After last week's upgrade I was unable to see avitars, including my own. Only custom hair was visible for some reason, so I could follow a "wig" bouncing along a walking path. No one in the forums apparently had encountered the problem. I tried clearing the cache, uninstalling and reinstalling 2nd Life, but with no change.
What DID work was to install the First Look - Dazzle version. For some reason that fixed the problem, and it continued to work through this morning. So, I was confident that future releases would not have the problem. But just now, when I started Dazzle, I was prompted to install and update. There was not choice but to install the upgrade or quit. So I installed the upgraded Dazzle - and now I'm back where I was - unable to see my avitar or anyone else's.
I have a dual core Vista laptop, with ATI Mobilithy Radeon HD 2400 XT. I had NO problem running 2L until the upgrade last week, and NO problem with Dazzle until this last upgrade. At this point, unless another First Look candidate works again, I suppose that's the end of 2L for me. Sorry to have to go, but nothing seems to work.