Game crashes...video card problem?

[Sparrowmint]

I'm running an HP laptop that I got last year, with windows XP.

Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo (@1.66 ghz)
2 GB of RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 video card (with updated drivers)

And I get this same error message, even in early games without much of the map open.

Failed to allocate video memory. Please try reducing your graphics settings.
File:\main\Civilization4\SDKs\Gamebryo2_0\CoreLibs\NiDX9Renderer\NiDX9VBManager.cpp, Line:1019

Frustrating as hell. I shouldn't have to reduce graphics settings on this computer, it runs Oblivion with mods and expansions on the highest level graphics like a dream. But it can't run Civ4? Yeah, that makes sense.

 

[Shardson]

Have exact same issue, but I discovered that the new AV program (Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2007) I had just installed brought on the issue. It was not the only game I experienced an issue with after installing it. I also play Everquest 2 and it experienced Directx9 renderer memory induced CTDs once Trend was installed.
Turning off likely features such as realtime scan and excluding just about any file that should be affected made no difference to the crashes. The only thing I found to fix them was to uninstall Trend.

-Shardson

...Never fight a land war in a teenagers bedroom...

 

[Quiet Man]

...The only thing I found to fix them was to uninstall Trend.

Interesting point, Shardson. As it turns out, I too have Trend Micro PCcillin installed on my machine; however it's only been since January and I've had Civ IV for longer than that. I've had problems with CIV IV since day one (DirectX 9.0c problems), but I don't remember when the out-of-video memory problems started. You might be on to something.

Thanks for the input.

It would be interesting to see if anyone else having this problem also has PCcillin installed.

 

[Shardson]

It may be that PC-cillin is merely exacerbating a pre-existing condition causing it to fail sooner, but keep in mind that most av programs frequently apply hotfixes to improve upon their functionality. So it's possible that one of the hotfixes could have caused the problem and you may not necessarily have put 2+2 together at the time.
I just happened to be evaluating the latest and greatest with a view to move from a different vendors product when my problem started so it was a fairly obvious culprit.

 

[Minmaster]

i have no AV programs. that can't be the sole reason.

 

[Sparrowmint]

Yeah, I've tried turning my anti-virus program off, doesn't help.

And I've since turned down my graphics and am still getting this error. Sigh.

 

[Albatoonoe]

I also have that problem.

I have an ATI Radeon 9250. I was really starting to get into the game when this started happening.

 

[Minmaster]

i've updated to latest catalyst and applied the most recent patch 3.03 (i didn't before because there were so many people who said not to use the 3.03 patch) and so far i haven't had this problem. i'm not sure whether it was the video drivers or bts patch that fixed this issue.

 

[Wirapuru]

I don`t know if anyone said this already but in my case setting this value true on the CivilizationIV.ini eliminated all the crashes:

Spoiler :

; Use managed interface textures (may be safer but shouldn't be needed, uses more memory)
GUIManagedTextures = 1

I was having CTDs almost every 2 turns and ofc very p***ed off. I tried to change this when I saw that it was crashing ONLY when the game accessed some UI panel (F1, F5, etc) and when it crashed between turns, when I reloaded, I saw that was because the diplomatic screen as well..

Now I don't need to lower *any* video setting, MemSavings is off and I'm on the turn number 277 without any single crash!

I hope this fixes things for more people too, good luck

(ps: version here is v3.03)

 

[mickthemad069]

sorry to sound thick but i dont get what you mean.
where will i find civilizationIV.ini
could you simplyfy this for me lol
cheers

 

[ori]

which game are you playing (vanilla, warlords, bts)?

 

[toft]

TBH a GF 5200 with 128 or even 256 isnt enough for this game. When I first bought Civ4 vanilla, I had a GF 5200 256mb agp card. I then upgraded to a GF 5700LE 256 mb.

I experienced CTD on both, and I eventually bought an entirely new PC. But the "problem" with Civ4 isnt always because of the gfx-card. Civ4 utilizes just about all aspect of your machine. IMO the requirements on the back of the game-cover isnt enough for a full experience of what this game has to offer. You need a good all-round computer - CPU, GPU and RAM.

 

[mudfoot]

Basically I get some random screen flickering, then the screen turns black, and crashes back to the Windows desktop.

I'm experiencing basically the same thing, but in addition my CTD resets my screen resolution and colors to 800x600 and 4bits (coming from 1600x1200 and 32bits). When this happens, I can't change it back again as it seems to be the maximum my system has to offer.
After a reboot all is good again (no configuration needed).

I'm playing with the 3.13 patch (and now also Bhruic's unofficial patch, but it didn't resolve the issue).

I noticed something in my case that I can't seem to find in this forum.
I'm playing 2 games, a single player Final Frontier game and a PBEM with a friend in team against a bunch of AI's.
I've never experienced the crash with Final Frontier, but when I play my turn of the PBEM game after I've played FF (no reboot in between, but I always completely go out of CivIV - exit to desktop - before loading the PBEM game), I can't finish my turn 8 out of 10 times before the crash happens.
When I reboot and start the same PBEM game, I never have a crash.
I normally don't shut down my pc (ever) and I've refrained from playing my FF game and I didn't experience a crash for at least 20 PBEM turns in the final stages of the game (we had Plastics before we reached domination).

So, I can easily avoid having the crash by playing only 1 game and rebooting when I want to play another.
I don't know enough about the CivIV mechanics to even guess what could be the cause of this behaviour, but maybe my experience can bring some CivIV experts closer to a solution.

 

[RedRalph]

which game are you playing (vanilla, warlords, bts)?

this goes for me too, on BtS, I'd be much obliged if you could simplify it

 

[aml666]

BTS 3.13

Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
Diver: 8.205.3.0 (tried various drivers)

Error: I get the following error randomly thoughout the game after an hour or two of playing (map size and graphics settings have little impact on this error)

Failed to allocate video memory. Please try reducing your graphics settings.
File:\main\Civilization4\SDKs\Gamebryo_2_0\CoreLibs\NiDX9Renderer\NiDX9IBManager.cpp, Line:565

 

[ori]

sorry to sound thick but i dont get what you mean.
where will i find civilizationIV.ini
could you simplyfy this for me lol
cheers

this goes for me too, on BtS, I'd be much obliged if you could simplify it

The game installs in two folders:
...\program files\firaxis games\sid meier's civilization4 (vanilla)
...\program files\firaxis games\sid meier's civilization4\warlords (warlords)
...\program files\firaxis games\sid meier's civilization4\beyond the sword (BtS)
and
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\sid meier's civilization 4 (Vanilla)
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\warlords (warlords)
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\beyond the sword (BtS)
the CivilizationIV.ini is located in the later, i.e.
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\sid meier's civilization 4\civilizationIV.ini
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\warlords\civilizationIV.ini
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\beyond the sword\civilizationIV.ini
you need to make the changes in the file that is used for the version you are using.
there are quite a few memory saving items you can activate in this file (open with any texteditor):

; Dont show the game background during movies - may speed up movie playing
HideMovieBackground = 0

; Allows some memory savings *** ALT-TAB WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION ***
MemSaver = 0

; Don't skip frames if falling behind
BinkNoSkip = 1

; Copy entire image each frame, not just dirty pixels
BinkCopyAll = 1

; Show movies using hi-color, not true-color (may be faster)
Bink16Bit = 0

; Copy ever other scanline during movie playback (faster)
BinkInterlace = 0

those that I quote as 0 can be changed to 1 in order to save memory and those that I quote as 1 can be changed to 0 for the same effect - you might have to play around with those a bit - since some will noticeably reduce graphics details. The HideMovieBackground is the one that affects game appearance the least and is already quite good in terms of memory savings.
If this does not help you might want to install NeverMind's Static Leaderheads and Movies since those do take up quite a bit of the graphics memory.
@aml666 & mudfoot: this advice is also for you if you experience crashes due to failed to allocate video memory.

 

[aml666]

The game installs in two folders:
...\program files\firaxis games\sid meier's civilization4 (vanilla)
...\program files\firaxis games\sid meier's civilization4\warlords (warlords)
...\program files\firaxis games\sid meier's civilization4\beyond the sword (BtS)
and
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\sid meier's civilization 4 (Vanilla)
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\warlords (warlords)
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\beyond the sword (BtS)
the CivilizationIV.ini is located in the later, i.e.
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\sid meier's civilization 4\civilizationIV.ini
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\warlords\civilizationIV.ini
...\documents and settings\<name>\my files\my games\beyond the sword\civilizationIV.ini
you need to make the changes in the file that is used for the version you are using.
there are quite a few memory saving items you can activate in this file (open with any texteditor):

; Dont show the game background during movies - may speed up movie playing
HideMovieBackground = 0

; Allows some memory savings *** ALT-TAB WILL NO LONGER FUNCTION ***
MemSaver = 0

; Don't skip frames if falling behind
BinkNoSkip = 1

; Copy entire image each frame, not just dirty pixels
BinkCopyAll = 1

; Show movies using hi-color, not true-color (may be faster)
Bink16Bit = 0

; Copy ever other scanline during movie playback (faster)
BinkInterlace = 0

those that I quote as 0 can be changed to 1 in order to save memory and those that I quote as 1 can be changed to 0 for the same effect - you might have to play around with those a bit - since some will noticeably reduce graphics details. The HideMovieBackground is the one that affects game appearance the least and is already quite good in terms of memory savings.
If this does not help you might want to install NeverMind's Static Leaderheads and Movies since those do take up quite a bit of the graphics memory.
@aml666 & mudfoot: this advice is also for you if you experience crashes due to failed to allocate video memory.

I tried all these settings and got 8 turns further into my last saved game before the next error.

 

[ori]

I tried all these settings and got 8 turns further into my last saved game before the next error.

Is it the same error?

 

[aml666]

Is it the same error?

This time the error was a dialog box with a title that says "Error" and the big round "X" but no text, just an OK button.

 

[RedRalph]

ORI, this was extremely helpful, thanks very much, my game is running a hell of a lot quicker now (All I did was freeze the leaderheads and allow memory saving). Reccommended to anyone who hasnt done it.