Windows 10 OpenGL issue affecting some Second Life users

Posted on by Inara Pey

win10-logoUpdated, October 7th: AMD and Nividia have released drivers which should hopefully address this issue. See the comment from Lee McKay (below), and my article here.

In August, Microsoft issued their Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which result in some problems for users around the world, notable with the operating system locking-up or freezing (see this Reddit thread as an example).

As a result of the issues, Microsoft issued a series of hotfixes and updates, culminating in a Cumulative Update KB3176938.

However, since its release on August 31st, 2016, KB3176938 has given rise to renewed Windows 10 / OpenGL issues  which are impacting a number of games – and also impacting Second Life.

Whirly Fizzle has raised a JIRA on the problems – BUG-37795 (based on a Firestorm filing by Vicky Aura (FIRE-20034). The issue is intermittent, but when encountered, results in exceptionally low FPS rates (on the order of 1 or 2 fps). The issue tended to occur when moving focus away from Second Life to another running application, and then switching back. Whirly reports that on some systems this problem is intermittent but on other systems it will reproduce after the viewer has lost focus for the first time in a session.

The issue has also been raised on the Microsoft forums by Firestorm developer Ansariel Hiller – but do note, the issues is not related just to the use of Firestorm, other SL viewers can be affected.

Currently, if you are a Windows 10 user and being hampered by this issue, the only known workaround is to uninstall KB3176938. Again, as Whirly points out in the JIRA, How To Geek provides instructions on how to do this – and please refer to the comment from Torric below, when doing so.

Again, please note this is not a Second Life problem, it is an issue within Windows 10 affecting assorted applications and games using OpenGL.

With thanks to Whirly Fizzle.

Published by Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

10 thoughts on “Windows 10 OpenGL issue affecting some Second Life users”

  1. The latest updates to Windows 10 have taken it from a stable operating system, at least on both my laptops, to almost totally unstable. I’ve been working on my system uninstalling and installing since September 1st and, as of last night, was finally able to run my system, not just SL through FS, but at all without it crashing every 20 minutes or so. Thanks for posting this; I’ve also been experiencing the low fps and will try the workaround when I’m home tonight. It was so bad that I was just standing in one place on a low lag sim just to chat in IM.

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  2. Please be aware that whilst the workaround of uninstalling KB3176938 does solve the framerate issue, if like me, you have always had Cortana disabled, the removal will of KB3176938 will trigger it to become activated.

    One of the ‘features’ of the Anniversary update was to remove the “off” switch for Cortana and once activated, it cannot be turned off again without hacking the registry.

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    1. Thanks, you gave a lot of good help. Unfortunately, my SL is stuttering along still. Before the anniversary update, I was praising Windows 10 to anyone who would listen and even those who would not! lol But since August 31st, I have had terrible, terrible issues even after following everyone helps on what to uninstall, roll back, etc.

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  4. Pingback: Windows 10 OpenGL issue affecting some Second Life users | Inara Pey: Living in a Modem World | A Kat and A Mouse

  5. I also use a program called Libre Office, a free replacement for Microsoft Office. Today I got an update for that program and at the web site was a warning about the Windows 10 OpenGL issue. So apparently it’s not just the SL community that’s having problems.

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  6. Fix is on the way from nVidia….got the word from Microsoft. I’ve been in communication with them since it cropped up.

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  7. This is fixed as of today with the release of Nvidia driver 373.06 and AMD driver 16.10.1. Tested and confirmed resolved.

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    1. Many thanks, Lee!

      I’ve updated this article to reflect this, with a link to your comment & also written and update to flag the news as well, with full credit to you for keeping me informed and updated.

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