myth 2 1.8 random kernel panics on osx 10.7.5

[Vorig]

I'm having occasional and random kernel panics playing M2 solo or multiplayer. I don't see any real pattern to it, but it doesn't happen on any other graphic intensive games that I play on my mac. It never crashes in the multiplayer lobbies or on the main menu, but the crashes do happen in-game while playing either solo or mplayer. Anyone else having this issue? Any ideas what might be causing this?

[jason_ac]

No real idea, but I'll ask questions anyway...your Myth is using OpenGL? Are your other games as well?

[Vorig]

Yep. Using OpenGL. Not seeing this on the other games that use that. Could it be my graphics card on my laptop is perhaps failing?

[jason_ac]

Yep. Using OpenGL.

Has Myth always given you trouble on this laptop? If not, have you changed anything, software updates?

[Vorig]

Had Myth installed on this laptop a long time ago, like 2.1.3 days, but never had this issue. Recently installed 2.1.8 and have had this happening periodically. No software updates. Thanks for helping me troubleshoot, but judging by the lack of similar reports here on the forum, I doubt this is a common issue.

[Jon God]

Check the console crash log

Applications/Utilities/Console

Then look for any crash/kernel panics there, they should be logged. Sometimes it's something obvious that will pop up.

[jason_ac]

Are the other OpenGL games newer ones, older ones, or a mix?

[Melekor]

Since a kernel panic is the Mac equivalent of the Windows BSOD, please see my post about BSODs here: http://tain.totalcodex.net/forum/viewto ... 332#p64051

[Vorig]

Check the console crash log

Applications/Utilities/Console

Then look for any crash/kernel panics there, they should be logged. Sometimes it's something obvious that will pop up.

Don't see anything in there. Where should I be searching in the console? Or should I just use the search box at the top right? If so, I already did that but couldn't find the kernel crashes (though it has been a few days since the last crash).

I don't really know if there's much I can do at this point, but everyone has been very helpful. I played for the last two days for about 2-3 hours each time with zero kernel panics. Maybe I just needed to restart or something. Who knows. If it happens again, I'll post with the console log.

[jason_ac]

Perhaps Myth is using something in OpenGL that is using some aspect of your hardware that your other games are not...and that part of your hardware is failing.

If you switch to software render, does the problem go away permanently?

It sounds like your system is an older one, perhaps you can get an equivalent 3D card cheap, maybe that will solve the hardware problem.

[Vorig]

Well. I think I may have found the culprit, but I'm still testing. Even still, this doesn't make much sense. The panic seems to be happening when I'm running myth and doing a time machine backup. The game starts to stutter and then often (but not always) causes a kernel panic. Not sure why this would be though...

[vinylrake]

Not specifically Myth related, but TimeMachine is a system resource hog - it used to bring my 10.6.6 system to a crawl everytime it started running. Even surfing the web pages would start taking forever to load - no way TimeMachine should have been affecting page load times - it just seemed to suck up all the available resources and everything else that was running suffered.

[Vorig]

Alright. I may have spoken too soon regarding time machine as the culprit. I was watching a film a few moments ago. and noticed that M2 was taking up 100% of the cpu process (verified by using istat menus). This is what normally starts to cause the game to stutter slightly and then ultimately crash my comp with a kernel panjic. It's as if the M2 process runs out of control and causes the crash. Could this be the result of a corrupt preference file? If I close myth and reopen it, the issue usually goes away. And it seems to be random when the app takes up 100% of the cpu, but I usually see this issue when watching films. I tried reinstalling completely with a different copy of M2 (but not replacing the preference files), and the issue still prresents.

[Melekor]

It can't be caused by a corrupt preferences file.

As I explained above, kernel panics are symptoms of operating system bugs, driver bugs or hardware malfunctions only. If myth causes a kernel panic to happen, it is only by triggering one of these underlying problems with your computer.

Car analogy time. It's like if you are driving your kid to school, and you get in a car crash because the brakes malfunction. You don't blame your kid for the crash just because he "caused" you to drive the car. (myth is the kid, your computer is the car)

[jason_ac]

Car analogy time. It's like if you are driving your kid to school, and you get in a car crash because the brakes malfunction. You don't blame your kid for the crash just because he "caused" you to drive the car. (myth is the kid, your computer is the car)

Why does your computer have brakes? Aren't the rubber feet sufficient to keep it in place?

Why is Myth going to school? You don't school Myth, Myth skoolz you!