Exits to desktop when loading anything renaissance or above

[kiper32]

Okay so I finally decided to give in and go purchase Civ4(Just too many games to beat first and civ3 serviced fine for the moment). I then installed it, after attempting like 3 times because of errors when changing disks, I was successful and able to play. Experienced no problems playing until 2 days ago I attempted to load a game that was in the medieval era and the game went directly back to desktop without any error messages or anything. I then tried another few saves in ancient eras and other earlier periods. They all loaded fine. I then tried to begin a custom game in each era and found that in the rennaissance and beyond it will go to the loading screen and then halfway through exit to the desktop, but this time give me a windows error message. The only time I get this error message is if I attempt to load a custom game in one of those eras or the previously mentioned save from in-game. If I try to load it from the main menu no error pops up just exits program as soon as I double click the file(not sure if this is important). I've searched and found others with this problem, but most of the time it appears to be a ram or video card issue. I do not think this is the same issue for me as I have at or above the recommendation. I also patched to the most recent patch, however I do not have any of the expansions installed.

I have also attached the dx file. Any help would be appreciated, as I do want to finish that saved game

 

[Furiey]

Welcome to CFC!

Your graphics card driver is ancient, although whether that is the issue or not I don't know.

ATI drivers are here although as it is a Dell you may have to look and see what Dell have listed. Worth updating anyway if you can.

You could try posting a save that you can not load so someone else can try it.

 

[kiper32]

Yeah, I bought the computer 5 years ago, and havent bothered with updating any of the hardware. All of the drivers, however, are up to date. I have never had a problem playing any game on here that I have tried. I can play the game into the rennaissance to the end of the game with no issue, its just attempting to load a game that causes problems. Here is the event viewer error if it helps and I will also add my save:

faulting application civilization4.exe 1. 6. 1. 1841, faulting module civilization4.exe version 1. 6. 1. 1841, faulting address 0x00050636

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 36 2e 31 2e 31 38 34 .6.1.184
0030: 31 20 69 6e 20 63 69 76 1 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 36 2e 31 2e 31 38 34 .6.1.184
0050: 31 20 61 74 20 6f 66 66 1 at off
0058: 73 65 74 20 30 30 30 35 set 0005
0060: 30 36 33 36 0d 0a 0636..



I will also get:

0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 48 61 6e 67 ion Hang
0010: 20 20 72 75 6e 64 6c 6c rundll
0018: 33 32 2e 65 78 65 20 35 32.exe 5
0020: 2e 31 2e 32 36 30 30 2e .1.2600.
0028: 35 35 31 32 20 69 6e 20 5512 in
0030: 68 75 6e 67 61 70 70 20 hungapp
0038: 30 2e 30 2e 30 2e 30 20 0.0.0.0
0040: 61 74 20 6f 66 66 73 65 at offse
0048: 74 20 30 30 30 30 30 30 t 000000
0050: 30 30 00

 

[Furiey]

Your graphics drivers are dated 2005, the latest for your card I linked to are dated 2010. If you can use a later driver do so, even the GEForce 2 on my old P4 machine has a later driver than 2005.

It also looks like your Civ 4 is only patched to 1.61. The latest patch is 1.74. Try patching to 1.74.

Your save loaded fine for me on my 1.74 version of Civ 4.

 

[kiper32]

I updated the driver, still had the same problem. The weird part about everything was that I had already downloaded and installed the patch, but for some reason the error read 1.6. I even reinstalled the patch yesterday, although when I went to do it, it told me that I already had the most up to date patch. Once installed the game would not open up at all, giving me an error about a missing python file and saying I would need to reinstall the game. Once I went to reinstall it would not allow me to do so because I needed to uninstall(not sure the exact error). When I went to uninstall I would get the uninstallshield wizard to pop up with an error stating that it could not uninstall it. After I quick search on here I found the solution to the problem and began deleting the necessary files from my registry. So now I can began the installer, where it randomly freezes between disks. I was able to get it on the 2nd or 3rd attempt this time. Started the game, and was able to open something in the modern area(yay!!). Decided to patch so I could play online and then after the patch was finished I got a d3dx.dll error. Again a search on here provided the solution, and everthing is working perfectly.

I must say this game has given me almost every headache I think that is out there. From the freezing disks on installation, to not being able to uninstall. I must thank everyone on here for all of their work to find resolutions for these problems over the years. Without this site I would have been lost.

 

[Furiey]

Sounds like you had almost every problem thrown at you. Glad it now works, happy Civving!