Viewer will not launch

[Wampirite]

I have been using the second life viewer for a few weeks with no problem.  However for the past three days, the viewer will not launch.  When I click on it, the screen opens, but then I get the spinning beachball of death and it stays like that until it just crashes.  I am on a mac running snow leopard 10.6.8.  I have tried uninstalling the viewer and then reinstalling, but have the same problem.  

 

Any ideas?

[Usive]

yeah, I was a major SL viewer user untill I started having to deal with that crap. With me it usually happpened when it was time to clear the viewers cach.

 

You have 2 options.

 

1. Find an older viewer release and install and use it untill the next viewer update (This is a pain in the but because of course SL doesn't hos old releases, even though they are obviously more stable)

 

2. Find a 3rd party viewer. The one I found that best replaced the SL viewer is Nirans viewer. Very customizable and the interface is almost the same. However it IS meant for higher end computers, and more prone to random crashes... But hey, at least you can log in right?

It also has really cool graphics customizations, great for photography.

[Wampirite]

Thanks for your help!  I will try to find an alternative 3rd party viewer that will work for mac.  Have a good one!

[Wampirite]

As a follow-up, I downloaded the phoenix viewer and it's working without a hitch!  Thanks again for your help

[Nalates Urriah]

As long as it works, you are good to go.

There is a problem waiting for you. The code from the main viewer moves out to TPV's. So, at some point the problem may reoccur. It is good to find the root of your problem and remove it. But, whatever gets you going is good.

When a viewer fails it can mess of the computer, especially the video card state. Restarting the computer clears up those problems. So, when a view fails to start the first quick fix to try is reboot the computer.

Continued failure is more complex. Often it is a changed setting that needs to be reset in the viewer. You will find a settings.xml in Mac OSX: Users/Username/Library/Application Support/SecondLife/. rename that file and try starting the viewer. If it is a video setting, that should clear it. If not you can later change the settings.xml to the original name, or redo your settings.

If you are still failing consider a clean install. For those of us usnig multiple brands of viewer check out: Second Life Clean Install. its getting a bit old and its for Windows but the same ideas apply in the Mac world.

Also, check your video card driver. It is best to get your video card model and search for it here on this forum and at SLUniverse to see if others are having a problem with the card. There will usually be advice on which drver version to use.

If your religious, pray. If not, kick the tower.

[Usive]

ugh... there are so many viewers that are better than Pheonix.... Live a little. If you like privacy try the Milkshake viewer. If you like taking artsy pictures or customizing the interface try Nirans viewer.

 

To many people just use pheonix cause they are told it is the best by someone who has never used another 3rd party viewer themselves.