Serious problems with new viewer - HELP, ANYBODY?

I have been using SL for about 6 months and have had no problems before I downloaded the new viewer. After that, I haven't been able to get to SL. The program gets stuck! I sent this to the support and they suggested I should obtain a driver update. A frind of mine does not think that is the reason for the problem, she thinks it may be related to Windows. Does anyone have a clue what the problem is? Help greatly appreciated!

Quote to Support:
When I tried to log in to SL yesterday [Oct. 7, 2008] there was a message that a new version of the viewer must be downloaded in order to use Second Life. I did it, and now I can't get to the program any more. When I try to open SL, the task manager says that the program is not responding. The computer opens two SL windows but the program just won't start. I can't get to the log-in at all, the viewer is not opening, there is only a blank white screen. And when I try to end the SL tasks (there are two of them) from the task manager, my computer freezes completely and I can't shut it down normally or even restart it without doing the hard boot (power off)! Have done this several times now and also tried to uninstall and reinstall SL. No change.

And, after SL gets stuck, all the other programs become unresponsive too. When I booted by shutting the power down and restarted, all the other programs were OK again, except SL just would not work and I had to start all over again. And again.

Another problem: When I tried to shut down the computer there was a message that "ffhook" is not responding. I am using Firefox browser, could the problem have something to do with my Firefox plugin? Or what is this?
End Quote

I managed to get rid of that ffhook and now I can shut down the computer normally but SL still won't open!

Should I try uninstall and reinstall in safe mode, and/or REGEDIT? A friend suggested that.

Thanks for any help or comments!

-Tiina Twine

Tiina,
first of all:
1) Download the latest official viewer from the Linden Web-site
2) Uninstall all secondlife variants via control panel
3) ensure that the SL install directory is removed during uninstall
4) ensure that the SL cache directory is removed during uninstall
5) install the latest version downloaded in 1)

This process helped me some times when having various differences with beta-viewers, RC-viewers, older and newer viewers. It seems that sometimes data are not compatible between viewers which are expected to be.

Wol,
SL Guided Tours

I would agree with wolve...............corrupted installation........old viewer parts still there after new viewer was installed..............deinstall viewer............make sure all folders are empty and that all reg entries are deleted.

Then reinstall latest viewer .....should cure the problem

My problem is solved! I am now able to log in to SL again. The problem was with my antivirus program, I had to add SL to the allowed programs. The reason why I did not see this solution before was that the earlier version was in the list of allowed programs, and I had to take it off and add the new version in order to be able to log in.

I also deleted all the remains of the old viewer and did a system restore to the day before I downloaded the new version for the first time, I think that helped too.