Crash on Start: Civ & Warlords

[Leighgion]

I'm still in the midst of trying remedies, but I figured I'd throw this this question out:

On my MacBook Pro running 10.5.1, I discovered that both vanilla Civ and Warlords "quit unexpectedly" error. Updating to the 1.74 (which did install successfully) made no difference. Warlords was already updated to 2.08.

At first I thought it was a Leopard problem, but I've read here many people running the game under Leopard and my dual 1.8 G5 which is also on Leopard appears to start up Civ just fine.

So far I've tried trashing prefs and ini files, but it's made no difference. Ran the usual suspects of general diagnostics for the computer but also no dice.

Any experience/ideas?

 

[AlanH]

Hi

1. When does it crash? As soon as you launch? During the intro movie? During the Python/XML loading sequence? When you try to start a game?

2. Have you tried launching with the Command key down and changing the display options - full screen/window or screen resolution? Do you get as far as that screen? Any difference if you change options?

3. Is there a crash log? When you get the Quit Unexpectedly error, you can click "Report to Apple" and it will open a log window. Copy/paste the log text to a post here, and we may be able to tell what's causing the problem.

If you don't see this option, check for old log files as follows:

- Launch /Applications/Utilities/Console
- If there's no left pane, click "Show Log List" in the toolbar, or select it in the "View" menu.
- In the left hand pane, select LOG FILES -> ~/Library/Logs -> Crash Reporter
- Look in the list for Civilization IV_<date&time>_<computer>.crash
or Civilization IV Warlords_<date&time>_<computer>.crash
... where <computer> is hte name of your computer.
- Highlight each of these entries and you can copy/paste the text from the right hand pane into a post here.

No promises, but we may be able to help.

 

[Leighgion]

AlanH, thanks for the reply.

1. I get several bounces of the dock icon and then get the "unexpectedly quit" message, so I suppose it'd be considered crashing on start. It's absolutely consistent in this.

2. Holding down the command key changes nothing. Crash on start.

3. Here's an abbreviated portion of the log generated. If needed, I can grab a whole one, but I figured I'd start saving on spam first since the header portion seems most informative.

Process: Civilization IV Warlords [394]
Path: /Applications/Civilization IV/Warlords/Civilization IV Warlords.app/Contents/MacOS/Civilization IV Warlords
Identifier: com.aspyr.civ4warlords
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [123]

Date/Time: 2008-01-30 12:58:57.586 -0800
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.1 (9B18)
Report Version: 6

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x000000000001e8ff
Crashed Thread: 0

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 com.aspyr.civ4warlords 0x0001e8d8 IDirectSound3DListener_Mac::SetVelocity(float, float, float, unsigned long) + 46
1 ??? 0x02b74929 0 + 45566249
2 dyld 0x8fe12db6 ImageLoaderMachO::doModInitFunctions(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&) + 246
3 dyld 0x8fe0e623 ImageLoader::recursiveInitialization(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&, unsigned int) + 307
4 dyld 0x8fe0e709 ImageLoader::runInitializers(ImageLoader::LinkContext const&) + 57
5 dyld 0x8fe040c2 dyld::initializeMainExecutable() + 162
6 dyld 0x8fe07b1f dyld::_main(mach_header const*, unsigned long, int, char const**, char const**, char const**) + 2975
7 dyld 0x8fe01872 dyldbootstrap::start(mach_header const*, int, char const**, long) + 818
8 dyld 0x8fe01037 _dyld_start + 39

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x0001e8df ebx: 0x02b7511a ecx: 0x00000000 edx: 0x0001e7cf
edi: 0x00000001 esi: 0x00001548 ebp: 0xbfffe138 esp: 0xbfffe10c
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010293 eip: 0x0001e8d8 cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x0001e8ff

Binary Images:

**Cut**

Appreciate any insight/suggestions!

 

[AlanH]

Normally, during a few dock icon bounces, the system checks the DVD (you do have the DVD loaded, I assume?) then, if the Command key is held down during launch, it brings up the video settings dialog. So it appears that the app is failing even before this stage.

Your crash log (thanks - that's the only useful bit from my amateur point of view!) points to a problem with a sound driver. It has crashed so early that the system doesn't even have its version data yet.

Is there anything odd about your System Preferences/Sound settings?

It's interesting that madra reported a somewhat similar crash log sequence at launch, for Civ3 Complete after upgrading to Leopard, and solved it only by reverting to Tiger. His log didn't identify a specific driver, though.

I assume you have run Software Update to ensure that you have the latest Leopard patches?

Unless anyone else here has any insights, I suggest contacting Aspyr in case they are aware of a known problem and/or a fix.

 

[AlanH]

I've just re-read that Civ3 crash report, and I note that it was created when the user was trying to run Civ3 from the DVD. So it's probably not relevant

However, it does make me wonder if there's a permissions issue involved. Running the app from a DVD is a no-no because the DVD is a read-only device. If your Civ4 application is read-only as seen from your user account this might cause a similar problem. Maybe try repairing permissions?

 

[Leighgion]

I've got both DVDs of course, yes, and informatively it doesn't matter if I have a Civ IV or Warlords disc in the drive or not. The apps blow up before they can check.

I have repaired permissions to no effect, but I haven't yet tried just reinstalling Civ IV completely. That may be next.

Thanks for your suggestions, Alan. We'll see if I'm still up to trying anything after my tooth is out after afternoon. Ouch.

 

[Leighgion]

Hmm well, I can't take credit for it, but running the 10.5.2 update appears to have fixed things!

 

[xochitl727]

Hello.. I have a very similar crash-on-start problem. Macbook Pro, 10.5.2, etc, etc. It was working just fine for me until I swapped out my stock hard drive for a 7200 rpm 200 gb drive. Now it crashes after a few dock bounces with this error:

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread: 0

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 com.aspyr.civ4warlords 0x0001df72 IGraphBuilder_Mac::QueryInterface(_GUID const&, void**) + 16

the DVD is in the drive. anyone know what this is?

 

[virtuous70]

I know this is 2 years late, but I was having the same problem until I installed the 10.5.8 update. Now the game launches!