Freeze/Crash/Reboot

[Paladin NW]

I got in one turn this morning, before a crash. I also got in one turn this afternoon... Any suggestions on how to get Civ IV to opperate with a minimum of crashes would be great.

This is NOT a heat problem. I can play many of the first person shooters or MMPOLG such as City of Heroes/City of Villians and D&D Online on this machine, and those with better than standard graphics. I am tending to agree with those who think or feel that Firaxis/2K games really dropped a turd here.

 

[crunch]

Well. If medium settings crash the game, try minimum settings to see if you can play longer. Turn off audio (ini file: EnableAudio=0). Turn off movies (in the ini file and in game). Turn on single unit graphics, turn off animations (and everything else that sounds like more load). Don't use any mods (which you don't). Play smaller maps.

BTW your graphics card is not exactly awesome, so don't expect too much.

Perhaps this can help you disable windows messenger. If not, google some more.
http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/docs/messagepopup/

 

[Paladin NW]

I have already set my Graphics to Low (after crashing repeatedly at Medium). I have not turned off the audio since there is no issue with that, ditto the movies, as the only video that has any glitches is the initial movie at start up, and I just skip that now. I have yet to crash during a movie.

Thanks also for the link to disable Windows Messenger, I've been wanting to get rid of it for some time!

btw I made a mistake, this is not Windows XP Home edition, rather it is the Media Center edition (not that I know the difference). I actually prefer XP Pro which I have on my laptop.

Due to a prompt from Microsoft (a message after a crash suggested upping the hard ware accelerator) so I set it from 1344 to 2600 (almost highest possible).

Any other suggestions would be appreaciated.

 

[markh]

This is NOT a heat problem. I can play many of the first person shooters or MMPOLG such as City of Heroes/City of Villians and D&D Online on this machine, and those with better than standard graphics. I am tending to agree with those who think or feel that Firaxis/2K games really dropped a turd here.

I thought the same for my PC. All other games ran well without any problem. Nevertheless I bought a new PSU and two additional fans and since then I did not have a single crash. I tried anything else and do not want to say that this will be the solution for you, too. Just the experience I made with it.

 

[crunch]

Even if you don't have issues with audio/movies, turning these off can leave resources for gameplay and crash less.

 

[Paladin NW]

I have turned settings to Low, and selected a smaller map and can now play for several turns w/o crashing. My movies have been starting to glitch (they had not before I set graphics to Low); so I will turn them off now. At least I can play the game some. If this does not improve I will take MarkH's suggestion and upgrade my video card (any suggestions on a good nVIDIA graphics card, maybe one with an enhanced fan built in?) and add fan units too.

Thanks again for helping with the frustrations!

I have added this post to my subsrciptions list.

 

[markh]

I have turned settings to Low, and selected a smaller map and can now play for several turns w/o crashing. My movies have been starting to glitch (they had not before I set graphics to Low); so I will turn them off now. At least I can play the game some. If this does not improve I will take MarkH's suggestion and upgrade my video card (any suggestions on a good nVIDIA graphics card, maybe one with an enhanced fan built in?) and add fan units too.

I know what you are going through. I was very frustrated, too.

I did not upgrade my videocard. I have a nVidia 6600GT (from MSI) and it runs ok for me. I bought a new power supply and two fans for my tower case. The fan on my video card is ok. The additional case fans were nothing special, but I bought a good power supply. The airflow in my case is much better now and it stays cool. Before even my case got very warm playing CIV.

 

[Paladin NW]

I know what you are going through. I was very frustrated, too.

I did not upgrade my videocard. I have a nVidia 6600GT (from MSI) and it runs ok for me. I bought a new power supply and two fans for my tower case. The fan on my video card is ok. The additional case fans were nothing special, but I bought a good power supply. The airflow in my case is much better now and it stays cool. Before even my case got very warm playing CIV.

Hmmm, I still have some crashes, however, my tower has never run hot, nor been blowing warm air. I did place a room fan to blow cool air on it after reading some posts here. I will take it to some people who know hardware and gaming computers and make what upgrades they suggest. With any luck they are already playing Civ IV, so they will know what upgrades to make.

Thanks again!

 

[explorer2260]

Here is a possible fix to the problem with the black screens and crashing. I don't think it is a specific civ4 problem. I have had the same problem with several geforce gfx cards (5200 and 6200). It appears that the games or prehaps directx can corrupt the monitor driver. What I suggest doing is to reboot the computer going into say vga mode (using the F8 option) and once booted up, uninstall the monitor driver. Then restart the computer and it should reinstall the plug & play monitor driver and the problem should (fingers crossed) be corrected. I had the problem loads of times when I played games and this fix after much trawling of forums does appear to work.

Ed

 

[willgamer]

Just repeating from earlier threads what worked for me.

Go back to nVidia Forceware version 71.89

I tried many other solutions for days including installing a new power supply to no avail. After reverting to 71.89, 30+ hours without glitches.

Best wishes for your situation

 

[pittfrog]

Echoing Willgamer's experience: going back to Nvidia driver 71.89 resolved my issue

 

[Trapy]

hey, was reading this thread, and thought i'd throw in this incase anybody else was having a prob:

I've got an ATI RAEDON 9550. When I installed game, after I got it working (after the whole direct X thing), was fine. Turn off computer, next morning, I could only play for about 5 mins before it went to black. Every other game, fine. Only Civ would go black, and I had to hard restart, even when playing in a window.

Disabled autosaves, nothing
Disabled screenshots, nothing
Enables memory saver, ahh, works perfectly now. Haven't re-enabled autosaves or screenshots, but, they aren't exactly functions i use anyway .

 

[kokomo]

I've switched to a Nvidia 6800 (manufactured by Biostar) and after loading a game, the computer restarts alone after 2 minutes + or -

Got latest drivers updated

I enclose Dxdiag just in case anyone want to peek inside

check here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=259084

 

[kokomo]

GPU temp is 62C, could it be that?