SL constantly lagging and crashing.

Hello, all.

I know this issue has been brought up before. I did a search and didn't see anything that really satisfied me, so I thought I'd explain my issue more thoroughly and see if anyone can suggest anything.

I've only been in SL for 4 days, and this problem has persisted the whole time, so I have no history of ever experiencing this sim with no flaws.

Basically, the game is laggy as heck. I can still move around and do things. The only issues I come across is occasionally when I'm moving, when I want to stop, my character keeps going. Sometimes, the system will catch up and I'll be back in the store, or whatever. Sometimes my character keeps going and ends up outside or under the floor.

But that's the only problem, aside from slow rendering at times (but I can live with that), until SL inevitably freezes up and crashes. It seems to happen more often now. It used to be I'd get 40 minutes to an hour or more before it finally died, but now it's closer to 10 to 20 minutes.

Viewer: Snowglobe

System Specs:

- RAM: 3 GB
- Harddrive: 500 GB
- Processor: 2.66 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
- OS: Windows XP
- Video Card: Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT 256 MB (driver: ATI Catalyst ver. 9.4 downloaded this summer - as of this writing 9.11 is available. I'll update it, but I doubt that's the problem)
- Hard line connection to the internet (not wireless)

All these stats meet or exceed even the recommended system requirements.

I've tried everything. I've lowered the graphics quality all the way down to low. Disabled all sound. No streaming option enabled at all. Disabled every option that says doing so could prevent crashes.

Yes, I've cleared the cache. That doesn't seem to be the problem. Nothing helps at all.

Anyone with any suggestions? I really would appreciate it.

The first problem you mention --- trying to stop walking or flying and yet your avi seems to continue and then bounces back: That is an issue many of us experience in lag areas and we often refer to it as the rubberband effect. If your graphics are already low, about the only other thing you can do is play with your network bandwidth. My ISP actually provides decent service and so I get my best performance with the mine set to 1500.

As for the locking and crashing, one thing that was causing that for me was when my video card was getting too hot. Maybe download one of the free temp monitors and keep it running while you are in SL to see how the readings are.

Thank you very much for the reply.

It's good to know about the Rubberband Effect. Because of my issues and relative newness, I don't know what's considered a "normal" problem or not.

It appears I was wrong. It was a driver problem. I updated them and SL works just fine. I didn't think SL would require the most up up up to date drivers, but it was no big hassle. And not one crash in 5 straight hours online.

However, I do think I'll get that temp monitor anyway.

Thanks again.