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Mac Plus Freezing
Posted by: mxpxpxpx on 2026-02-04 15:04:05
Hello, I have a Mac Plus with 4mb of ram that has been recapped. I am using a bluescsi pico2 with a 64gb sd card. I go to infinitemac.com and got a system 7.1 image with a bunch of games and programs. It starts up fine, and seems to run good when doing small stuff. I am able to get it on the network and run some apps.

When I try to play Carmen U.S.A. it plays for about 5-10 minutes then it hangs. On my first play it lasted a lot longer before it froze. I am wondering if I have a bad image or is it something hardware related?

I am going to do the diode mode this weekend, and I plan on removing the ram and cleaning the sockets and chips. Could it be bad ram? I have no way to test them other than to try them 1 by 1. I also plan on cleaning and reseating all of the removable ICs. Should I get a 7.1 image from some where else and load it? I have a floppy emu I can use. I like the simplicity of infinite mac. I really have not tried to do any other games or apps long term to see if it is isolated to just carmen usa.

Thank you for all the help, and I'm glad I was accepted into this amazing group!
Posted by: finkmac on 2026-02-04 15:16:40
a vague issue for sure, and one that could be caused by many different things.

I assume you mean "Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego?". Which version, where did you get it?

Do you have any 3rd party extensions/tweaks etc installed?

i would rule out any software/disk weirdness before messing with the hardware though...

in no particular order,
  • install an older version of macos. 7.1 is a bit of a pig on a mac plus imo. try 6.0.8
  • try running a diagnostic app. mactest pro should support the plus, see if it complains about anything
  • try running a similarly intensive game. can't think of anything off the top of my head
  • make sure the scsi emulator is up to date, try a different SD card, defragment the card, etc
  • start again and make your own fresh install
myself, i wouldn't use a pre-made disk image. that's asking for weirdness...

personally I'd just reseat the RAM and leave the other components as-is
Posted by: mxpxpxpx on 2026-02-04 15:21:58
Thanks for the reply. I got all the images and games from infinite mac and the mac garden. Yes Carmen Sandiego USA. Okay I just resent the ram when I do the diode mod. There is no add ons or 3rd party apps or hardware installed. It is stock from what I can tell. I will definitely try a Mac diagnostic program. Thanks again for all the tips.
Posted by: finkmac on 2026-02-04 15:25:27
would help to know which version of Carmen Sandiego USA 😉

the ones I see are from 1996 and 1998... those aren't going to be a good experience on a computer from 1986 :/
Posted by: mxpxpxpx on 2026-02-04 15:26:46
17702475919747957523344188627623.jpg
Posted by: mxpxpxpx on 2026-02-04 15:33:15
I just got this error playing the game. I have been playing for about 30 minutes.20260204_183159.jpg
Posted by: adespoton on 2026-02-04 15:44:53
Could be bad RAM, could be a system extension issue -- does the issue go away if you boot 7.1 with shift held down?

I had no issues playing Carmen USA v1.1 on my Plus back in the day (same for Carmen World), so it's definitely not an architecture issue.

I think I may have played them on System 6.0.4 or 6.0.7 though, not 7.1.
Posted by: mxpxpxpx on 2026-02-04 15:45:59
I will try with no extensions holding shift down after dinner. Thanks.
Posted by: Byrd on 2026-02-04 20:10:38
Bad RAM. There really isn’t much that can go wrong/make a Mac Plus crash apart from RAM and low voltage, while there check for any dry solder joints on the AB.
Posted by: frontein1 on 2026-02-04 20:56:50
Maybe try to trace this in MacsBug to see if it consistently dies at the same address? This could help narrow it down to bad ram.
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