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Many programs unexpectedly quitting, crashing

pknz

pknz

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 22, 2005
2,478
1
NZ
A multitude of programs are locking up or unexpectedly quitting on my iMac G5.

  • Wolfenstein Enemy Territory
    Unexpectedly quits, sometimes freezes system, forced restart.
  • Age of Empires II Gold
    Unexpecedly quits 4-5 seconds into main menu loading, tried 1.0-1.05 and deleted prefs. (Does not happen on iBook)
  • Unreal Tournament 2004
    After updating to latest version, unexpectedly quits
  • Myst V EOA
    Video freezes sound continues, forced restart "Mac OS X Unexpectedly quit"
  • Football Manager 2006
    Unexpectedly quits after importing a training schedule (this could be a bug in software)
  • Rainbow 6 Athena Sword
    Unexpectedly quits every so often
  • iTunes
    Unexpectedly quits every so often
  • Safari
    Unexpectedly quits every so often (using tabs)
  • Poser 6
    Froze machine, had to restart 4 times before it started up again, unexpectedly quits now
  • X-Plane
    Unexpectedly quits
  • Apple Remote Desktop
    Unexpectedly quits every so often
  • Marathon Infinity
    Unexpectedly quits while playing online (does not happen on iBook)

After force restarting (holding down power button) the restart is usually much longer and sometimes does not complete. The fans come on full and sometimes it requires another forced restart (and in some cases like Poser 6, requires more forced restarts).

I have deleted prefs of most these apps, the only game that has been successful for is Star Wars Battlefront (touchwood).

I have repaired permissions frequently and that hasn't helped as well as defragmenting with Drive Genius 1.1.5, running Tech Tool Pro and Apple Hardware test has not yielded any answers.

I tried two games on my iBook and the two do not show any of the problems the iMac does, I suspect more will also not have these problems.

The RAM has been fine, it was put in new by a technician. I am running OS X 10.4.3 and are considering weather to reformat and reinstall the whole system.
 
Try it with the RAM out all the same. These things can go bad suddenly after a trigger event (such as upgrading to 10.4.3). Also, start up from your OSX disks and repair the disk. You can actually verify the disk from within Disk Utility in your Utilities folder but you won't be able to repair it from there if necessary.

Have you got any crazy system hacks?
 
Try swapping the RAM, repairing permissions and trashing preferences of affected apps, as well as re-force pre-bindings. In terminal, type: sudo update_prebinding -root / -force -debug. Enter your password.

Reboot.


Here's to the Crazy Ones ​
 
The only dodgy hack I have is Front Row, but these problems were occuring before that was installed. Deleting the prefs only helped for one app. Another thing I have noticed, Microsoft Messenger is always resetting back to its default settings. The Display picture reverts to the dog, and in the list of pictures therre is quit a few copies of the Dog and it is constantly asking whether I want to save conversation when I leave them even when I have changed (before I reopen) it to do not save conversations.

Repaired permission from OS X CD, usual widgets and dock stuff. Nothing needed to be repaired when I click 'Repair Disk' and AOEII (most obvious quitter) still quits.

Just ran the pre-binding thing and restarted...AOEII didn't quit. Will continue to test see if others now don't quit too. What exactly does the 'force prebinding' do?

Thanks for your help guys.
 
Myst V still crashes.
Edit: Bug in software caused it to crash with graphics card. Turning off anti-aliasing and anti-sotrophics filters rectified this problem
 
Start from DVD

Start from one of the DVDs that came with your Macintosh, and only use the programs on it (probably Textedit and Disk Utility). If that crashes, your hardware is broken.
 
A day on AOEII started quitting again. So I repaired permissions from Disk Utility.

AOEII 1.05 now takes about a minuted before unexpectedly quitting.

Programs from the DVD work fine.
 
Yea the problems occur across other accounts too. I am doing a Archive and Install at the moment.

Using Windows laptop on MR just feels wrong
 
Please update us after the archive install.

Sometimes programs are just buggy. Quicktime and Safari are some of the least stable Apple programs in my opinion. iTunes is more stable but will still quit on occasion. I don't have much experience with games but they are probably the most demanding and will quickly reveal problems.

Perhaps others would recommend third party disc maintenance utilities that catch problems that disk utility.app will miss.
 
After the Archive and Install (and all the updates from Apple), I find the system worse. Safari has been quitting much more regularly, even with no tabs. It had crashed twice while playing a Flash animation - 'Gray screen of death.'

These programs still unexpectedly quit:
AOE II
Jammin Racer (newly installed)
Microsoft Messenger (although hasn't quit in the last hour)
Rainbow Six 3
Star Wars Battlefront (started quitting again)

I intend to do a full reinstall tomorow.
 
pknz said:
I intend to do a full reinstall tomorow.
Click to expand...


You're getting kernel panics and I don't think a full reinstall will help in this instance. Have you removed the RAM (I know it's been fine, but that doesn't mean it still is fine)? How about starting from the Hardware Test CD and running some diagnostics? In Disk Utility, is your hard drive's SMART status verified? :)
 
Well after a full reinstall and update and numerous repairings of permissions as well as resetting NVRAM and PRAM and forcing rebinding I still get many unexpectedly quits from games that are graphically intensive.

I still haven't removed the RAM yet. I will hopefully persuade my dad to let me tonite.
 
Clean the dust out

This is the most common problem with any computer crashing unexpectedly (unless it's running some MS BS).

If there is dust on the logic board this will cause symptoms exactly like yours, I had the same problem.
 
Definitely take the RAM out. It's easy, 3 screws and pull :)

Once you've got it out, post back here with the brand and model of the RAM.
 
Seems like it could be either bad RAM or a faulty logic board (chipset, graphics, who knows?). If it's the RAM, where did you get it installed? Was there a warranty provided with it? If it's the logic board and the machine's under warranty Apple ought to fix it for free, no problem. Just call up their service/support line and tell them the problems you're having, and once they walk you through the process of verifying that it's not anything you can fix via standard troubleshooting, they'll send a box out for you to send the computer back to them for repairs. Or you can take it to an Apple Store and have them ship it off.
 
I have removed the 1GB RAM and still get unexpecteded, wiped dust out as well. The RAM is from SimpleTech (1GB PC3200 DDR MODULEE) packaging stated APPLE IMAC G5 it has a lifetime warranty too but it doesn't seem to be the problem.

The unexpected quit reports are all


Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xa001897c

or

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000014

I saw Yellow tell someone else to run Memtest for a while so I will do that see if that can shed any light
 
kingjr3 said:
Could have saved yourself some time installing/re-installing/formatting by testing this first as others stressed.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I don't understand why reinstalling is recommended at all, let alone, before other options are exhausted. I spend a lot of my time on these boards warning against this as a problem solver, because it's almost never necessary and rarely even helps.

This does sound like a hardware problem, most likely faulty RAM. Because it doesn't happen on boot up, I suspect a bad motherboard as a less likely culprit.

Also, if you've ever had to hard-reboot the Mac, running an fsck on the next reboot is almost mandatory. You'll almost certainly have done some damage to the disk directory, which does not heal on its own and can cause cumulative problems.

This stuff is quick and easy. Do it before you push the panic button.
 
pknz said:
I have removed the 1GB RAM and still get unexpecteded, wiped dust out as well. The RAM is from SimpleTech (1GB PC3200 DDR MODULEE) packaging stated APPLE IMAC G5 it has a lifetime warranty too but it doesn't seem to be the problem.

The unexpected quit reports are all


Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xa001897c

or

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000014

I saw Yellow tell someone else to run Memtest for a while so I will do that see if that can shed any light
Click to expand...

That's actually the most worthless part of the crashlogs.. please post the entirty of a single crash event in the crashlog (for one app, your choice) as an attachment.

And you can get memtest at: http://www.memtestosx.org/

I suggest telling it to run at least 3 times..
 
Here is the crash report of AOE II (1.0)

I ran Memtest on both the Apple RAM and Simpletech RAM '3 passes' of the test and all the results came back as OK
 

Attachments

  • AOE II 1.0 report.doc
    61 KB · Views: 206
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