SL upgrade 1-5-13 complete dud with nVidia GeForce 6800

I've posted about this problem before but had it somewhat under control until this latest upgrade:

Last month got a new Dell Dimension 8400 computer: Pentium 4; 3.4 GHz; 1 GB RAM with the following graphics card: NVidia GeForce 6800 series 256 MB (PCI Express x16) This card works great for everything but SL!

At first I was crashing on login or when I was trying to go into "appearance mode." I pinned that crashing down to a problem with a previously fine Second Skin base texture that all of a sudden didn't work with my new system. To correct it, I had to not use that texture. BUT THEN I had total rendering problems with each little upgrade -- only saw a blurry landscape with NO avatars, NO objects and the camera frozen in place. This seemed to be fixed by totally uninstalling both SL and my nVidia drivers, rebooting, disabling virus software, reinstalling SL and then reinstalling the latest nVidia drivers. THIS I HAD TO DO WITH EACH UPGRADE mind you.

BUT NOW, with the SL 1-5-13 upgrade NOT EVEN THIS FIX WORKS! When I finally get logged in, there's only the blurry, detail-less landscape, NO avatar, NO objects and frozen camera.

Soooo, I guess it's "so long" to SL until Linden Labs can support this video card...I ain't buyin' another computer for narry a long while! (If you do happen to see me, it's because I've managed to log in on my son's little choppy computer or I've managed to pry my husband's computer from his cold dead fingers.)

edit: [PLEASE SEE MY LATEST POST IN THIS THREAD. I FOUND A FIX.]

[sarcasm]But we had two whole days to test out this patch! This is inconceivable [/sarcasm]

I have been using a 5700 since I joined, always with the latest drivers, and up until this upgrade/patch had no real problems.

Now, the symptoms that you describe are fairly similar to mine - though your description is not quite as severe as mine believe it or not.

I have no clue what the problem is and all I can do is say, we are in the same boat apparently... no bailing bucket, amid a sea of uncertainty and no land or rescue in sight. Good luck to both of us.

Ditto

do you use the 66.93 driver?

Im using a 6800gt , no problems , no diffrence from last version either , not the pci version tho, agp

66.93 drivers ?

The machine i use in SL : a64-3800+ . 3 gig ram . 810 gig hd's . 6800gt
( what i love gadgets )

try to find out wich driver your using nvidia posted a new driver 9 nov wich helped me alot

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

I'm using a 6800 GT (have been for a while) it seems to work fine and I haven't noticed any change with this new version. I am using the latest drivers available from the NVidia website.

Yes, I have been using the lastest driver posted by nVidia (66.93) and this no longer works with SL. Even tried rolling back to the previous driver...desparate to try anything...and of course it didn't work either.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a PCI card that works with SL? Unfortunately, when we opened the box for this Dell there is only the slot for PCI...no AGP slot.

I really hate to admit this, because I had developed a preference for Norton over McAfee products long ago... but after a small discussion with Lee Linden today, it seems my problem was not the upgrade per se, but the SL-Norton integration....however you want to describe it.

This will be an incomplete explanation but I'll try.

Apparently, Norton Personal Firewall and/or Norton Antivirus products sometimes identity newview.exe activity as viral or undesired activity. As such, they hinder proper comms with the SL networks. In my case, I was being allowed to log into the user server but the comms with other SL servers was being cut off for some reason. Specifically, data,agni.linden.com was not correctly being allowed allowed to communicate with the SL client.

So, I had to create a specific rule to grant access to agni.linden.com for Norton Personal Firewall. That worked for about five minutes then the AV software burped and I decided to act on Lee's comment that McAfee products haven't had the same issues with SL.

Anyway, bought and installed the McAfee and all's been sweet since. I hope that made some sense and I know I probably screwed up part of it, but it's the best I can do right now.

--
That being said, I don't really understand why this would raise its head now, that is, after this upgrade when I ran without any previous Norton-SL problem. I think I had this issue once before between May and now, but no major interaction problem like I experienced this time. I mean, I could get in but not see anything or do anything... Had I not received an IM from someone today (thanks Aleksandr Martov), I would have continued to shoot myself in the foot for sure here. He contaced Rheya who gave me the number to LL and I got to Lee that way. Still, it does surprise me that this raises it's ugly head now and not before...

Anyway, food for thought... it cost me a bit of $ and a small chunk of ego to switch to McAfee, but for now that has solved my problem as far as SL goes. It might be worth a shot for anyone else with this problem.

Good luck.

I'm glad this worked for you, Korg.

Wish I could say the same for me. I've had McAfee all along so that's not my problem. Still can't do or see ANYTHING is SL when I log in. *sigh*

I was having alot of probs with XP sp2, I had to uninstall it, but I think the issue here maybe the pci express technology???

I have a Dell 8200 with a agp nvidia 5700.


fen-

MadameThespian, is your problem strictly SL-specific? In other words, do you have problems playing any 3D-intensive games or software that makes heavy use of your video card? How abbout graphics benchmark programs?

I've wondered if this happens with SL alone.

This seems to be SL-specific, Torley.

The only other heavy, graphics intensive gaming I do is not online. I play URU (in the MYST game series) and the extension packs it now has. You may or may not know that URU has a full 3D interface with a customizable avatar that represents the player. This game works fine on my current machine.

Here's a screen shot of what I see when I log in and am facing my new Victorian house by the sea.....nada.

I think you're right feniks! And this is the sticking point...that's a damn fine graphics card really. It's like...too much card for SL or something.

Just out of curiosity, what do your ALT-1 stats look like when you log in? That was the key in Lee suggesting that my problem was not with the SL client itself - nor my graphics card. If it's practically all Zero's, then it's not the SL client-video card that is the issue; it is more likely a communications issue.

Just a thought.

Hoookay....here's the update on my problem/fix (hopefully others who may have similar problems can try this):

I found this website for tweaking nVidia cards http://3dgpu.com/archives/2004/08/09/geforce-6800-tweak-guide/#bios and first downloaded the DriverCleaner utility. I followed the instructions exactly as directed in the readme file (to include unplugging my computer from the internet connection for this procedure.)

Once my SL was totally uninstalled, and nVidia drivers totally uninstalled and all footprints cleaned from my computer with the cleaner utility, I rebooted, turned off virus software, reinstalled SL, reinstalled the latest nVidia drivers and then went back to the above website. I then tweaked my nVidia settings according to their instructions.

Then I held my breath and logged into SL......

and, "great Neptune's beard," it worked!!

I was still in disbelief as everything loaded in quickly around me, so I decided to test the limits of my video card with SL and went hog wild. I mean I cranked everything up and turned everything on (except "water ripple" effect as it only makes all oceans dissappear for me )

To my complete wonderment and happiness it all worked fabulously! My clothes blew in the wind and my skin went all wrinkly (okay...well maybe the avatar bump map isn't that great of a feature.)

Then I took the next step and teleported to the busiest place I could find and get in. 26 avatars were listed in the immediate area so I lost some on the frame rate and some folks' clothes didn't render but, heck, it was still wonderful. I don't usually go to busy places anyway.

Okay, so here's my take on things: it was that DriverCleaner app that did it. I tell ya, I don't know how many times I've had to uninstall/install my dang video drivers. With each upgrade of SL for over a month now, I had to do this. I think my system got so gunked up with past installations that things just started to break down. And then the nVidia tweaking MAY have helped the performance in SL...it does seem to really crank...when I'm in uncrowded areas anyway.

Thanks to all who have posted here with suggestions! I really appreciate the support this community gives!

yay!

Nice find.


fen-

Since I am not able to stay in-world for more than about fifteen minutes at a time, I will just stop by here to say thanks to everyone for posting the fixes they have found. I have tried most of them, with no change. Now I wait for LL Support to get back to me. Heavy, heavy sigh. When I find my fix (when? IF!), I will definitely post it - even if the problem all along has been user stupidity!

Again, Thanks.
Alain

My problem was . . . you guessed it!

I decided to take a look under the hood. My card was cooking and one of my fans was not doing that twirly thing they are suppost tah doo. Fixed that, and the card is happy and humming along. No crashes since. Gee, fried video card, anyone?

So crashes can be a result of a too hot video card. That's news.

I sure learned a lot about video card configuration here though! Thanks everyone!

Alain

Alriight, Alain! Another mystery solved...another happy SL citizen. whooohoooo!