Mac OS X on x86 Hardware 2008–2024 Technical Archive
InfiniteMac OSx86 › Leopard 10.5 › Random application crashes - segmentation faults
4,917 reads · 2008-04-16 – 2008-04-17
Dossier Leopard 10.5 AMD OSx86 NVIDIA GeForce

Random application crashes - segmentation faults

First my system: AMD64 3400+ SSE2 Shuttle xpc SN95G5v3 nForce3 using AppleVIAA drivers 1Gb memory (2*512mb) Asus GeForce FX 5200 128mb Leopard 10.5.2 - Eddie's Leo4All v2 release Now my problem: I've got the system working well except that…

Primary Author
@tanc Published 2008-04-16
Collection
Leopard 10.5
Archival Footprint
4,917 historical reads · 1 curated field notes (from 3 dispatches) · 2008-04-16 – 2008-04-17
Credited Voices (2)
@tanc (2)@Voyn1x

First my system:

AMD64 3400+ SSE2
Shuttle xpc SN95G5v3 nForce3 using AppleVIAA drivers
1Gb memory (2*512mb)
Asus GeForce FX 5200 128mb
Leopard 10.5.2 - Eddie's Leo4All v2 release

Now my problem:

I've got the system working well except that applications are randomly crashing with Segmentation Faults. A bit of the console messages looks like this:

<code>16/04/08 9:06:47 PM com.apple.launchd[104] ([0x0-0x40040].com.elgato.eyetv[303]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
16/04/08 9:34:57 PM com.apple.launchd[104] ([0x0-0xe00e].com.apple.finder[135]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
16/04/08 9:38:43 PM com.apple.launchd[104] ([0x0-0x3b03b].org.videolan.vlc[285]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
16/04/08 9:52:05 PM Finder[369] NSOpenGLAutoscaleBounds=NO
16/04/08 9:59:11 PM com.apple.launchd[104] ([0x0-0x4c04c].com.apple.finder[369]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
16/04/08 9:59:17 PM com.apple.launchd[104] (com.apple.ReportCrash[392]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
16/04/08 10:13:48 PM com.apple.launchd[104] ([0x0-0x28028].Realtek USB WLAN Client Utility[221]) Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault</code>

Applications will just crash randomly, mostly this isn't too much of a problem except when using EyeTV and missing a show because of a crash. I've run Marvin's AMD Utility on the drive, using the Single User mode to apply the patches. I've tried the two available kernels, the Speedstep kernel which comes with Leo4All and the sleep kernel. I don't know of any other ones which are AMD and SSE2 compatible.

Does anyone have any ideas what may be causing these random crashes? They happen with a fresh install too. What drivers should I look at swapping out? I've tried using Natit and also Titan to load the graphics drivers with the same result. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Author Updates & Technical Revisions

Follow-up dispatches by @tanc

Author Update #1 @tanc 2008-04-17

Well, strangely enough it seems I've solved this problem. I noticed the BIOS clock was sometimes out making me think the CMOS battery was dying. I swapped out the battery and have been testing all day with not one single crash. Problem solved (I hope).

Synthesized Community Field Notes

1 technical responses curated from 3 original dispatches

Field Note #1 @Voyn1x 2008-04-17

If you still get issues it could be because of your SSE2 processor, I switched to a SSE3 X2 and my crashes stopped.

Apparently Leopard is much more SSE3 dependent than its predecessors.

The thread i posted is here: SSE2 processor? I advise you to upgrade →

Sources & Contributor Provenance (2 credited usernames · Thread #950)
UsernameDossier ContributionDispatchesActive Window
@tancPrimary Author22008-04-16 → 2008-04-17
@Voyn1xContributor12008-04-17