I sat in the office of our Teaching Assistant (TA) last class session. I welcomed the invitation because of the problems I had staying connected during the previous session. My system froze so many times that I gave up before class ended. While I was in the TA’s office the situation continued and he had me use his desktop system and he used his laptop.
The experience proved to be the best of my whole semester so far. Not only was the TA able to see what was going on with my laptop, I was able to see that he also had technical issues and I did not feel so all alone. My system meets the technical requirements of SL and connectivity is not an issue. The problems seem related to the SL update process. Every time SL issues an update I have had problems. On Saturday I tried again in preparation for my groups team meeting Sunday. When I started SL prior to logging in I noticed a new update, downloaded and installed it. This made things better. Better, in that instead of freezing within seconds, I was able to stay on for significantly longer periods of time before SL crashed my laptop.
Second Life update hell is not a nice place to be! It is a good thing that SL provides updates, because they are an acknowledgement that problems exist. I have been to the support forums and investigated the probable causes for the constant crashing. Even though my system meets the technical requirements maybe my hardware is failing. In addition to update hell, this could be the source of the problems. I can not afford a new laptop, so I’m glad that my TA has extended the option of attending class in his office.
