Game crashes at random times

[stringztoo]

View attachment 180362

The game is patched up to 1.74 and doesn't have Warlords nor BtS installed. It crashes at random times, for instance, yesterday I got 3 hours of gameplay in but I'm at 1934AD and I'm crashing every other turn. I've had this game for 2 years now and gave up on it once but now that Revolutions is coming July 8 I'm getting back into it and it's frustrating that my whole computer resets.

Sometimes (1 out of 3 times) the game crashes and the whole PC resets.
Sometimes (1 out of 5 times) the game just closes to desktop.
Sometimes (1 out of 5 times) the game goes to a blue screen saying:
"IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

My system is listed in the dxdiag.txt file but for reference it's a WinXP SP2 P4 3.2 GHz with 2GB of RAM with an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT (256 MB) running up to date DirectX 9.0c. My system should be more than powerful enough to run this game but it's been a hassle for 2 years, and 2K was worthless. They said go to msconfig and uncheck everything on startup... which didn't do jack.

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Subject
Civ4

Discussion Thread
Response (Aurelien Le Gonidec) 27/02/2007 11.32 AM
Thank you for contacting Take 2 technical Support,

There are the steps you should take to get the game working:


1. Disable the background applications:
Click on start
Click on run
Enter msconfig
Click ok
Go to the tab startup
Click on disable all...
Click on apply
Click on close
Restart the computer

2. Empty your temporary folder:
As soon as the computer as restarted:
Click on start
Click on run
Enter %temp%
Click ok
Empty the folder of all its content (click on edit, select all, then file and delete and empty your bin).

3. Download the latest drivers for your graphic card, install them and restart the computer

4. Download the latest patch for the game:
http://gamershell.com

5. If this still does not work, could you please send us the dxdiag information?
Click on start
CLick on run
Enter dxdiag
CLick ok
ANswer yes to any question the program may ask you
Click on save all information
Send the file to us in reply to this mail

Kindest Regards
David
Take 2 technical Support
Customer (no name) 27/02/2007 05.56 AM
I must say, I was introduced to Civilization IV when I purchased my video
card for my new computer (a Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce 7600GT with 256MB of DDR
RAM). The full Civ 4 game came with the card. I installed it onto my
Pentium IV 3.2GHz with 2 GB of PC5300 DDR2 RAM as well as a SounBlaster
Live! card.

All of this is well above what is listed as being needed to run Civ 4.

This was installed on a brand new computer, all windows and video card
updates were downloaded and installed, and when the game's update files were
checked I was told it was up to date (v1.61)?

This game still crashes every 5-7 minutes. I have gone onto forums looking
for assistance and advice and I was told this has been a problem since the
game was released back in 2005. Is this true? I run everything at it's
absolute lowest graphical setting (which I shouldn't have to with my system)
and I turn every single program off that might be running in the background.
I would like to get assistance from Firaxis because while this game is very
interesting and intriguing... to have it crash blindly every 5 minutes and
losing your progress makes me absolutely hate this game.

Please assist. Thank you.

-Charles Cato

Question Reference No070227-000337
Product Level 1: PC
Product Level 2: Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Date Created: 27/02/2007 05.56 AM
Last Updated: 27/02/2007 11.32 AM
Status: Solved

(NOT SOLVED)

 

[Mr Israfil]

I had a similar problem. Check to make sure your fan is running on your video card. If it is, then I do not know what the problem could be.

 

[stringztoo]

I had a similar problem. Check to make sure your fan is running on your video card. If it is, then I do not know what the problem could be.

Nope, CPU fan at almost 32k RPM, GPU fan at 675 RPM (52° C), case fan RPM. This is the only program I have ever run in 2 years that causes anything at all to crash. It has to be a software setting, not my hardware. For no point other than to show my pretty video card:

 

[ori]

are there no newer drivers for your card? this sort of error message occurs mostly due to buggy drivers or faulty memory either on a graphics chip or ram...

 

[stringztoo]

are there no newer drivers for your card? this sort of error message occurs mostly due to buggy drivers or faulty memory either on a graphics chip or ram...

Nope, I checked and even though my drivers were 4 months old I DL'd and installed the May 2008 series 7 drivers http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.16_whql.html and not 4 secs after the map loaded... *ZAP* PC rebooted.

I have lots of games on this PC (FFXI, WoW, CoD4, World in Conflict) and only this one game crashes... ever.

 

[ori]

hard reboots plus those blue screens you noted really point towards some sort of memory problem regardless - it is not a behavior that any software should exhibit. Note: the fact that only one program causes this does not prove that there is no underlying hardware and/or driver issue - especially with corrupted memory stuff its often just one specific memory address that needs to be accessed to crash and every program tries to use different addresses.
Now the frustrating thing is: tracking this might not be easy - one thing I would recommend is running memtest for a while (i.e. overnight or so) to see whether your ram memory is all fine.
Apart from that I am afraid I have not much more to offer - I strongly doubt that it is a problem with Civ itself.

 

[stringztoo]

hard reboots plus those blue screens you noted really point towards some sort of memory problem regardless - it is not a behavior that any software should exhibit. Note: the fact that only one program causes this does not prove that there is no underlying hardware and/or driver issue - especially with corrupted memory stuff its often just one specific memory address that needs to be accessed to crash and every program tries to use different addresses.
Now the frustrating thing is: tracking this might not be easy - one thing I would recommend is running memtest for a while (i.e. overnight or so) to see whether your ram memory is all fine.
Apart from that I am afraid I have not much more to offer - I strongly doubt that it is a problem with Civ itself.

Updated the video driver (didn't do anything) Updated - View attachment 180623

Did a deductive reasoning test and the problem still persists. Took out 1 stick of RAM (1GB), and it crashed. Swapped it with the other RAM chip, still crashed. Only this game and only this program crashes. I do not see how this could be a hardware problem when only this one single program has any issues whatsoever.

One of the few BSoD's I get. This one references win32k.sys, others reference PAGEFAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and some refernce IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL....

Days like today I feel like July 8th can't come fast enough for CivRev...

 

[ori]

ok - you have 3 different error messages - I'll just post the possible causes of those as obtained from the microsoft knowledge database. I'll repeat my opinion that this is not a Civ4 problem - but that in the end is really just an opinion formed from my experience with how Civ4 behaves when crashing (and yes it does crash on some machines).

0x0000008E stop error (the BSOD you posted):

CAUSE
Possible causes of this error may include the following:
• Hard disk damage
• General hardware configuration problems with the BIOS, the memory, the hard disk, or with other devices
• Incompatible device driver
• Incompatible software

Pagefault etc. - this is a graphics driver issue:

CAUSE
This behavior may occur if any of the following conditions are true:
• An ATI, Matrox, Intel or NeoMagic video adapter is installed in the computer.
• The program is installed on a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based, Microsoft Windows 2000-based, or a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer.
• This issue may also occur when you perform a find in the program.

Microsoft Windows XP
Reduce the hardware acceleration setting. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Display.
3. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
4. On the Troubleshoot tab, drag the Hardware acceleration slider all the way to the left (to the None position), and then click OK.

Note If the issue continues to occur, reduce the Colors setting on the Settings tab of the Display Properties to 256 Colors, and then click OK.

IRQL etc. - this is a memory issue:

CAUSE
This problem occurs because of a race condition in the memory manager.
RESOLUTION
Method 1: Install security update 931784 (Recommended)
To install the most current update, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com)
You can also install security update 931784 at the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A7-4858-4B6B-9C6D-A9F1EAE19B51&displaylang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A7-4858-4B6B-9C6D-A9F1EAE19B51&displaylang=en)

Back to the top
Method 2: Install update 929338
The following file is available for download from the Microsoft download center:
DownloadDownload the WindowsXP-KB929338-x86-ENU.exe package now. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3AF7DCC4-E3A1-411A-9C9B-DC23923D09E7)
For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
119591 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/119591/) How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services
Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.
Prerequisites
You must have Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed to apply this update.
Restart requirement
You have to restart the computer after you apply this update.
Update replacement information
Security update 931784 replaces this update. For more information about security update 931784, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
931784 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931784/) MS07-022: Vulnerability in the Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege

now all those resolutions/workarounds work for some for others they don't - but they all have in common that it is a memory handling error most likely connected to the graphics card driver - which points to a hard- or software defect. Civ4 just happens to make your graphics card access a certain memory address it cannot handle - even though it should be able to.
I hope the above resolutions help - but my guess would be they won't It might be possible to test whether your RAM memory has a problem - but more likely is some trouble with the graphics chip and that would require replacing it - so if the above does not work I fear it will be a pain to get Civ4 to run

 

[stringztoo]

2K told me to tryn nwer drivers for my sound card, I had the most recent ones (from 2005...) Even tried an Audigy driver (I have a SoundBlaster Live! 24 bit) and it didn't work, I had no sound at all with that Audigy driver. 2K's reply:

Discussion Thread
Response (Chris) 22/06/2008 07.19 AM
Hello,

That is true, the Creative series of products are very rarely updated for the live! / Audigy series chipsets so you may infact have the latest version right there.

With regards to your issue with Civilization , do you receive similar problems with other just as powerful or more demanding games with the system restarts or the blue screens?

Usually the problems you are describing can be related to system failure more than software failure.

If you continue to have the same problems you can look at your event viewer as soon as the crash or restart happens to get a log file of the error message.

To go to the event viewer go to:

Control panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management > expand the event viewer > select system

Have a look at the system errors there and if possible provide screenshots or save the log files to a document and send them in to us.

Tried those security updates but I'm now running SP3 so Microsoft tells me those individual updates are unecessary. Tonight I got a new crash screen...

 

[ori]

this is again a memory error - did it specify what program caused it?

 

[stringztoo]

this is again a memory error - did it specify what program caused it?

That's all that came up while trying to get through my friggin game (which I'm at about 65% and kickin ass, less the crashes).

If it is a memory issue it has to be a video card then, because I have taken out my RAM and run the game on each stick of 1GB and it crashed both times... so the only RAM left is on the card.

Which would piss me off cause my 7600 GT isn't more than 18 months old or so...

 

[stringztoo]

...sigh

So I went from very my cool looking Gigabyte 7600 GT to a weenie looking, miniscule fan using Verto 8500 and viola... problem solved. How pathetic does this card look?

 

[stringztoo]

that only lasted a few hours... crash #1 now on a new card. (win32k.sys)

Crashed with GeForce 7600GT using:
#1 stick of 1 GB RAM installed only
#2 stick of 1 GB RAM installed only
#1 stick and #2 stick of RAM (2GB) installed

Crashed with GeForce 8500 using:
#1 stick and #2 stick of RAM (2GB) installed

 

[stringztoo]

Now I'm getting BSoD's I've never even seen before... this is bringing me to tears. I'm 2 video cards in and still having issues, etf is going on?

 

[stringztoo]

I take it I'm not going to receive any further insight, seeing as I've been the only person who has posted the last 5x....

Bought 2 new 1GB memory sticks, still crashing.

 

[ori]

I am afraid I am out of suggestions
of course there is always the off-chance that there is a problem with the OS and that a reinstall would help - but I am loath to suggest this really. I had hoped that someone else might have an idea...
Sorry that I cannot help in any better way

 

[Brian Boru]

I notice the last screen you posted mentions NTFS.sys, which is the hard drive file system.

If you have virtual memory on, turn it off: right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance

That "Bad Pool Header" error is a devil to diagnose, it usually means some driver is wonky--could be for any device, video, audio, network etc. One other thing I've seen mentioned to cure it is switching off any WiFi gear, although the error and that solution usually apply to Windows boot problems rather than in-game crashes.

Did you get the MS auto updates mid-June? If so, was there any driver update among them? If yes, get the manufacturer's latest driver and install it after uninstalling the MS one.

Turn off all your background processes before launching Civ--anti-virus etc. There's a free RAM check program [something like MemTest, I can't remember], if you can find that and test your RAM, it's worth doing.

Just a few thoughts for you. Don't get your hopes up, these weird crashes are hard enough to troubleshoot on my own machine, never mind someone else's machine on a forum

I'm in this forum because I'm getting a game freeze, hard reboot problem too since about two weeks ago. Started during BtS 313 + Bhruic's, still happens with 317. The timing makes me suspect something in the MS mid-June auto updates [but I didn't get any driver update].

 

[stringztoo]

I notice the last screen you posted mentions NTFS.sys, which is the hard drive file system.

If you have virtual memory on, turn it off: right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance

Turn off my virtual memory? Huh?

That "Bad Pool Header" error is a devil to diagnose, it usually means some driver is wonky--could be for any device, video, audio, network etc. One other thing I've seen mentioned to cure it is switching off any WiFi gear, although the error and that solution usually apply to Windows boot problems rather than in-game crashes.

Did you get the MS auto updates mid-June? If so, was there any driver update among them? If yes, get the manufacturer's latest driver and install it after uninstalling the MS one.

I've downloaded every update there is. I've had this crash before and after I downloaded SP3 so I'm pretty sure that isn't the issue.

Turn off all your background processes before launching Civ--anti-virus etc. There's a free RAM check program [something like MemTest, I can't remember], if you can find that and test your RAM, it's worth doing.

Start>Run>msconfig (cleared every startup in the log)
Start>Run>%temp% (cleared all possible temp files [(as per Firaxis' suggestion)])

Just a few thoughts for you. Don't get your hopes up, these weird crashes are hard enough to troubleshoot on my own machine, never mind someone else's machine on a forum

I'm in this forum because I'm getting a game freeze, hard reboot problem too since about two weeks ago. Started during BtS 313 + Bhruic's, still happens with 317. The timing makes me suspect something in the MS mid-June auto updates [but I didn't get any driver update].

Thanks for the input. Currently I get a crash about 5x in a 3.5 hour long game... so while it's annoying it's still playable, and I guess CivRev comes out in a week but still... I wanna fix this issue on my PC!

 

[Atom]

I notice the last screen you posted mentions NTFS.sys, which is the hard drive file system.

If you have virtual memory on, turn it off: right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Performance

That "Bad Pool Header" error is a devil to diagnose, it usually means some driver is wonky--could be for any device, video, audio, network etc. One other thing I've seen mentioned to cure it is switching off any WiFi gear, although the error and that solution usually apply to Windows boot problems rather than in-game crashes.

Did you get the MS auto updates mid-June? If so, was there any driver update among them? If yes, get the manufacturer's latest driver and install it after uninstalling the MS one.

Turn off all your background processes before launching Civ--anti-virus etc. There's a free RAM check program [something like MemTest, I can't remember], if you can find that and test your RAM, it's worth doing.

Just a few thoughts for you. Don't get your hopes up, these weird crashes are hard enough to troubleshoot on my own machine, never mind someone else's machine on a forum

I'm in this forum because I'm getting a game freeze, hard reboot problem too since about two weeks ago. Started during BtS 313 + Bhruic's, still happens with 317. The timing makes me suspect something in the MS mid-June auto updates [but I didn't get any driver update].

I am at the lower end of the computer spectrum for sure, but Civ 4 has always run well on my computer. Then about mid June the random freezes with full hard reboots began. Nothing I tried has worked, uninstalling/reinstalling, latest Directx9c, and various other fixes I learned on here. I think you're onto to something concerning MS updates, because that's the only thing that could have changed on my machine.

 

[Brian Boru]

Turn off my virtual memory? Huh?

Yep, it's perfectly safe to do, if something complains, you can always turn it back on You've got 2gig RAM so you don't need it for most things. Some programs require some virtual mem to run, so you may not be able to do without it permanently. It's just the thought which struck me when I saw NTFS mentioned in your error screen, maybe Civ is paging out some stuff to a dodgy [ie nearly bad] area on disk. It's a longshot, but an easy change to do and undo.

I've downloaded every update there is.

If there was any driver update from MS, try what I said.

Start>Run>msconfig ... Start>Run>%temp%

Check Task Manager, Processes tab, sort by User. End all processes with your user name, except Explore.exe--leave those with other Users like System, Network etc.

I think you're onto to something concerning MS updates

Yeah, same here, lower end XP SP2 machine with no recent changes except auto updates from MS and Nod32 anti-virus. If it is the MS updates, I've found past glitches are usually fixed within a month or two.

In happier news, I've just had about five hours gameplay without a problem I did two things:
1. Got and installed the June DirectX 9.0c update from MS. Made no difference, Civ crashed after about 10 minutes.
2. Updated my NIC [network] driver to the latest--that's the only out-of-date driver I had. Voila, five hours so far, touch wood.

Btw, when updating drivers, it's always best to uninstall the old one first, and then install the new one. You don't want bits of the old driver hanging around.

Stringztoo, I assume you've had a peek in Device Manager to check for any questionable [yellow Q-mark icon] or double entries? Disable anything in there you don't use, eg gameport or TV support which often comes with audio and video cards.

Have you defragged recently? If so, did you turn off virtual mem beforehand? You should, so the whole disc can be defragged. Also with virtual mem, try setting the min and max sizes the same, so Windows isn't continually expanding and contracting it--that can help sometimes.

Try the long version of ScanDisk [can take hours, I usually run it overnight] which tests the disk surface--in case there is some sector going bad.