Mangled Network Data

Is this a common crash error, and are there any settings on my end that can fix it?

I lowered view distance to 64 and lowered the bandwidth setting to see if that would help, but I am basically a noob and could not find anything in KB except one short entry that didn't seem to help ...

My cache is always cleared after a crash, I have my cache on a seoarate partition and defrag it almost daily, and not sure what else to try. I crash 4-8 times a day from this. Not sure also if it may be related to video drivers for the GF 8800 series as they seem to have issues with a few games. (Tried different versions, using latest one now).

The error message you get actually says "mangled network data"?

That is the specific phrase, yes, as I have been trying to search google + KB.

It says some text about Second Life has detected "Mangled Network Data" and needs to close. Gives me an option to send an error report to LL. Used to happen about once a day but seems to happen on an escalating rate lately.

I have cleared cache, gone to the cache folder to manually delete everything, and done a reinstall. Raised & lowered bandwidth settings and lowered view distance. Not sure what are other good things to try. I use Comcast cable and it has always given us very fast and reliable connections in past network bandwidth tests.

I am not sure if it is related to my computer system, to my internet connection, or to SL itself and the specific regions I am in, which makes troubleshooting difficult.

edit to add screenshot of the error notice: http://brashendeavors.net/sl/manglednetworkdata.jpg

I'm trying another complete reinstall, this time I cleaned out old registry entries and temp folders first, and am putting both the SL program files and Cache on a separate 10G partition (with a few other items, inc pagefile & browser caches) as this allows me to run daily disk error check/defrag much faster rather than checking/defragging the entire large main disk. Second Life seems to be highly prone to fragmented files so I tend to defrag the cache for it fairly often (since problems started).

I'm also installing using the June 13 "Second Life 1-17-0-12" setup version and declining any updated versions.

Can someone tell me what the most "stable" version seems by consensus to be? I've seen references before to a popular third party viewer, does this replace the main SL executable completely? And is this considered something to try or to avoid? I am aware there are increased security risks using any application by an outside party.

Mangled upstream data is typically a problem with a switch or router somewhere between your ISP and the SL sim server. Sounds like its writing the data packet info out of order, or omitting pieces of the info as it passes through the device... so it is essentially garbling some of them. Whatever that device is, it needs some attention, but that has nothing to do with your system. There's a very small possibility that the third party viewer you mentioned might handle the screwed up data packets better than the official viewer, but I wouldn't bet even 1L on it. If it is indeed UPSTREAM problems, you can error check/defrag/clear cache till your hardrive rolls over and dies and it wont make a bit of difference in the crashing.

Thanks, I guess I'll just see whether a few days time helps settle things down. I was concentrating on defrag/disk check etc as that was one of the KB article suggestions (along with a reinstall), AND one of the few things under my direct control, although the error message in my link certainly claims it is a "upstream" issue. 95% of network technical talk usually flies right over my head.

The 10gb HD you have your cache's on, I assume its a partition on a logical drive? Have you set the OS (assumed XP) to a set cache size? Using the 'let the OS decide' is only going to defrag your hard drive even more. When you set the size (usually 1.5 times your ram size) it reserves that HD space, which is not then defragmented by the usual run of the mill programmes, which is fine. The SL cache I defrag everyday and it takes 5-10 minutes to do, SL is pretty messy at handling its cache.

Make sure your SL folders are not targetted by your Anit-Virus programme (Norton especially) as this can drag your system to a crawl everytime you TP, or someone TP's to your location and the cache fills with new textures etc. Although do run your Anti-Virus programme on those folders once you are out game, just to be sure.

Defragmenting and running a Registry cleaner should be regular maintenance, especially with all these 'updates'. Registry corruption is a common, and often overlooked cause, of many problems with Windows OS.