Game crashes at 75 BC

[hanskamp]

Today I bought this game. No problems with installing and playing the demo before.

I played without problems until 75 BC. Then it crashes and freezes the whole computer.

The computer is a Media Center PC. The OS is Windows XP Media Center Edition.

 

[GG 1]

Uhhmm.. I think we might need a little more info. Processor speed/RAM, and the map size and number of civs in your game.

 

[hanskamp]

Uhhmm.. I think we might need a little more info. Processor speed/RAM, and the map size and number of civs in your game.

Respectively:
- 3.2 GHz;
- 1.5 GB;
- Huge;
- I believe 7.

 

[bio_hazard]

hanskamp- the exact video card, and drivers seem to be important- check out the stickied threads here.

I'm running on much different hardware, so chances are our problems are similar in symptoms, not solution. I used to have fairly regular crashes about 30-60 min into the game. Patching seemed to help some, as did deleting the cache. I wouldn't say that I'm crash free now, but I was able to start up a game and play for about 2.5 hours last night w/no crash.

 

[Natronomonas]

A full crash/freeze, as opposed to crash to desktop, is tough to figure out. The game just seems to do that, a lot of us are getting used to it
The crash to desktop can be improved - there's a relatively painless then more complicated way to fix it:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=135019 <- go here first, try the CTD .ini changes

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=145238 <- this is a more thorough version of above, but you may not need to go that far.

I've done the first set of changes, and it helped me. However, the game still freezes sometimes - sometimes you can alt-tab to windows and then it closes itself by crashing, or less often it requires a hard reset.

Either way, I recommend changes (in the .ini file) the autosave from 4 to 3,2 or 1 turns - that way you don't lose the last 20 unit moves you did etc...

 

[hanskamp]

My machine has 2 graphic adapters, both are: Gigabyte RADEON X300 128MB.

Deliverer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Datum: 22-2-2005
Driver version: 6.14.10.6517

(The machine is a Mediacenter PC, with the functionality of 2 TVs, radio, 2 recording features and a GM-keyboard, possibly a dual pentium.)

 

[Zydor]

You state you crashed on Huge maps. There is a known memoery issue in Civ IV, and its now known without doubt where its coming from - verified by many countless numbers who applied the memory patch, and return to post there thanks to Harkonnen. I have a strong suspicion you will fall into that area with that spec, the memory patch has had considerable success with people on that spec playing large & huge maps.

Go for the fixes above, then if you still have problems try the memory patch at:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

Regards
Zy

 

[hanskamp]

Go for the fixes above, then if you still have problems try the memory patch at:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

I will try the above soon...

But the new driver slows down the performance terribly!

With other games (World of Warcraft) this slowdown is minor, but if you play on a huge map, the performance is slower than with the older driver.

 

[Zydor]

When playing on Large & Huge maps the problem is mainly memory related, and is by far the Major issue, but it is very wise to apply the above fixes first. With many games the main issues always tend to be driver related - thats not to say there are no driver issues here, because there are - the problem is, there is also a, verified, huge memory problem as well (particularly on large & huge maps) which is unusual in game releases, and 'clouds' peoples perspective of what is going on this time.

Regards
Zy

 

[hanskamp]

The good performance is back, but it still crashes. I am back at the beginning. The fixes that others recommended me to apply, doesn't work. The only positive thing is: I have a newer driver, which may cause less problems with future games.

 

[Zydor]

If you saw a performance increase, try nipping over to Harkonnen thread and explain that you got a performance boost but still get CTDs, also tell them the settings you used in the Harkonnen patch. They may have a suggestion or two for you.

Just to check the obvious when you apply that patch you unzip files to the Civ IV directory, one file needs overwriting (that must happen or the patch will not run), did you get such a request when unpacking (eg something like ......ok to over write ..... etc, if you didnt, the patch was not loaded properly

EDIT: You said newer driver, have you tried rolling back to an older one ? The issue there is that drivers and the software base for the Beta tests on which the Release was based will have been frozen some time ago (cant Beta test if you keep changing the software base), and newer less stable drivers can cause issues, no guarantees, but many have found older drivers circa 6-9 months older work a lot better, may not work for you, but worth a go

Regards
Zy