"Initializing Multimedia" freezes, then login fails, NVIDIA card

Gonna try asking for help with this once more...

This has been going on for several months, after many uninstallations, reinstalations and upgrades of Quicktime later, many client versions later, many different clients including clients that don't share any of folder with the official client, not even settings, now everywhere I still get the freeze at "Initializing multimedia" followed by a failure to login.

Somtimes the client doesn't realise what happened and keeps showing he progress bar, but the console keeps crying over and over again about invalid packets from invalid circuits, other times the client goes back to the login screen, with a few windows that usually only show when logged in being displayed and telling me somthing wen't wrong and offering me to teleport to my home, I can choose to dismiss the dialog and try to login again, including trying a different location, this doesn't seem to have any more chance of getting a successful login than accepting the offer to tp home or simply closing and reopening the client again, but usually on the second attempt I have a bigger chance of getting the dialog saying I was disconnected and the client closes if I click OK (that is the only button avaiable) but somtimes I get this on the first attempt already.

disabling voice, video and music doesn't make any difference, nor does setting the graphics settings to the weakest possible

I already uninstalled Silverlight

as far as I can tell all the settings on the NVIDIA control panel that can be set to let the application choose are set that way

for some time I thought that trying to log directly into an empty sim without anyone and without any streams would increase the odds of me being succesful, but I'm starting to believe I only got that impression cause I tried to log into those sims more times, regardless of where I try to log the odds over time seem to be the same, somtimes I spend literally hours trying to login without success


is there any sort of monitoring program I can run or any log file I can browse that would give people more information on what is going on? (like, Sysinternal's Procmon, or Wireshark or somthing, I got those two installed, I dunno how to read most of what they return, but I believe I would be able to set any setting you guys ask me to filter the right data or somthing)

btw, here are my current specs according to the about screen (notice there is no ATI card)


CPU: Intel Pentium 4 (Unknown model) (2999 MHz)
Memory: 3071 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 7300 GT/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Version: 2.1.2

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.18.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3
J2C Decoder Version: KDU
Audio Driver Version: FMOD version 3.750000
LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.24310 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.20_0000000000)

ps:the board is actually PCI-E dunno why it doesn't say it correctly there

btw, I already tried with firewall disabled and my machine on the DMZ of the router

edit: oh, I'm not sure if it is important to mention, but usually, on the rare times I do manage to login, everything works just as expected, including tps, that is until I log off, then the problem starts all over again

anyone? help please?! 0.0

a new data, I've jsut tried the Meerkat Viewer and it doesn't freeze during login, but currently I haven't managed to get it to make any sound, right now I'm installing SP3 that according to recomendations I was given, should help with the sound issue

but untill other viewers also work, this issue isn't solved, there are certain features of certain viewers I'm interested in playing with, I don't wanna stay restricted to a single viewer, and I really would like to have the underlying issue that affects so many viewers dealt with

What video driver are you using?

You might try changing video driver, starting with 175.19, I think it is. It's been a while so you might want to check that version number in other posts. Current drivers don't always work best.

What kind of soundcard do you have? Perhaps Windows update has updated your soundcard into dysfunctionality. If you have a revert option for your soundcard you could try that.

If you've posted about this previously you could put links here, same for the jira.

I got the version you mentioned I believe, the sound on Meerkat started working after I rebooted after finishing to put SP3, it failed a couple of times for some reason, but just on Meerkat


I would rather not go replacing my graphics driver, it is always a struggle to get it working whenever I install another version, or even reinstall the current version, gotta reboot like more than 10 times cleaning drivers and trying to install again and again untill windows boot properly and the driver and all accompanying software are working right, and how could it be a driver problem if the few times I do manage to log in, and when using Meerkat all the shaders etc work just fine?

and I don't use Windows Update to mess with my drivers, I always get them manually from the proper site

Buying a new computer might be your best option.

I'm not sure what kinds of possible solutions you could hope for if something like changing drivers is not acceptable.

It might be useful to list other possible solutions you aren't willing to try to keep people from wasting time pointing out things to try that won't be tried.

if there was any indications the issue might be ont he drivers, I might be willing to reinstall my video drivers or down/upgrade them, the audio driver isn't much fo a concern

but so far there is nothing pointing that direction, and I already offered to provide more info and no one said anythign about it, I'm tired of having extra work with try and error without any success, I wanna actually study the problem to figure out exactly why I'm having this issue (and from what I've seen ont he forums and a few other places, it isn't all that uncommon to have some sort of glitch on the Initializing multimedia stage

someone that doesn't have time to read it suggested me to post the secondlife.log of a client that has the issue, http://pastebin.com/f603fe150 , the freeze happens at about line 399 , and then again later, but I got distracted and didn't looked at the console when the freeze on the second attempt happened, lemme know if it is important to pinpoint on which line exactly on each of the two attempts the client allows the freeze happens and I'll go try again and write down the exact points

edit: ah, and somtimes it is different, somtimes the console keeps complaining about invalid packets from invalid circuits but the gui shows no error msg and just stays with the progress bar showing, and other times I'm only given one attempt before the client is closed.

How old are the Drivers?

What Driver are you Running.

Your Just updating to SP3 ? then I am only going to assume that the Nvidia Driver is out of date for new tech that SL has , and For SL that could mean playing or not...

Its really easy to check what Driver it is. and if its older than a 169.1 it needs to be upgraded, download the latest Driver for the card, run Driver cleaner uninstall all nvidia stuff and click the install shortcut from your desk top (or where you save it)and re start its done.

If your not willing to do that maybe you ought to not bother with SL at all. I am running the latest beta drivers on all my cards including the FX5200! and I don't have these issues. If your not wanting to update you may want to run just under the latest driver (look in the nvidia site for past drivers.)

EDIT to add what is the Meerkat viewer???

I run the official and the RC as well can run the cool viwer and Nicholas old school viewer..

the packet loss stuff I read seems odd on start up almost more like you have a network issue or maybe you have some nastys in your registry.. maybe like SB said above its time for a new PC or jut a re format and a clean OS install all updated, I really can't believe you were still running SP2 that thing had so many holes in it.

(I thought the driver version was shown on the specs from the About SL window, but I didn't proofread it, I just copy-pasted the info)

anyway, like I said before, I already got driver version 175.19.

Meerkat viewer is http://meerkatviewer.org/ , someone in the openSL irc channel suggested I try it because it got some significant changes in the multimedia area, apparently those changes make all the difference, and after logged in, all the shaders and stuff work as expected, so the drivers are working. I've tried the official and RCs, as well as many third party clients, all have this issue, Meerkat was the only one so far that goes thru the "Initializing multimedia" step without a hitch.

I was hesitating on updating to SP3 because I remember there was many complaints about SP1, or SP2, specially involving games, I waited some time to get those too to make sure most issues had been ironed out both with the servicepacks themselves and with drivers, games and other stuff. I did install all the individual hotfixes, security fixes etc that were made avaiable, I read that the security stuff for SP3 was mostly also avaible as individual updates.

Eventually I might update my video card drivers past 175.19 when I have time and won't mind having to waste my time figuring out how to make windows and the drivers work again

I won't be reformatting, no way, literally more than a billion files I would have to check one by one to see which I wanna backup, and then there is the issue of having to reinstall all the programs again, figuring out where I downloaded each one from, redoing all the tweaks and personalizations of all programs, no way.

I didn't looked for packet loss numbers on that specific log, but when I do got a SL client connected, rarely there is even a hint of any other color than black in the little packet loss meter on the corner, and whenever the little colored bar shows I just have to go to the network tab of the preferences window, move the bandwidth throttle to the minimum for a few seconds and then no more packet loss and I can have the bandwidth throttle all the way up again without any of the two little meters showing any signs of problems

What makes you think your problem has anything at all to with your video card/drivers? Not being able to log in or the log in stalling at some point does not sound like a problem with either of those two. It sounds more in line with network problem or ISP problem. My vote would be network.

When was the last time you rebooted your modem and/or router? How are your Windows security settings set? Is there any "Nanny ware" installed on your computer. What do you have running in the background besides the usual antivirus, firewall, anti maleware, etc? Some other things that might be suspect would be memory (your installed RAM), CPU, network interface card.......and so much more I could not list. A good disk clean up and defrag solves a lot of problems.......might look into that too.

Now, if you are not willing to accept suggestions posted here, then why do you keep bringing this thread to the top? At some point you (not any of us) will have to fix your problem. What I'm saying is that you have gotten some pretty good advice and suggestions so far.....you have all but rejected every single one of them.

So, in closing, I wish you good luck.

It's other people that are insisting in the driver thing, I have been trying to explain the reasons I don't think it has anything to do with that. I don't know what I'm doing wrong with my explanations that keeps confusing people about what I'm really talking about... :/


IMO the issue is related to whatever causes the clients to freeze at the "Initializing multimedia", with Meerkat, that freeze doesn't happen and the login is always successful, before they moved "Initializing multimedia" from the client loading stage into the middle of the login process, this issue didn't existed, the freeze happened, but it happend while the client was loading, and not during the login process, the login process was left unharmed. In an older version of the client, back when "Initializing multimedia" was called "Initializing Quicktime", and it was also happening during the login process, a similar issue was present (but could be worked around by using the -noquicktime commandline option, but with this new version of the issue, that comandline option has no noticeable effect, and at the time using this workaround would leave me without the ability to receive media streams, audio streams still worked though IIRC)


Somthing makes the client freeze at "Initializing multimedia", and while the client is unresponsive, login stuff times out.

I've been trying to get orientation on how to figure out why the freeze happens, so far things people told me to do only showed what doesn't have any effect at all in the freeze, in many cases people tell me to do things I already did, or things I was already sure wouldn't have any effect (and after I did it was confirmed I was right). Recently, someone on the openSL irc channel mentioned they vaguely remember a similar issue where the cause was a conflict with ffdshow, that was the first thing I thought might make sense after quite some time, but no luck with that either, I uninstalled ffdshow and the freeze still happened as usual.

I suggested video drivers because I recall someone with crashing at "Initializing Multimedia" that had tried a bunch of more likely things finding the problem stopped by changing video drivers.

Here's another thing to try: create a new user, a new windows account, and try installing one viewer at a time, and see if that gives a different result.

Is is possible that the multiple viewers are causing problems by writing to the same settings.xml file?

I already said that this issue happens with viewers that don't share any folder with the official client

the thing you remember about drivers wouldn't be the issue that is solved by disabling the AI on ATI drivers, is it?

On a hunch, try uninstalling Quicktime all together. I can run SL's official viewer without Quicktime at all. It's not installed on this computer at all.

from the first post:


if I had meant just clean reinstallations I would have said so, but I've actually tried with Quicktime uninstalled as well

I have an ATI fire gl vid card. I noticed that if you go to catalyst control center > preferences > restore factory defaults, you will not get the multimedia crash.

Just started out and searched forums for a solution. Disabling Catalyst AI in CCC fixed it in my case.

what does tha AI thing does for you people with ATI cards? Like I said on the title and elsewhere, I got an NVIDIA card, so that "turn off AI" thing doesn't mean much for me...


recently I tried completly uninstalling Quicktime again, this time it did solve the issue, at the cost of not getting streams in SL, I then installed Quicktime alternative, that from what I understand, is the barebones of Quicktime plus another media player not made by apple, and the problem becomes present again, uninstalling it, the problem is gone, but no streams

I know no one offered to analyze the results from Sysinternals Processes Monitor, but I decided to make the logs for both with and without Quicktime in case someone offers to examine them. The procmon logs turned out to be much bigger than I expected (about 500MB each, I dunno how much of it I should have left out), to read it you will need a program that can handle large text files (techinicly they are xml files, but in the end it's all text), I managed to put the two files inside a .7z file of about 17MB, my webhost is currently under maintenance so I can't upload the file, if you wanna read them send me an email and I'll try to attach it in the reply

Ive been getting exactly the same error for about an hour,on 2 separate systems, both MAC OS X

stalls for a long time on intializing multimedia, but I can log on. Once on the grid I can top once but crash on 2nd tp almost everytime. I've tried disabling the AI catalyst and tried unistalling quicktime, and re-installing it. I've tried running without quicktime. I am running a q6600 quad core and a ati 4870 x2 2 gb ram on xp sp3. This just started happening about a week ago and I haven't installed any programs recently. I've ran virus scans, malware scans, defrags and check disk/r. I've disabled all streaming and this had no effect. I've tried greenlife viewer as well and it's the same. Sorry I dont have a solution but maybe if SL sees enough people with this issue they might look into it.

How do you guys disable AI? I have ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP and i can't find such a thing as catalyst or AI to be disabled, i dont have any Catalyst control panel. By the other way , i try to uninstall quicktime and it seems it doesnt fully uninstall. Installing a newly downloaded quitime doesnt solve anything for me.

So I uninstalled my ATI drivers and Catalyst Control Center. I downloaded the newest drivers only (without CCC) and everything seems to be ok now.

webhost seems to be working well again, http://TigroSpottystripes.Furtopia.org/files/logs/ProcMon-logs.7z 16MB the huge logs, please respect my privacy regarding any information pontentialy present in those files that don't relate to the matter at hand