Lockup

[mac4jim]

Hello,

Have played a total of four games today. Two I lost, one crashed, and the last one - locked up.
Has anyone else experienced this too?

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Apple PowerBook 17"
1.67GHz
1GB Ram
100GB HD
OSX 10.4.1

applied patch for game BEFORE playing it (version 1.21g)

Any suggestions?

 

[Gogf]

This is probably better off in tech support, or the Mac section, as the vast majority of Civ players don't use Macs. I have Civ on my PC, not my Mac, so I can't be of much help, but was there an error? Did it just freeze? Were you running anything else at the time?

 

[vmxa]

I have seen lock ups in PTW and C3C, but not C3 and of course not a Mac. How did you lose 2 games in one day? I cannot win or lose in one day, even a 14 hour day on std maps.

 

[Shujaa]

Maybe it was a small pangea on Deity

 

[Own]

Wow! 4 games in one day!

 

[mac4jim]

I have seen lock ups in PTW and C3C, but not C3 and of course not a Mac. How did you lose 2 games in one day? I cannot win or lose in one day, even a 14 hour day on std maps.

Hmmm...I must be doing something wrong (where is the manual again..grin)
Basically, one game I got crushed. I think I expanded way too fast. I don't remember the second.

 

[mac4jim]

This is probably better off in tech support, or the Mac section, as the vast majority of Civ players don't use Macs. I have Civ on my PC, not my Mac, so I can't be of much help, but was there an error? Did it just freeze? Were you running anything else at the time?

Yes, good point...I will post in appropiate forums in the future. Thanks
BTW - I was not running anything else at the time. One freeze, other crash/shutdown.

 

[mac4jim]

yes four - but I am sure they were probably the fastest game ever....

 

[AlanH]

Hi, welcome to MacCivFanatics

I assume you mean 1 GByte of RAM, not 1 MByte? Anything less than 512 MBytes is likely to slow your Mac down, and CivIII is not very forgiving if it runs out of space.

I used to get lock-ups when I first started playing CivIII - G4 Sawtooth/AGP, 350 MHz CPU. I never see them now (well, almost never). Over the couple of years since then I have:

- Increased RAM to 1 GByte +
- Increased CPU speed to 1 GHz
- Upgraded my video card
- Updated to version 1.29b2 (see updater in my sig)

Since the first three of these are not necessary for you I recommend you try the update. Apart from maybe fixing your crashes it also makes your software compatible with PC 1.29f for Windows so you can join in Succession Games, play in the Game of the Month competition, and download mod packs like Double Your Pleasure.

The only thing you can't do with version 1,29b2 is to run the Civ3Edit program to create your own custom games. If you want to do this I suggest you make a copy of your Civilization III folder at version 1.21g to update to 1.29b2, and keep the original copy for running the editor.

 

[mac4jim]

Hi, welcome to MacCivFanatics

I assume you mean 1 GByte of RAM, not 1 MByte? Anything less than 512 MBytes is likely to slow your Mac down, and CivIII is not very forgiving if it runs out of space.

I used to get lock-ups when I first started playing CivIII - G4 Sawtooth/AGP, 350 MHz CPU. I never see them now (well, almost never). Over the couple of years since then I have:

- Increased RAM to 1 GByte +
- Increased CPU speed to 1 GHz
- Upgraded my video card
- Updated to version 1.29b2 (see updater in my sig)

Since the first three of these are not necessary for you I recommend you try the update. Apart from maybe fixing your crashes it also makes your software compatible with PC 1.29f for Windows so you can join in Succession Games, play in the Game of the Month competition, and download mod packs like Double Your Pleasure.

The only thing you can't do with version 1,29b2 is to run the Civ3Edit program to create your own custom games. If you want to do this I suggest you make a copy of your Civilization III folder at version 1.21g to update to 1.29b2, and keep the original copy for running the editor.

Alan, thanks for all the feedback. Yes, I meant 1GB. I discovered last night that my system profile was only reporting 768MB, when I had 2 - 512MB installed. I removed the factory chip, replaced with the PNY and it still indicated only 256KB. I have never known a chip to go "half bad" but the store rep told me they have had this issue before. He indicated that some systems have trouble with slower memory. But they were both 3300 - I think it may have just been mis-labeled. So now I am waiting to see if I continue to have 1GB.
Re: using the editor. Perhaps in time, I am playing a game now, just two civs me (rome) and egypt and it looks like they are going to crush me soon....
I played this way back when it was Civ I by Microprose.
BTW - I like the icon under yur name.
BTW2 - what do you make on all the posts regarding MacIntel? I was a bit concerned at first, since I just bought this system, but then I relaized that until my computer no longer does what I need it too - who cares if it is no longer made or not.

 

[AlanH]

Sounds like your RAM was misbehaving, and that could have been the source of instability. Let's hope they fix it.

 

[AlanH]

BTW2 - what do you make on all the posts regarding MacIntel? I was a bit concerned at first, since I just bought this system, but then I relaized that until my computer no longer does what I need it too - who cares if it is no longer made or not.

Apple had to do it to keep in the race. IBM and Freescale/Motorola were not delivering the CPUs that Apple needs to maintain and grow its market position moving forward. Expect to see dual Pentium-M laptops first half of next year, running cool and fast and looking as exquisite as only Jonathon Ive knows how.

Apple may well price the Intellimacs high to start with to milk the early adopters, and I think I'd want to see how they really perform before jumping on the bandwagon. But your 17" Powerbook runs Tiger now and will run Leopard when it arrives, along wth all the apps you want to run now and then, and that will be true for three years from now.

Laptops have a somewhat shorter lifecycle than desktops and towers in my experience. My list of enhancements has kept my G4 tower going for 5 years now, but they would be difficult or expensive in a laptop, so people tend to replace them rather than upgrade. Three years would see you wanting a replacement anyway, regardless of Apple's CPU policy.