Windows x64 - 'My Computer' copying causes crash

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toshiba1
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Windows x64 - 'My Computer' copying causes crash

Post by toshiba1 »

Hi everyone!

Running 06-05-2013 build of Sheepshaver in Win7 64bit. Running Mac 8.6 (old rom) or 9.0.4 (new rom). This problem happens in both. Using the 'My Computer' external file system to mount my 'D' drive. When I attempt to open 'D' folder, sheepshaver crashes completely.

I noticed that if I set 'Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses', the problem does not occur and I can transfer files just fine.

Any idea? Is this a known issue? Thanks so much.

toshiba1
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Cat_7
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Re: Windows x64 - 'My Computer' copying causes crash

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

Thanks for reporting this issue. What you are experiencing is not normal SheepShaver behaviour. However, I wouldn't know what causes your problem. Do you use the D drive for anything more than exchanging files between a Mac OS hard disk in SheepShaver and that drive? You shouldn't keep any programs/data your run in SheepShaver on that drive, and should not keep files on the SheepShaver desktop that came from the drive (unless first copied to a Mac OS hard disk in SheepShaver).

You solved it by running with "Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses". This is recommended anyway.
There are more issues regarding the My Computer feature (such as drives not showing up), but there is little chance these will get fixed.

Best,
Cat_7
toshiba1
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Re: Windows x64 - 'My Computer' copying causes crash

Post by toshiba1 »

Thanks for reply! I want to say something else here..

At one point, I accidentally launched two Sheepshaver instances at once. I said "oops" and killed them both. Then, Sheepshaver relaunch would just hang immediately and never show the 'Happy Mac' icon.

I fiddled with it for about 10 minutes until I discovered that deleting this file:

"SheepShaver_nvram.dat"

resolved that issue.

Now back to the 'My Computer' crashes. Now that I deleted that file, I'm able to access 'D'. (yes, I only use 'D' for exchanging files).

Does this file SheepShaver_nvram.dat contain the PRAM? Maybe that file can become corrupt and cause memory anomalies?

In any case, 'My Computer' copying seems to be solid now, even without 'Ignore Illegal Memory Access' enabled.

Things looking good now :razz:

toshiba1
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Ronald P. Regensburg
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Re: Windows x64 - 'My Computer' copying causes crash

Post by Ronald P. Regensburg »

toshiba1 wrote:Does this file SheepShaver_nvram.dat contain the PRAM?
Yes. I do not know why "nvram" was chosen in the file name instead of "pram". NVRAM does in Intel Macs what PRAM does in PPC Macs.
Maybe that file can become corrupt and cause memory anomalies?
The file can certainly become corrupt, it sometimes happens when switching between different ROM files. I do not know if that corruption and memory anomalies are related. Memory related crashes can occur with SheepShaver without corruption of the nvram file. Hence the recommendation to enable "Ignore Illegal Memory Accesses".
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adespoton
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Re: Windows x64 - 'My Computer' copying causes crash

Post by adespoton »

"nvram" covers all non-volatile RAM, of which parameter RAM or "PRAM" is a type.

As the parameter RAM stores the parameters such as how to map your hardware to the hardware system functions, you need to blow it away if you switch hardware (which in this case means switching ROMs, but you also need to do it if you switch many virtual component configurations). Before we had bundles for SheepShaver on the OS X host, I used to create my own scripts that swapped out the nvram file depending on the preferences file used. I found that corruption of the PRAM tables was especially bad between certain OS versions and between certain ROM versions.

Probably worth writing a batch file for the Windows version that does something similar.
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