Tech Support desperately needed!

[Reddwarfian]

Please, my IMac is running rediculously slow.

It's been in service for several years, now, so what can you expect. Also, when we first got internet, my brother downloaded a bunch of games, played them once, and deleted them.

It is being outstripped by snails, for crying out loud, and this thing is supposed to have 256 mb of processing power, and 30 gb of memory!

Let me give you a scale:

Booted up Civ 3
Started a game as the Iroquois
Moved Scout and worker
Took Screen shot
Called up menu
Saved
Quit

It has taken hours JUST TO DO THAT!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to resort to *shudder* windows...

 

[Trabpukcip]

Well first, is it only civ3 that is working that bad or everything?

If it is only civ3, then may be Brad can do something for you.

If it is your entire computer, well that is a completly different problem... and BTW what system version are you using? This is very relevant...

 

[Reddwarfian]

OS 9.2, and it's my whole computer. It takes around 10-20 minutes for a startup.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Reddwarfian
OS 9.2, and it's my whole computer. It takes around 10-20 minutes for a startup.

Your Mac is sending out a cry for help. It's in need of deep and tender loving care.

I would start by running Disk First Aid on the hard drive, (I think that's what the OS 9 disk utility was called). Ask it to try to repair your hard drive and see if it reports any problems.

One incantation that used to be suggested was to "Zap the PRAM". Restart, holding down the Option, Command, P and R keys IIRC and continue to hold the keys down until you hear three or four chimes from the Mac. This erases the non-volatile memory that knows things like the date and time and the startup hard disk. Zapping the PRAM is an old-established piece of Mac mythology, and may only have a placebo effect, however. After doing this you will need to set up the date and time again.

Also, I assume it wasn't always this way? So something's changed. Try to remember when it started to slow down, and what you might have done to cause it. Did you install any third party extensions? If so get rid of them, or use Extensions Manager to set the Mac to use the standard Apple suite. Have you added any dodgy hardware? Add-on memory from a less-than-reputable manufacturer? A USB hub? A new printer or scanner?

If these actions don't change anything then you'll probably need to reinstall the Mac OS. And if that doesn't work you could try reformatting the hard drive. After that I suggest you get the hardware checked out by a service center. That's when the money starts to roll.

 

[Reddwarfian]

It mainly slowed down around March and April, when I was banned from the computer, and the Civ 3 Disk was confiscated. I'll ask my brother what he did and get back to you.

 

[Trabpukcip]

Originally posted by Reddwarfian
It mainly slowed down around March and April, when I was banned from the computer, and the Civ 3 Disk was confiscated. I'll ask my brother what he did and get back to you.

This doesn't smell right... BTW AlanH's suggestions are very close to what I would have suggested, so I think it is fair to say that this would be a wise course of action to take.

If you have Norton Disk Utility I suggest you run a series of test with it just after using Disk Fisrt Aid, this little baby saved me from disaster a couple of times...

And you should, before any type of attempt to solve your problem, makw a backup of files you really don't want to lose...

Good Luck!

 

[tao]

Disk First Aid is worth a try, even thou it usually does not fix them all. But hey: it is free.

OTOH I would strongly recommend Alsoft's DiskWarrior over Norton, since IMHO it works more reliable ond trouble free.

If it were my computer, I would do a backup and clean install of 9.2.2. Or 10.2.6.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Trabpukcip


If you have Norton Disk Utility I suggest you run a series of test with it just after using Disk Fisrt Aid, this little baby saved me from disaster a couple of times...

I have had very bad experiences with Norton, and I know others who say the same, so you sound like a lucky guy. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I've generally found that if Disk First Aid can't fix a hard drive, it's probably past fixin' and you'd better save what you can and reformat it.

 

[n8mac]

Banned from the computer eh, somethin smells fishy.

Usually what I do first is startup the computer holding down the shift key thus turning off all extensions. This eliminates a big possibility. Try it and see if your machine still takes 10-20min to startup. If not then you have narrowed your problem to the extension.
Otherwise more drastic measures must be taken, but a PC is toooooo far.

 

[ancestral]

Create a bare extension set for Civilization. This can be done in the Extensions Manager in the Control Panels. Select "All Off" and carefully add back the following:

• [*]Sound Manager
  [*]Quicktime (all)
  [*]Apple CD/DVD (may be a similar name)
  [*]ColorSync (if you customized the color on your machine)
  [*]All ATi/NVidia extensions for your graphics
  
  Optionally, you can add Monitors, Sound, Memory, Statup Disk, Date & Time - basics that won't drag the system down.

(I can't think of anything else that's required. Guys?)

and save the set as "Civ3", etc. Restart. Whenever you need to go back (i.e., there are no Internet extensions in this set) just go back to the extensions manager. You can also press "spacebar" on startup to get the extensions manager when you boot up.

If this works, good job. You can add the Internet extensions back and give it a shot if you like using the 'net when/around you're playing the game (OpenTransport, Internet, Shared Library Manager and same with "PPC", maybe SOMObjects, maybe AppleScriptLib)

If it's still kinda slow, quit and go to the Apple menu, and choose "Apple System Profiler". It will tell you how much RAM you have. If you have 128 MB RAM or less, you might consider increasing your virtual memory.

Go to Apple -> Control Panels -> Memory (if it's not there, you'll have to re-enable it in the Extensions Manager)

Set virtual memory to 128 MB. That should do it. And make sure you don't have RAM disk enabled.

When starting up, hold down the options key. Set the resolution to 1024x768 if it's not already enabled. I think you can choose some other options here as well that can speed things up.

Another thing to do is get info on the application and set the preferred memory box to double the minimum. This might help.

Also, it's good to keep your system up to date with the latest version of OS 9. To find out, open the Software Update control panel (if not there, again, Extensions Manager, and make sure to enable the Software Update Engine extension as well).

And the latest version of Civ3. Version 1.21g has been available for quite some time. If you didn't get the Game of the Year version, you may need to update. You can find out by when you startup, at the bottom in the main menu, there should be a version number for the game.

I know it can be frustrating, but by following these steps I'm sure the speed will significantly improve (else buy a G5! j/k )

 

[Reddwarfian]

Thanks, guys. This should be enough to go on for now. I'll update you and tell you how it went.

 

[tao]

Originally posted by ancestral
Set virtual memory to 128 MB. That should do it.

Another thing to do is get info on the application and set the preferred memory box to double the minimum. This might help.

IIRC you need 200+ mb to run CivIII.

 

[Reddwarfian]

128 virtual plus 128 actual equals 256 megs.

Anyway, the argument is moot, because I have 2 128 meg Memory cartriges in there already!

 

[tao]

Originally posted by Reddwarfian
128 virtual plus 128 actual equals 256 megs.

The vm size you set is the total usable memory. If you want to use 256, you have to set vm to 256.

Anyway, the argument is moot, because I have 2 128 meg Memory cartriges in there already!

In this case I suggest you set vm to 257 mb if you want to use vm, or off otherwise.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by ancestral
.....
And the latest version of Civ3. Version 1.21g has been available for quite some time. If you didn't get the Game of the Year version, you may need to update. You can find out by when you startup, at the bottom in the main menu, there should be a version number for the game.

The latest version of Civ3 for Mac is 1.29b2. It's a beta download available in a forum near here, and it's more stable and better behaved than 1.21g, and it's GOTM-compatible.

 

[Reddwarfian]

Thanks, but there's something else that I forgot to mention:

The computer, especially when it's working, emitts two clicks, like the monitor is turning off and on. Nothing can be seen to explain this.

Oh, and where'd you find the 1.29b2?

 

[Trabpukcip]

Originally posted by Reddwarfian
Thanks, but there's something else that I forgot to mention:

The computer, especially when it's working, emitts two clicks, like the monitor is turning off and on. Nothing can be seen to explain this.

Hey! I think you're getting closer and closer to either buying a new computer or getting help from a profesionnal because honnestly, we can all give you advices about what may be wrong, but it is always better to take a real look at the machine when things start going bad... and that's exactly what we can't do for you here...

 

[ancestral]

My friend had something like this happen to his monitor, although you could actually see it - almost like it was degaussing itself - but not really.

How old is your computer? Do you still have AppleCare? If you think you still have AppleCare, you can bring it in to an authorized repair shop and they'll repair everything for $0. (Call up AppleCare first - 1-800-SOS-APPL isn't the number anymore, but I think that will redirect you.)

1.29 beta is just that - a beta. I hear it's near solid, but it actually has not been officially released. So technically it is the latest version, but it could very well contain new bugs (and it could very well either be faster or slower than 1.21). Of course, 1.29 does have some features that 1.21 does not have.

Links:

1.21g
ftp://ftp.infogrames.net/patches/civ3/Civ3_121g_Installer.sit

1.29 b2
http://www.macmame.org/Civ3_129_b2.sit


(edit: when it actually says Automatically parse URLs you'd think it would automatically parse the url. Guess not. Else it doesn't like bold tags. Chih. Stupid.

 

[Reddwarfian]

Good news. The Civ extention method worked to satiate my Civilization Desire. It felt good to wipe the Persians off the map.

However, this is just a temporary solution. I will be working overtime to find a cure for my computer.

 

[Trabpukcip]

Originally posted by Reddwarfian
Good news. The Civ extention method worked to satiate my Civilization Desire.

this is in fact good news since it should mean that your problem is really with extensions.