Sunday, December 30, 2012

Technical Malfunctions

Since a couple of weeks I have been experiencing some strange technical problems in SecondLife. Below I will give you a complete list of the various problems, the causes that have been suggested to me and what I have done to try to solve them.

I noticed all the problems at the same time, so as far as I know they arose simultaneously. At that time I was using the Firestorm viewer.


Problem 1:  Repetition of my chat in local
Frequency: Daily
Description: When I speak in local chat all my remarks are repeated once. It looks like this in local chat:

"Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat.I am speaking in local chat."

or 

"Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat.
A.A: Bla bla bla
B.B: Yodel-yodel-yodel
C.C: Di-da-de-da-dum-dee-dum.
Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat."

What I have tried to illustrate above is that sometimes the repetition is instantaneous while at other times there is a delay of between 10-60 seconds. There are no brackets around the repetitions. Mostly I can see it happening myself but at other times I don´t see it.
Suggested causes: a) Translation is activated, b) Pushing Page Up, c) Lag

a) I have checked this at least 25 times and translation is never, and has never been, activated, besides if it were a translation it would - usually - have brackets around the repetition.
b) No, I do not try t annoy myself and everyone else at the venue by pushing the "Page Up" key on my keyboard every time I have spoken in chat. (You will have to take my word for this, I´m afraid.)
c) Yes, it happens in venues where there is lag, but it can also happen where there is no lag at all.


Problem 2: Repetition of my chat in Instant Message
Frequency: Daily
Description: When I speak in IM all my remarks are repeated once. Reportedly sometimes the repetition is instantaneous while at other times there is a delay of between 10-30 seconds. I cannot see it myself but the people I am talking with tell me about it.
Suggested causes: See Problem 1.


Problem 3:  Repetition of payments
Frequency: Daily
Description: When I buy, donate or tip my payment is repeated either immediately or within 60 seconds afterwards. This means I make two purchases and receive two deliveries of everything I buy or that I donate or tip twice the amount I had intended.
Suggested causes: Lag (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this)


Problem 4: HUD's are turned on or off involuntarily
Frequency: Daily
Description: If I have a HUD turned on it turns itself off and if I have it turned off it turns itself on.
Suggested causes: Lag. (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this.)


Problem 5: Involuntary movement
Frequency: Weekly
Description: When I am standing around or dancing at a venue my avatar starts moving around until it ends up in a corner from where it cannot be moved.
Suggested causes: Lag. (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this.)


Measures I have already taken to try to solve the issues, to no avail so far.
1. I have cleared my caches 984,367 times (Well, no less than 100 times if that is more believable)
2. I have restarted  my modem no less than 25 times, on occasions leaving it off more than an hour.
3. I have re-installed the SecondLife viewer more than 20 times, making certain that I did a fresh install every time.
4. Switched to Linden Lab´s viewer 3 and then back again to Firestorm and then back again to Linden viewer 3, making sure every time that I did a fresh install.
5. I have talked with a sweet Linden on the labs Live-Chat support. She made the same suggestions that I have listed above (1-2), checked my avatar for corruption and told me it was low but she was going to run a cleaning procedure anyway, which she did. 
6. I have taken off all my attachments and HUDs and reset the HUDs.
7. I have run several virus and malware scans on my computer, both online and offline.

Today, after yet another fresh install, I took the drastic measure to delete everything in my Inventory that was younger than sixty days. Luckily I have not been purchasing much lately, but unluckily all your holiday greetings had to go I am afraid. Results of this drastic measure are still pending. This measure did not help at all!

(The information in this post was later turned into the support ticket #01587329 I sent to Linden Lab)

5 comments :

  1. I too have suffered problems with involuntary movement, and an inability to take clear photos.

    My guess is it is due to Project Sunshine, the new server architecture that Linden is implementing to move the rebaking of textures away from the viewer and to the server. This is why Phoenix will not longer work in a few weeks.

    Gee, everyone claims the new project will result in a more stable and wonderful Second Life experience. Why do I think that we are looking at more major problems when this new technology is implemented- because of common sense?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The glass is half-full, Eddi my dear, always remember that! Overtime, since I joined in March 2007, everything and I mean absolutely everything has improved.

      I have complete confidence in Linden Lab and its developers (I always had a weak spot for creative computer geeks), but I wish they would have informed us about the problems we would encounter before the improvements are in place.

      Delete
    2. Yeah it has gotten better. OK I will be optimistic :)

      Delete
  2. Thanks for those consoling words, Ziggy buddy. My only question is, how long was it until things improved? It would be easier to handle if I had an approximate time frame... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Two days ago I renewed my stores' rents in Romanum and I watched how rental periods were extended but... after that the effects of payments vanished and rentals finally expired. Luckily payments are saved in my transaction history but nobody knows what happened.

    ReplyDelete

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