Mac OS X 10.3.4 and ATIs

There are currently horrible stability problems running SL on 10.3.4 and ATIs. There was a bug introduced into their drivers that makes my G4 laptop unusable. If anyone is experiencing this, please post your setup here. Alternately, if you are running fine, please post your setup so that we narrow down the problem and try to work around it.

Apple, per their normal policy, will not disclose when they will patch this problem or specifics of what was broken.

I'm very sorry for this and will post more as Apple shares it with me.

Cory

I'm running the latest SL OSX Beta and get total machine lockup whenever I try to run the game in windowed mode. In full screen things run fine.

Also worth noting is that if I click on a URL in game which starts up a browser (the scripting documentation say) the SL client minimises, the browser comes up and I get about 5 seconds of usage before the whole mahcine hangs.

As far as I can tell there is no way to rescue tha machine other than holding the power button down for 5 secs and doing a full system reboot.

My setup:

Powerbook G4 1.25GHz, Radeon Mobility 9600, 1GB RAM. OSX 10.3.4

I'm using a 17" PB over here, 1.33GHz with 1GB RAM and an ATI card.

The latest batch of OSX updates seems to have corrected the ATI "freeze" problems I had experienced when running with AGP turned on.

Have you both brought your systems up to the latest updates?

Turning off AGP has fixed the locking up in windowed mode. Everything seems fine on my system now.

Do these problems only occur on laptops? SL is perfectly stable in windowed and full screen mode on my PM G4 MDD (ATI9000). And I did not notice any changes with 10.3.4.

I just got a new 15" 1.5GHz PowerBook running 10.3.4 and I spent 2 days crashing 10 seconds after logging in. Then I found the posts about the ATI bug and turned off AGP acceleration. My fps dropped from 25 to 15 but I can play the game now.

At first, I was able to stay in for 10 seconds. Then I turned off almost every display option, including AGP and Anistropic and every single other radio button. I was able to spend several minutes flying my hoverboard (which doesn't stick at sim borders anymore!) until I froze again. Now, every time I try to log in and walk toward my hoverboard a sim away, I crash again.

Here's my system info.



System Info:
============

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC 970 (2.2)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 900 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.1.5f0


AGP:

Type: display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e48
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A14402-116

Display:

Type: display
Display Type: CRT
VRAM (In Use): 256 MB
Resolution: 1024 x 768 @ 85 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes

Augh, my 17" powerbook is shipping RIGHT NOW! Doh!!

Initially SL would crash during precaching, but I fixed that by deleting the cache files. Now whenver I try to view the "for sale" map my system hangs. It's just the GUI; I can ssh in and see everything else running fine. Killing the SL process doesn't help (does anyone know how to force restart the graphics server or force logout all users? Anything short of reboting the machine?). Top shows a stuck process, sometimes two, and I'm pretty sure SL is one of them.

The last time the lockup happened I'd just opened the map, not yet clicking the "for sale" tab. It was zoomed all the way out. Am I getting too much data from all the servers at once?

Is this behavior (mouse moves but nothing resonds) the same lockup that other people are seeing?

System info: G5 2Ghz x 2, 1GB RAM, MacOS X 10.3.4, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

I haven't been in 1.4 for more than 4 minutes...

Can anyone else say Mac Beta?

I've been using my Powerbook nonstop since the PC I bought to play Second Life (before there WAS a Mac beta) has died.

Admittedly, It's a 1GHz 17" Powerbook which has a Geforce chip in it.

My Powerbook 15" 1.25GHz 512 RAM has been exteremely reliable on SL since upgrading to 10.3.4, Cory, as long as AGP is off.

I had some crashing probs in 1.4 initially but it turned out my cache was corrupted. Once I deleted that it is wonderful. I love 1.4!

I have been running SL with AGP on since the Software Update a few weeks ago that contained video drivers for ATI.

I ask again: have you all updated fully?

I have 10.3.4 and am still having crashes about ever 3 rd session.

And packet loss...

I'm having the same issues. I have a 15" PowerBook G4 with 512MB RAM. Everything is as up to date as it can be. When SL crashes, all i can do is move my mouse around, but nothing responds; I have to hold down the power button to restart. It seems to be doing it most when I'm working on my moogle, which is furry. (It's body is furry by nesting prims with alpha textures on them). Consequently, that transparent sort order bug is pretty annoying. Good luck coders.

one suggestion Jocfa - get more RAM...

sl crashes upon login each and everytime and has since the updates last week.
15" 1.25 ghz pbook, gig o ram.

turning agp on and off or toggling window and full screen make no difference..

Have you deleted your SL cache?

Do that and re-install a fresh copy of SL.

If not, call customer service at LL.

This has been happening to me a lot lately as well. 12" original PowerBook here, so I'm below the receommneded specs. I was able to play SL 1.4 in full screen mode fine. 1.4.2 broke that blissful situation and I have not been able to startup in full screen mode or switch to full screen mode.

I reinstalled SL 1.4.2 and it started up in windowed mode. It ran great. I switched to full screen and I crashed. I am now running in windowed mode with no problem.

Salazar

My wife plays on her 12" Powerbook with no problems.

All of the 12" Aluminum PowerBooks (Jan 03, Sept 03, Apr 04) use nVidia cards. The original 17" Aluminum PowerBook (Jan 03) also uses an nVidia card.

The 15" and 17" PowerBooks (Sept 03, and Apr 04) use ATI cards. These are the ones with the problem using AGP acceleration.

I was reading this tread again and saw this in the second post, "I'm running the latest SL OSX Beta and get total machine lockup whenever I try to run the game in windowed mode. In full screen things run fine."

So I tried running my 15" PowerBook (ATI card) in full screen mode and AGP turned on. I was able to fly around for 10 minutes without crashing and then I logged off. Whoo hoo! The down side was that I didn't see fps improve very much. I got around 10 - 12 and as low as 2. It seems like I was getting better performance without AGP while running 1.3.X.

about every third visit i get a freeze, or a crash, and have had 2 kurnel panics. Beta 1.4

setup:
powerbook 17"
G4 667Mhz 1MB L3 cache
512MB SDRAM

Mac OS X 10.3.4

I found on my sisters 15" pb alum enabling sound would cause the client to crash, but it has no problems with my dual 500 g4, but it was so much smoother on the 15"