100% BSOD Crash...Except for Tutorial

[mason72]

I have a blue screen crash 100% of the times I play this game...usually after between 5-30 minutes of gameplay...sometimes as short as 2 minutes, sometimes as long as an hour.

I have got a lot of useful suggestions and have tried pretty much every fix suggested on this site...the only positive being that my average play time is now closer to 30 minutes than 10.

The strange thing is that I have been able to play through the tutorial twice, without incident. The first time I played through it, I was taking my time and went well over an hour (this was before I knew that I was prnoe to crashing)...the second time, I went through it a bit faster...no crashes during the tutorial, but about 3 minutes after the tutorial 'ended' and I was free to continue playing (yes you guessed it), I crashed again.

So my question is: why might the tutorial NOT crash, when the regular game does? Is it just coincedence? Was I just lucky?

This is more out of curiosity than anything...in the meantime, I will keep checking these forums and praying for a new patch to be released.

Thanks!

 

[Nut]

I don't know of any reason that the tutorial would run for you and the game wouldn't. My gut guess would be that it's coincidence, but anything is possible.

If you could relay the BSOD error it gives you, that would be helpful. Often it can be a sound or video device error. If that's the case, rolling back to an earlier set of drivers (or switching back to computer manufacturer drivers if you have gone over to device manufacturer reference drivers) would be the first thing I would try.

Or it could be an odd device conflict, your system overheating, a component going bad, or just some arcane incompatibility between the game and something in your system.

Blue screens are notoriously hard to pin down, and I wish you the best of luck with yours.

 

[blargh]

The tutorial is on a 'tiny' world and my guess is you aren't using a tiny map and that you have v1.52 installed and an ATI video card. As well, you are approaching your limit as to how much more you will take with a piece of garbage product rushed to shelves in time for Xmas....well that's my personal experience anyhoo.

 

[Zydor]

Mason has a twin GeForce 6600 GT SLI setup - not ATI

 

[mason72]

Yah, I've tried disabling my sound card, rolling back drivers and whatnot. Unfortunately, nothing has helped. I would try using the tiny map, but when I played the tutorial, the game crashed shortly after the tutorial part ended.

All of my crashes are ITRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL; but with two different stop codes. The first (and most common) is 0x0000000A (no driver cited with this error)...the other is 0x000000D1, citing usbehci.sys as the problem driver. I've checked, and I have usbehci.sys installed on my system...it appears to be in working order.

 

[Neon Deon]

Post a diag and the complete wording of your last bsod please.

Also: Is this a name brand? If so, make and model number.

Is this homemade? If so, make and model number of your motherboard and manufacturer of your graphics card.

Thanks.

 

[mason72]

I've added my DXDIAG and my computer specs (in my signature)...it is a homemade system.

So today, I've had a LOT of luck with the game. For the first time ever, I've actually exited the game on my own, once I was done playing (after 1-2 hours)...I did this several times. I had one crash the last time I played, but it was to desktop and not BSOD. I've never had a CTD before...they are much more manageable.

The main difference this time was that I disconnected the USB plug from my Dell 2001FP monitor going to my computer, effectively removing the additional USB hub...I also launched with the VDMS app, disabled most of my non-MS services, and lowered my game resolution to 1280x1064, with AA off...although I've tried all of these things (except for the monitor) with no effect before. I am going to try removing them one at a time to see if the BSOD crashes come back...maybe it's just the monitor's USB hub??

At any rate, I'm feeling better...although the wonder movies are still DEATHLY slow. It's a shame; they are cool, but I usually just end up skipping them since they are so slow. Is there any way to remedy this? I suppose I will go hunt for THAT fix now...never done!

 

[mason72]

So I just tried playing with my regular services running, and I launched normally (no VDMS)...the Wonder video ran just fine this time; however, I got a CTD about 5 minutes into the game.

I'm guessing that the VDMS is responsible for the slow Wonder video, since my sound card is probably providing hardware acceleration for the video...I wonder why the CTD occurred so much faster...although I've got to say CTDs are SO much better than BSOD.

EDIT: I've confirmed that the VDMSound was responsible for the slowdown on the Wonder movies; still getting the CTD consistently, going to try turning off the services again and see if that helps.

 

[Neon Deon]

So I just tried playing with my regular services running, and I launched normally (no VDMS)...the Wonder video ran just fine this time; however, I got a CTD about 5 minutes into the game.

I'm guessing that the VDMS is responsible for the slow Wonder video, since my sound card is probably providing hardware acceleration for the video...I wonder why the CTD occurred so much faster...although I've got to say CTDs are SO much better than BSOD.

EDIT: I've confirmed that the VDMSound was responsible for the slowdown on the Wonder movies; still getting the CTD consistently, going to try turning off the services again and see if that helps.

Looks like you have two sound devices loade up at the same time.

what sound card do you have and do you have an nforce board?

 

[mason72]

Yes, my mobo has an nForce4 chipset with an on-board sound card which I don't use. I suppose I should disable it? I run all my sound through my M-Audio Firewire 410 system (an external sound card).

Also, on the CTD, it doesn't seem to be random. It happens right after my turn ends in 1953 in my game...immediately after I get the notification that my population has reached 20million. I've tried loading a save right before that, and I crash to desktop the moment I end my turn after the 20M announcement. If I go back to an older save, I can play up until the same exact moment just fine, then I CTD. I guess I can try starting a new game, but I wonder if anyone has any ideas about that one.

 

[mason72]

I hope I don't jinx it, but I think that did it! After disabling the nForce sound, I was FINALLY able to get past the point where I kept CTD without event. I can't play much more right now, but I will try it later and see how it works.

Thanks!!!!

 

[Neon Deon]

I hope I don't jinx it, but I think that did it! After disabling the nForce sound, I was FINALLY able to get past the point where I kept CTD without event. I can't play much more right now, but I will try it later and see how it works.

Thanks!!!!

Woo hoo!

That is like the third time I have seen that with an Nforce board.
It may not be the sound chip doing it but the fact that adding other sound options to it does not automaticly shut off the onboard drivers.

VDmsound just bypassed all the sound devices and made it work.

Anyways a working soundcard is a much better alternative then vdmsound work around.

Good Gamming

 

[mason72]

Argh. So riddle me this...

When I came back, I found my computer had crashed in BSOD...while idling. Now it locks up with the same blue screen errors (0x0000000A and 0x0000001D [no driver identified tho]) that I used to get IN the game. Now my computer is crashing with nothing running every 15 minutes...not good.

I never had these errors prior to Civ IV...and they started right after I disabled my nForce Audio driver. I tried enabling it again, but have the same problem.

Because this is happening at idle, it must be a hardware issue, but I can't imagine what I did to cause it. It seemed to start with the installation of Civ IV (before I made any system tweaks) and I was even able to stop the BSOD crashes for the last few days...so I have no idea why this would happen to my system.

I ran memtest on my RAM, and it seems good...all the drivers are up-to-date, and I haven't really changed anything else...is there any way installing Civ IV would have affected my hardware???

 

[Neon Deon]

crashing outside of game. None that I can think of.

 

[mason72]

I'm thinking it has something to do with my main USB hub...I was able to stop the in-game crashes by unplugging my USB monitor, and I've had a crash reprieve by unplugging the USB items on the front of my system...I wonder if the nForce PCI system management driver is fighting with something else (like my onboard sound was conflicting with the audio driver).

 

[Neon Deon]

I'm thinking it has something to do with my main USB hub...I was able to stop the in-game crashes by unplugging my USB monitor, and I've had a crash reprieve by unplugging the USB items on the front of my system...I wonder if the nForce PCI system management driver is fighting with something else (like my onboard sound was conflicting with the audio driver).

Is there a chipset driver or seperate usb control driver updated for the nforce?

If so, have you tried udating those?

Now we get into bad wire bad controller yada yada yada. have you tried the USB ports on the back of the computer?

 

[mason72]

Yeah, I have the latest drivers for the nForce. The USB ports on the back of the computer seem to work ok...although my monitor was plugged in there. I only had my keyboard and scanner (neither of which I was using) plugged into the front.

 

[Neon Deon]

Yeah, I have the latest drivers for the nForce. The USB ports on the back of the computer seem to work ok...although my monitor was plugged in there. I only had my keyboard and scanner (neither of which I was using) plugged into the front.

Unless it is an IRQ issue.

But I have not seen that since sp1 and ME days.

The board might of got confused with where to put it and shared it with the usb host control.

 

[mason72]

Grr...so my system has been pretty stable since unplugging the front USB plugs...no crashes overnight or this morning. I decided to try Civ again, and now it CTDs at the same place it was dong it before. Last time, I was able to play through that point (I think it is the Hollywood wonder movie that is causing the problem) after I disabled my onboard sound driver. This time, I disabled it in the BIOS, which I would assume is even better. Oh well, I think I might hang up the Civ discs until the next patch comes out and see if my system remains stable without it.

 

[mason72]

So last night, I set the display level to Medium and was able to play for several hours with no crashing of any kind. The wonder movies were unwatchably slow (as always), but I've come to expect that.

I shouldn't HAVE to set the display to medium with my system, but it seems to have helped.

EDIT: BTW, I left all of my windows services running (putting my page file size at ~650MB), which MIGHT explain the slow wonder movies.