Forced to downgrade... The swines!!

Since the last update i've been unable to leave my home sim, cant go anywhere. No looking around clubs, no shopping, no going to friends events, no playing with new toys in combat zones, nowt, bugger all, stuck.

I freeze, crash and get logged out everytime i teleport, fly, or step foot of the edge of the sim.

I'm willing to listen to any idea's people have but chances are i've tried them all.. detaching all items, relogging, reinstaling, trying first look, opening ports, disabling firewalls, scan disks, defrags, screen punching, accepting tp's from other people, changing my startup sim, nothing has worked.

As far as help goes some of you guys have been great but second life live help and replies i've had from SL staff including and a few of the lindens themselfs have been, to be honest, pointless. It's pretty much been "read the knowledge base" and "open the ports" they might as well of added "if that doesn't work piss off and play somthing else cause we have loads of other customer putting cash in our pockets "

So, the point of my post.. There i am enjoying second life, investing money in some land, nice clothes, a few toys then along comes an upgrade and bang, stuck in a sim.

I'm having no fun, i feel like i've wasted real money on items i cant use, i dont want to downgrade but i dont want to pay for the use of a single sim.

Why the hell should i have to pay $9.99 to downgrade? The Lindens have backed out of there side of the contract, they are not supplying what i signed up for. I'd like some response from a staff member please on how to go about not paying to downgrade!

A friend of mine was having that exact problem a few weeks ago. Lindens were able to resolve it for him. He's not on Yahoo now, but I'll try to reach him to find out what the problem was.

Have you tried logging in somewhere other then your home sim? Also, have you tried logging in from a different PC, or hopefully, a different set-up? Those would be some things I would try.

On the downgrading, I don't think you have to pay the 9.95 if you have already paid to own land. I think if the total fees you have paid to LL is greater then the 9.95 you don't have to pay to downgrade.

Dnate, copied this from the account page..

"Downgrading from Premium Trial to Basic or reactivation of a closed account will incur a one-time $9.95 fee."

Also i am able to do what i want and go where i want on my misses's pc (were both going through the same router)

Wildfire, i'm at work at the moment but should be home and logged in within about an hour, i'd really appreciate it if your friend could maybe drop me a IM letting me know how he solved his problem, could you ask him for me please? Thanks!

I've left him some IMs about it. He's still not on, which is unusual. I'll let you know when I hear from him though.

"Downgrading from Premium Trial to Basic or reactivation of a closed account will incur a one-time $9.95 fee."

If you have paid for premium, you are no longer on the trail, therefore no downgrade fee.

you dont pay to downgrade -

Just to upgrade.

If you CANCEL you have to pay to reactivate. Theres no reason to Cancel though since you can stay non-premium forever

Thanks Wildfire.

I hope you guys are right, i dont like the idea of paying to get kicked in the face

The title of your post is completely inappropriate. I fail to see how it is the fault of Linden Labs that your personal computer is not compatible with the updated SL software. The rest of us are getting along just fine, albeit with some glitches. It sounds as though they have tried to assist you as best they could. What do you want, for Linden Labs to buy you a new PC? Sheesh, some people.

Poor Thunder....after all that with the other thread you still haven't found a solution? Based on complaints from other users this type of problem is usually caused by firewalls and port issues. I know you've checked those though....how mysterious..... Speaking of which maybe you should write in to the tv show...."Unsolved Mysteries" if it's still on the air and tell them your story. I can just imagine this spooky music and an ominous computer in a dark room with SL on it crashing. Dun dun dun! lol Based on all the detective work in that other thread it has got to be something isolated in your computer...but what.... The poor swine...they mean well.....but they taste so goooood...mmmmmMMmmmMmmmm delicious swine *drools like Homer Simpson* Just curious, when you go to the start button, click on run, then type in msconfig, then press enter, then when the window pops up go to the startup tab.....How many mystery programs do you have set to start up with your computer? Do you know what they all are? Don't disable any of them if you don't know what they are. lol.

When I downgraded from Premium to Basic, I was charged 9.95. I have no idea what a "trial" Premium account is, and I don't see any such option on the accounts page.

How selfish, it works for you so screw everyone else, is that your your saying? There's nothing wrong with my pc, its a good spec, great connection speed, everythings upto date and its worked fine in sl since i joined.. until the last update.

I've no doubt there is a setting somewhere thats causing this problem but i've had next to no help from linden labs about it. Please take your "its works for me so **** you" attitude and shove up your selfish backside. Oh and dont reply, unless you can actually offer some assistance.

Thunder - I am so sorry. What a pain.

They told you to check firewall settings/ports right? All necessary ports are open (including the changes referenced here)?

Have you checked with your ISP? Traced the issue using a debugger and logging it?

lol gaybot

i have 26 programs in that bit i've never seen when typing msconfig! I have no idea what 12 of them are.

I'm soooo tempted to just reformat or somthing drastic, i might spend a few hours this weekend saving stuff just incase i snap lol.

This is very mean! He may have paid for a subscription for several months on the basis of the system requirements as they are; how was he supposed to know when and how much they would increase?

I've reported you for making a personal attack. THAT is the assistance I offer you now.

My point is, it doesn't just work for me, it works for a LOT of people. You're the only one I've seen attacking Linden Labs over your personal PC problem. The blame everyone else mindset is not a productive one.

Have a nice day.

It's mean to tell someone it is inappropriate to be calling the Lindens "swine" because they can't solve a problem on the user's end??

I"m really having a hard time understanding why some are pointing to Thunder's computer being the culprit in the problem he's experiencing. He has said things were working fine..........UNTIL the last update. Now he's having problems. Unless he went in and reset a bunch of settings on his computer and hardware or configured his firewall or antivirus or malware software, the ONLY change was the update. That is an immediate red flag............the CHANGE. Maybe the last update did indeed make his computer fall below "minium system requirements".........and his computer is now not able to run SL. But I remember no new "system requirements" being mentioned when I updated. I don't know.......but to call the problem his and nothing to do with SL is not a fair statement. In fact I think it's rather idiotic to make such a statement since he has said he's tried everything short of formating and starting over to clear up the problem. Everything anyone has suggested plus some off the wall stuff. As far as I have understood he can TP within his sim..............and, in fact, do most anything within his sim. It's the getting off his sim that causes the problems. It is extremely difficult for me to believe that a problem like that is on his end................that box of silicon and wires doesn't know one sim from another. But SL's servers sure do.

And I've dealt with LL and their "customer support"...........I have sympathy for him.

Now report me for abuse too.

This comment is why many of us feel it is his computer and not Linden Labs servers. This is, of course, assuming that he is using his account while on her computer. I agree that if a person has tried the idiotic knowledge base suggestions and has even turned to the forums for help, then they should try to help him more hands on, but simply put, it's not their fault.

That being the case, what are the differences between the two computers? Like is one running an NVidia card, while the other is using ATI? (SL has problems with ATI cards from time to time.) There are other things, like background programs running, firewall settings, things that are different.

Also, have you tried the First Look viewer for SL?

Out of context...........read the whole paragraph.

And yes it would be helpful to know the differences between the two computers. However, that does not answer why the one quit running SL and the other did when the only change was the update. If the requirements of the computer increased because of the update and it happened to exceed the one that is running poorly........sure point to the computer. But if that did indeed happen..........there was no notice of such a revise minium system requirement. So, unless it's confirmed that happened the computer can and should be assumed to be not the problem.

You always go back to the last change as the primary suspect........ALWAYS. And I don't see where Thunder changed anything on his end..........but SL did. It's too much to believe that the computer suddenly went bonkers, in my thinking.

Your first post was not only pointless on this thread but antagonistic. You say "Sheesh, some people" Implying what exactly? is that not a personal attack only without swearing? Your obviously quite imature and enjoy stirring things up, please go do it on someone elses thread.


Anyhoo..
Peggy & Raudf, Thanks for your input guys. I've done so many tests that i'm in no doubt its something to do with the update and a conflict with this pc, what exaclty i dont know.
I will however look into the graphics cards on the two machines but i have a gforce which i think is pretty popular, i would expect more people to have this problem if it were that.

The pc with the problem is a 2.8ghz, 512MBram, 128MB gforce 4 graphics card with a 10 meg cable connection, so i dont think its min requirement issue.
Nothing at all was changed on my pc other than the update, i've also tried first look with no luck.

The only one thing that still concerns me is the whole port opening thing, i'm sure i've done it correctly but then again i've also turned off every firewall, antivirus and adware thing i have and still cant leave the sim. In the blog though it lists being unable to leave a sim as a problem posibly caused by ports not being open.

I dont know what to do, i wish someone at linden labs could at least take the time to talk though what it might be and not just say "read the knowledge base"

Well, you're helpful, really.

Thank you for your enriching contribution. I'm sure we'll see you elevated to Resmod or perhaps even "Annabelle Linden" based on this post.

Thunder - maybe a RAM issue? I also don't see that the PC requirements have changed but I did see a post on the blog (under First Look) with someone with the same problem as you. Let me see if I can find it and link to it.

Adding the link to the post I noticed. Maybe compare notes with this resident?

Editing again because if you scroll further down, it was diagnosed as a port that needed to be open.

And he cant start in another sim by selecting it on login? If it was a hardware problem he would be able to enter another sim at login and be stuck there. Possible test to do: remove the harddrive from the working PC and put it in the not working PC and try going so in SL. If it does not work, its hardware, if it works, format the not working harddrive and start from scratch. You may have to reinstall some drivers by any harddrive flipping.

When you reinstalled SL did you uninstall, delete the SL folder, and then reboot before reinstalling?

And are these two computers on the same internet connection? Because if one works and the other doesn't at the same location its probably not a firewall issue. Unless you're forwarding ports to specific machines on the network rather than just opening them.

On system requirements, if they changed and they do now and again, probably things would slow up to the point they are unplayable. But they wouldn't involve crashing. This is a problem.

And the unfortunate miserable truth. You mentioned being almost frustrated enough to just delete everything and reinstall windows? Well, sometimes that's the answer.