Support Section on Official Civ4 Site & Patch Download

cory4457 said:
Sounds like a memory leak to me. Especially with all the lags happeneing late in the game after several hours of leakage. This makes it appear to be due to increased need for resources (which is also a factor) when in fact it is probably a leak. I am sure some of the rigs having issues are far more powerful than what is needed to run the game when all memory is de/re-allocated effectively.

This is actually probably good news as the fix is much easier (when found) than it would be to attempt to optimize the code from unplayable all the way to playable (big gap).

I'll second the vote that it's a likely memory leak. One thing that I've found that helps when the game starts stuttering is to turn my machine off, and then start it back up. Haven't had to do that for a game since Windows '95.
 
OK, not too technical here, so:

GFx Card NVidia GeForce 5900XT (don't think this is actually relevant)
Athlon 3300
1 GB RAM
3 GB pagefile (set min and max) (don't think this is relevant either, but don't try no pagefile)

Symptoms of problem: Game slows hugely until it takes forever to load and then crashes out with a variety of lock-ups after a couple of turns. Lock ups often result in partial (losing direct3d) or complete (monitor goes dead) GFx card failure. Problems seem to be graphics related. Problems do not occur in earlier stages (unless a lot of scrolling around is done). This was on an 18 person single player huge map.

Assumed reason for problem: The game is a memory monster. I believe that it simply runs out of operating memory. It doesn't seem willing to use the Windows pagefile - I assume it tries to use it's own cache for that.

Fix: Ram defrag. Get yourself a RAM defrag program (such as FreeRAM XP Pro from http://www.yourwaresolutions.com - which I have been using). Start Civ 4, load up your game. Alt-TAB back to the ram defragger program, wait for the drive to stop thrashing and defrag the RAM (for FreeRAM, hit 'Go'). The available memory on my PC goes from about 100 MB to ovre 50% (>500 MB). Go back to Civ. The alt tabbing out and in takes a while so be patient, but when it comes back up Civ should run pretty well for at least half an hour. As soon as it starts to slow down, repeat the defrag process. Should keep it going. I was able to play on the high draphics settings fairly easily with this solution.

Thanks to an unknown person on the German boards for suggesting this solution, and to my German housemate for translating the suggestion.

Finally: Don't blame me if this doesn't work, but if it does and you see posts from someone with the same problems, provide the tip (or link to this post). And here's hoping for a patch to make all this fuss unnecessary.
 
ceprab said:
Fix: Ram defrag. Get yourself a RAM defrag program (such as FreeRAM XP Pro from http://www.yourwaresolutions.com - which I have been using). Start Civ 4, load up your game. Alt-TAB back to the ram defragger program, wait for the drive to stop thrashing and defrag the RAM (for FreeRAM, hit 'Go'). The available memory on my PC goes from about 100 MB to ovre 50% (>500 MB). Go back to Civ. The alt tabbing out and in takes a while so be patient, but when it comes back up Civ should run pretty well for at least half an hour. As soon as it starts to slow down, repeat the defrag process. Should keep it going. I was able to play on the high draphics settings fairly easily with this solution.

Hahahah, another "Fix". Maybe they should rename the company Firaxis "Fix Axis". This is another temporary fix, wait for the patch instead. Unless you are really masoshist and have nothing else to play with.
 
I have to admit utter disappointment. I have been playing Civilization since the very first installment in the series, so naturally I figured this would run as well as the rest. Civilization is really the only game I spend time on when I tear myself away from my baseball game, so I was happy to see the new version today. So I install it and what do I get? Black terrain and faces that are nothing but eyes and teeth. Then I see posts in forums that the developers say the game isn't totally compatible with certain video cards. Wouldn't one think this would be mentioned on the box so people wouldn't have to spend money to find out? I am really let down here.
 
ceprab said:
Fix: Ram defrag. Get yourself a RAM defrag program (such as FreeRAM XP Pro from http://www.yourwaresolutions.com - which I have been using). Start Civ 4, load up your game. Alt-TAB back to the ram defragger program, wait for the drive to stop thrashing and defrag the RAM (for FreeRAM, hit 'Go'). The available memory on my PC goes from about 100 MB to ovre 50% (>500 MB). Go back to Civ. The alt tabbing out and in takes a while so be patient, but when it comes back up Civ should run pretty well for at least half an hour. As soon as it starts to slow down, repeat the defrag process. Should keep it going. I was able to play on the high draphics settings fairly easily with this solution.

Thing about Alt-Tab in the game is that it crashes/freezes me.

Always something with this game....
 
I was having the same problems using later Nvidia drivers, I read on a post about a bloke who tried using the Nvidia 71.89 drivers, I gave it a go and all my problems were solved.
I bought that new Matrix game the other day and put the latest Nvidia drivers back on, tried Civ 4 later that night and it was ****ting its self again.
It may help out some people.
 
Game doesn't work on my sys either ... 2gig Presario half gig RAM ... Why did they design this to exclude the majority of systems in their market? Stupid. They could have just as easily designed it for Linux and it would have worked allot better. I don't want to have to hunt down fixes, patches, drivers online and get new hardware just to play this game ... I want it to work right, straight out of the box. What is wrong with that?
 
markdata said:
Game doesn't work on my sys either ... 2gig Presario half gig RAM ... Why did they design this to exclude the majority of systems in their market? Stupid. They could have just as easily designed it for Linux and it would have worked allot better. I don't want to have to hunt down fixes, patches, drivers online and get new hardware just to play this game ... I want it to work right, straight out of the box. What is wrong with that?

The main thing wrong with that is that if the game worked out of the box there wouldn't be any activity in the forums. :lol:
 
DaGgeR said:
There has been a bad pattern of buggy programs lately (Civ 3 and 4), but Firaxis does seem to do whatever it takes to fix the problems when they find out about them. It can be a real pain in the ass when there are these problems, but I for one am in this for the long haul. I have been enjoying Civ since the original game, and have found this one to be a great game (or at least when my screen isn't black).

I'd love if they seemed to be doing whatever it took to fix the problems, but it's just not the impression I'm getting (apart from the fact most of the problems seem so big they shouldn't be there in the first place).
As firaxis point you to these forums, it would be nice if a couple of tech support employees dropped in here every now and then...
 
Sorry guys, Im not technical at ALL. I keep having my computer crash completely to a restart when i get so far into the game. Im not sure what is causing this problem but its realy anoying. I wait and reload the last autosave and it crashes again. This time around it seems to be the Pyramids, when they are complete my computer just says hell no and crashes. Any suggestions?

David
 
Unfortunately it could be a lot of things.

Do you meet the minimum requirements for the game?
Do you have the 1.09 patch?
Have you deleted the cache?
Did you do the ArtPak fix?
Did you turn off wonder movies?
Is your computer overheating or drawing too much power?

Not guaranteeing that these will help, but they are worth a try. you can find out more by checking out other threads in this forum, especially the stickies.
 
Well gentlemen, that is it. I am done with the morons at Firaxis and 2K. I had an Nvidia Geforce 5200 card, 500+Ram, 1ghz graphics card. I meet and exceed all system requirements. Still the game simply doesn't function.

I came to these forums. On the advice found here I downloaded the latest Microsoft updates. Then I waited patiently for the patch. I install the patch--and the lag gets worse. And now the game freezes entirely about the time gunpowder shows up. Any wonder pop up window around that time crashes the whole game. (Standard sized world.)

Somebody mentioned Firaxis support people coming to these forums. If they do, I gotta message for them. Go take a flying leap. What did you guys get paid to do during beta testing--watch Simpsons reruns? At least the animations on the Simpsons worked.

I'd send them a letter with much more pointed language, but I have wasted enough time on their stuff.

Good luck to the rest of you.
 
I surrender. I'm returning the game.

I cant live with a Company that rushes out a release to solidify Annual Personal Bonuses on the back of Xmas Sales and cant be bothered to properly Beta test Popular cards like Radeon. This is not the usual V1 hassles beloved of software that we all well understand with complex beasts like Civ IV, it reaches down to a more fundamental level when they rush release for Xmas without proper testing, that flags up the wrong message.

The best of fortune to those more patient, but I fear this is the tip of the iceberg. Commercial imperitives have finaly caught up with the best gamers game on the market. I have spent 3 years with Civ, but I'm no longer prepared to support these antics by forking out cash based on trust alone in Civ playability - that trust has gone for good. If I return to it, it will be many moons from now when, maybe, they will have stabilised the Major issues and there is positive evidence of stability and efficient support. If I dont get a refund there will definitely be no return in the coming months

Such is life.

Best Regards
Zy
 
I am a huge video gamer, have been since mid 80's. A few years ago I made the switch from computer to xbox/ps2 for one reason, i dont have to spend hours/days tweaking my system just to get a game to run. I came back to comp for remakes of old favorites like Pirates! and this game, civ IV. Boy was that a mistake. I spent about three days getting CIV IV to run and got it running well at best. I just meet the recomended reqs and pre patch the game was running alright. Late in the game though the lag would get so great that I would quit. So I was hoping that the patch would help things, uh, no. Now, with the patch installed, The game boots in an all pink screen and says 'you system does not meet requierments' which is a lie, it does. When I click 'start a new game' it Crashes to desktop. so the patch made the thing worse. On a side note, if anyone knows how to fix this please let me know:
1.4ghz, 1gig ram, geforce2

Anyway, I have to say that CIV IV has thrust me firmly back into the xbox realm of things. I hate wasting my time messing with my computer to try and get games to work. This franchise, CIV, would have been the #1 game of all time on my list PRIOR to this latest release. Now I would have to say it falls to maybe the top five due to this horrible thing they call a game.
 
Does anybody else have Civ IV on a drive besides C? I installed the game on my second hard drive (F). The game works fine, but I can't install the patch - when I run the patch, I think it is searching the C drive for Civ IV, since I keep getting a message saying that the game is not installed on my computer. It happens even when I run the patch from my Civ IV directory on my F drive.

I emailed tech support twice, and haven't gotten a response. Can anyone help?
 
Toast said:
Does anybody else have Civ IV on a drive besides C? I installed the game on my second hard drive (F). The game works fine, but I can't install the patch - when I run the patch, I think it is searching the C drive for Civ IV, since I keep getting a message saying that the game is not installed on my computer. It happens even when I run the patch from my Civ IV directory on my F drive.

I emailed tech support twice, and haven't gotten a response. Can anyone help?
I have mine installed on an E: partition and I was able to patch it properly. I have the store-bought game and the 1.09 patch downloaded from 2K or one of the mirrors (can't recall where).
 
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, but right after downloading and installing the patch, some weird things began to happen in the game. Whenever I specified a huge map, it would create a much smaller map. Also, another weird thing that I noticed is that on the tech tree under science advisor, after about 3 techs the rest of my researched techs failed to show up. Another thing that has been happening before and after the patch is that once I get to the Modern age, it'll start to lag horribly or just crash. I'll defrag, but the first two problems were kind of weird.
 
ticktockclok

In your post you said you tended to lag and crash in the modern era. There is a major memory issue in Civ IV - Firaxis know, they'll fix it - meanwhile the Harkonnen Patch has helped the majority of people in this category of problem. (other indicators that this may help include slow game saves of mins not seconds, slow gameplay, slow time between turns, very large save files)

Go here

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

Instructions on the first post of the thread, you need to do 2 settings yourself, but its easy to do, Harky gives intructions there. Also scan read the thread, you will see discussions on the settings. The people on the thread are v helpful, so post there re settings if you have problems.

Has not worked for all, but its v successful overall. The thread went through the 100,000 hit mark this weekend ....

Regards
Zy
 
I just downloaded the new patch and installed it, but I wasn't able to load up the game anymore. After a few tries, I restarted. Still nothing. I just get the loading screen and then nothing more happens. So finally I uninstalled it and intalled it again, and I'm still having the same problem. Any suggestions on how to get the game to load up now?
 
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