Civ 5 Tech/Crash Questions

[loriensquestion]

I have bought a box version of Civ 5 for my laptop, which runs Intel Dual Core T7300 2Ghz, 4GB RAM, Win7 32 bit, NVIDIA Geoforce 8400M GS.

1) To run the game without huge wait times, I had to turn all video options down to low or minimum, otherwise things were very choppy and dragging forever between turns. Is there a way to address this? I've heard some suggest window-mode.

2) Is there a way to avoid the movie in the intro? I've heard some suggest setting to code to 0 and then watch blackness instead, while the game is loading. I've also noticed that the paused intro video is still there when I use alt-tab to switch screens or when the game crashes. Is this potentially causing a problem?

3) When I begin a game from locating Steam in the start window and then selecting Civ5, I get logged into my Steam account and then I am prompted with two choices: 1) Play Sid Meier's Civilization 5 or 2) Sid Meier's Civilization 5 (DirectX 9). I am not sure which to choose or why I have to choose. Is it installed twice? Should I uninstall and reinstall?

4) Almost every game I have played has crashed at some point. Usually it is when I step away from the game for a bit. I get sent back to the intro video screen (just after the old man sees his son enter the yurt) and then get prompted with a Win7 error message giving me a choice to close the program or wait or see if there's an online solution. Is there a way around this?

Thanks for any help to any or all of the questions.

 

[loriensquestion]

I realized I should not have posted multiple questions. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Petek]

I have bought a box version of Civ 5 for my laptop, which runs Intel Dual Core T7300 2Ghz, 4GB RAM, Win7 32 bit, NVIDIA Geoforce 8400M GS.

1) To run the game without huge wait times, I had to turn all video options down to low or minimum, otherwise things were very choppy and dragging forever between turns. Is there a way to address this? I've heard some suggest window-mode.

Not to worry about posting multiple questions!

If I'm reading this page correctly, your GPU has only 256MB on-board RAM. That's marginal for civ5. Make sure that you have the most recent video drivers (check the link in my sig for more help with that). I don't know whether running in Windowed mode will help, but you can try it.

2) Is there a way to avoid the movie in the intro? I've heard some suggest setting to code to 0 and then watch blackness instead, while the game is loading. I've also noticed that the paused intro video is still there when I use alt-tab to switch screens or when the game crashes. Is this potentially causing a problem?

Again see my sig for instructions on skipping the video. After doing that, you'll see a black screen while the game loads, but no video.

3) When I begin a game from locating Steam in the start window and then selecting Civ5, I get logged into my Steam account and then I am prompted with two choices: 1) Play Sid Meier's Civilization 5 or 2) Sid Meier's Civilization 5 (DirectX 9). I am not sure which to choose or why I have to choose. Is it installed twice? Should I uninstall and reinstall?

Seeing two choices is normal. The first choice starts the game using DX11 (if your system supports it). You might want to choose DX9 to see if that improves your performance.

4) Almost every game I have played has crashed at some point. Usually it is when I step away from the game for a bit. I get sent back to the intro video screen (just after the old man sees his son enter the yurt) and then get prompted with a Win7 error message giving me a choice to close the program or wait or see if there's an online solution. Is there a way around this?

Again, running in DX9 mode might help with the crashes. If you still get crashes, please post your DxDiag file (see my sig) and, if possible, post a save file from right before the crash.

Thanks for any help to any or all of the questions.

You're welcome.

 

[tokala]

1) Nope, though a better computer would help. There are several tips for better performance here in the tech support section, but you have to test which of those might help in your case.
2) No.
3) No, it is installed correctly. For some odd reason Civ asks the user multiple times which DX version to chose.
4) Might be overheating/defective video card, bad drivers/civ installation or a bug. If your laptop is on this list, you might be eligible for a replacement.