System Crashes and 3D

I

ian27

It all started at 3......
Hey guys,

Okay, this is driving me nuts! I'm using an eMac 1.25ghz with 1024mb RAM.

Every single time I try to play a game that uses any kind of 3D stuff it crashes almost instantaneously. It is a full system crash and I have to turn off the computer and reboot to get out of it. Games that currently crash are Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, Age of Mythology, Tony Hawks Pro Skater... etc.... Playing the introduction 3D movie is fine and works without any problems, it is just when I actually start to play the games.

I have other games such as Football Manager 2005 which doesn't include 3D graphics and this works perfectly....

So what potentially could be the problem? I've tried fragmenting the drive using Tech Tools and running Disk Warrior through it to clean up any glitches but still no success.

Could it be a problem with the graphics card itself? How can I test it? My computer is still under Applecare warranty if I need to replace any parts, but how do I diagnose exactly what is causing these crashes?

Thank you.

Ian
 
Check for patches that might be available for those games. Sometimes they include fixes for things similar to what you are mentioning.

You might also want to see if there are Mac drivers available from the video card manufacturer's site. Usually, the ones provided by Apple should suffice, but you never know.

I'm sure you've tried this, but I'll say it anyways. Try and fix permissions. This might not be it, but it's worth a try if you haven't done it.

Also, make sure you are running the latest version of your OS. If you are running Panther, make sure it's up to 10.3.8.
 
Your RAM could be the problem. Usually MacOSX is very picky about RAM. When the OS got issues with RAM it often doesn't show it in the "daily usage." This means you can use the OS plus applications without problems until you do _that_ "one thing".

For example - I installed 256MB in my ibook and had no problems running applications, the OS etc. But if I tried to set the ibook to sleep or if I closed the lid - instand crash.

The same happened with my mac mini which came with "faulty" RAM. Everything worked fine. But only launching Garageband crashed the whole system. (this was on the first day of usage - nothing new installed - while I was playing around with the new system). Both errors were reproduceable and couldn't be fixed with standart procedures.

Both problems were gone after I replaced the RAM.

You can also try and boot up your OSX installation CD by holding "C" at the start and check your HD with the disk utility. (edit: ah you already did that)

edit: It would be helpfull if you could tell us what version of OSX your are running.

I doubt that the video card drivers are the problem. OSX and the Mac platform is one of the systems where you don't have to worry about video driver upgrades.
 
Hey guys, a quick update.

I contacted Applecare yesterday. They made me go through a bunch of procedures including a couple that I had forgotten about such as resetting the PRAM and resetting the NVRAM (whatever that is)... They went through various possibilities of software conflicts etc, but nothing worked. So after almost an hour they concluded that the graphics card must be faulty and then gave me the number of a local company who will fix it for me. So I'll give them a call soon and hopefully everything will be running smoothly again.

Happy days huh!!!

Ian
 
Just a quick update. I'm still having the same problems with my machine when using 3D and I've still never got Applecare to fix it up for me. To change the card or take a look at the system, they were going to need to keep my machine for two to three weeks!!! I tried to explain that I can't work without it and if I don't work I don't get paid etc, but they didn't seem to care (maybe they should take the "care" out of Applecare) :). Anyway, it concluded by me writing a nasty complaint letter to them which I never got a response to (and that was six months ago).

Any ideas as to how I should proceed, and do you know if it would be easy for me to change the graphics card in my eMac myself?

Thanks.

Ian
 
ian27, think of your eMac as sorta like a laptop with a 17" monitor grafted onto it. You can't swap out the video card because video is on the motherboard.

Did you try all available authorized Mac fixerizers? It took 3 days to get my iMac back when I took it in. Of course, I didn't try the store in Yorkshire.

If I lived closer to you, I'd loan you one of my Macs. You can borrow one if you come pick it up.

I live in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, US.

;)
Doug

P.S. it stinks that I paid extra for 2 extra years of Applecare for my iMac and I had to drop it off and pick it up from a repair shop when it needed repair. What a joke.
 
dktrickey said:
ian27, think of your eMac as sorta like a laptop with a 17" monitor grafted onto it. You can't swap out the video card because video is on the motherboard.

Did you try all available authorized Mac fixerizers? It took 3 days to get my iMac back when I took it in. Of course, I didn't try the store in Yorkshire.

If I lived closer to you, I'd loan you one of my Macs. You can borrow one if you come pick it up.

I live in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, US.

;)
Doug

P.S. it stinks that I paid extra for 2 extra years of Applecare for my iMac and I had to drop it off and pick it up from a repair shop when it needed repair. What a joke.
Click to expand...

Hey Doug, I hear ya! I certainly would not be interested in taking out any more Applecare warranty when I next purchase a new machine, it just isn't worth the money.

I contacted Applecare again the other day and was told that the eMac that I'm using just simply wasn't up to being able to cope with the things I was asking it to do (which I find a bit bizarre as it won't even run some of the software that came pre-installed with the machine). Their advice to me was to simply sell the eMac and buy a G5 iMac. Each time I phone Applecare I have had a different answer to my query, even the "2nd tier" engineer was like "huh?!? I don't know, I'm going home now it's Saturday"... that was helpful. :)

Don't get me wrong, I still look Macs, but my experience of Applecare completely sucked. They told me that it was impossible to send an engineer out to my home, so I told them that I have a friend who owns a Dell Computer had a problem with it, and that's exactly what they did to help him so he was only inconvenienced by a couple of hours. Applecare told me that a lot of people complain that they are going to lose money from work because they have to send their computer off to the engineer who will have it for a couple of weeks, to which I responded "Well if a lot of people are complaining about it, why don't you improve your service to work with your customers' wishes?" Surprisingly, the dimwit on the other side of the telephone went silent (his silence said a 1000 words to me though).

Thanks for the offer of lending one of your Macs. I'm just popping into my private jet now to fly over to the US to pick it up. :cool: :p

Cheers!

Ian
 
Although they quote "3 weeks" it's rarely ever more than 5 days in my experience. Perhaps you know someone with a spare Mac who'll let you use it for the time being...?

As for AppleCare, I wish I had bought the extended version. My Dual 2.5 G5's firewire ports and front power switch are non-functional, repairs will probably cost $800 to $1000 bucks, and I desire to re-sell this thing so I can move to a Powerbook, but I wouldn't get much for it in its current condition. On the other hand, the extended warranty was - what, $250? Wish I had gotten it now!
 
Be advised; There is a Recall currently on lots of eMac / iMac G4s made in 2004, for faulty Capacitors on the Logic board, that promote emac Crashing. the ailment is excelerated by any software that uses heavy graphics. This is a hard crash that can only exit with power-down button. Ailment affects start off as a seldom occurance, but eventually affects almost everything, to the point that the eMac crashes rountinely. Link to the forum at Apple that covers this issue--( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=301339&tstart=15 )---this link opens up a page that is under heavy traffic or something ? ? cause it is figity for a long while till it finally fills in--even on DSL. jellison, Oregon
 
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