Bex

[the_dionysian]

The particulars are as follows: I bought the disc-based game, ran the installer, downloaded about 2.5G in patches from Steam, let that install, and was presented with a menu asking whether I wanted to use DX9 or DX10/11. I opted for DX10/11 as it was "recommended" and was rewarded with a crash with the following problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: CivilizationV_DX11.exe
Application Version: 1.0.1.511
Application Timestamp: 4ee9bec2
Fault Module Name: StackHash_b4ee
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Offset: 715d0000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: b4ee
Additional Information 2: b4ee5de6a2322745523997a782b35692
Additional Information 3: 277e
Additional Information 4: 277e19c30fbd5f6bb531ec9e027c37c3

I then decided to give the DX9 option a go and wound up with much the same.

Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: CivilizationV.exe
Application Version: 1.0.1.511
Application Timestamp: 4ee9bec8
Fault Module Name: StackHash_b4ee
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Offset: 715d0000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: b4ee
Additional Information 2: b4ee5de6a2322745523997a782b35692
Additional Information 3: 277e
Additional Information 4: 277e19c30fbd5f6bb531ec9e027c37c3


dxdiag is attached as .txt

After perusing the internet a bit, I found some recommendations (ie: run the dxsetup in the steam\etc\et al\ folder, check your graphics drivers, disable DEP, and so on) and tried those. Running dxsetup accomplished nothing, my graphics drivers are up to date, DEP can't be disabled for the game.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, upon digging through more threads here it seems the following information would prove helpful: I have not been able to successfully launch the game since installation, I have validated the install via Steam, and I've attempted to launch the game after performing a selective start-up of Windows all to no avail.

 

[FeiLing]

Update your chipset/mainboard drivers, as they are already ~3 years old. However I'm afraid it won't enable you to run CiV as your graphic card is simple horrible. It's supposed to handle Windows Aero and enable videos to play, but nothing else. Not meant and not capable for gaming at all.

This is the weirdest setup I've seen in a while, i7 2600k, 8GB RAM ... but then an office graphic card, huh?

 

[The_J]

The graphics card is around the minimum specs, so it should run (but not very smooth).
But what you should NOT try: DX11. Try to run it in DX9.

 

[tokala]

Hey, careful there.

The 430GT is not THAT bad, its on par with the current bunch of midrange notebook cards.

In CiV it's probably even better than that "recommended" 9800GT.

I would recommend running it in DX11 mode with that card.

 

[The_J]

Oh...did they abandon all the logics with the card names?
I really don't have an overview anymore.


Okay...at the problem: you should probably first verify the integrity of the game files in Steam, maybe something is corrupted.

 

[tokala]

Oh...did they abandon all the logics with the card names?
I really don't have an overview anymore.

Forget the naming scheme(s), its really no use anymore.
You have to look for the specs, any halfway modern card with 96 (NVidia) / 320 (AMD) shader units and ~20 GB/s memory bandwidth will be good enough for roughly medium settings in DX11 mode.

 

[FeiLing]

Hey, careful there.

The 430GT is not THAT bad, its on par with the current bunch of midrange notebook cards.

In CiV it's probably even better than that "recommended" 9800GT.

I would recommend running it in DX11 mode with that card.

common version of a GeForce GT 430:
Bandwidth interface: 128-bit (however 64-bit versions also exist; we do not know if the OP has a such even more crippled version)
Stream processors: 96
Max power consumption: 56W

the recommended 9800 GT (recommended usually means "minimal" while minimal actually means "game should start with it, but will be unplayable"):
Bandwidth interface: 256-bit
Stream processors: 112
Max power consumption: 110W

a mid/high-ish range gaming card (a HD 5850):
Bandwidth interface: 256-bit
Stream processors: 1440
Max power consumption: 170W

How do you think a card that only consumes half as much power than the recommended/minimal required card will be able to perform on the same level unless it is of a 5+years newer generation (which it isn't, it's of an even older generation)?

 

[tokala]

Generally you would be quite correct that the 9800GT would be faster than the 430 GT.

Unfortunately, the 8000/9000/200 DX10.0 cards are performing really bad under CiV (painful experience with a GTX260 here )
And the nVidia DX11 cards (like the 430) are performing better than usual under CiV.
I have not seen a 64bit 430 so far.

Of course a HD5850 will be much faster than a 430GT

 

[The_J]

Forget the naming scheme(s), its really no use anymore.
You have to look for the specs, any halfway modern card with 96 (NVidia) / 320 (AMD) shader units and ~20 GB/s memory bandwidth will be good enough for roughly medium settings in DX11 mode.

Oh god....no...I don't have the time and interest to get familiar with all that hardware stuff .

 

[the_dionysian]

Thanks for the quick replies. First, let me clarify what seems to be baffling a great many of you; my video card. The video card I was originally using was a GeForce GTX580, however around the end of December the fan stopped working and now the card overheats frequently if I attempt to use it. Until I an afford a more worthwhile replacement, I'm stuck using the 430. That said, it is sufficient (albeit sub-optimal) for running the game.

In response to The J: I've tried running it in both modes and posted the error message that each resulted in. I've also verified the install. It told me that 1 file needed re-downloaded, it downloaded the file, installed it, and still gives me the same problem when attempting to launch the game in either mode. Lastly, yes, they have long since abandoned any pretense of logic when naming their video cards.

In any case, I'll go attempt an update of the mainboard drivers as that's the only new suggestion generated so far. I don't much expect that to fix the problem, but it's worth doing regardless. I suppose I can just chalk the whole thing up as a $30 loss and just go back to playing Old Republic.

 

[tokala]

Oh god....no...I don't have the time and interest to get familiar with all that hardware stuff .

Well, you are active in the tech support forum, aren't you?

And you need only two websites, wikipedia has a very good overview for the desktop cards, and notebookcheck for the mobile cards.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia-Geforce-500-Serie
http://www.notebookcheck.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-540M.41714.0.html

 

[tokala]

Thanks for the quick replies. First, let me clarify what seems to be baffling a great many of you; my video card. The video card I was originally using was a GeForce GTX580, however around the end of December the fan stopped working and now the card overheats frequently if I attempt to use it. Until I an afford a more worthwhile replacement, I'm stuck using the 430. That said, it is sufficient (albeit sub-optimal) for running the game.

If all else fails, you could try a reinstall from scratch. It should not happen with such similar cards, but I remember cases of driver hiccups ofter switching video cards.
I.e. uninstall Civ, uninstall drivers, install drivers, install civ.

Are you using any 3rd party hardware tweak tools?

 

[the_dionysian]

If all else fails, you could try a reinstall from scratch. It should not happen with such similar cards, but I remember cases of driver hiccups ofter switching video cards.
I.e. uninstall Civ, uninstall drivers, install drivers, install civ.

Are you using any 3rd party hardware tweak tools?

Nah, no tweak tools or anything.

Also, upon some more searching people seem to attribute BEX to conflicts with antivirus and spyware/malware removal programs, so I attempted uninstalling my antivirus and running the game then, but am still met with the same results. I had hoped to avoid uninstalling and reinstalling the game as it takes me the better part of 8 hours to download the updates via Steam (I really hate satellite internet), but it looks like that's going to be the next step.

Edit: Just downloaded ASUS mainboard drivers, upon running it I'm told the drivers available for download from ASUS are actually older than the ones I'm currently using (9.2.0.1021 installed as opposed to 9.2.0.1015 downloaded).

Edit 2: Resolved the problem.

To tokala: My sincerest thanks. Apparently there was some form of conflict with the graphics drivers between the 580 and 430 that had been unresolved when I initially changed the cards out and switched up drivers. I don't know why Civ5 hated it so badly as compared to other games, but be that as it may, scrapping all my video drivers, the NVIDIA settings program, and the game followed by a full reinstall of everything fixed the problem and the game is running fine now.

Also, to those questioning the performance of the game on the 430: It's running smoothly with all the graphics settings on a mix of medium/high and 2x AA. With any luck, however, I'll be able to replace my 580 and toss this piece of crap so I can bump the graphics up in Civ5 and get back to playing Shogun 2 (I can play it on the 430, but looks terrible so I opt not to) as well.