Paul Spiesel

Thanks for the reply, Alwin. That's quite interesting but probably not the same since I haven't terraformed in many months and it's not a viewer issue. Maybe it's related to lag somehow.

I have owned a number of sims in the 8 years that I have on been SL and never experienced anything like this. There are minor changes almost daily to the terraform. Mostly raised areas and ridges. The sim is closed to the public and it's not set to a group so that it's impossible for another avatar to be terraforming while I'm not on the sim. Has anyone heard of this and what might be causing it to happpen? This is a homestead/private island

Thank you both for your input and suggestions. I don't seem to be having any problems with my internet so I didn't mention it. I have no lag time at all when I send and receive messages in IMs and in local chat. Only the mouse cursor lags to reflect the frame rate. It makes no difference whether or not I have programs running in the background.The lag spikes are always the same....3.5 minutes of normal (25-50 FPS), punctuated by one minute of lag. I tried a more accurate stat meter yesterday and my frame rate drops to a consistant 1.6-1.7 FPS, not 5 as I initially thought. Only the latest viewers are a problem. I use the same settings as the older viewers. I also recently moved to a new sim and it made absolutely no difference. Currently, I have only two choices. Either use the older viewers and see other avies as grey or suffer through these horrendous lag spikes. I have to tell people that I'm unable to move or type (unless I type and send messages "blindly"). The odd thing is that a few years back during a five-day power outtage, I logged onto SL on dialup and had much better frame rates than during these recent lag spikes!

I've spent hours reading through this forum as well as computing forums and can't find anything similar to the lag spike problem I'm experiencing.. I'm unable to use the latest viewers (both SL and Firestorm) because of the lag spikes which occur every 3-4 minutes and last an entire minute (I've timed them). During this time frame rate drops to about 5 per second. When I'm in chat, the cursor is lagged and it's nearly impossible to type. I can move my avie around but I can't see where I'm going because of the slow frame rate. Audio and streaming is 100% normal. No change at all in the CPU and memory usage during the spikes. I've got a decent internet connection. I was thinking I had an overheating graphics card but the lag problem goes away for almost an hour if I relog. Even when I log back on immediately. I don't see how my graphics card would have a chance to cool off in those few seconds. I've been using the older viewers and I see everyone's avies as grey so I'm spending less and less time on SL. I don't think I need to upgrade my computer (as many people suggested) because I have no problems at all between lag spikes.

I've spent hours reading through this forum as well as computing forums and can't find anything similar to the lag spike problem I'm experiencing.. I'm unable to use the latest viewers (both SL and Firestorm) because of the lag spikes which occur every 3-4 minutes and last an entire minute (I've timed them). During this time frame rate drops to about 5 per second. When I'm in chat, the cursor is lagged and it's nearly impossible to type. I can move my avie around but I can't see where I'm going because of the slow frame rate. Audio and streaming is 100% normal. No change at all in the CPU and memory usage during the spikes. I've got a decent internet connection. I was thinking I had an overheating graphics card but the lag problem goes away for almost an hour if I relog. Even when I log back on immediately. I don't see how my graphics card would have a chance to cool off in those few seconds. I've been using the older viewers and I see everyone's avies as grey so I'm spending less and less time on SL. I don't think I need to upgrade my computer (as many people suggested) because I have no problems at all between lag spikes.