repeated crashing

I'm having a really vexing problem where SL keeps freezing up and I have to restart my computer. It isn't related to downloads or searching or anything like that; most of the time, I'm just standing there not doing anything. I don't want to bug report this though until I have some sense of why it is happening; right now it seems totally random.

Anyone else having a problem like this since the Wednesday update? I'll start SL, it'll run fine for like 15 minutes, and then just randomly freeze my computer.

It very likely this is a result of the update. A number of different factors could be the cause, so your best bet is to eliminate the obvious.

* Update your graphics drivers. From what I'm reading on the Linden blog, this is one of the likeliest causes of a problem.

* Turn off VBO in the settings, which is now turned on for the default

* And someone, I think on this forum, recommended reducing the size of the cache.

If the problem still persists, then file a bug report. You've got LOTS of company, and the more reports the better in terms of both helping develop a fix, but possibly also delaying the mandatory adoption of the new viewer.

Thanks for the advice. What is VBO?

I'm a little vauge on that techie point, but from what I can gather it's one of the main reasons that the First Look viewer series were getting better FPS results. Turning it off will lose the most important benefits of the new viewer, so for that reason the default setting is to turn it on.

However, it is also a major cause of incompatibilities with some systems, especially Macs. In fact, the Mac default setting is for that feature to be turned off, precisely because the conflicts were so common.

So, you'll probably want to play with that setting. If it causes your problems, turn it off. But if it has no effect on your issues, then turn it back on.

Okay, well I just updated my videocard drivers, so I'll see if SL is still crashing my computer, and if so I'll try the VBO setting. Thanks again!

Please post an update. I'm really curious about the effectiveness of the proposed fixes, both because I'm a computer nerd and also because I haven't installed the new viewer yet.

VBO is Vertex Buffer Object - I don't pretend to understand it except from a very basic perspective, but it's a means to more optimally store and reference certain types of data within VRAM (the memory on your video card) instead of system RAM, which reduces load associated with moving this data around in the traditional way.

Well it hasn't crashed again so far, so it seems that updating the video drivers fixed it.