Civ 3 Vanilla: Play for 5 minutes and then freeze.

[angryllama]

Allright. I play Civ 3 Vanilla, well I try to. It seems that I play for 5 or so minutes, actually it usually only lasts a few turns and then it freezes, the whole computer. My computer rarely freezes except on startup when it wil somtimes freeze at the Windows XP user login area.

I run Windows XP Professional.

Here are my computer specs.

Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Language: English (Regional setting:English)
System Manufacturer: SOLTEK
System model: 85MIV3
BIOS: Version 07.00T
Processer: Intel(R) Celeron (R) CPU 2.40 GHz
Memory: 256MB RAM
Page File: 276MB used, 343MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Here are my device specs.

Name: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce2 MX/MX 400
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Approx. Total Memory: 64.0MB
Current Display Mode: 800 x 600 (32 bit) (60 Hz)
Moniter: Plug and Play Moniter

Here are my driver specs.

Main Drive: nv4_disp.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.7772 (English)
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
VDD: n/a
DDI version: 9 (or higher)

Most of this is gibberish to me, therefore I figured I would add everything I could fint that might be relevant. All this information came from my DIrectX Diagnostic Tool.

If anyone could tell me why my computer freezes after playing Civ 3 Vanilla for 5 minutes I would be greatly appreciative.

I rang the Australian help lineabout a year ago when I was having the same problem, the guy told me to delete some fonts and I did, that fixed the problem, for a little while but it just reverted back to freezing again.

NOTE: The freezing time varies, sometimes it will freeze almost immediately after entering a game, sometimes it will last 10 minutes, sometimes it will last half an hour. But the bulk of the time it freezes after about 5 miutes.

Thanks for your help and time.

 

[AlanH]

Lots of interesting information, but one important bit is missing: Which version of Civ3 Vanilla are you running? (It's displayed at teh bottom left of the main splash screen when you launch Civ3).

 

[angryllama]

Sorry.

I'm running Version 1.29f.

I'm pretty suire that's the latest patch isn't it?

Thanks for your interest Alan.

 

[AlanH]

Yes, it is the latest, so that's not the issue. I run Civ on a Mac, so I'm no expert on PC specs. You'll have to wait for a PC guru to stop by and advise.

 

[angryllama]

Ok thanks.

 

[ainwood]

My guess would be that your page file is too small. You have only 256 MB of RAM, and a page file of only 343 MB.

My suggestion:

On the Start menu, under "settings", open the control panel.
Double-click the "system" icon, then choose the "advanced" tab.
Click the "Performance options" Button, and see what the "Virtual Memory" (Or it might be "page file") setting is.
Hopefully you've got enough hard disk drive space to have it at least 1000 MB (maximum size).

Anyway - report back here what the settings are.

 

[Gyathaar]

Memory: 256MB RAM
Page File: 276MB used, 343MB available

Was this taken while running civ3? if not then something is using up a lot of memory.. all your physical 256MB plus 276MB swap space is in use.

PC freezing up could be a lot of things.. could be viruses, malfunctioning hardware.. sometimes overheating.. could be wrong drivers for something in your PC.

Sounds like the machine sometimes loks up during bootout at the time when network drivers and other background programs are started (possible viruses or network problems... I have seen PCs lock up for several minutes at bootup due to bad network setups).. or when the machine scans for new hardware (possible lockup due to bad drivers or hardware)

Could also be that you are running out of swap space, or that there are bad blocks on the harddrive where the pagefile is placed.

Could be others things too

 

[angryllama]

Ok, I checked that Ainwood. It's set at 384MB.

I have 5.18 GB free on my C drive and 60GB free on my F drive.

What should I change it to? 1000MB?

Thanks for your interest both Ainwood and Gyathaar.

 

[ainwood]

1000 MB would be a good start (Or even buying some more RAM).

Try it and see - it can't hurt, and if doesn't help, then at least its one thing eliminated.

 

[angryllama]

I changed it to the above amount, set up a game as Babylon, founded my first city, two turns later it froze.

I don't know what's wrong with it. I'll run AVG but I'm pretty sure I don't have a virus, as it's been freezing for months and I have run virus checks and what not during that period.

 

[ainwood]

Do you get any other games / programs freezing up? Or is it related solely to Civ?

 

[angryllama]

I don't really play many games other than Civ. However I was running and Old DOS game DUNE 2 yesterday and it froze and half way through each level the sound stops, however i downloaded that game so it might just be a dodgy file.

I'm currently running AVG virus scan and it says it has identified a virus in Sun Java, does that impact on Civ in any way?. It hasn't finished scanning my computer yet.

 

[ainwood]

Can you post the name of the virus?

I had some real problems just last week in-fact, with windows freezing-up completely. I had just reformatted and reinstalled, and during the reinstall process I was foolish enough to connect to the internet whilst not having a firewall or anti-virus running, and somehow got three viruses. They were all (apparently) cleaned by the anti-virus when I did get around to installing it, but there must have been some sort of lingering damage somehow, because I was getting these freezes.

I did a complete reformat, and then installed a firewall and antivirus before I even connected the modem. Went straight to windows update and downloaded all security updates => freezing problems are gone, and its working much, much better.

I'm not saying that this is the problem you've got, but you never really know what viruses can do. Reformatting and reinstalling should probably be your last option (unless you're quite comfortable doing it), but you might need to consider it.

 

[angryllama]

It just said it had embedded objects or something. it listed the corrupted files, but not what they were corrupted with.

 

[ainwood]

Have you ever run AdAware? That can help get rid of rubbish that is slowing-down your computer.

Also, have a look at Windows Startup Inspector - it inspects what is starting when you start windows, and can identify problems.

Would you feel confident in reformatting your hard-drive an reinstalling windows? Do you have a windows XP installation CD? If so, you could try a 'repair' instead of a full reinstall.

 

[angryllama]

I'll download and run oth of those programs, however I neither have the confidenc eor the disc to reinstall Windows.

Thankyou for all your help and I will post again once I have run each of those programs.

 

[AlanH]

I was thinking of commenting that 256MB seems quite low for a combination of XP Pro and Civ3. On the Mac Civ3 doesn't seem too happy working in virtual memory. It's also worth running a memory test utility if you have one. Maybe you have some iffy RAM?