Crashing at the Loading Screen

I am unable to run SL anymore. The 1.2.11 update installed and worked fine at first but now when I reach the "Contacting Login Server" message at the loading screen my computer reboots.

It may be a red herring, but just before I first encountered this problem I ran the Windows CD player for the first time in close to a year. Running SL immediately afterwards I encountered this problem for the first time.

I have not made any changes to my hardware in the previous weeks.


To solve the problem I have:
- Updated my Via 4-in-1 motherboard drivers to the latest version.
- Updated my sound drivers (C-Media) to the latest version.
- Updated my Nvidia drivers to the latest version.
- Installed all recent appropriate Windows Update patches.
- Cleared my temp folders.
- Attempted to run SL with reduced settings (lower resolution, less eye candy, AGP turned off).
- Checked for malware. My virus scanning software is up to date.
- Uninstalled SL (deleting the cache in the process) and reinstalled 1.2.11.

The problem persists.

System Specs:
Windows 2000 SP4
Soyo K7V Dragon Plus motherboard
Athlon XP2000
1GB good RAM
GeForce3 Ti 500


My Normal SL Settings:
Network
Bandwidth: 500 kbps
Cache: 1000MB

Display
Local Lighting
Object Bump
Avatar Rendering: Bump Mapped
Terrain Detail: Full
Run in a window

Options
AGP Graphics Acceleration
Texture Cache Size: Large
Video Memory: 64MB
Object Detail: Middle
Tree Detail: Middle
Avatar Detail: Full
Draw Distance: 128
Particle Count; 2048

Audio: All default

All of the settings worked perfectly in the past.


My connection and home network are not at fault because my laptop is able to run SL and connect without problems, and all other Internet applications work fine on the machine in question.

Any advice is welcome.

We just fixed this bug - there's a new installer available for download on the website (1.2.11 build 1). It won't update automatically so you'll need to go to Downloads->Second Life, download it, and install it yourself. Please let us know if this doesn't solve the problem.

(This is an OpenSSL problem which is most likely to occur with VIA motherboards and Win2000 SP4)

That seems to have taken care of it, Ian. Thank you

The problem of being unable to get past the loading screens has been fixed but another problem I thought to be unrelated remains. When SL crashes badly enough to cause an immediate reboot (which happened every time with the loading screen crash) my computer gets almost to the Windows login then reboots again, endlessly. The only solution I have found is to turn off the power and then unplug the computer until the power led on the motherboard finally goes dark. Simply turning off the power does not fix the endless reboot loop when power is restored, even if the power is off for an extended time. Sometimes SL experiences a crash of this kind at the end of a seemingly normal logout.

Any insight would be appreciated.