Celestia Forums

I've just discovered Celestia (v1.3.2). However, my Toshiba Tecra 9000 hangs up (requiring reboot) repeatedly when clicking almost any Menu option. Any idea what might be causing that to happen?

Unfortunately you'll have to provide more details about your system.

Please read the first few Q/As in the "Prelimiary Users FAQ" at the top of the Celestia Users Forum. They discuss some hardware issues.

http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2291
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Here are the Tecra specs:
Win2K prof Operating sys
1) Intel Pentium III Mobile
2) CPU 1000 MHz
3) 522 MB RAM
4) S3 Graphics SuperSavage/IXC 1179 Display adapter
a) 16 MB Internal video memory
b) 64-bit graphics accelerator
c) 128bit BitBlt engine 66MHz x4 (AGP x4)
d) Resolution 1024x768x60 hertz
e) Bits/Pixel 16
f) Running an old version of device driver

Question: Given these specs, is it worth taking the chance of breaking my system, to update to the latest version of the Display adapter? If not, is there anything you can suggest, short of buying a new system? Should I try an earlier version of Celestia?

Awed,

Sadly, S3 graphics chips have relatively limited capabilities by modern standards.

For safety, I'd suggest making a copy of your current system disk. I use Symantec's Ghost, but there are other backup programs that are just as good; just not MS Backup. If you're running XP, you also should be able to have it create a "Restore Point".

Then install the most recent S3 graphics drivers.

Celestia makes use of the most advanced OpenGL routines that are included in the drivers. Too often, older drivers are full of bugs

But as I wrote, please read the Preliminary FAQ.

Thanks for the quick reply. Given your comment, and since I use my laptop for work, I don't think I'll take the chance of updating the display adapters device driver.

However, I have been running Celestia v1.2.4 today without any problems so far. Only thing is I haven't been able to locate any Addons that will run on such an old version. Any suggestion where I might find some?

BTW, I have browsed the Preliminary FAQ.....

Awed,

Sorry, most of the Addons have been created relatively recently, using the newer features available in Celestia v1.3.0 and later. v1.2.4 is a rather good basic 3D astronomy program, though.

If you're reluctant to mess with the S3 drivers, then I'd suggest disabling them altogether when you want to run Celestia.

Moving the Display Properties' "hardware acceleration" slider all the way to the left causes Windows to use only Microsoft's software OpenGL library, ignoring the vendor-specific library. The MS routines are slow and have relatively limited functionality, but they also seem to be quite reliable. (I suspect the MS library actually may have more functionality than the S3 library.) The MS OpenGL library works fine with Celestia v1.2.4, v1.3.n and the v1.4.0 prereleases -- but not with v1.2.5.

Again, thanks for the help.

I've disabled the S3 drivers and the system still hangs when running 1.3.0 (also tried 131 and 132).

The OpenGL32.DLL files (in both the C:\WINNT\system32 and C:\WINNTServicePackFiles\i386 folders) have a Last Modified date of 6/19/2003. I running with Service Pack 4 on Win2K Prof.

Can these be updated? And, if they can, where would I get the latest version and would I just change the name of the existing files so that they can be recovered if the new files don't work?

(I hope I'm not abusing you too much with all these questions. I greatly appreciate the help.)

I just went to Microsoft and it appears I'm running with the latest Service Pack, Service Pack 4. (And SP4 includes a fix for an OpenGL issue.)

It now appears to me that I've run out of options for running 130 (so I can use Addon's) on my laptop. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with 124 or 125, and no addon's until I get a new system.

Again, thanks for all your prompt help, but unless you have another idea, I'm considering the matter closed.

Regards,
Art