Celestia 1.5.1 Crashes everytime I Use It

[Hank Cotman]

Hi Folks,

My name is Hank and I just signed up for the Celestia Forum. I discovered Celestia about a year ago and have downloaded most if not all AddOns from the Celestia Motherlode site. I have also read most of the documentation from Shatters.com and Wikipedia.com concerning Celestia .ssc, .stc, textures, models, Users Guide, etc., etc., etc. I have literally become an addicted fan of the program and all it can do.

I currently run Celestia 1.4.1 with relatively few problems; except, occasionally I receive a message indicating that my virtual memory is low. When this happens Celestia goes to a white screen and usually locks up. This can be very frustrating. Does this mean I don't have enough RAM. Would installing anothe 1.0 GB of RAM Help? I also experienced a lot of lock-up and white screen problems when running "A Journey Thru Planetary Space" the upgraded progam for "Off on A Comet". I unrendered most of the memory comsuming renderings, such as clouds, galaxies, etc. and set most textures to low resolution but still experience whiteouts. Can anyone help me solve this problem.

Everytime I download and try to use Celestia 1.5.0 or 1.5.1 it has crashed putting my computer screen to sleep and locking up the Computer. The only way I can fix the problem is by manually shutting down my computer and then restarting. Also, Sometimes my desktop is messed up when I reboot. Can anyone tell me why I can't get Celestia 1.5.1 to work???

My system was purchased in November, 2005 and is a HP Media Center PC (Model Number a1230n) using Windows XP software, AMD 64 Processor with 1.0 GB memory, 200 GB hard drive, and Integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Version 8.17.0.0.RevB (File Version 6.14.10.6571)Graphics.

Thank you for any and all responses
Hank

[selden]

I currently run Celestia 1.4.1 with relatively few problems; except, occasionally I receive a message indicating that my virtual memory is low. When this happens Celestia goes to a white screen and usually locks up. This can be very frustrating. Does this mean I don't have enough RAM. Would installing anothe 1.0 GB of RAM Help?

Yes.

You also should defragment your computer's disk.

Virtual memory actually is on disk.
When a program needs more memory than there is RAM, it makes use of the virtual memory paging file on disk. In the short term, you might be able to persuade your computer to continue to run if you expand the paging file. Normally XP does this automatically. If the disk is "fragmented", with many tiny unused regions, this might not be possible.

I also experienced a lot of lock-up and white screen problems when running "A Journey Thru Planetary Space" the upgraded progam for "Off on A Comet". I unrendered most of the memory comsuming renderings, such as clouds, galaxies, etc. and set most textures to low resolution but still experience whiteouts. Can anyone help me solve this problem.

This is the same problem as above. Runar's Addons need a lot of memory.

Everytime I download and try to use Celestia 1.5.0 or 1.5.1 it has crashed putting my computer screen to sleep and locking up the Computer. The only way I can fix the problem is by manually shutting down my computer and then restarting. Also, Sometimes my desktop is messed up when I reboot. Can anyone tell me why I can't get Celestia 1.5.1 to work???

This is caused by bugs in your computer's graphics driver. Celestia has to depend on the graphics driver working properly. Celestia v1.5 makes use of new functions which your computer's graphics driver claims to support, but which are buggy. You should go to the HP Web site, find, download and install the most recent graphics driver for your computer.

Please take the time to read the "Preliminary FAQ" at viewtopic.php?t=2291
The answers to the first few questions there describe what you need to do and some alternatives.

My system was purchased in November, 2005 and is a HP Media Center PC (Model Number a1230n) using Windows XP software, AMD 64 Processor with 1.0 GB memory, 200 GB hard drive, and Integrated ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Version 8.17.0.0.RevB (File Version 6.14.10.6571)Graphics.

Thank you for any and all responses
Hank

I hope this helps a little.

[Hank Cotman]

Thank you to everyone that offered advice. HP tells me that no new drivers have been released to date for my system. My Hard Drive does not need to be defragmented. As you know I only have 1MB of RAM. Perhaps adding another 1MB or 2MB will solve the problem. I don't believe this would be very difficult. I assume is is just snapin hardware.
Thank Again to all of you and keep up the good work.
Hank

[selden]

Thank you to everyone that offered advice. HP tells me that no new drivers have been released to date for my system.

ATI has released revised drivers for their chipsets many times since 2005. If an update is not available from HP, you should try to find out if one of ATI's generic drivers will work.

My Hard Drive does not need to be defragmented.

Hard drives always need to be defragmented. Windows has a horrible algorithm for disk allocation. Whenever you install a new software package, it instantly fragments the free space. Running out of virtual memory means that Windows is unable to extend its virtual memory disk file. Disk fragmentation would prevent automatic VM expansion. At the very least you need to force it to use a larger VM size.
Right-click MyComputer --> properties menu --> advanced tab--> performance settings --> advanced tab --> Virtual memory change --> select custom size --> set initial and maximum to the same value e.g. 4096. --> set button --> OK buttons --> reboot

As you know I only have 1MB of RAM. Perhaps adding another 1MB or 2MB will solve the problem.

(I assume you mean GB (GigaBytes) not MB (MegaBytes). Windows XP requires at least 256MB. )
Somewhat: larger Addons will tend to run faster. My system works fine with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of VM. I have no problems (other than performance) running the largest Ran Addon.

I don't believe this would be very difficult. I assume is is just snapin hardware.

Yes, but it has to be identical to the existing memory. Supposedly similar modules from different manufacturers usually do not work together. Also, all memory slots may already be in use, in which case you'll have to purchase a larger size and discard the existing module(s). I would suggest taking it to a local computer shop and have them do the upgrade, with a written guarantee that it will work.

[BobHegwood]

I am also using a pre-built HP machine. See specs in my signature.
I am NOT plugging the following, but this little freeware utility does an excellent job of defragging my disks, and - as Selden said - they always need to be defragged.
Have a look at the download page HERE for something which may help. Does a great job on my machine.

Thanks, Bob