Civ 4 keeps crashing my laptop

[Beriks]

First of:
Vista Ultimate 64 bit - SP 2
4GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2*2.40 GHz
Nvidia GeForce 1650M GT (512 dedicated RAM)

Second:
Bought this machine for approximately a year ago it has been working fine have played almost every game I have wanted to play, including Red Alert 3, Rome/Empire Total war, World of Warcraft, Never Winter Nights 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Assassins Creed etc. It even played Civ 4 with no problems in the beginning.

Lately though, my computer has begun crashing within an hour or so while playing Civ 4 (both in multiplayer and single player mode) It is only civ 4 that is causing me problems. I have been trolling this forum for solutions for several days – weeks actually – and these are the things I have tried to fix:
- Reinstalled/repatched (1.74)
- Checked for dust (No dust what so ever)
- Gotten the latest graphic drivers (I think!) If you know where the latest drivers are don’t hesitate posting them – better safe than sorry!
- I have tried to disable antivirus/firewall + every other unnecessary application
- I have unchecked the “automatic restart” and that worked! For a while ….. Last weekend at a friend’s apartment We got it to work via LAN and we were absolutely thrilled! Finally we were able to play again! We played for several hours with no problems at all. Then a few days later we wanted to finish the game and created an internet game. At first it went very good, we played for a long time, but then suddenly out of nowhere HIS computer crashed and that had never happened before he then unchecked the automatic restart function and we started the game again. Then a few turns went by and then my Laptop started crashing again and has been doing so since.
- I am using a laptop cooling stand and am not experiencing far as much heat generation as I do while playing other games.
- Today I installed SP 2 and made sure that the checkbox for automated restart was still emty and it was.
- I play the game as administrator

Damn hope I have remembered everything, anyways hope you can help and tell me if you need more detailed distribution.

Third:
A few problem rapports (they are in Danish), if you need me to translate tell me and I will do it, but hopefully you’ll be able to read something from the codes …

---------------------------------

ProduktCivilization 4

Problem
Civilization 4 has known compatibility problems

Dato
22-09-2009 20:09

Problemsignatur
Problemhændelsesnavn: ApphelpSoftBlock
Problemsignatur 01: {11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111}
Problemsignatur 02: {320e6913-2ca3-4f58-8385-38763606e4f2}
OS-version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Landestandard-id: 1030

Ekstra oplysninger om problemet
Bucket-id: 10451428

---------------------------------------------

Produkt
Sid Meier's Civilization 4

Problem
Handlingen blev afbrudt

Dato
28-12-2009 21:16

Status
Der er flere oplysninger tilgængelige.

Problemsignatur
Problemhændelsesnavn: APPCRASH
Programnavn: Civilization4.exe
Programversion: 0.21.0.1674
Tidsstempel for program: 43555c31
Fejlmodulnavn: Civilization4.exe
Fejlmodulversion: 0.21.0.1674
Tidsstempel for fejlmodul: 43555c31
Undtagelseskode: c0000005
Undtagelsesforskydning: 00697910
OS-version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Landestandard-id: 1030
Yderligere oplysninger 1: 85d1
Yderligere oplysninger 2: 7899a9596b5f9ec10ceab78478f56214
Yderligere oplysninger 3: 4a24
Yderligere oplysninger 4: 571731ba95ea1220845c91aac33c7d89

Ekstra oplysninger om problemet
Bucket-id: 298959875



Thank you for your time!

//Beriks

 

[Tangsta]

Civ 4 had been crashing for me recently and I too couldn't figure out what just happened (as it had been working fine for the past few days)
then I discovered a pleasant surprise: turning off the Global Warming feature did the trick and everything is now back to normal

so you can give that a try

 

[Beriks]

I have had all graphic settings set on a minimum, and it still crashed, so I am pretty sure that isn’t the problem. All movies are disabled to so that shouldn’t be a problem either. I am all out of ideas.

But thank you for you effort!

//Beriks

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC

did you patch the game to 1.74?
the app version number is weird - is this the cd/dvd version of the game?

 

[Beriks]

Thank you!

Yes it patched to 1.74 manually
It is the DVD version

Today I whent even further in my efforts to fix the problems:
I DL'ed an older version of my Nvidia driver (179.28)
I changed sync input from "= 0" -> "= 1"
I Uninstalled my soundcard (realtek) drivers and is now running standard Windows drivers
And then I have been trying to locate the Cache folder, but without any luck, it simply isn't there.


//Beriks

 

[AnkZ]

Beriks and I play together online. I recently brought the complete edition and now when he join my game, it says "the players who is entering the game has a different version" (we only play the vanilla version online")

he can still join my game, and we can still play, and his computer also crashed before i got the message, but his version is somehow different. dont know if it helps, but now you know

 

[ori]

Beriks:
can you start the game at all? if so please post a screenshot of your about this build screen.

 

[Beriks]

Hi Im not sure what you scrrenshot you would have me take, this is the start of a game that chrashed within an hour, it is a standard size, with preset amount of opponents (7) the graphics is set to high, since I rly don't think it has anything to do with my graphics. But as you can see, I can start the game, It's after an hour or so it Crashes.

NOTICE: My lates changes has aparently solved the problem - at least for the time being - but again I thought "unchecking the auto restart" did to. But yesterday I actually won a domination vic, so something suggest that the problem is fixed!

I will return if it start bugging again

Thank you very much for your time!

//Beriks

 

[ori]

start the game click on advanced click on about this build - make a screenshot of that.

 

[Beriks]

Damn and then it Chrashed again!

Well here is a SS of my build..

 

[BouBouRziPorC]

hi

Try to play with a cable,and not the wireless, it was my problem few weeks ago, there was too much connection by peer to peer on my wireless card,and then, crash..

 

[ori]

the game is patched correctly it seems.
please open
my games\sid meier's civilization 4\civilizaionIV.ini
and set all items with log in their name from 0 to 1
then when it crashes please post all items in
my games\sid meier's civilization 4\logs\
as a zip file

 

[phungus420]

Do you have anything in your custom assets folder? Civ doesn't remove custom assets when it uninstalls so if something in there is cuasing a crash, you need to delete your custom assets manually.

 

[Beriks]

Hi, I appreciate your inputs and will look into it later today and let you know what I find.

Regarding using a cable instead of wireless, it happens while playing single player to, so unless Civ uses the internet in single player mode it obviously can’t be the only problem.

Regarding changing the inifile I did that, and the game is now running very slowly, but I will try to overcome my impatience and see if it crashes.

So should I delete everything in the Custom Assets folder or is there something in particular you suggest I should delete? Or would you suggest that I uninstall and then manually delete the Custom Assets folder before reinstalling?
The folder contains several folders:
Art, Assets, Python, Res, Sounds, Xml – all with sub foulders


Thank you
//Beriks

 

[phungus420]

... would you suggest that I uninstall and then manually delete the Custom Assets folder before reinstalling?

This is the most clear cut way. Not sure it will solve your problem, but it will rule out any conflicts that custom assets may be causing, and certainly wol't hurt. Actually, after uninstalling just delete everything in the civ4 folder along the my documents path (which custom assets is inside). Really the civ4 uninstaller should do that, but firaxis didn't code the installer that well; a good installer will sign every component properly to the registry and remove everything when the uninstaller is ran, it's an oversight the civ4 uninstaller leaves this folder behind.

 

[Beriks]

Okay, so after I have changed the values of everything with "log" in the name the game runs extreamly slow, and every time i hit "end turn" my friend gets the message waiting for player "x". I havn't had the patience to play long enough to experience a crash, is this the only way to figure out what the problem is?