Civ IV Unexpectedly Quits

[Fedaykin]

I'm not sure why, but Civ IV is unexpectedly quitting on me a lot. It typically happens between 10 & 40 minutes into game play, and it doesn't seem to be triggered by any action in particular. There is no error messege of prolonged crash, I'm just playing then all of a sudden I'm back at my desktop and Civ IV isn't running anymore. I recently upgraded the drivers for my graphics card for my ATI x1600 Pro and suspect this might be related tothe cause. Any ideas how to make this stop?

 

[Velvet-Glove]

I recently upgraded the drivers for my graphics card for my ATI x1600 Pro and suspect this might be related tothe cause. Any ideas how to make this stop?

You obviously have your suspicions - have you tried reverting back to the previous drivers to see if matters improve? If they do then the new driver could be buggy, the latest drivers are not always the best. If the problem still persists with the old driver then something else must be causing this.

Tip: do make sure you always remove & re-install drivers by following the recommended procedure by the driver supplier. If you don't do it properly then conflicts may conceivably arise.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Kivarenn22]

I am having the EXACT same problem. same date, same type of crash. No error messages, no error reports, just quits directly to desktop.

 

[Fedaykin]

You obviously have your suspicions - have you tried reverting back to the previous drivers to see if matters improve? If they do then the new driver could be buggy, the latest drivers are not always the best. If the problem still persists with the old driver then something else must be causing this.

Tip: do make sure you always remove & re-install drivers by following the recommended procedure by the driver supplier. If you don't do it properly then conflicts may conceivably arise.

Let us know how you get on.

My unit is running CATALYST 6.6- the latest (and for that matter, only) compatible drivers available on RADEON's website. I still have the original drivers that came with the card, however, they were old enough Civ IV wouldn't even run (I'd get the openning screen with the spinning planet but no New Game/Load Game etc menu) which is why I upgraded. With my old graphics card, a RADEON 9250, the game TECHNICALLY worked, but the performance was horrible. The "recommended" system specs were horribly low for the game.

Anyway, I'm averaging 20-40 minutes of playing time per round, which was enough to come here looking for help. Autosave is permitting me to keep playing through this. Morrowind has the same problem quitting (which from techie forums I've read, is part of the game), but is more or less managable as it occurs only every few hours.

 

[T_Raccoon]

there must be other drivers you can revert to keep checking. Use driver cleaner pro if you change drivers, its free and easy to use. First download the new driver. Uninstall your new one. Restart. Use driver cleaner pro to clean out any remnants of the previous driver and then install the new one.

 

[markofmayhem]

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBList.asp?folderID=307

Go to page 3 for the 6.1 and above drivers. This is for Windows XP 32 bit flavor.

 

[crunch]

- patch the game
- are the crashes more common on larger maps/later eras? - play smaller maps
- reinstall latest directx
- monitor gpu temperature (if you're reaching limits, lower gfx settings)
- got enough memory?
- free resources before running civ (close background apps) (cannot harm)
- experiment with various gfx options, lower res/details (even if you can play other games flawlessly), perhaps it can prolong your gameplay

 

[FredJohnson]

I have a X1600 also if it matters, and I have the same problem.
I have done everything these forums recomends I do, changing the ini file to reducing graphics settings and everything inbetween. Nothing has any effect on it, including map size. This game is the only game on my computer that crashes. It even crashes in civ if I just let it sit, while I am reading stuff while its my turn, so I can rule out any events happening as the cause. All of my temperatures are normal. No error message, just BAM! I am back to desktop with no warning. I have clean reinstalled everything I can think of. Somtimes I can go almost an hour, somtimes not even 3 minutes before it crashes, so far its been a nice waste of 45 bucks.