection). If you consider that the previous version of viewer 3 (3.2.4) was working better for you, you can roll back to it setting your software updates no to be installed automatically (preferences --> setup). You find the previous version here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Supported_Viewers