1.52 rebooting my PC... still

Same problem as ever. The game crashes at apparently random intervals, taking Windows with it and rebooting the computer. I don't have to tell you how annoying that is. To my untrained eye it looks like a graphics card problem.

DxDiag information attached.

This probably is the problem Firaxis (in their interview) is referring to as being not reproducable. I have the same problem you're having. Generally one reset in every 4-6 hours of play.

Well, until they identify and fix it Civ4 is effectively unplayable for us and who knows how many others.

You can prevent it rebooting like this:

Go to the control panel.
Select "system", then "advanced".
Click the "settings" button in the "start-up and recovery" section.
Uncheck the option for "automatically restart on system failure".

(the advantage of this is that a crash should show you an error log that has a bit more info about what caused the crash).

ainwood said:

You can prevent it rebooting like this:

Go to the control panel.
Select "system", then "advanced".
Click the "settings" button in the "start-up and recovery" section.
Uncheck the option for "automatically restart on system failure".

(the advantage of this is that a crash should show you an error log that has a bit more info about what caused the crash).

Click to expand...

Or, as has happened to me about 10 times since I installed Civ 4 two days ago, a blue screen.

ainwood said:

You can prevent it rebooting like this:

Go to the control panel.
Select "system", then "advanced".
Click the "settings" button in the "start-up and recovery" section.
Uncheck the option for "automatically restart on system failure".

(the advantage of this is that a crash should show you an error log that has a bit more info about what caused the crash).

Click to expand...

That never occurred to me. Much obliged

I'm pleased to say the latest NVIDIA drivers seem at least to reduce the rebooting problem, but the game still CTD's far too often.

Still, progress.

I'm in the process of finding the root cause of a non-releated issue, but I observed the same problem sometimes after I change something in the config of my machine.
(i.e. playing happily then suddenly the screen goes black for approx 5 seconds, then I see the BIOS info for the video card and motherboard, etc...)

I GREATLY reduced this by:
-install the latest & greatest: DirectX, sound drivers, video drivers, and windows updates.
-setting the colors to '16 bit high color'
-No background wallpaper.
- turn off all the "fluff" in WinXP.
(My Computer / Properties / Advanced / 'Performance' Tab / 'Adjust for Best performance')
- use the "Windows Classic" Theme
-I dunno if this actually matters but I have my desktop resolution and game resolution set the same (for me its 1024x768)
-disabled and/or uninstalled any and every program, process, or service that can be classified as 'non-essential' I run a very CLEAN system, Basically running strictly everything Windows needs to operate as well as Anti-Virus, Thats it.
- and last but not least, I'm playing with a standard sized map. I've learned to avoid large and huge maps.

-Mike

I've had this problem a lot as well (reboots from 3 to 15 min playing time). Most symptoms during crash or reboot seemed to suggest dodgy graphics card. After investing in slightly newer card, I noticed my graphics were smoother but I still had the problem. I didn't bother playing with drivers or trying to run barebone.

I won't go into details about how (as I'm sure everybody knows how time consuming that can be), but it turns out in the end that my problem was my CPU.

Civ4 tends to overheat my processor something fierce Not having the time (or inclination) to search for a new cooling solution, I opened the case and turned a good old fashioned fan on to it.

Civ4 has now only rebooted once in the last 15 hours or so of playing time (on a large map)

-Oci

I've got the same problem too.
I'm very mad because I do not have this problem before installation v1.52!!!!!
This occur very often.

You can prevent it rebooting like this:

Go to the control panel.
Select "system", then "advanced".
Click the "settings" button in the "start-up and recovery" section.
Uncheck the option for "automatically restart on system failure".

-> Ainwood, ok I will try it but the game will be suspended too so....

Quantum7 said:

This probably is the problem Firaxis (in their interview) is referring to as being not reproducable. I have the same problem you're having. Generally one reset in every 4-6 hours of play.

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in a link to this interview as so far I have not seen one shred of evidence that they are even willing to admit tons of people are having problems.

Personally, my system FAR exceeds the required specs, and I've completely uninstalled Civ IV as it is essentially a virus. Unplayable and only results in frequent BSODs and complete system freezes.

Sid Meier should be ashamed.

Perhaps older video drivers help.
I have ATI Radeon 9600 card and had problem of rebooting when doing AI diplo in multiplayer.

I changed Catalyst 5-13 (newest) back to 5-3 (older),
and hey, now it works fine!

Ocitair said:

Civ4 tends to overheat my processor something fierce
-Oci

Click to expand...

Wow, I never thought about that!
I'll have to check the temps on my CPU and video card next time it reboots on me.

-Mike

Ocitair said:

I've had this problem a lot as well (reboots from 3 to 15 min playing time). Most symptoms during crash or reboot seemed to suggest dodgy graphics card. After investing in slightly newer card, I noticed my graphics were smoother but I still had the problem. I didn't bother playing with drivers or trying to run barebone.

I won't go into details about how (as I'm sure everybody knows how time consuming that can be), but it turns out in the end that my problem was my CPU.

Civ4 tends to overheat my processor something fierce Not having the time (or inclination) to search for a new cooling solution, I opened the case and turned a good old fashioned fan on to it.

Civ4 has now only rebooted once in the last 15 hours or so of playing time (on a large map)

-Oci

Click to expand...

Well and good - and thanks for the advice - but I still don't understand why a game that's turn-based, and not particularly graphics-intensive by today's standards, requires some of us to perform open heart surgery on our PCs to run to an acceptable standard.

Depravo said:

Well and good - and thanks for the advice - but I still don't understand why a game that's turn-based, and not particularly graphics-intensive by today's standards, requires some of us to perform open heart surgery on our PCs to run to an acceptable standard.

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how graphics intensive it is really, games try to run the best they possibly can with what you've got. This means using as much cpu time it can get, causing your hardware to get as hot as it will ever get.

Lots of things can go wrong when the system overheats. Cpu, RAM, gfx card, and the chipset on the mobo can all get unstable when the temp is too high.

Another possibility is your top-of-the-line gfx card is drawing too much power from the PSU and causing other parts to drop below the minimum required voltage.

A good test is to run another real-time (3d accellerated) game and see if it causes a reboot/blue screen. If it doesn't and your system temps are comparable to Civ4 levels then you know for sure that its Civ... but until then its probably a hardware issue and not Civ's fault.

artanis575 said:

It doesn't matter how graphics intensive it is really, games try to run the best they possibly can with what you've got. This means using as much cpu time it can get, causing your hardware to get as hot as it will ever get.

Lots of things can go wrong when the system overheats. Cpu, RAM, gfx card, and the chipset on the mobo can all get unstable when the temp is too high.

Another possibility is your top-of-the-line gfx card is drawing too much power from the PSU and causing other parts to drop below the minimum required voltage.

A good test is to run another real-time (3d accellerated) game and see if it causes a reboot/blue screen. If it doesn't and your system temps are comparable to Civ4 levels then you know for sure that its Civ... but until then its probably a hardware issue and not Civ's fault.

Click to expand...

None of the "real-time (3d accellerated) games" I play cause me reboots. Only get the reboots during Civ4. Although, I do have to admit that Cossacks on large maps with the cast of Ben-Hur running around shooting at eachother tended to reboot as well (didn't think of that before).

I doubt it's the game itself causing the reboots... just the hardware overheating. I've been concentrating on the CPU but it could just as easily be my memory overheating as well. Either way, the game is stable with a house fan blowing into my PC

well, my pc is clean, with the latest drivers/bios...
defraged (with diskeeper), no virus, no spywares
game with latest patches
all voltages and temps are excellent

BUT
Still crashes, dont even do an error log or restart
have to disconnet the pc from power to be able to turn it on again

i Tested all the hardware
for CPU i used prime 95 for 12 hours, no error
for GPU i used ati tools, 4 hours, no errors
for memory i used memtest 86, all tests, no errors

Rodatam said:

well, my pc is clean, with the latest drivers/bios...
defraged (with diskeeper), no virus, no spywares
game with latest patches
all voltages and temps are excellent

BUT
Still crashes, dont even do an error log or restart
have to disconnet the pc from power to be able to turn it on again

i Tested all the hardware
for CPU i used prime 95 for 12 hours, no error
for GPU i used ati tools, 4 hours, no errors
for memory i used memtest 86, all tests, no errors

Click to expand...

I hate to post this on a topic that's a couple of weeks old, but it's one of the topics I remembered that talked about ram errors and testing.

And I don't know, I just found this interesting:

I've recently upgraded my ram from 512 to 1gig (2x512) on one of my older systems, and when I did, I followed what I felt was a standard operating procedure: stuck the new sticks in, ran memtest, monitored heat/voltage, making sure everything checked out. It did.

Played Civ4 for about 4 or 5 hours (which is why I was upgrading this particular system). Turned off the system, and when I turned it back on later: BSOD. Since the recent hardware upgrade was the most likely culprit, I ran memtest again. Sure enough one of the new 512 sticks was bad, replaced it and have had no problems since.

My friends joked about the fact that Civ4 is so ram intensive that it scorched a new stick, but I know sometimes sticks are just bad. It happens. So, I don't blame Civ4.

But just think, memtest missed a weak stick, but apparently Civ4 got into every nook and crany so much that it made the weak stick fail. Well shoot! Forgest expensive ram testers! Just buy Civ4, a turn based strategy sim

What's wrong with this picture?

The bugging problem I have is that the pointer stops working which makes gameplay very hard to control. The only way out is to shut the game down and reboot, because the pointer even in windows is not working. Actually it vanishes completely!

I find this all so freaking lovely.... yes everyone is talking about the CTDs and crashes to various black and blue screens... am i the only one who gets a frozen screen and unresponsive computer until i pull the power cord from the wall.... Ive emailed Firaxis and it is like i dont exist... they need to get off their lazy asses or they are going to find a PR nightmare when they loose half of their consumer based for CIV IV expansions and CIV V....