Civ 4 CTD, mem leak? Nvidia card.

[Taipan1974]

Ok just like many people I get constant CTD's after an hour or so of playing.
It seems like a video related memory leak to me, probably caused by too many "Reload save games".

Symptoms: just prior to the crash, game gets real slow, has much trouble updating the screen as it moves from one active unit to another one further away. The game tries to paint the new graphics, freezes, unlocks, does that for 2-3 times than crashes. Post crash, if I view desktop properties for my screen resolution, it insists my screen is now at 640x480 (which it isnt) and wont allow me to change it, so am forced to reboot. Trying to restart the game gives an error that it cannot establish the game in the requested 1024 x 768 resolution.

System info:
Civ 4 version 1.09
Windows XP
1 Gb RAM
Nvidia Geforce 6200 card
7 GB free space on disk.
Latest video drivers installed (version of 9 dec 05), this did not solve it.

If anyone found a solution, please point me to it.

 

[DeyofAlgiers]

Did you try Harkonnen's patch??? I can play large games now!!!

 

[Zydor]

Here's the link

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

Regards
Zy

 

[Divide Overflow]

I'll take someone's suggestions for editing the Civ4.ini file, but I won't download and run unknown .dll files or other code blindly off the 'net. No disrespect to Harkonnen, his skill or support for the game, but his "patch" is still a security risk to me.

Firaxis needs to get it together and fix this bundle of bugs themselves!!! They released this garbage and we're waiting for them to get it right. My patience is certainly wearing thin.

 

[Taipan1974]

I did try harkonnens patch, along with several other changes suggested on these forums for the Civ INI file. The game runs smoother now, though it did crash once right after I had added ALL those changes at once. I now run it with harkonnen patch disabled, but still with the regular INI file changes, and it is more stable than before. One small thing is that it now cant play the intro movie correctly, it stops rendering halfway through when the camera tries to zoom into the earth through the clouds. Music continues etc. Other than that its decent now, but I still want an official Firaxis patch.

 

[Zanmato]

I wouldn't worry too much about the intro movie. Mine does the same, renders a few frames then stops. Does the same with Wonder movies but at least the game hasn't crashed since installing Harkonnen's patch so I can happily live with that. Btw, the movies play flawless outside the game, play them through Bink Player if you want to watch them. Hopefully, it will all be resolved in the next patch.

 

[Zydor]

Divide

A wise principle, and I do understand where you are coming from. That patch however has been downloaded and used by tens of thousands - the thread is galloping towards 60,000 hits in 7 days. The patch itself alters no game code, and only operates on data in memory. No game logic is touched. Its is therefore benign, and is very easy to uninstall. The only files involved are loaded in the Civ IV directory, and if you decide you dont want it, delete them.

If you fall into the catagory of user it can help, give it a go, you will not have security issues in any way whatsoever.

Regards
Zy