Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a crash

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

Moderators: Cat_7, Ronald P. Regensburg, ClockWise

Post Reply
jantoman
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:24 pm

Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a crash

Post by jantoman »

Hi. Thanks a lot for all your work: SheepShaver still gives me so much fun after many years. Can't stop using those old games :lol:
There's an issue that's always been there, as far as I remember: every time I launch an app that I just quit, an alert window pops in saying that the app crashed and it's better to restart the computer (type 3 error, most of the times). As far as I remember, it happens with Strategic Conquest 3 and Civilization I. Is there a workaround to solve this?
Thanks in advance.
User avatar
Ronald P. Regensburg
Expert User
Posts: 7821
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

The little application "Apple Error Codes '89" explains:
ID=03 Illegal Instruction
The computer has a specific vocabulary of machine language instructions it can understand. If a computer tries to execute an instruction that isn't in its vocabulary, you see this error code. It's less likely than error 02, but still very common.
Did you try enabling "Ignore Illegal Instructions" in SheepShaver preferences (or GUi, depending on your host system)?

Does the error also happen when you wait a longer time before Launching the app again?
jantoman
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:24 pm

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by jantoman »

Ronald P. Regensburg wrote:Did you try enabling "Ignore Illegal Instructions" in SheepShaver preferences (or GUi, depending on your host system)?
Yes. "Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses" is enabled as well.
Also other apps refuse to launch after I quit one of those games. But that could be a graphic issue, many old games need different resolutions.
Does the error also happen when you wait a longer time before Launching the app again?
I never waited more than a few seconds because most of the times the system crashes as well.
Last edited by jantoman on Thu Apr 23, 2020 7:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
jantoman
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:24 pm

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by jantoman »

Update: almost all the application fail to launch after quitting one.
Once I even got a full strike of System Errors in Finder: 2000, 11, 10 and 41... Bingo :razz:

I found out that when I change the monitor resolution after I quit, i.e. switching back and forth from 256 to thousand colors, chances are that crash doesn't happens (around 50%). When it does, the screen becomes a mess of colors and the system hangs. Guess I found the culprit.

MacBook Air i7 1,7 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 512 Gb SSD, Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB. SheepShaver is updated to the last notarized version.
User avatar
24bit
Forum All-Star
Posts: 1424
Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:47 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by 24bit »

I do recall such behaviour - from real Macs and emulated ones.
My guess is that some apps do not free the system resources upon quitting as they should, lazy programming may be one reason.
At second start there are remains in RAM the app wants to allocate again - dang.

There is a small app to flush RAM on vintage Macs which helped somewhat, though not in all cases.
https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-os-purge
Some versions of TechTool may also be used to flush RAM.
User avatar
Ronald P. Regensburg
Expert User
Posts: 7821
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:24 pm
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

Launching and quitting apps in the old Mac OS leaves RAM memory fragmented. In the old days I made it a habit to quit all running applications and wait half a minute before starting again with a new combination of applications.

Still, it was not unusual to have to restart my Mac a couple of times a day, especially with the 7.5.X and 8.X OS versions.
jantoman
Space Cadet
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:24 pm

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by jantoman »

In the meantime I found out that some apps - i.e Civilization I - don't like OpenGL, QuickDraw and other graphic-related extensions. I made a couple of custom sets with Extensions Manager and I've been able to minimize the issue. I'm still experimenting different configurations, but I guess every app has its own preferred settings.
User avatar
adespoton
Forum All-Star
Posts: 4226
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:11 am
Location: Emaculation.com
Contact:

Re: Relaunching the same app after quitting it causes a cras

Post by adespoton »

Please add those to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... beZg39Q9A/ with the correct config settings :)
Post Reply