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Grrr · Aug 16, 2007, 01:17 PM

Anyone playing UT2004 on a new alu iMac? Specifically ones with the 2600 pro graphics setup..
It runs extremely well on my new iMac, except for the fact it hard crashes the mac completely, at seemingly random intervals. The screen just locks up completely. No mouse movement, no error messages, nothing. Only shutting down via the power button will bring the iMac back to normality. So pretty severe as crashes go.
Mac & UT are fully up to date software wise. Permissions repaired, Apple hardware test shows no errors.

Im wondering if this is specific to my iMac, or if perhaps other people have it too. I've been in contact with Ryan Gordon (he brought/ported the game to the Mac). He suggested its either flakey hardware (I hope not! The Mac runs perfect with everything else) or UT is invoking some bug/glitch to appear in these models of iMacs graphics hardware. He forwarded my initial email to some Apple engineers so that they can investigate this too.
May also be bad ram? (Even if the hardware test shows no problems) Although it seems unlikely that Apple would supply a new Mac with bad ram. Hopefully tomorrow I can try another ram chip and see if it fixes anything..

Anyway, users experiences and advice welcome

Chongo · Aug 17, 2007, 08:52 PM

sounds like it is not Intel friendly

Grrr · Aug 18, 2007, 01:02 PM

Never mind.. Found some constructive info on the Apple discussion forums instead.

seanc · Aug 18, 2007, 03:15 PM

What information did you find?

Just ignore Rob and his sidekick, above. He doesn't seem to be able to work out that it's those types of posts that gets him banned.

If you haven't sorted it already, you could try running it in Windows on the iMac to see if the errors persist or not, that would help to rule out hardware I guess and would point to the drivers included with the new iMac for the graphics card or something else.

Grrr · Aug 19, 2007, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by PainlessMan

It works fine on my previous gen 24" intel core 2 duo iMac with 7600GT. Actually, it works better than fine.

This thread is not about the previous gen iMacs.

Originally Posted by seanc

What information did you find?

Well, theres a few folks having this problem, and it would appear that it is a glitch in all the current generation iMacs with the 2600 pro graphics. The machine appears to freeze solid after only a few minutes of playing the game (and some other graphically demanding apps), and only a force shutdown will restore it back to normality. However, it looks like the mac is not locking up at all, as some folk claim to have been able to log into it during its frozen state via ssh(?). So that says its just the graphics hardware that is giving up.

An educated guess suggests its a software issue, rather than hardware, so a suitable update from Apple should have it fixed.

Currently, the drivers in these things appear to be far from Apples finest achievements... :/ Having said that, when it isn't locking up, it works very well indeed.

Leonard · Aug 22, 2007, 03:25 PM

UT2004 works fine on the Intel Mac Pro. I've been playing it on mine for months now. Yeah, it must be the new graphics cards on the iMacs.

Grrr · Aug 24, 2007, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by WhozeJohnGalt

Wow, gee more information about how crappy the graphics cards are on new iMacs.

I wonder who this could be. Talk about predictable.. Try posting something constructive for a change?
The precious seconds tick away until Bannination # 4388. lol

Grrr · Aug 24, 2007, 03:33 PM

How does it feel? Well, I see it this way:
The chances are, it is a software glitch that would quite likely be fixed in an OS update. Its not exactly unheard of in a brand new machine, is it? Although disappointing from Apple, granted. Yes, its irritating now. But likely soon wont be.
If the problem persists however, then naturally Apple will get an ear full from me. So for now im giving them the benefit of the doubt until 10.4.11 or whatever update comes along to fix it. All things considered, I think im being quite reasonable about it, no?
And in the mean time, I was hoping this post might attract other users actual experiences and some helpful suggestions. Your monotonous troll-like replies provide neither.

Its only locked up on games (U2004 at least), which isn't its primary use anyway. So keeping that in mind, its a better iMac than the iMacs it replaces. Its cheaper, looks nicer, and with faster cpu and buss speeds, it is faster. When not locking up gpu performance is more than good enough. But if I wanted more still, then i'd have got a Mac pro of some kind.

So, yes the locking up is a bummer. But its a problem im confident will get sorted out soon. And if Apple cant for some crazy reason provide a fix for it, then i'll join you and say how crap they are.
Happy?

pyrite · Aug 27, 2007, 10:02 PM

far out, the legion of the banned

can't we all just get along?!

rmiller · 10:07 PM

I haven't played UT online, but on instant action it plays just fine. I have played Doom 3, Quake 4, UT 2004 on OS 10.4.10, and Fear on bootcamp in Vista, with no problems. When I check graphics settings all of the games have them set on High.

Grrr · 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by rmiller

I haven't played UT online, but on instant action it plays just fine. I have played Doom 3, Quake 4, UT 2004 on OS 10.4.10, and Fear on bootcamp in Vista, with no problems. When I check graphics settings all of the games have them set on High.

Not all games are affected, so your findings don't surprise me entirely. UT2004 however, is perhaps the worst offender. Also, the problem for some reason does appear more frequently in an online game, rather than an instant bot game.
If you can, try it online (even if just spectating) on a fairly demanding map. You'll be lucky if the Mac will play for much more than 30 mins without falling over. Often it will happen in a much shorter space of time.

So far, indications suggest effects that use pixel shaders are to blame here. If having problems with one of these Macs and games, try disabling pixel shader effects (not always obvious which those are though, unfortunately) and the problem goes away. Its a fix that will have to do until Apple/ATI fix the shoddy graphics drivers.

The worst thing however, is that some of Apples own software (Like iApps and QT) have been known to trip this problem. Not just 3rd party apps & games.
So Apple really need to chop chop and fix it. Especially as even when the same software (such as UT2004) is run in Windows via Bootcamp it doesn't have this problem at all! You'd think that must be quite an embarrassment for Apple.

Fred33 · Sep 7, 2007, 04:23 PM

Yea Apple really needs to get working on this problem because they are losing a lot potential customers that are online gamers. That industry or niche is growing bigger every year.

StrongBadinator · Sep 10, 2007, 12:10 PM

hrm. Maybe you guys should just get the faster previous gens. :|

Peter · Sep 13, 2007, 05:49 PM

ignore this troll, he's wrong and just annoyed because he bought the previous older iMac a few months before the new one

Dakarʒ · Sep 13, 2007, 05:51 PM

I don't think I've ever seen 5 different nicks banned in one thread. And small thread at that.

Grrr · Sep 14, 2007, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by Dakarʒ

I don't think I've ever seen 5 different nicks banned in one thread. And small thread at that.

Its the same troll

Generally easy to spot with his usual monotonous yawn inspiring replies though.

So.. No outdated previous gen slower iMac required, because Apple came up with the goods and just released an iMac software update (v1.1) which fixes issues I found with mine. And there is quite a performance boost into the bargain

Apple does not state what is new in the update, only "Important Bug Fixes" (vague as ever) However, it does include the much needed new ATI graphics drivers.

Apple - Support - Downloads - iMac Software Update 1.1

joel_v · Sep 14, 2007, 07:09 PM

hey Grrr,
just got a new 24" iMac last night and was playing UT2004 for a good 30-40 minutes on nearly full spec, before the whole thing locked up.. :/

and i had updated to the latest software update.. lets hope apple can somehow fix this.

Johnny_B · Sep 16, 2007, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by joel_v

hey Grrr,
just got a new 24" iMac last night and was playing UT2004 for a good 30-40 minutes on nearly full spec, before the whole thing locked up.. :/

and i had updated to the latest software update.. lets hope apple can somehow fix this.

Strange. I've played UT2k4 on the cheapest Mac with 2400 with no problems for hours...