Anyone getting Diplomacy CTD (crash to desktop)?

[brian_banks]

Specs: P4 2.4gig 1gig ram, 875P chipset, 9800 PRO 128.

Problem: During "diplomacy" with any other civ, the video will either freeze for a few seconds, and/or minimizes CIV4, goes to desktop and I get a VPU "driver stopped responding" crash dump from the ATI Catalyst driver. I can usually pull the game back up but it will crash again soon and the video will go dead (like the monitor is in standby). Reboot is then necessary.

Discussion: This issue has continued through 3 different ATI driver sets, and the 1.09 patch. And to make it even better, this machine is a dual boot XP Pro and Win2000 Pro. The failure happens in both OS's, but the win2k pro system is a bare bones install so memory is optimized and handles the crashes better. I've noticed this is very frequent early in the game and then almost completely stops occuring once I'm in the 1700's or so.

Anyone experiencing this? I don't have any other video corruption or black terrain issues that others report. Just a CTD during diplomacy. Wonder annimation and such is usually a touch jittery but otherwise no problems. Also units can disappear during combat...but other 9800 pro users have reported this also. I've sent the crash dumps to ATI but that's about it.

 

[Baggio]

Got the same problem here. Civ 4 was working fine didnt have that crash until I installed the PATCH. Always on diplo screen. Very very annoying in multiplayer game. Seems to me that patch wasnt tested enough. THX GUYS

spec: amd 3200+ 64 ATI 800 pro 1024 DDR 400

 

[Dupes]

I had the same issue for the longest time. I have an ATI Radeon 9800, and I found out from another post that if you turn off the AGP speed completly in the SmartGart section of the Catalyst control centre (then reboot), it won't crash there anymore.

I was finally able to play it, without any problems, until now. Now I'm getting those infamous late game crashes....

 

[brian_banks]

Thanks Dupes, I'll try that.

Also, FWIW, this diplomacy crash was happening before the 1.09 patch. Others suggested going back to the 4.12 catalyst driver. That stopped the diplomacy crash....but now it crashes at random points while just maneuvering over the map. Also...my monitor is now making death rattle sounds when coming out of standby/hibernation. I absolutely guarantee this is caused from the crashes that throw my monitor into standby. My system has crashed about 50 to 60 times by now, or more. Rapidly going to different resolutions, refresh rates, and sudden standby appears to be seriously compromising my monitor. I'm certain i've shortened the life of it by this horribly programmed piece of crap. What ever happened to beta testing Firaxis?