Fatal Error while playing Starcraft Brood War

Rooster212 wrote:
Hi everybody, and I have a problem I am getting increasingly worried about.

I play Starcraft: Brood War with friends online and recently, my computer has started randomly crashing halfway through games to the point of the screen going black, the sound starts stuttering and I have to force power off by holding down the power button.

Is there a test I can do on my graphics chips or something? Or is it worth taking it down to my local Apple store and making an appointment there and getting it replaced? I do have Applecare, so if worst comes to worst I could take it down there and get a replacement, but that is time and effort if there is a simple fix. Starcraft isn't exactly a strain on the graphics system as it requires 32MB of RAM at the most. It is also the only program that I have seen exhibit this crash. This laptop has never crashed with any other error apart from this one!

Thanks in advance.

Welcome Rooster212.

First of all, this place is a user to user place, and I would daresay that most people here are not gamers, but I don't think your issue is related to the game itself.

If you have AppleCare, you have access to TechTools Deluxe, which I personally believe is the best Mac diagnostic program out there. It should be on your AppleCare disk, or you can find it in Apple Downloads, but you'll have to enter your serial number to download it.

Using TechTools, it can do a thorough test of every piece of hardware on your MBP. If there is a problem, like with the VRAM, then you'll find it.

Also, make really sure that your EFI firmware is completely up to date. Apple released an update to the firmware in late August for mid-2010 MBP's, which came out partially to address some issues with Starcraft.

Moreover, I just don't think you'll appreciate StarCraft if you're running on batteries. Make sure your MBP is running the better video card while connected to the charger. Go to System Preferences>Energy Saver and make sure Automatic Graphics Switching is clicked on.

Finally, where do you get the idea that Starcraft takes up 32 MB?

I have this exact same problem. I recently bought a 15'' MBP and played my first games of Broodwar tonight. Please let me know if you find a fix. I haven't played SC on here before because this computer is brand new, so I doubt it's a problem with any computer hardware, etc. I have all the latest OSX updates as well.

It seems my problems started when i updated to 10.6.5. Any luck on a fix for this?

just wanted to add that any game in the world of gaming on pcs and macs takes more then 32 mb of ram these days

Let's keep in mind that Starcraft is quite old by gaming standards ('98 I believe) so its requirements are very modest by current standards.

I have this issue also with my 17" MBP (2010 model). I had it before 10.6.5 but I think it is worse since the update. There doesn't seem to be any consistent thing that I do that causes it, it just happens. Has anyone tried canvasing Blizzard support about it?

I'm pondering:
a) Trying to install 10.5 on another partition to see if that's a possibility of making the game run.
b) Installing it in Boot Camp/Parallels Desktop