Civ 4 randomly restarts computer.

[NuclearShadow]

I'v been having troubles ever since it was first released. It seems so random I can't pinpoint anything onto when or why it restarts my computer. Also windows gives no error reports after it happens.

My system specs are.
3GHZ P4 with HT
128mb Radeon 9800 pro
1 gig of ram
120 gig harddrive
Asrock p4v88 mobo

Its getting pretty darn annoying too since I play multiplayer... I'v tryed updating videocard drivers but it still does it... Now my computer can run alot more stressful to hardware games with out any problems so I really can't see why it would be such a harsh crash..

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I love the game so much been playing civilization series since #2 and I would hate to lose out on this one.

 

[WarX]

After it restarts there should be a memory minidump saved. If you can upload that minidump somewhere or send it to me i can pinpoint the specific problem. Or you can do so yourself by opening the mem dump in Windows Debugger, type "analyze -v" to get more info in the debugger window.

 

[Gazaridis]

With recent catalyst drivers I get occassional system restarts. The Catalyst 4.12 drivers have solved all reliability problems for me. I've heard good thigns about the 4.10s as well. 10 minutes with google should get you those drivers and all should be fine. I think a lot of ati problems with civ aren't the game itself, but recent catalysts have ahd general instability problems that civ exaggerates.

 

[denogginizer]

I'v been having troubles ever since it was first released. It seems so random I can't pinpoint anything onto when or why it restarts my computer.

I get this every now and then as well, typically the first turn after I load a saved single player game. I tried playing two nights ago, and got the blue screen of death three times in a row before shutting it off. What happened was I would:
1) load the saved game
2) press enter to end my turn
3) select something new to build in city 1
4) select something new to build in city 2
5) the map would move a little bit to the east, then the blue screen appeared

Last night I cleared my cache folder and started a NEW game. Before I made my first turn of my new game, I did this:
1) load the saved game
2) before ending my turn, I told city 1 to build something else (1 turn until observatory was completed)
3) press enter to end my turn
4) select something new to build in city 2
5) the map centered on city 2, allowing my to promote a newly trained musketeer. my game went on normally.

This has happened to me several times, and it is always when I load a saved game. If I start a new game and play 300 turns, it never happens.

After it restarts there should be a memory minidump saved. If you can upload that minidump somewhere or send it to me i can pinpoint the specific problem. Or you can do so yourself by opening the mem dump in Windows Debugger, type "analyze -v" to get more info in the debugger window.

Where can I find this minidump? What information is in it?

 

[auldian]

I'v been having troubles ever since it was first released. It seems so random I can't pinpoint anything onto when or why it restarts my computer. Also windows gives no error reports after it happens.

My system specs are.
3GHZ P4 with HT
128mb Radeon 9800 pro
1 gig of ram
120 gig harddrive
Asrock p4v88 mobo

Its getting pretty darn annoying too since I play multiplayer... I'v tryed updating videocard drivers but it still does it... Now my computer can run alot more stressful to hardware games with out any problems so I really can't see why it would be such a harsh crash..

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I love the game so much been playing civilization series since #2 and I would hate to lose out on this one.

Which drivers did you upgrade to?
I'd been plagued by the reboots until I upgraded my drivers to the 5.11 CCC Catalysts and installed .NET Framework 2.0, .NET being required for the CCC. I have the same graphics card as you. I used DriverCleanerPro to clean the previous drivers and I'd not had any .NET version installed previously.
I've been able to load saves for a week now.

 

[parachute4u]

Are you sure your machine is not overheating, or has some power supply shortage?

 

[toschistation]

I'm having the same problem as well. It doesn't seem to be related to anything. I've been playing the same game for a couple days and sometimes i'll play for 2 hours with nothing, then it will reboot and do it a couple times in a short period after that. Than it stops. I have noticed it more at the start of a turn when it jumps between a bunch of cities with finished production. Haven't checked the mini-dump, but all my drivers are up to date.

2 ghz AMD
128mb Nvidia 5600fx
1 gig of ram
80 gig harddrive

 

[JJayzX]

Its the memory leak the game has a problem with. It eats all the memory and crashes. When the patch comes out it should fix it.

 

[NuclearShadow]

With recent catalyst drivers I get occassional system restarts. The Catalyst 4.12 drivers have solved all reliability problems for me. I've heard good thigns about the 4.10s as well. 10 minutes with google should get you those drivers and all should be fine. I think a lot of ati problems with civ aren't the game itself, but recent catalysts have ahd general instability problems that civ exaggerates.

You sir are a saint. I finally was able to complete a multiplayer game because of you. But does this mean I can possibly never upgrade my drivers again?

Are you sure your machine is not overheating, or has some power supply shortage?

Thats what I thought at first actully so I checked the temp in bios and everything was fine but just to make sure I opened my window and put a window fan in it and had it blow directly in the computer at night. Being very cold and all at night my motherboard dropped to 60 degrees and my processor was the coolest I have ever saw it. Also my last powersupply blew up in my computer (quite literally) a few weeks back so I have a brand new 500 watt that works beautifully. So I no doubt ruled out overheating or it being the powersupply as the first thing I did

 

[WarX]

Where can I find this minidump? What information is in it?

Go to "System Properties" click on "Advanced" tab, then on "Startup and Recovery" under "Write Debugging Information" choose "Small memory dump", by default the path is to your systemroot, you see the path on the box under that option. You could also choose to generate a Complete Memory Dump, but on my system that is usually 900mb big.