Crash to a 800x600 4bit desktop

[Gorgobert]

Hi everyone,

after installing the patch my civ would crash to desktop and change graphics settings to 4bit (16 colours?) and 800x600 resolution. I am not able to reset those settings for a minute or two afterwards.
My System: gForce fx5600 256mb, sempron 2800+, 1gig ram, latest nvidia drivers.

any suggestions?

 

[big Deezy]

same issue here! GE Force FX5700LE
AMD 3400
1GB RAM

 

[Ceaser_12219]

And here. Comp doesn't do bad with other demanding games, so I'm asuming it's the game

 

[autarkis33]

I had the exact same problems after upgrading my driver (NVidia 5200) to 81.95. So I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled the old 56.72 (it has been awhile since I upgraded.)

Still get crashes to desktop on occasion, but not this way.

 

[HounddogLGS]

I've also had this happen a few times. but before the patch. Had to restart to get my graphics straightened out. Hadn't played enough post-patch to say it's fixed or not.

Interesting, I also have a Nvidia FX-5600 256mb card with the 81.95 drivers installed.

 

[Malagant]

I have the same problem with an FX5500. Happens more often the later in to a game I go. Happens just as often after 1.09 as before.

Great game, I surely with I could play it.

 

[HounddogLGS]

Obviously, this problem in specific to Nvidia cards. What driver version are you guys using when this occurs?? I think it might be specific to the 81.95 release.

Back to the drawing board...

 

[JensG]

Same problem here.

Before the patch, the game would occationally shut down to desktop when playing a huge game.

After the patch it also shuts down, but now in 800x600, and with suggestion to send error report to MS. After I then press Send or Don't Send, it get BSOD most of the times.

My system is:
Athlon 64 3500+ in MSI K8N NEO4 Platinum
1G Dual Channel RAM
GF 6600GT with 81.94 drivers(will try older drivers)
Audigy 2 sound
XP Home SP2

Jens

 

[Spekingur]

Same here. Crashes to desktop and resets the resolution and color.
I also noticed that I could not see my normal nVidia options which makes me believe that the game somehow makes the drivers and them things disappear. It's almost like you are thrown into Windows Safe Mode
This is most likely not a problem with the drivers but the game itself. Or maybe it's how these both work together.

My specs:
P4 2.4Ghz HT
1Gb RAM
GF FX5600 256mb
onboard sound
latest Nvidia drivers

 

[JensG]

I have now tried 78.01 driver for my 6600GT.

The game still crashes after some time, but the time before it crashes is different now.
Before I would get some graphics errors, and the game would hang for a while untill the graphics was re-renerated. This could happen a couple of times before it shut down.
Now I don't see these warnings. The game runs fine, untill it suddenly shuts down.

Jens

 

[Good_Newz]

Same here. After patch 1.09 it crashes every 15 turns in to the 800x600 resolution with 256 colors. The interesting thing is that i have a BFG geforce fx 5500 OC - 256MB with the 81.85 Nvidia drivers. I tried the 81.95 drivers but it started crashing every 4 turns...so i switched back. Has anyone tried the omega drives I heard somewhere that they might solve the problem?

 

[BobTheRabbit]

I had the 1.09 patch running for a couple of days, then, after installing the 81.95 drivers, I started having the same CTD 800x600 4-bit color problem. Although I have had slow/choppy performance issues since day one, I had not yet encountered a CTD, so this was pretty unusual for me. I had been playing for about 2 hours when the first one occurred, rebooted, played about six turns before the second one occurred, rebooted, and then got halfway through one turn before the third (and final) one occurred.

I found this thread, and on a whim I decided to roll my drivers back to 81.85. Since then, I still have the same slow performance as before, but have not yet had another CTD. I will post a follow-up if I do run into a CTD at a later date using 81.85, but for now I suspect that it's a driver issue.

My specs:
Pentium 4 - 2Ghz
1024 MB DDR Ram
GeForce FX 5500 128 MB
onboard sound

 

[SkywardShadow]

Glad I found this thread, I am having the same problems as everyone else, with or without the patch. The patch did fix other issues I was having.

My system runs other demanding games without a hitch as well.

My specs are:

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
2 512MB Memory Modules
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128MB
160GB Promise 1+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device
SAMSUNG CDRW/DVD SM-352B
PLEXTOR DVDR PX-708A

Edit: Crashes of course become far rarer on smaller maps and with graphics/animations on low quality/disabled.

 

[Arilakon]

well, It seems I'm the first ATI user to get this, at least to post it in this thread . Exact same type of problem after loading a 480KB map, which I played on last night for about 10 turns with the exact same situation with no problems. I think it was a large or huge Terra map around 1970AD, for what it's worth.

Athlon 2600+ XP
768MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB
Crappy old SoundBlaster Vibra 128

Windows XP Service Pack 2
Game is patched to 1.09

 

[Mychas]

After installing Patch 1.09 my experience of the game was slightly improved, but still getting CTD or BSOD later in the game (huge maps...but then, they're the only one's worth playing, aren't they?).

I just got my first CTD with the 800x600 & 4-Bit experience, and assume it's a combination of the 1.09 Patch and latest NVIDIA drivers. My PC has the following:

1.5 gHz Pentium 4
1.0 Gb RAM
FX 5600 Nvidia 256Mb , latest drivers
Windows XP (Home), fully updated

Hoping this is easily fixed in Patch 1.10 !? Great potential for this game, pity they released a Beta version, none of us are getting paid for the QA work.

 

[Malagant]

Has anyone had any success in finding a fix for this problem?

 

[HounddogLGS]

Has anyone had any success in finding a fix for this problem?

I'm going to try rolling my drivers back, hadn't had a chance to get to it though.

 

[spa]

I'm having this same problem too, about every two or three turns, which is quite annoying. It didn't happen pre-patch, but then again my current game is the most system taxing one I have ever played so I don't know if the problem was always there and I have just run into it now or if it is something that has sprung up on my machine after the patch. It does seem that the CTD problem is particularly bad for Nvidea (guess it's payback for having an easy ride while all the ATI users suffered on release). I'm using a year old driver (I don't know which one and I haven't been able to figure out how to find out), but the crash to desktop with the resolution and 4 bit colour is the same as described by the other posters. Let us hope that this gets cleared up in the next patch!

SPECS:
GeForce 5200
AMD 3000
768 RAM

 

[Fibber]

After playing CIV4 for around 60-90 minutes, the game begins to slow down, and everything but the terrain dissapears for a few seconds. Then I can see everything again. This happens several times before all the graphics turn the wierd colors (negative colors?). Then the slowdown just becomes so unbearable that I have to shut down the game. The desktop is 800x600 and 4bit and cannot be changed without restart. By this time, my will to play dissipates and I shutdown the PC and go to bed.

GeForce4 Ti4200
AMD3000+
1gb ram
XP sp2
1.09 patch

Never had anyproblems with any games. HalfLife2 ran like a dream... So I can't understand why Civ4 can't get it right...

 

[miramis]

Obviously, this problem in specific to Nvidia cards. What driver version are you guys using when this occurs?? I think it might be specific to the 81.95 release.

Back to the drawing board...

Dropping to 800x600 @ 4bit colour doesn't seem to be specific to the 81.95 Nvidia drivers. It's just done it with the 81.85 drivers, I have yet to try the older 71.89 drivers I have tucked away.

I have 3 events in the event log correlating to the time of CTD.
This is first...
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 29/11/2005
Time: 15:47:58
User: N/A
Computer: EVA
Description:
Faulting application civilization4.exe, version 1.0.9.1722, faulting module civilization4.exe, version 1.0.9.1722, fault address 0x005d0458.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 63 69 76 ure civ
0018: 69 6c 69 7a 61 74 69 6f ilizatio
0020: 6e 34 2e 65 78 65 20 31 n4.exe 1
0028: 2e 30 2e 39 2e 31 37 32 .0.9.172
0030: 32 20 69 6e 20 63 69 76 2 in civ
0038: 69 6c 69 7a 61 74 69 6f ilizatio
0040: 6e 34 2e 65 78 65 20 31 n4.exe 1
0048: 2e 30 2e 39 2e 31 37 32 .0.9.172
0050: 32 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 2 at off
0058: 73 65 74 20 30 30 35 64 set 005d
0060: 30 34 35 38 0d 0a 0458..

Second Event..
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 29/11/2005
Time: 15:49:47
User: N/A
Computer: EVA
Description:
Fault bucket 245479737.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 42 75 63 6b 65 74 3a 20 Bucket:
0008: 32 34 35 34 37 39 37 33 24547973
0010: 37 0d 0a 7..

And the third is a DrWatson report which basically says Civ 4 generated an error. (Too long a report to add here).
Hopefully this information will help someone pinpoint the problem.

*Edit*
Forgot the specs.
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (2.2Ghz)
2 x 512mb DDR PC2700 (1Gig total)
Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 TD 256mb (81.95 & 81.85 drivers tried)
SB Audigy2 ZS
80gig & 40 gig hdd
52x CD-ROM
16x DVD-ROM (Civ is dvd version)
XP Home SP2
DX9.0c updated by Civ