CIV IV BtS: Total Game Freeze (dxdiag info included)

[ori]

when does it freeze again?

 

[mtrelfa]

I updated my operating system and my video driver, though I still have the issue with the freezing.

Is there anything else I can give you diagnostically?

 

[mtrelfa]

There isn't a real pattern to when it freezes up... It seems pretty random. Sometimes I'm in a menu, but other times I'm just kind of playing along.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Download and run Memtest86. You might have a bad stick of RAM. That's what it sounds like to me, anyway.

 

[mtrelfa]

I have updated to sp3 updated my video driver, uninstalled and reinstalled civ. I still have the freezing. Is there a link you have to download and run memtest? It seems kind of complicated to me... memtest or memtest+? It looks like memtest costs 10 bucks?

Anyway... thanks for your help. I'm grateful, but looking forward to this finally working!!

Mike

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I have updated to sp3 updated my video driver, uninstalled and reinstalled civ. I still have the freezing. Is there a link you have to download and run memtest? It seems kind of complicated to me... memtest or memtest+? It looks like memtest costs 10 bucks?

Anyway... thanks for your help. I'm grateful, but looking forward to this finally working!!

Mike

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

The floppy/win version

 

[peef_the_Okay]

I too received the same crash, and I noticed that you have been getting the same error (WMI 10). Unfortunately, Microsoft's Knowledge Base is of no help on this issue (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc727148.aspx). They just say to ignore the error message...

But I have followed some recommendations and now I have played for about 2 hours with no problems!

Here is what I did (in Vista 64):

1) Set BtS to Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1) Compatibility Mode (May not be necessary - did not work in Win XP SP2 Compatibility Mode)

2) Changed sound setting to "System Config" in BtS

3) Rebuilt the WMI Repository (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairwmi.htm)

4) Updated DirectX 9 (Even if you have DirectX 10, this can fix DirectX 9 problems)

5) Updated Sound Driver

6) Uninstalled and Reinstalled Civ 4 and BtS (I ran the installers [setup] as administrator)

7) Turned off Antivirus software while playing

* I don't know if these things are all necessary, but something seems to have worked. I found no new errors in the Event Viewer either.

 

[mtrelfa]

This freeze occurs for me both with Civ IV and Bts - Right now I'm only focusing on getting civ IV working... I'm assuming whatever problem I have is affecting both.

I will try some of your fixes here - maybe my antivirus???

Mike

 

[mtrelfa]

Currently - I've now been able to play about two hours... thought it was fixed. Then it froze again. Same way, etc... I don't know what's causing it. (Obviously) I am still going to try to update my sound card driver which I haven't done. This last time, when I played two hours, I disabled my antivirus, so I thought that was the key!! Unfortunately there was still a freeze. I also ran memtest with no errors.

Mike

 

[ori]

just checking: is this game patched to date?

 

[peef_the_Okay]

mtrelfa: Assuming this unfortunate error keeps occurring, you might want to set the game to autosave every turn (setting is the in the ".ini" file in My Documents/My Games/Beyond the Sword folder). That way when it crashes you'll have only lost one turn.

 

[peef_the_Okay]

Just a thought... There is a set of files that add static (non-animated) leaderheads, movies, etc. to the game because this has caused crashes for many people. Link: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=161083. May be worth a shot.

 

[mtrelfa]

I think I've figured it out. I'm not sure, but I think it only happens when my laptop gets too hot. I slowed down the cpu speed, and I limit my playing time to only a couple of hours. If I let it cool down intermittently, it doesn't appear to be a problem. I haven't "tried" to overheat it though so it may only be coincidence. This laptop appears to be not very well ventilated, so .... I think this is it!

Thanks for all of your help.

Mike