Video Lockups on Civ IV, Civ IV Warlords

TheRipler

Chieftain
Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
4
I picked up Civ IV and Civ IV Warlords when they came out. Both had previously worked fine on my laptop (Acer Aspire 3002lci). It was slow, and the video was a little choppy, but the game would run. I haven't played since Sept of 2006, but with the new release, it got my interest going again.

When I tried again this weekend with both Civ IV and Civ IV Warlords, the game would lockup with vertical bars completely freezing the machine after 15-20 minutes. City information (name, number of citizens, etc..) is garbled when looking from the globe view, but other text displays normally. I updated to the latest SiS M760GX video drivers, and now it will last 30-40 minutes before locking up. If I restart the game before it freezes, I can keep going. So basically, I have to save and restart the game every 30 minutes if I want to play.

Is this a known issue? I figure something has updated (windows update?) since last september, and now I'm having trouble getting my Civ fix.
 
One other thing to add. I tried this with Civ IV at patch 1.61, and warlords at 2.00. Attempting to upgrade to 1.74 and 2.13 is where I first noticed the lockups. It wouldn't finish downloading the patch before the system would hang. After upgrading the video drivers to June's release, I had enough time pre-crash to download the patches. I also tried uninstalling the software, and using the version on the CDs. The same thing happened.

This doesn't happen with any other program, but Civ is the only PC game I play.

I really want to buy BTS, but if I can't play it... :sad:
 
Code:
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System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 7/26/2007, 16:50:29
       Machine name: ACER-xxxxxxxxxx
   Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Acer, inc.
       System Model: Aspire 3000     
               BIOS: Phoenix NoteBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0     
          Processor: Mobile AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+,  MMX,  3DNow, ~1.6GHz
             Memory: 894MB RAM
          Page File: 404MB used, 706MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
  DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
      Display Tab 1: No problems found. DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 7 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 8 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
          Music Tab: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.
        Network Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: SiS M760GX
     Manufacturer: SiS
        Chip type: SiS 760   
         DAC type: Internal
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1039&DEV_6330&SUBSYS_00831025&REV_00
   Display Memory: 128.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
  Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
      Driver Name: SiSGRV.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0010.3810 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 6/25/2007 16:53:38, 3526144 bytes
      WHQL Logo'd: Yes
  WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
              VDD: n/a
         Mini VDD: sisgrp.sys
    Mini VDD Date: 6/25/2007 16:49:08, 321536 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71ED9-2070-11CF-777D-8920A1C2CB35}
        Vendor ID: 0x1039
        Device ID: 0x6330
        SubSys ID: 0x00831025
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Revision ID: 0x0000
      Video Accel: 
 Deinterlace Caps: n/a
         Registry: OK
     DDraw Status: Enabled
       D3D Status: Enabled
       AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: All tests were successful.
 D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
 D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
 D3D9 Test Result: All tests were successful.
 
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