Game freezes about every minute

[Munchkinguy]

I have downloaded the latest video and sound drivers, and the latest game patch, but the game still freezes (pauses?) very often. Between pauses, everything works smoothly, the 3D and 2D videos look fine, but the game pauses (freezes?) so often, and then takes about 20 seconds to go back to normal again. Attached, you will find my DxDiag file.

 

[crunch]

Are you playing huge maps? Try a duel-sized map and report.

 

[Munchkinguy]

I was using the medium size. (can't remeber what it's called, but it was the one in the middle)

 

[crunch]

I don't know. I am not familiar with ATI cards, so I don't know if your system is good or bad. Try decreasing your graphics (lower resolution, lesser details), try playing in a window, to see if it affects the lag.
And yeah, try a very small map if that's laggy too or not.

 

[dlordmagic]

You might need more Ram sticks A Gig should work fine.

 

[auldian]

If you're using lean game settings, this sounds like background applications running. Perhaps, if you close all apps down before you play, you could run spybot & ad-aware as a last resort.

 

[Munchkinguy]

I removed all spyware; the problem still exists.

 

[auldian]

It may just be calculating or "thinking".
Your specs are

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.70GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM

The recommended specs per Civilization IV are

Processor:1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
Memory:512 MB RAM

You're right around recommended. I'm pretty close too; I shut off my NIC, AV, firewall, kitchen lights, etc., and though the game is somewhat smooth, I normally get the "freeze" fairly often. I don't consider it a "problem" so much as inconvenient ... like chess on a 386.
Let us know if you do find a way to eliminate the pauses. Good luck Munchkinguy.