civ 4 freezes constantly needing time to recover

[Gumbolt]

Used patch 1.52 and civ 4 was fine. worked like a dream. After a few weeks of using latest patch my civ 4 is now suddenly lagging a lot. The units will suddenly move very slowly and the units will pause. 30-40 seconds later the game recover. Im puzzled why this should suddenly start to happen after months of great game play.

Using a laptop ati 128mb mobility 9700. 512mb ram 3.2 pentium 4 chip. Is this a problem with new patch? Not enough memory? Overload on cpu? I did notice page file was up to 632mb when playing and cpu 100% used on control panel. Or is this a graphics issue with ATI?

I dont think i have installed or changed pc hard drive installing anything major. Yes i am using a paid for version of game with game dvd in dvd drive.

Any advice much obliged. Wanna get this sorted for warlords

 

[cairo140]

The latest patch has no known issues with regards to slowing down the game, so it probably has some other source. Try starting a fresh campaign from the beginning and see if it has the same effect. As for your computer specs:

Your memory is EXTREMELY lacking in size. If the paging file is at 632MB, that means the computer can't use your RAM anymore. Thus, it uses the virtual memory (paging file) that is stored on your hard drive (which also happens to be about 10x slower). To see the 100% on the CPU is not unusual. Thus just means that it is working really hard to effectively use virtual memory.

Whether or not is is legal or whether or not you have your DVD in should not make a difference.

To summarize, your issue is 100% definitely RAM. Get a gig or two of DDR-RAM, and you'll be set. Mind you, if I were you, I'd leave my laptop for work and use my desktop computer for gaming.

 

[Gumbolt]

Perhaps its ram but the game run fine for months on 512mb Ram. Its only been last week or so this issue has cropped up. I only have 21 processes running in task manager. Civ usually takes up bulk of resources.

I did try starting a fresh campaign this morning. Even at 1500bc i was still suffering the same problems. It normally runs fine with graphics on high in settings. I normally run game at screen res of 1024x768.

I could lower this if its definately memory. Just played again and page file was 360mb with cpu at 100% when it lagged.

Memory could be updated but its not quite as simple with a laptop. Only memory that seems to work is pny sold at pc world. (i tried 2-3 other chips a while back) I was hoping to upgrade before i used the final ram slot. Some laptops or motherboards dont like you using all the ram slots.

How frustrating grrrr. I still think it might of been new patch or something to do with ati drivers. Perhaps i have just been lucky over last few months.

plot thickens

 

[Gumbolt]

hmmm just updated my catalyst driver to 8.263.0.0 something or rather. Played for a bit without any issues.

Im not sure if having broadband connected is making a difference to gameplay. hmmmmm. I will keep this updated.

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay i had to remove the driver as it was causing windows to crash constantly without civ 4 running. Just cant win arghhhhhhhhhh.

I did reinstall drivers that came with pc maybe that might help.

 

[Gumbolt]

Can anyone advise me on a driver that might work on a laptop with mobility raadeon 9700? I need one that doesnt crash my system 24/7. Would system work better if i left ati catalyst open? It was gobbling up resources.

I need to save on the 250,964k resources civ 4 gobbles up. That with a 425mb page file. Im sure its not just a memory issue as this is a recent gameplay issue.


Hmmmmmmm. Are there any window settings i could change? Would a lower screen resolution help much? Low on all graphics? Who would of thought such a recent system would have such issues. *sigh*

 

[crunch]

- 100 % CPU is normal
- low on all graphics options is definitely a good idea
- turn off audio and movies
- play smaller maps
- find working drivers (perhaps here: http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php)
- there is no lower resolution than 1024/768
- do you shut down apps like antivirus, instant messenger, etc?
- if all fails, rollback to 1.52 :/

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay all the settings are already on low. I noticed that today.

As for 1.52 its gonna be hard to go back as warlords has new patch as standard.

Okay the driver has issues with video playback on older bios. I would need to update the bios before the driver worked. Unsure on where to find bios as its not a large brand laptop. Clevo.

As for shutting down other apps. I have only 21 processes running anyway and all these i think relate to windows xp. I dont use any antivirus software. Gobbles up too much resources.

I think i need to update bios so new driver works then consider more ram if this does not work. ram will be 55 quidish for so dimm module that works. I do have a faulty ram i could put back in but this may cause blue screen of death if a bad sector is used although would give me 1gb ram.

Im not sure what mapsize im using now. Im getting the issue early game when theres only 30-40 cities on map. I have had games with 80+ cities on map and no issues.

 

[crunch]

If you're not using antivirus, chances are that your computer is infected by something nasty and thus slower. Same with antispyware. I'm not saying that you need to have it scanning your disk while playing civ, of course.

And try some duel / tiny maps if issues occur there as well...

 

[Gumbolt]

I checked in processes in task manager and thats at 20 (including task manager, fire fox) on start and all are ones that should be there.

Also checked msconfig for unusual progs on start up. Again no unusual progs.

Since i switched to firefox i have had few issues with nasty bugs installing spyware. Viruses normally arrive by email and i normally delete the emails with attachments anyway. Im very sensible with pc.

Im not 100% confident on updating bios but i am looking into this. I have found a clevo website with a bios update and it appears to support an updated ati graphics driver. Need to figure out what my current bios is. Dont want to install a bios i already have.

Perhaps a new conroe processor chip would help. Although AMD chips lost 50% in price today. Although this pc is only 18 months or so old. Updating for a game at cost of £700 a bit OTT Could add the ram.

Its strange win xp seems to use 140mb of page file without civ 4 running. I did find some options on windows with options on how to allocate resource. Ie to progs or to windows.

I will update you when i have tried any of the above.

Strategy has to be bios, then driver, then ram last port of call. Heaven knows how the average user copes with civ 4 speeds.

 

[Aarvaead]

What type of OS are you using? If you utilize the virtual memory with XP, I believe that you will find your game running more smoothly. Also check your BIOs. Try allocating a bit more ram to buffer.

 

[Craterus22]

Used patch 1.52 and civ 4 was fine. worked like a dream. After a few weeks of using latest patch my civ 4 is now suddenly lagging a lot. The units will suddenly move very slowly and the units will pause. 30-40 seconds later the game recover. Im puzzled why this should suddenly start to happen after months of great game play.

Using a laptop ati 128mb mobility 9700. 512mb ram 3.2 pentium 4 chip. Is this a problem with new patch? Not enough memory? Overload on cpu? I did notice page file was up to 632mb when playing and cpu 100% used on control panel. Or is this a graphics issue with ATI?

I dont think i have installed or changed pc hard drive installing anything major. Yes i am using a paid for version of game with game dvd in dvd drive.

Any advice much obliged. Wanna get this sorted for warlords

A very similar issue occured for me... (except that my laptop system recovers 5 minutes later). This was not a problem before 1.52 (i think). I have not found a solution.

I was using civ4 on my win98 desktop computer with no problems (until late game map reveal), but now Warlords installation does not include text...

waiting for vista...

 

[Enkidu_Warrior]

this is exactly my experience, with the addition that installing warlords doesn't help.

I guess we'll have to wait for a warlords patch to get this fixed.

EW

 

[Gumbolt]

Okay i have done a hard drive degrag. Little benefit when i started to play game again slow downs each 3-4 turns. I used a program called fast defrag on memory. Net result is game now appears to run fine.

I got through 50-100+ turns with no slow downs on a standard map, monarch 7 civs, with Romans on 2 continent with a domination win by about 1550ad. Was a real tough win as i had 90% world population but couldnt quite reach 64% world land area. Last civ (mansa) was down to 6 cities and i had about 50 cities+. Silly silly. Praetorians/ catapults all the way till end

Got my highest ever civ 4 score to date over 100k. Soooooooooooooooo happy.

I will keep you posted if things get worse again regarding game play but things seem to have recovered now. Not sure where to download 'fast defrag' but its worth a shot!!!!

Im using win xp Prof with service pack 2.

 

[crunch]

It can be downloaded here:
http://www.amsn.ro/index.php?action=2

 

[Gumbolt]

Be interesting if it helps anyone else on game play with lag etc.

 

[Gumbolt]

Few weeks later and warlords now installed and i have no freezing issues. Guess the memory just needed tweaking afterall.

 

[Zeigy]

Civ 4 is lagging for me too. My symptoms are similar. My hard drive makes this clicking sound then the hard drive gets really busy, afterwards my game freezes for 10 seconds then it recovers.

I used FastDefrag and it worked well for a day but then the same crap has started all over. What's going on?

 

[crunch]

@ Zeigy:
- get more RAM
- if you happen to own 2 hard disks, do not install civ on the same disk as is your Windows OS
- try to empty some RAM by closing unnecessary apps, disabling civ movies, audio...