SL keeps locking up my PC, help!

Hi!

I've had my computer for about a year, and in all that time I've only ever had it freeze up on me maybe 10 times or so. It's a very nice, very stable PC and I've played lots of games on it with no problem at all.

I recently started playing SL again, and it keeps freezing up my whole computer It seems to happen at random, sometimes after just a few minutes of playing, sometimes after a couple of hours. When it happens, my mouse cursor locks up, the last sound that was playing repeats over and over, and the only way to fix it is to hit the reboot button on my PC.

Here are my system specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2GB RAM
Nvidia 8800GTS
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

That should be more than enough to easily handle SL, I think, but I'm still having issues. I have all the latest drivers and such for my hardware, and I regularly scan for viruses and spyware and everything looks clean.

Since I haven't played SL in ages I'm sort of confused about what to try. I couldn't find anything in the knowledgebase that seems to pertain to my particular problem, so I thought I'd post here.

I hope someone can help me!

I've tried disabling more video options and turning others down, but I'm still locking up

I saw the other thread and tried some of the things suggested there, but none have helped. It also seemed to degenerate into a big flame war, so nothing really got accomplished.

I'd really appreciate some help guys

It sounds like a heating problem. And yes, your system should handle SL with relative ease.

Try taking the side off your case and get a can of compressed air to blow all the dust out. Pay attention to the graphics card, CPU, power supply and all fans. Make sure you blow all the dust off all components and out of the case (doing this out on the porch or patio is probably a good idea). When you blow the air on the fan blades the fans should spin freely (it they don't then you may have one that is not operating properly......check it closely and replace if you think it's defective....fans are cheap in conparison to other parts). One warning though. When you blow the compressed air on components don't get that straw right down on it....that air is not only coming out with force it is extremely cold. If you get something cold enough moisture in the air will condense on it....and that is similar to putting water on it. Something you don't want.

Dust build up inside a computer is the primary cause of heat related problems.

It's not a heat problem. Speed Fan shows my temperatures average 55C - 60C, and I completely cleaned the inside of the case about a week ago. I also play a ton of other games on this PC, many more strenuous than Second Life, and NEVER experience crashes or lockups.

Such as? I know of none.

If it's not heat then it's probably driver related.....since you are using the 8600 GTS card (which is very similar to my 8600 GT), try nvidia's website and search the archive for the 169.25 version.

So I have to downgrade my drivers to make Second Life work? :\

Also, how is one game more strenuous than another? 100% CPU usage is the most "strenuous" a game can get, and I'd say most games are using 100% CPU a lot of the time. Desktop applications often do for periods, too.

Sometimes a driver update just for the sake of updating the driver is inviting trouble. If you are having apparent driver issues then, by all means, update it. If you are not having problems then leave it alone. Updating drivers is a little tricky.........most people do not do it correctly and corrupt the new driver just by improperly updating it.

I only mentioned the driver I'm using because I know it is a stable driver that works very well with SL (very few crashes, 25 to 35 fps in all but extremely texture heavy areas). It was only a suggestion...........keep your current driver if you like. But I would take the time to reinstall it again.........after deleting the old driver first.

I'm not going to go into how any game compares to SL. No online game I know of has thousands (if not millions) of user created textures and items that are for the most part ineffiecient due to being made or built by amatuers. All other online games are professionally built using very small textures optimized for effieciency. No computer using a professionally made game works near as hard as the same computer using an amatuer made game.

My CPU never goes to 100% usage in SL..........almost never above 60%, in fact. And I did nothing special to make that happen either.

It's conceivable the second life log file might have something useful in it, or perhaps the Windows logs you can get to through the control panel might have some useful messages.

I found my log file, but I don't know enough about it to tell if there's anything wrong in there. I skimmed over it, but nothing jumped out as being obviously wrong.

Could I post it somehow and let you guys look at it?

Copy and paste it here........someone may be able to find somthing. I probably couldn't though

It wouldn't. SL physics are handled server side. Physics processing is what makes other games give the processor a workout.

OP: Could you do us a favor and run Memtest86+ overnight? http://www.memtest.org/

I've updated my video drivers to the latest after completely uninstalling the old ones, it didn't help.

I've underclocked my CPU by 400mhz, and it's running 7C cooler than before, that didn't help.

I've tried disabling a ton more options inside of Second Life, I'm still locking up.

I just reread your specs. Are you installing drivers that are for 64 bit operating systems? I've heard that some drivers are hard to find for Vista 64 (actually for any 64 bit OS).

Something to explore anyway.

I wouldn't even be able to install 32 bit drivers on this system, at all.

This HAS to be a problem with Second Life. I play MANY MANY MANY other games, ALL THE TIME, and NEVER EVER EVER have problems. And I'm not talking about Peggle. Team Fortress 2, The Sims 2, Mythos, a bunch of other games on Steam, etc. Not a single one of them has ever locked my system up like this in the entire year I've owned it. Any sort of crash is an extremely rare event with this PC. It stays on for weeks at a time sometimes and performs flawlessly the entire time.

The ONLY time I EVER have problems is while playing Second Life.

Copying and pasting the last 20 or 30 lines of your second life log file couldn't hurt.

Have you tried using Vista's Event Viewer to see if offers any clues as to what is happening?

If you can borrow a router and a video card from someone you could try swapping them out one at a time and see if that makes any difference. Alternately, or additionally, you could take your computer to someone's elses house and try it over there.

If your motherboard has an onboard video processor, you could try removing your video card and using the onboard video processor just to see what happens.

Have you tried the beta grid client?

You might try removing the sound device and letting Vista reinstall the sound driver.

What is the source and version number of your video driver?

Have you tried it with Aeroglass disabled?

Tried turning VBO off?

Kinda same one i have;

Nvidia 8800GTS (640mb for me dunno what you have)
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Suggest you try nosound, 64bit drivers arent a problem to find anymore maybe true back in winxp 64bit days -.o not nowadays.

Wonder what drivers did you use, some gts comes with a "enchanced" drivers crap that always crashed or froze SL for me, usually its a driver to controll fanspeed on em, dont think they use that anymore tho.