Constant freezing

Ok, this is getting to the point of ridiculousness. This has been an ongoing problem now for a long time and is growing more and more unacceptable.

The problem is that SL constantly freezes my whole computer, locking it up and forcing a reboot. It happens sporadically, usually within an hours time frame, give or take.

LL has no good excuse as to why these issues have not been fixed. This has been going on the better part of a year now at least.

System:
AMD Athlon64 2.4ghz
4 GB Ram
nVidia 8600 driver 6.14.11.7516 (Downgraded because of the stupid clothing glitch)

I should also mention these problems have persisted through both several reinstalls and a complete format.

At first glance this is an overheating problem. Try running your computer with the side panel off and maybe even a fan nearby pointed at it just to see if it improves. If it does you may need to invest in a better cooling system.

If that fails. Becuase this persisted across a complete format I would have to say it is a hardware related problem, most likely a hardware defect, and that is beyond the scope of this forum.

My temps are fine and well below what would need a better cooling system. Heck, my case is specifically made for high end gaming as it has extremely good airflow.

The amusing thing is that this is the only game that has caused this problem, so if there is any type of error, it's with the sloppy coding that LL has in their viewer.

What OS, and what version of the SL viewer are you using?

Have you checked for defective memory and run a surface scan on the hard drive?

Memory and drive are fine. All hardware is working.
XP/Newest stable version of viewer available.

Update is as I suspected: downloaded an alternate viewer and not one single crash since. LL needs to get with the program.

Complete system lock ups and/or unexpected reboots of the computer unless caused by drivers, seriously damaged operating systems, heat, or hardware malfunction are extremely rare. You say your drivers are fine, your temps are fine and from your description of the problem I don't think you have serious OS issues. In order, my guess is heat, driver, and hardware malfunction.

Your case may be a gamers rig case with beefed up cooling. That does not mean your cooling system is running as it should be.....check your fans. It also does not mean you don't have dust built up inside the case..........clean it out. A can of compressed air to blow out all the nicks and crannies in the case, thoroughly blowing through every fan (including the CPU, GPU and power supply to make sure all the fans spin freely will give you a good idea if the fans are operating properly. It will also blow out the dust that acts as an insulator that holds heat close to the hardware.

The driver you are using is probably a good one since you have not had obvious issues with it. But, for the 8600 you have nVidia's driver version 178.16 works. Maybe you might want to try it..........up to you because I would never change a driver unless I had good cause myself.

And the last issue being hardware. The most likely hardware device to suspect would be the graphics card. If you have access to another card you might try switching it to check......if not, then time will tell if it's going to completely fail on you. The second most likely device is your memory modules. And the third would be the CPU.......but I doubt it's that because CPU's usually just quite without warning.

Now for my logic on this. You stated this issue started a long ago and has been steadily getting worse over time. That's how heating problems start.......slowly and gradually become more and more frequent until whatever it is that gets hot enough one last time and fails completely. Google "PC Wizard 2008" and install it.........monitor your temps with it while on SL and various other CPU and GPU intensive programs. If you temps are approaching 100 celius you have a problem (actually, if it were me, I'd say 90 celius is serious). PC Wizard 2008 also has some basic benchmarking tests for your graphics, CPU, memory etc that might give you a little more insight into what might be the problem.

Using an alternate viewer and saying the issue is still LL's coding is hiding your head in the sand. The viewer may be a little easier on your CPU and GPU making your problem appear to be solved......but I doubt it is. Give it time and it will start again. The problem is something inside your computer case and until it's fixed you will experience the problems again........until what is having the problem completely fails. Your choice to believe people here trying to help or ignore them..........your computer, your pocket book.

Mystic, please keep us updated. Peggy sounds so certain the problem is not LL's viewer, but ignores the fact that all your other games have been working fine. Which viewer did you switch to?

What other game is there that uses non professionally produced textures that render on the fly? What other popular game uses OpenGL exclusively for it's rendering engine? What other game (or program for that matter) requires such intensive CPU and GPU calculations at an almot constant rate?

Not many, my friend. SL has it's problems, but locking up a computer is not one of them. You can argue that because SL puts so much stress on a computer it might lock up or crash......but that's a failure of the computer (either not enough muscle to handle SL or it has a weak link somewhere that is destined to failure sooner or later).

SL (the viewer) crashing is common........and usually can be solved by switching to a lower demand viewer, updating drivers, increasing RAM, getting a better GPU, or changing computers completely. But the OP is not talking about a viewer crash......but is talking a very serious system crash. One that indicates a future, expensive, failure if left unfixed. Take your chances......like I said, it's your computer, it's your pocket book.

While I'm sure the issue might be caused for some people in the way she is stating, it wasn't the case with mine. Let me put it all out:

The OS is a new install, it was doing that before and after the OS was formatted. It was also formatted from XP Pro to XP Home, so it's not the files in the OS either.

The drivers are fine as well. This issue was happening with all 4 drivers I used with my video card because of trying to fix the issue with grayed out pants.

The temperatures are FINE and running at normal. All my temps are monitored.

I clean my cases several times a year, so dust is not the problem.

Peggy, your "logic" is flawed and you can take your condescending attitude elsewhere. I'm not a clueless newbie when it comes to computers. Hell, I built every one of these computers in this room. When I say that the problem is shoddy coding on the part of LL, I say so with no ignorance on the topic. I run programs that push my system much harder than SL does, so heat is not the issue. SL viewer is the only thing that has caused lockups on this computer in the years since I built it.

Oh, and guess what? Since I've changed viewers, NO LOCKUPS. I think, especially after this past weekend, there is nothing left to defend when it comes to LL.

Brai Magic, the viewer I'm using now is Kristens Viewer. It's a lighter weight viewer that works exceptionally well and I believe even looks and works better than LL's viewer. I'm actually getting ready to try her Shadowdraft client this morning.
http://kirstenleecinquetti.blogspot.com/