-multiple on Vista?

Do you guys know if you can use the -multiple feature with Vista? There are no command prompts, nowhere to Run, nowhere to hide.

I tried editing the Icon properties but it keeps telling me that is not a vaild file name.

I just want to fire up an alt and use the two of us as models to photograph my little product. I tried hiring a newbie person last night and this was a bit of a disaster because every time she came near me I crashed for some reason, and she was very confused about why I popped in and out all time. I finally gave up and paid the poor lady.

Of course I know having my alt there will make me crash even more, but at least I won't have to explain it to myself.

I have run it with Vista. Put the -multiple after the quotation mark at the end. I had the same problem when I put it inside the quotation mark.

FAQ's in the Knowledge Base explains exactly how to do it. It works on Vista just fine.

Sounds like you put the -multiple inside the quotes. Don't do that. In both Vista and XP, the quoted portion of the target line is for the command path only. Switches and such go outside the quotes, and after a space.

For 32-bit Vista or XP, the target line should look like this:

"C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -multiple

Or for 64-bit, this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -multiple


To get to a command prompt in Vista, just as in XP, click Start -> Run, and type cmd.

Run is on the Start menu in Vista, in the exact same place it is in XP. If you don't see it there, it's because you've got it disabled. Here's how to enable it:

1. Right-click on the Start menu and select Properties from the popup menu. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog will open.

2. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog, select the Start Menu tab and click on the Customize... button. The Customize Start Menu dialog will open.

3. In the Customize Start Menu dialog, scroll down to the Run Command checkbox, and check it. The Run command will now appear on your Start menu.

Note, this procedure is exactly the same as it was in XP. In either OS, if you want ANYTHING to appear on the Start menu, you must enable it via Properties -> Customize. Go through the list, and enable any other commands/options you want to include. There's a lot in there.

Yes. Run was disabled, but I didn't do it. It came that way.


All of those suggestions worked. Thanks. But now I'm faced with the very real problem of crashing instantly whenever I approach another avatar. That's why I crashed last night and it's getting worse. I could not get close to my alt at all. I must be overheating my video card? This is a fairly new system and it only just started this behavior.

I'm a bit worried.

I don't think running two avatars concurrently puts much more stain on your system than running one..........I only see a slight increase of both RAM usage and CPU usage (like about 2% for CPU and maybe 5% RAM). If you are on the verge of crashing then it might be the straw. You might check to see if your GPU fan is operating though.......there is undoubtedly more for the GPU to do with avatars being close to you.

You might try this program and check your temps with SL running.

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

It's free and good.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you did it yourself when I said "you've got it disabled". Poor choice of words on my part. Yeah, it does come that way. I just didn't really think about it since the first thing I always do with a new computer is go through all the settings to tweak it the way I want it. I don't tend to think about what's on or off by default, just about how I want it to be after I've spent the first half hour with it.



Hmm. It's possible, but I would doubt it's an issue of overheating if all that's happening is that SL is crashing out. Usually, when a graphics card overheats, you start seeing weird artifacts on the screen, and/or the computer shuts down. You might also get an on-screen warning if you're using any type of temperature monitoring software.

I'd say more likely it's a driver issue. What video card do you have, and how new are the drivers? I realize you said it's a new machine, but that doesn't mean the drivers on it will be current. It could have sat on a warehouse shelf for months before you bought it, and in that time, several generations of driver updates could have been issued.

I'd recommend you download the latest drivers for your card, wipe the current drivers, and install the new ones.

Also, go through your SL preferences and disable anything that might not work well with your hardware. ATI cards tend to have issues with Vertex Buffer Objects, for example. Some cards also don't like certain of the Avatar Rendering options.

Here's the strategy I'd suggest:

1. Update your drivers.

2. If you're still having trouble after the driver update, try disabling each SL graphics preferences option one by one until the problem goes away.

3. When you think you've identified the culprit, turn it back on just to make sure. If you crash right away again, you know you've got your man.

4. Turn the offending option off again, and re-enable the others.

5. If you have trouble again, repeat the process. It's possible more than one option is a contributor to the problem.

Good luck.

The only thing you really need to do when running -multiple is halve your bandwidth in user settings. I used to have all kinds of problems and frequent crashes running two instances, even thou I could run a single just fine. Since I learned that trick I even ran four (normal bandwidth/4)instances at once for over an hour with no problems.

nvidia released updated drivers on the 26th for 8 series, dont know if for others

Bingo! It was the drivers. I had read horror stories where updating the drivers did next to nothing for this same problem (in other platforms). But there was a recent Vista update and as Toy says and Chosen advises, the new drivers for my GeForce 8800 series came out recently. It all makes sense now.


Anyway - I had two of me going just fine and took all the pictures I need. Now I can party! You guys are the greatest.