Game crashing whilst they take their turn

[timbowling]

I have really enjoyed this game, but at later years in the game it is hit or miss whether the game can proceed or not.

I have a high end graphics machine, and can play with all the bells and whistles on, but I turn them way down to the lowest settings. I would say almost 25% of the games I play can't be finished because the screen will go black and crash the program, asking me to tell Microsoft my troubles. I haven't modded anything, and I play with a larger map, but not the largest one. (The only way to play in my opinion. )

Anyway, I've attached the last game where it consistantly crashes the game. It will load fine, but after you press return or next turn, it will crash while waiting for the other AI players to take their turn. I've noticed it mostly happens when more than one war is going on and I'm in one of them. (That may just be my imagination.)

If there are any tech gurus out there who can offer advise on how to make my games more stable, I sure would appreciate it!

 

[warpus]

Check your system logs; they might contain useful information..

 

[oranges]

The black screen indicates there might be a problem with your graphics card. Perhaps try installing new drivers or reinstalling current ones?

Graphics are normally a non-issue for CIV4 even on mainstream graphics card as mine. Usually, the limiting factor is the CPU and RAM. So if you have to turn down graphic settings it's another argument in favor of the GPU not working properly.

 

[timbowling]

It is happening all the time now, so frustrating. I have upgraded all my drivers, and I come back to a fine Windows screen after CIV4BTS crashes. I did note this file called themeparselog.txt which says this:

Error   : Decl - ('Civ4Theme_Common.thm', Ln:401, Col:13) Assignment source propertyId 'SF_CtrlTheme_Civ4_Control_Font_Size3_Italic' not found
Error   : Decl - ('Civ4Theme_Common.thm', Ln:402, Col:13) Assignment source propertyId 'SF_CtrlTheme_Civ4_Control_Font_Size3_BoldItalic' not found
Error   : Decl - ('Civ4Theme_Common.thm', Ln:408, Col:13) Assignment source propertyId 'SF_CtrlTheme_Civ4_Control_Font_Size1_Bold' not found
Error   : Decl - ('Civ4Theme_Window.thm', Ln:3048, Col:9) Assignment source propertyId 'SF_CtrlTheme_Civ4_Control_Font_Size1_Bold' not found
Error   : Syntax - ('Civ4Theme_HUD.thm', Ln:887, Col:13) Unexpected '.' in the identifier assignment statement
Error   : Syntax - ('Civ4Theme_HUD.thm', Ln:927, Col:13) Unexpected '.' in the identifier assignment statement

Leading me to believe something else is going on. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Willem]

Have you tried reinstalling your game? I don't see how you should be getting crashes if, as you say, your rig is high end. I play on Huge maps with Medium graphics and never have an issue like that, and haven't since I moved up from my ATI 9550 card. It might help if you posted your system specs.

 

[timbowling]

Certainly, and thanks for replying. System as follows:

Pentium 4 CPU 3.2Ghz, 2G RAM
NIVIDIA GFORCE 8500GT, Driver 6.14.11.6921
Running Windows XP Pro

I've also uploaded a game from last night. It will crash my game, during the next computer turn segment. Pity, I might have won this one.

 

[timbowling]

I looked up in the windows systems log, the error it is recording is:

Faulting application civ4beyondsword.exe, version 3.0.0.86, faulting module cvgamecoredll.dll, version 1.0.0.1, fault address 0x001482c3.

 

[Willem]

Certainly, and thanks for replying. System as follows:

Pentium 4 CPU 3.2Ghz, 2G RAM
NIVIDIA GFORCE 8500GT, Driver 6.14.11.6921
Running Windows XP Pro

I've also uploaded a game from last night. It will crash my game, during the next computer turn segment. Pity, I might have won this one.

I really don't see why it should be crashing with that kind of system. The 8500 isn't the best of that series but it should certainly be good enough for this game, and all the rest of it is good enough. Out of curiousity, are you running any Nero software at all?

 

[timbowling]

No, no nero software. In truth, I don't even know what that is.

 

[Rusty Edge]

I had a similar problem with my rig, it took a lot of time(months) and tweaking with paid and unpaid help to solve the various problems. Ultimately it took a complete system recovery to solve the last problem, which was some broken microsoft code.

On the bright side, it works well now with only the programs I actually use on the machine.


I feel your pain and I wish you better luck.

 

[Willem]

No, no nero software. In truth, I don't even know what that is.

It's CD burning software. It also has a media indexing program called Scout which uses a background process that can eat up to 50% of your processing power and cause problems for other programs. But I guess that's not your issue. All I can suggest then is that you try to reinstall the game and see if that helps. There's no reason why you should be getting crashes with your rig, it should be able to handle even Huge maps with better than low graphics.