I'm sure the fix for this is somewhere in this forum, but after spending five hours searching and coming up empty, I give up. (Just watch the thread be right under my nose.)

Every time any game goes late--around the Renaissance era--the game crashes inevitably. It starts out crashing once every 15 minutes or so, to crashing every single time the same turn ends. There seems to be nothing particular that causes it--on occasion it crashes during my turn.

I was able to load the WWII-1936 mod, but the game only lasted 10 seconds after completely loading, and crashed while I was scrolling the map.

When it crashes, it either CTDs, or the other half of the time it reboots the computer.

As far as I know, this never used to happen to Warlords: but it's been a while, so I don't remember; and Warlords seems to be having problems now too.

This problem has happened on multiple installations: when I tried this game when I first bought it, this happened, and I tried to fix it but gave up. I'm now trying to make the game work again, as I'm on March break.

I suspect the issue may be graphical, as the same thing happens for Europa Universalis III--there the game begins crashing in the late 1400s, so the problem is much worse for that game.

I have 1GB of RAM (more than enough, right?) and an ATI Radeon X1600 Graphics card by ASUS with 128MB of memory.

Sounds somewhat familiar, but I'm not having the problem with vanilla BTS - just the Fall From Heaven 2.030 (patch "k") and 2.031 (patch "a") mods.

Somewhere around turn 700, BTS/FfH stops working and I get a rather non-descript message to that effect from Vista. I can load the last autosave, but BTS/FfH stops working (again) after more five turns, or so. Ad Infinitum.

I get the same results even if I run BTS/FfH in XP Pro SP2 compatibility mode.

Vista is updated. Drivers are current. Even have the latest version of DirectX 9c.

The solution is gonna be simple, too, I bet.

Oh, yeah - you have plenty of RAM and a good video card. What O/S are you running? XP Pro? Vista?

Microsoft released an upgrade to DirectX 9.0c on 13 Mar 2008. Download and install it. Then try running BTS. It seems to have fixed the problem for me.

Mine still crashes. By switching to windowed mode, I managed to extend the life of my games by about 20-30 turns; but still not enough to come close to finishing. A new message box pops up upon crashing: "Fail to allocate video memory."

In answer to the first question, I'm running XP Home Edition.

Okay, the crashing has become more consistent now (that I run in windowed mode). It says, "Fail to allocate video memory", followed by "Runtime DLL error--the application has asked to be terminated in an unusual way."

Can anyone help?

Memory allocation failure...... basically this map is asking for more RAM memory that the one you have avaliable for the program. You can disconnect all the non necesary programs , but it will be only a quick fix.... the only real solution is to get extra RAM memory

...or a new graphics card - solving the problem with too little video memory...
anyway you can reduce graphics settings quite a lot and install static movies which does reduce video demand a lot.

ok i have the same problem game crashes after awhile civ 4, bts, mods on or off it doesnt matter, i'll get to a point in the game and it will crash after i end a turn. and i dont have a low system spec in the slightest
am2 5600, 4gigs of ram, audigy 2, and 2x 8800gt 512mb. vista 64-bit
so yeah any one got any clue??

Bump.

Same prob here, long running issue with my laptop only. I have 256mb radeon mobility x1300 and a gb of RAM which is well above the min reqs, so though it sounds like a simple insuffecient spec problem with "failed to allocate video mem" its more likely some sort of mem leak?

I had this same issue for months. I was running Windows XP on a P4Extreme 3ghz (oc'd to 3.3ghz), 2 gbs of good ram, old PNY Geforce. I put in a better video card, slight improvement. Added X-fi Fatality SoundBlaster in hopes to reduce load on the CPU, no improvement (it was a stretch). Added more ram, no improvement. For the record I run minimal programs in the background, lowered all settings in game, and had done a clean install of the game and XP.

I think we all know what the answer really is. It the later stages of the game the game is a memory hog. There is so much going on it needs everything from your computer you can give it. I recently upgraded to a new Dell with a Quad Core, 4gbs ram and an 8800GT video card. It runs on the highest graphic settings and it runs fantastic.

But even with the new system in the later stages it does slow down a bit, but nothing like it used too.

So, I guess what I'm saying is check your suystem. If everything is kosher, then start thinking upgrade time.

I have the same problem, but usually just when playing standard or larger maps. The bigger the map, the earlier the crashes start to ocurr. It's definitely graphics-related.

You can try turning down the graphics settings to the minimum amount. It helps, but not much. The only real solution is to play on small maps (or tiny or duel). Or get a big, honkin' graphics card.

It's some kind of memory leak or hog that Firaxis never has fixed. It happened with Warlords, too.

Don't believe the system requirements for Civ4. It requires a much better system than listed on the box.

Alright, so a week ago I finally found the fix to this problem, and am now happily playing BTS. Solution? I bought 2GB of RAM. I was rather grateful that RAM is ridiculously cheap these days.

Yup, it's unfortunately so these days that even strategy games like Civ and the EU series need top notch graphiccard like the worst first person shooter game or some other actiongame where you're used to see the need for high end graphics. We strategy nerds are used to look at a good enough CPU to handle all the calculations and enough RAM to cover that but with graphic cards not much was usually needed.

If I recall correctly this problem is all down to the graphic card. If you have a low end graphic card it can't handle everything by itself, thus trusting the CPU to help it out, putting another strain to an already stressed CPU. The ideal solution is to have a good enough graphic card that can handle all graphic related threads so the main CPU can worry about other things in the game.

So getting more RAM will likely solve the problem, but it may still lead to some graphical trouble in times of heavy load on the CPU. But then, a graphic card is a tad bit more expensive than some more RAM these days, atlest if you want something that'll last a few years.

Quick fixes without buying new gear? Turning of all animations does wonders, although the screen will be alot less appealing to look at....

ok i have the same problem game crashes after awhile civ 4, bts, mods on or off it doesnt matter, i'll get to a point in the game and it will crash after i end a turn. and i dont have a low system spec in the slightest
am2 5600, 4gigs of ram, audigy 2, and 2x 8800gt 512mb. vista 64-bit
so yeah any one got any clue??

64 bit, most likely.


I have 32bit XP, 4GB of RAM (3.25GB effective), and an 8600GT. Civ4 has never crashed for me.
Edit: I did play on an older machine with 768MB and an MX4000. It crashed a few times, but only well into the Modern Era. (ie: 1980s)

I've ordered a new graphics card and another 1GB of memory. I'll post back next week after I install it and try a large game to see if it gets rid of the crashes.

I suspect that the crashes are because of my current ATI9600 128MB graphics card, but I'll add more main RAM (for a total of 2GB) just in case it's partly because of that too. A new ATI Radeon 9550 with 256MB of video memory is cheap, and I'm hoping it gets rid of the Civ4 graphics crashes. RAM is pretty cheap, too.

If this doesn't help, I suppose it will soon be time to buy a new system. (Not just for Civ4, but I have to have some excuse.)

I've ordered a new graphics card and another 1GB of memory. I'll post back next week after I install it and try a large game to see if it gets rid of the crashes.

I suspect that the crashes are because of my current ATI9600 128MB graphics card, but I'll add more main RAM (for a total of 2GB) just in case it's partly because of that too. A new ATI Radeon 9550 with 256MB of video memory is cheap, and I'm hoping it gets rid of the Civ4 graphics crashes. RAM is pretty cheap, too.

If this doesn't help, I suppose it will soon be time to buy a new system. (Not just for Civ4, but I have to have some excuse.)


Sounds about right, I have the same graphic card (ATI9600 128mb) that you have and I stick to small maps for stability reasons, Normal map size works in most cases but late game there'll be an occasional CTD. I've been thinking about upgrading for quite some time but well, I'm to cheap to by new fancy stuff for my old computer. I'm trying to convince my wife a brand new computer would be a good investment, but she seems to think the household budget is better spent renovating the bathroom, a new kitchen and that kind of stuff... ;)

Okay, after playing for 4 days with a new Radeon 9550 card and 2GB of RAM, I haven't had a single crash. Playing a huge/18 civ/marathon game, with the graphics all turned up to high detail. About 700 turns into the game.

No crashes! I'm pretty sure it's the 256MB graphics card that made the difference. Although, the extra RAM makes for less disk-access now that the game is getting crowded and is using more RAM.

The game still slows down once the world started filling up. Scrolling is a little slow, but that's probably because I have the graphics all turned up to maximum.

I'll keep playing this game, and report back if I get a crash at all.

Bottom line: a new Radeon 9550 with 256MB of graphics memory was only about $40. Less than what I paid for Civ4. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

I have an HD4670 (which I got to replace an X1950 that I thought was faulty), and 4GB of RAM, and I'm still having these late game problems... everything slows down to a halt, the screen refreshes at about 1 frame per 5 seconds, and sometimes it ends up crashing. Changing the resolution in-game usually "resets" things to be ok for a few turns or so, although not every time.

Has everybody seen their problems go away with more RAM? That's certainly not what I'm needing here :(.

I have an HD4670 (which I got to replace an X1950 that I thought was faulty), and 4GB of RAM, and I'm still having these late game problems... everything slows down to a halt, the screen refreshes at about 1 frame per 5 seconds, and sometimes it ends up crashing. Changing the resolution in-game usually "resets" things to be ok for a few turns or so, although not every time.

Has everybody seen their problems go away with more RAM? That's certainly not what I'm needing here :(.
Seems to be multiple factors causing the same problem. While some people appear to have solved their woes with more mem, I have friends with less mem than me who've never heard of this problem.

I'm still dogged by it on my laptop, all I can do is turn the graphics to zero and hope to finish the game before it crashes too frequently to make it worth my while.

Seems to be multiple factors causing the same problem. While some people appear to have solved their woes with more mem, I have friends with less mem than me who've never heard of this problem.

I'm still dogged by it on my laptop, all I can do is turn the graphics to zero and hope to finish the game before it crashes too frequently to make it worth my while.
since memory is so cheap, I just ordered 4gb of it for less than the price of the game, maybe it'll help with civ and if not, maybe it'll help with something else!

Well, I solved the problem by trying it out on Vista... No problems at all, either starting from scratch or loading a late saved game that had problems under XP.

I'm guessing there's something in the ATI XP drivers causing the problem.

I'm running a Core2 Quad, 4 gigs of ram and two 8800GT's in SLI and I'm having the exact same problems you guys are. If it's a memory issue I gotta believe it's a memory leak on Firaxis's end or the mod I'm using is utilizing way more resources than I think. I can't imagine this machine having trouble running this game even with huge or larger maps. Everytime my turn ends another civ tries to contact me and the game crashes...everytime that particular turn ends and the communication video tries to load I get the "this game has cause...yadda yadda yadda" error and it crashes. I AM running a larger than huge map..140 x 84 with the Wolfshanze mod. Maybe my problem is with the mod? In vanilla I have no trouble loading much larger maps but with this mod that particular size is the largest that I can load..all others crash. Just how much ram would one need to run a mod like that on truly gargantuan sized maps?

Edit>> I'm running XP pro with SP3

is this a 32 bit windows?
and what is the yadda, yadda part?

Welcome to CFC :band:

I'm usind XP Pro 32bit and I think according to this thread; http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=225205 that may be the problem. I've tried the boot.ini "fix" explained there but my machine won't boot with the /3g change nor will it boot with the /Userva=2900, /Userva=3008, /Userva=2800, /Userva=2500. So I think that I just need to get WinXP 64 bit version or bite the bullet and grab Vista 64 to finally utilize the really big maps I like so much. The "Yadda yadda yadda" I alluded to earlier is this; "Civ IV has encounterd a problem and needs to close" Then the box that ask's if you want to report this problem to Microsoft.

I did change my virtual memory to 4096 and I tried the game again just a bit ago and the game did make it past the AI leader contact "pop up" (it was Napolean hehe) and I continued to play the game for several more turns (I thought it was going to be ok) untill I tried to look at my military advisor window, then the game crashed with the same "Civ IV has encountered a problem and needs to close" error.

please click on show report and post a screenshot of what this error report shows (don't scroll down in it).
The memory problem usually comes with its own failed to allocate memory message - if that is not the one it is possible that you have in addition to this something else going on :)
As for the userva value: is your graphics driver updated? some cards don't like the 3GB flag but in some cases newer drivers cope better with it than others...

I reloaded the game and clicked the military advisor and no crash, played a few more turns then clicked the technologie window and it crashed...here's a screenshot;

ps I did grab the latest drivers for my video card last night

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj259/edsurly/CivIVerror.jpg

Can you read the screenshot ok? If not I can include a link to my photobucket site...you'll get to see pics of my kitchen redo also! LOL!! And you can see my Voodoo Rage pc case...it was the last one made by Voodoo and the last one to leave the factory, signed by the crew at voodoo pc! :p

<edit> I guess that's as good an image as I can get you. Photobucket won't let me upload anything bigger

this is not a problem with memory allocation failure - it is a memory access violation, for a quick primer see below - I will likely not be able to respond anymore today - if you have any more questions just post them I'll answer tomorrow :)
http://www.updatexp.com/0xC0000005.html

Yes... I too am having this same problem.

With me it's very simple.. I have been playing a Marathon 18 Civ Terra game, the biggest I can make, with all the graphics settings on maximum and my computer has handled it fine. However since reaching the modern era the game has started randomly crashing. I guess you could call it a crash, but it's nothing hard, it just shuts down and Vista tells me, Civ has stopped working, with no explanation. Just to clarify the game is running absolutely fine, there is no slowdown or loss of frame rate whatsoever. It's not like my machine can't handle the game graphically, so it must be something else right?

I'm playing on a Mac Pro:

Twin 2.66Ghz Intel Xeon Dual Core Processors (4 Cores)
4GB RAM
ATI Radeon X1900 512MB
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit

This is amazingly annoying... I'm in the middle of trying to find a solution with the help of 2K Tech support, but things are moving along slowly so far. It just seems to me like certain aspects of this game have been badly programmed. Whatever the case a solution needs to be found, I mean how can Sid expect us to keep playing Civ if we can never finish a game!

Welcome to cfc :band:

does the windows event manager contain any error log for this crash?