SL's killing my pc, I think.. Please help.

I guess I can go about checking my BIOS, but from what I gather you need a floppy drive to flash it, and I don't have one hooked up. Hopefully I'm wrong, if not I got a drive I can hook up.

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And now I flame...

By the way, Kath, you should of read the posts before yours, they all mentioned that a lot of people have problems with this game. So I'll go sit on that spike and spin, as long as you learn how to read before you post. You too Lizzy.

"SecondLife works completely different than any other game ever made"

^Thanks for the laugh.

By the way, Lizzy, there's no need for tantrums, take a Prozac. If you're going to call my posts tantrums, then you've got a problem.

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I forgot, I need floppy disks.

Really? You have never had the game crash or lock the machine or power it down on ANY of your computers EVER? Funny, I have a P4, a P3, and an Athlon, and every one of them has been powered down by SL at some point (typically all at the same time). The game crashes on each of the 3 machines with some degree of regularity, usually within a 1 to 3 day period, and every one of my machines has locked at one point or another. I can't say it's not Stevey's machine in this particular instance, but I CAN say that SL is NOT blameless when it comes to stablity issues.

Maybe a bios update will fix the problem, and maybe it won't. If it does fix the problem, then does that mean the bios was the problem? No, it does not, because any update to anything in memory can cause memory to be shifted around, and if SL has a memory access bug then it may suddenly start accessing an area of memory that is not critical for the task or system to run.

The problem is that SL is designed to make very low level graphics calls rather than use a standard higher level graphical API, and in doing that one welcomes a whole host of timing and memory issues. That's part of the reason Direct X was created, to provide higher level functions that aid in compatibility, so that manufacturers do not have to make those low level calls and run into compatibility issues. Of course, the price for higher compatibility is performance.

Maybe the problem lies with Stevey's computer, and maybe it doesn't, but no one can prove it is his computer, and as of yet Linden Labs has failed to provide a compatibility chart showing which driver and bios versions it works with and which it doesn't. And I will bet anyone here that you never will see such a chart, because Linden Labs has no clue what they are compatible with and what they are not, and neither does anyone on this forum. So, the standard response is always, "it's your computer - update your drivers and bios", and when that doesn't work, then it's "well, you have a heating problem, so direct a fan at it" or "you have a power supply problem - buy a new one" or "you have bad memory". I have never seen so many driver, bios, memory, power supply, graphic card, and overheating issues supposedly related to a piece of software as I have in this forum. You would think we were running computers produced by Flintstone and Rubble Inc.; hacked up pieces of junk that use duct tape, superglue, and band aids to keep them together.

Stevey is right; it should not be this complicated to get a piece of subscription based software to run reliably, and the forum shows many people who have these problem. What the forum doesn't reflect is the number of people who have these problems to a lesser extent, but do not post because they just accept a certain level of crashes and computer reboots (such as in my case). I seem to recall something similar with earlier versions of Windows too, where it was generally understood you could expect to reboot your machine every few days or sometimes multiple times a day (blue screen of death ring a bell?). Did everyone who used Windows 3.1, 95, 98, etc. and crashed regularly also not have updated bios and graphics drivers?

I just did a quick look at the number of threads on the first page of Technical Issues that pertain to crashes and logon problems, and I counted 14 out of 25. That seems a rather high percentage for any piece of software. Rather hard to believe SL plays no part in the problem.

No, SL doesn't reboot or power down my computer, ever. I've experienced a couple crashes, though none since mid-1.5 or so. If all your computers are losing power simultaneously, that's not SL. You need to check out your power.

I have had just about every problem ever mentioned and I fixed them, that is why they are running flawlessly. Every time it has been a problem with my machine. And SL does work differently than any other game out there and that is why it has unique problems compared to games. Trust me on this. Name another game you can load up a 12meg bitmap and use it as a texture map.

And yes I did read the previous posts, I can quote them if you like. All that means is they have problems with their computers too. SL is a very demanding game and it will shake out problems other games have no problems with. Also, if you look real close 70% of them are asking about the same problems and did not take the time to 1. read other posts with the same problems 2. bother to read the support wiki.

Anyway, good luck fixing your problem, have a nice day.

Sorry, but in this case you are wrong - it is SL. My power is fine. My stove, microwave, and DVD/VCR let me know if I have lost power. Also, my two desktop computers are on two different UPS devices, and my laptop of course has a battery. All 3 computers are in different parts of the house. All 3 computers are totally different generations and manufacturers, and thus have different configurations. And all 3 have gone down at the same time. It seems to be related to when a sim goes down where I park my AVs to win money from the moneyball while I sleep. The sim goes down and when SL crashes sometimes it causes the computers to power off, and this I know to be a fact. It's not my video drivers, it's not my power, it's not my bios, it's not an overheating issue, it's not some voodoo curse put on me by some crazed Jamaican woman named Cleo, it's SL. Well, maybe it is crazy Cleo now that I think about it.

Well, I think you need to read what I just posted about the not 1, not 2, but 3 DIFFERENT computers I have that ALL experience crashes periodically. And yes, they all have thier respective driver and bios updates, and yet, somehow they manage to crash from time to time. I work with computers daily - that's my job, and has been since 1980, so I have seen just about every problem known to man with computers. I have built more computers than I am sure most anyone has ever had in their lifetime. I have enough spare parts laying around that I could build about 5 computers right now. Building is just what I do for fun. My main job is programming and system engineering. I was doing texture mapping on an SGI computer back when most people were learning about the web using that textual browser called Lynx. So, I think I have maybe just a little experience, knowledge, and understanding when it comes to computers, both hardware and software.

What's funny is you just proved my case about SL by saying "And SL does work differently than any other game out there and that is why it has unique problems compared to games." and "SL is a very demanding game and it will shake out problems other games have no problems with." Therein lies the problem. Yes, it is unique and demanding, and does have UNIQUE PROBLEMS compared to other games. It is so unique and demanding that configuring a computer to work properly with it becomes a major science project because it does things in a NON-STANDARD (read COMPATIBILTY TROUBLE) fashion. So, now it become a matter of trial and error to get your hardware to work with the software. Now, if that seems reasonable to you for a paid montly service, then I don't think we will ever see eye to eye.

And if you seriously think there are no bugs in the video portion of SL then you must be on some good drugs. Just look at the teleport system that is constantly failing. Look at the asset manager system that loses inventory objects. Look at the rezzing problems people have. Look at the caching problems people have. Look at the fact prims separate over time, which used to only occur at high altitudes, but now is occuring at ground level. But somehow the graphical system is immune from having bugs???!!! You can bet your bottom dollar there are problems in the graphical area, because it's one of the most complex areas in the client portion of the software. Just because you got it to work on your machine proves nothing more than the fact you managed to move things around in such a way as to mask the bugs that most certainly do exist in SL. Heck, they can't even work out the difference between a friend list and a bunch of calling cards that basically do the same thing. What's that all about?

On the server it's clear the problem is not the end user's machine, because all the hardware and software resides on the server, but on the client people like to think the SL code is golden and all problems are attributable to the user's machine. That just defies statistical analysis and common sense reasoning. I have no doubt some of the problems are caused by poorly configured machines or device driver problems or maybe even some heating issues in RARE cases. I also have no doubt that not all such problems find their origin there, but it's just a lot easier and wishful that they do. Sorry, but some of these issues most certainly are SL problems, and no one can prove to the contrary.

That having been said, it really doesn't matter if the problems are in SL or on the user's machine, because the bottom line is that any software that requires such careful handling and tweaking of the system is just not stable and robust enough to warrant the premiums that Linden charges. If my cable service were like this, where I had to tweak my TV and VCR constantly, flash firmware, etc., and "hope" it worked, how long do you think I would keep the service?? If one has to jump through these kinds of hoops, then this is NOT a service that is ready for general public consumption, esp. when they are charged monthly, and in some cases those charges being more than a car payment.