Civ4 (with bootcamp) crashes on iMac 24" ATI Radeon 2600X

[musterschieber]

I tried running Civ 4 rev. 1.74 on a new iMac 24" with the ATI Radeon 2600X graphic adapter. As the Win port is much faster and more reliable than the Mac one I installed the Win port. When I try to run the game it crashes shorty after loading with a black screen of the GUI while background processes (such as audio) are still running. It is just about the same behaviour I experienced with Mac OS X 10.4.10 after installing the 1.1 iMac update. Either the drivers for the ATI adapter are crap as well in their Mac OS X as in the boot camped Windows XP version or there is a problem in the board layout of the new iMac that makes the Radeon 2600X stall.

Are there any folks in here experiencing similar problems with the same configuration?

 

[AlanH]

Hi Welcome

Have you tried it in windowed mode? Sometimes the resolution changes that games jump through during startup can cause this sort of effect. Window mode can remove that from the equation.

 

[musterschieber]

Have you tried it in windowed mode? Sometimes the resolution changes that games jump through during startup can cause this sort of effect. Window mode can remove that from the equation.

Unfortunately it makes no difference. The graphic adapter crashes in full screen as well as in windows mode. Additionally I tried it with Parallels 3.0 just to check how its virtual graphic driver is about to behave. No chance. Doesn't matter how much VRAM is assigned or whether DirectX support is activated or not. Civ4 just doesn't like and freezes while initializing its ressources.

 

[AlanH]

It seems very strange that Civ4 can crash the ATI card in all three modes, and I begin to suspect you have a faulty graphics card. It might be worth trying to get Apple to swap it.

 

[Eio]

What graphics driver are you using on the Windows side? The drivers supplied by Apple with Boot Camp are extremely outdated to say the least.

Try the following drivers first before returning the machine:

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php

 

[musterschieber]

What graphics driver are you using on the Windows side?

The hardware manager tells me that the system is using the ATI driver 8.390.0.0. dated 06-14-2007. The driver file (according to the DirectX check tool) seems to be ati2dvag.dll. A few days ago I tried to update with the Catalyst 7.1 driver ATI now recommends for the Radeon 2600X. But as well the Catalyst as the Omega installer do not install an updated ATI driver but tell me that they do not find a video driver for the ATI Mobility Radeon 2600X installed. Nevertheless I could use the resolution switching tool from the Omega driver set. Unfortunately neither changing the refresh rate nor the resolution stops the adapter from freezing. I guess it must really be the adapter – when Civ 4 tries to start I see lots of moving white pixels following the horizontal scan lines from the left to the right and their is ugly white noise from the computer.

I guess I will try to get the adapter changed and then check whether the problem is solved with the new one. If the problem persists and thus will propably affect others as well, I will tell you on this thread.

Thanks a lot so far

 

[Eio]

But as well the Catalyst as the Omega installer do not install an updated ATI driver but tell me that they do not find a video driver for the ATI Mobility Radeon 2600X installed.

Follow the instructions from http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/ and you should have the latest drivers.

It's a very convoluted process because ATI does not supply mobility drivers, that is the job of the OEM in this case Apple. Well, we all know how that works out.

Sorry about the last link, those won't work on mobility cards, my fault

 

[musterschieber]

The problem appears to be solved by replacing the driver provided by boot camp with an ATI driver. There is still a little white snow remaining, but Civ 4 is playable at last. Thanks a lot for your hints that helped me getting back to one of my favourite games! Instead of using the "Mobility modder" I extracted the driver from the original ATI installer using this How-To I found on discussions.apple.com.

To update your drivers for ATI Radeon 2600 PRO, do the following:

1. Download the latest driver from this website: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp

2. Unpack everything and "install." What I mean by "install" is that you must do everything you would to install it all the way to the point where the software declines to update due to not recognizing the hardware. This essentially unpacks everything into C:/ATI, which is necessary to update the driver, but this does not install the driver (for some reason).

3. Right-click My Computer, choose Properties. In the pop-up box, click the Hardware tab, and choose Device Manager.

4. In Device Manager, expand the Display adapters branch. You should see the graphics card listed as ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT. Right-click it, and choose Update Driver.

5. Hardware Update Wizard pops up and asks if you want to use the Internet to find the driver online. Choose No, not this time. Similarly, in the next window, choose Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) when asked how do you want to install the driver. In the window next, choose "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install".

6. In the next window, choose "Have disk". A window pops up; click Browse. Locate file using this approximate address: C:/ATI/Support/(whatever the download file was titled here)/Driver/Driver/XP_INF/CX_53250.inf. The file may not be the same name, but choose whatever INF file is in there. This file lists all of the graphics card by ATI up to the release date of the download. Click Open, and then OK. In the list brought up by the INF file, find ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO.

7. The point of no return, sorta: Click Yes if you want to update, click No if you don't. The pop-up is just saying that if it's the wrong driver, features of the graphics card will not work properly. Just to let you know, I have not had snowing or black screen since updating. If you're worried, you can test drive and revert the change later by Roll Back Driver.

8. If you updated, restart Windows for the change to take effect.

 

[Eio]

Glad to hear you got it working.