Sudden Stuttering In Viewer

About two days ago, I began noticing a sudden freeze-stutter problem in SL. This isn't like a lag pause, everything, the entire program, locks up for 2-5 seconds, sometimes longer. As a builder this is obviously exasperating. It seems to get worse with animations, employing scripts, or bringing up the click menus.

My system has all the requirements plus some. I tried bringing my graphics settings down to the minimum to see if maybe my card was going bad- it did nothing for the problem. I've cleared my cache, restarted my system, closed all optional processes to see if it was a resource issue- nothing is helping.

I'm on Emerald as well as the standard viewer and I updated to the new version, but this problem started when I was on Emerald.

I'm really at a loss as to what might be causing this problem. Anyone seen it before?

Torrid Topaz

Ah yes and I should include- this happens with my account as well as my husband's, no matter what we put on our avatars.

The usual suspects are:
- wireless networks
- something else on your PC (virus scan, etc)
- low disk space (or overdue for a defrag)

Maybe one of those?

I've noticed this on Emerald, too, and I had thought it was something to do with having auto-response to incoming IMs turned on. At least, when it does happen to me, I almost always the incoming IM window steal focus immediately afterwards (no matter what I tell the damn thing to do).

But if you're getting it on the standard viewer, too, then that can't be it.

Alright. Restarted my modem and router. Defrag runs once a week so that won't be it. Nothing else running... and it's still happening.

I also noticed occasionally I'm getting the 'too many items' inventory message occasionally when it stalls, as if I'm pulling in items when I"m not. THAT part only happens on Emerald, but it seems to indicate that no matter where the issue is coming from, the viewer is noticing some kind of interruption.

There have been no increases to my inventory, so I wouldn't suspect some kind of griefing.

Any other guesses?

Never seen that one before.. How big's your inventory?

I noticed that happening on the account that I build on- it has 12k currently. But the stuttering is happening with my husband's account that only has about 3k. To clarify, it's the message you get when opening an object and it says too many incoming.

How big is your mute list?

/me wonders if you're getting spammed by muted objects. Muting is all client-side so if you're getting spammed with stuff it's still eating your resources, even if you're not seeing the spam..

Check that your virtual memory settings aren't restricting things when they get near full.
Make sure your CPU and memory scheduling are set to programs.
Listen for clicks or clacks from your computer when this freezing up happens, could be a HD problem in the making if you hear them.
If you have a bunch of USB devices plugged in, try removing several of them.
Make sure the processor and video card heatsincs are free of dustbunnies and that heat isn't the issue.

I have noticed this too - particularly using the Emerald viewer - after I've been logged a while in the viewer starts freezing up, then moving, then freezing up again, getting worse and worse until it finally freezes up completely - then I can't even get the 'exit' button to work.
This means I can't shut the computer down in an orderly fashion and have to press the plastic 'off' button and restart the computer.

This has always happened occasionally in the past but has recently got a lot worse.

Ctrl-Alt-Del->task manager->applications tab->highlight SL->end process should work, but may take a little time to get there if the systems really laboring.

Virtual memory settings!
My Computer->properties (or control panel->system) -->advanced tab->performance settings -->Advanced tab->virtual memory->change...
Change from system managed size to custom size...
Set initial size to 2000, set maximum size to 7000 and hit "set".
That should give you enough room for hours and hours of SL on emerald without hitting the wall. Doing this specifies a fixed page file size instead of letting windows decide what it's minimum and maximum should be. Using the automatic setting, windows DOES have a built in upper limit that it will hit (in XP it's around 5000 or so, vista or 7 would be a bit higher), and that's what you're hitting and causing all that. The lower your maximum size, the *sooner* SL will freeze up and jitter like that. 6000 max is good, 7000 is a bit of overkill so that emeralds higher memory usage will have room, so don't go any higher... Too high and you can actually hurt performance, Too low and your programs or even windows itself won't be able to function.