I NEED HELP. can't get on SL.

I can't get on SL. First i had the terminal lag and eternal drift into offworld areas. Now that I've re-downloaded and updated everyting i can find to update and download, I can't even log on.

I've left emails for Lindens, but no response.

I have Windows XP, a Dell Dimension 4400, pentium 4, 1.6 ghz, 512 RAM, nvidea geforce 2mx and DSL.

I've never had a problem with the game until 3 days ago and now i can't play at all.

When I try to install the newly-downloaded SL, I get an error message: "C:\ProgramFiles\SecondLife\newview.exe" can't install.

Can anyone give me any suggestions as to anything else to check or try? My computer knowledge is limited, so please Speak Very Slowly and Look At Me when you talk. LOL.

Maggie

How much free harddrive space do you have?

a lot, Si. about half of it.

nice try, tho.

Thanks

How much is half of it?

SL is a disk hog.

You're making me work here, Si. (scrambling to figure out what kind of computer i even have....!)

16 GB free.

Good good, numbers are required :} Can't say "lots" or "fast" or "working".

So you have sufficient disk space. That cannot install error worries me. If it's not a disk space problem, it almost sounds like corruption or permissions problems.

What version of XP? (Home or Professional)

What file system are you using?

Did you/are you installing SL in the default location?

Have you tried defragmenting your hard drive?

Have you rebooted the computer?

Have you run CHKDSK?

Are you the only person that uses the computer? If not, do each of you use your own login, or do you use auto-login, or do you all use the same account? Is the account you use an administrator on the machine? Is there a possibility someone else has been playing with the security settings?

Have you manually deleted all SL-related files from both C:\Program Files\SecondLife and your user directory?



Did you copy and paste this, or type it in? (If you copied and pasted, there's supposed to be a space between "Program" and "Files." This could be the problem.)

Edit: Are quotas set up on the hard drive in question? You might have hit your quota if they are.

OMG....this is just getting HARDER and HARDER! (or it's a plot to publicly humiliate me and expose my LACK of computer knowledge....!)

What file system???? I dunno. how do i find out?
Yes, installed in the default location.
no, i haven't defragged my hard drive.
Yes, I've rebooted several times.
What the h*LL is CHKDSK (I assume it's to check my hard drive?)? and No...I haven't run it, but i'll go look for it and see if i can.
My daughter and I use the same account on my XP. And it's *possible* she messed with security settings, but only if it was to allow her to continue her IMs with her friends while she was supposed to be researching a paper.
No, I didn't manually delete my SL files. I just let it over-write.
And i typed the error message in, so it was my mistake, I'm sure.

Maggie (who-used-to-think-she-was-smart-before-she-joined-SL) Miller

Okay...

I manually deleted all SL fiiles from the computer.

I'm re-downloading but i see that a lot of cookies are being blocked. could that be the problem?

Maggie

clean up your .tmp files & cache while you're at it. It never hurts.

cleaned my disk, MJ. thanks.

Successfully installed SL again after manually deleting older version.

I can log on again, but same ol' same ol'

I can't even SEE my AV....just my name floating in the air. It might appear eventually, but nothing is really loading completely.

I've run out of things to try. Guess I'll go defrag my drive, but i'm actually losing my motivation. Im thinking about learning how to watch TV again, of reading one of those books i' haven't finished or going over to my friend's house and spend time with a non-virtual person, or take a walk and throwing my computer into the pond. ****evil laugh****

Maggie wondering-if-it's-worth-it Miller

your isp maybe? getting any packet loss? I have had the same symptoms when my isp was having a maintainence day. I would just see my name as letters and no avatar would load, couldn't move good at all. Turned out to be my isp was down, you may need to wait a day.

ahhhhhh, Neo.....you may be right.

I live in a rural area with a rural telephone company providing my DSL (and the *only* reason DSL became available was because lightning damaged a relay station (?) that had to be replaced and all they had to replace it with was the new stuff--at least that's how they explained it to me....)

I lose service frequently. I've been doing fine on the internet otherwise, so hadn't thought of them as the culprit, but it could well be.

Think I'll give them a call to see what I can find out.

Thanks, dear.

Maggie

No, at this point I think you're good on your end. This not seeing your AV and such sounds like a bug that's floating around. A couple others in game have mentioned this to me, i'm not sure what's going on.

Do however check to make sure if you're using a firewall no changes have been made, and such. Silly but worth the effort. On top of that, see if other people see you make it into SL. If they do, you're getting logged in and it's out of your hands where the problem lies.

Do yourself a favor too, open a command prompt
type>

tracert www.secondlife.com

It lives in the same colo as the sim servers.

For your own protection, erase the name and IP address after the numbers on the first 3 hops, and then paste them along with the rest of the traceroute. Example:

Tracing route to secondlife.com [63.211.151.3]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms
2 12 ms 10 ms 12 ms
3 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms
4 21 ms 13 ms 13 ms at-1-2-092.usstls6b-j20c.savvis.net [64.240.159.117]
5 15 ms 14 ms 13 ms 500.POS3-0.GW4.STL3.ALTER.NET [65.195.247.9]
6 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms 108.at-5-0-0.XL2.STL3.ALTER.NET [152.63.67.150]
7 23 ms 13 ms 15 ms 0.so-1-0-0.TL2.STL3.ALTER.NET [152.63.88.245]
8 32 ms 31 ms 31 ms 0.so-5-2-0.TL2.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.1.149]
9 32 ms 33 ms 31 ms 0.so-7-0-0.XL2.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.2.182]
10 30 ms 31 ms 31 ms 0.so-6-1-0.BR6.DFW9.ALTER.NET [152.63.97.62]
11 41 ms 41 ms 41 ms so-1-0-0.edge1.Dallas1.Level3.net [209.245.240.1
41]
12 41 ms 40 ms 41 ms so-1-2-0.bbr1.Dallas1.level3.net [209.244.15.161
]
13 68 ms 69 ms 69 ms so-2-0-0.mp2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [64.159.0.
217]
14 69 ms 69 ms 68 ms pos9-0.core1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [209.247.1
0.234]
15 68 ms 69 ms 75 ms gige7-0.ipcolo1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [209.24
4.14.194]
16 69 ms 69 ms 69 ms arachnid.lindenlab.com [63.211.151.3]

Trace complete.

Note I removed the hostname and IP address from the first 3 hops, they won't be relevant unless they show a problem, and if so you'll have to report it to your ISP.

Is there a cable connection available in your area?