A4 Causing Crashes

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AuthorTopic: A4 Causing Crashes
Big Badda Boom
Apprentice
Member # 5686
 written Thursday, December 22 2005 06:58 Profile #0
First off my specs:
1.25 GHz G4
256 MB SDRAM
eMac first generation

Basically, once I started playing A4, the computer would crash completely (you can only hard reboot with the power button) every three hours or so while playing. It wouldn't crash when I wasn't playing. At a random point, the screen gets scrambled and a few seconds later the computer gets completely frozen, ignoring keyboard and mouse.

Anyone else had this problem? I'm curious, as it seems to have affected my system as well. Whenever I do a large download outside of safe mode, the computer has the same thing happen to it.

I'm not completely sure the game is causing it, maybe the fact that it takes up 90% of my CPU during play has something to do with it. Either way, I need to get this fixed.
Posts: 12 | Registered: Thursday, April 7 2005 07:00
SNM
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
 written Thursday, December 22 2005 10:49 Profile #1
If the same thing happens outside of the game, it's pretty much impossible that the game is causing it.

As for what's actually causing the problem....well, it sounds like a dying video card at first glance (scrambled screen) or overheating problems. But neither of those seem very likely in an old eMac. :confused:

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Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Kelandon
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
 written Thursday, December 22 2005 11:23 Profile Homepage #2
quote:
Originally written by SNM:

If the same thing happens outside of the game, it's pretty much impossible that the game is causing it.
Not entirely true, given what he's describing.

I had a lot of crashes in beta testing that were related to audio, and we never really figured out what was going on. Do you ever get a kernel panic (a bunch of writing starts appearing on the upper-right corner), a grayed-out screen with a message in the middle in several languages instructing you to reboot, or a crash report?

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Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Thuryl
...b10010b...
Member # 869
 written Thursday, December 22 2005 13:01 Profile Homepage #3
Do you ever hide A4 or otherwise switch out of it when it's running? A4 seems to really hate that, and it can lead to weird behaviour and crashes.

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Darkstrike
Apprentice
Member # 6590
 written Thursday, December 22 2005 13:04 Profile #4
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

quote:
Originally written by SNM:

If the same thing happens outside of the game, it's pretty much impossible that the game is causing it.
Not entirely true, given what he's describing.

a grayed-out screen with a message in the middle in several languages instructing you to reboot, or a crash report?
Yea this happens to me all the time. The reboot screen thing. I don't really know why.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Wednesday, December 21 2005 08:00
Big Badda Boom
Apprentice
Member # 5686
 written Saturday, December 24 2005 15:42 Profile #5
Hmm... I do command-tab out quite often. I guess that could be causing it..... But I've never gotten the reboot screen thing. Closest I've gotten was a strange bunch of gibberish appearing wherever my mouse is.
Posts: 12 | Registered: Thursday, April 7 2005 07:00
Slarty
Raven v. Writing Desk
Member # 261
 written Saturday, January 7 2006 10:02 Profile Homepage #6
Is there some technical reason why A4 (and other games) are so unhappy with ever being in the background? I have to say, it's kind of annoying.

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Posts: 3560 | Registered: Wednesday, November 7 2001 08:00
Randomizer
Law Bringer
Member # 6785
 written Wednesday, February 15 2006 15:00 Profile #7
I have an iBook G4 with 1.25 GByte memory. I get screen freezes requiring a full reboot with no other programs running. It seems to be worst when I put the computer to sleep for a quick break although it sometimes happens just as I move the cursor. It has gotten better with A4 version 1.0.1 beta.
Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00
Dikiyoba
Councilor
Member # 6600
 written Wednesday, February 15 2006 16:32 Profile Homepage #8
Well, short of advising you to stop putting the computer into sleep mode to reduce the number of freezes, I have no advice to give you. Sorry.

Dikiyoba.
Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00