Graphics/Sound Problems? - Please post your DX Logs.

[Indiana]

Game runs OK, but is very slow at loading saved games and during the game it will stop for a while during and between turns.
I have the latest patch which helped a little and have tried it with memory saver=1 which did not seem to help speed

Do I need a different video card or more RAM?

Thanks

is very slow at loading saved games and during the game it will stop for a while during and between turns.

I would think you need more RAM from this description. 512 just doesnt cut it any more, especially with this game.

 

[JerichoMyst]

JerichoMyst
It is .... sorry ... it does not meet hardware requirements, they do not support that setup
You have integrated on-board graphics and the game needs hardware video support for T&L.
Its not going to run properly on that SIS setup. You might get it to run lowest setting games, but not working well,and its unlikely some of the 'eye candy' and sound will run properly. If it runs at all, you will I suspect face problems in the late game - or on large / huge maps.
Regards
Zy

I run this game on the 'SIS M760 setup' with 1280x800, single unit anim, mid graphics, audio is sound and clear, no waiting between eras or moves. And the only things are bad is in-game and intro videos (intros solved by removing and in-game by editing .INI) and scrolling.
All I wanted to know is how to make movies run smooth, cause its the first game I know of to have trouble with intro and in-game videos. Its so lame.

 

[ognat]

Hi!

Like so many others I have problems with this game. I'm running the v1.52 patch on a 2.4GHz P4, 1GB RAM and a gForce 6800LE card.

The thing is that after an animation is shown (wonder or other ruler face animation) the game is running a litle bit slower (even the normal gameplay is slowed down). This gets worse the longer I play a game (since the start of a save game, not since loading the game). It doesn't take long before it's impossible to enjoy the animations or the other parts of the game.

I have been doing some logging and have found out that the ammount of memory that Civ4 use is slightly increased when the error occurs. If I press ALT-TAB to activate the logging application, Civ4 returns the memory and is running a bit smoother again, until the next movie when it starts over.

I hope that you are able to help me with this.
Christian

 

[Zydor]

JerichoMyst

You have on-board graphics - no video card - thats the problem

Your manual : http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/support/manuals.html

With this type of graphics, it has no dedicated Video RAM or dedicated Video Processor. Civ IV needs to have hardware supported T&L - ie a video card - to run satisfactorily. Civ IV is a full blown 3D game, not a 3D "look-a-like", and 3D implimentations need much more powerful hardware.

When the chipset runs it steals memory from the main system RAM, leaving even less to run the game - you go below the game minimum with XP (512Mb), you show 448Mb because of the chipset.

The net effect is that Civ is trying to do all the work without the needed hardware. That it runs at all is a plus for the SIS M740 chipset, but you will have ever increasing problems with Civ IV on that hardware due to this issue.

Civ IV does not support Integrated Chipsets. Short term relief maybe on the way as they are about to release low resolution movies which will ease the load on your setup - whether or not it will solve it remains to be seen as they will not write solutions for IGPs. The only thing you may be able to do is turn off the movies in the ini file - not a solution of course, but if its very annoying at least you stop that part.

Minimum Hardware specs for Civ IV:
http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm

Regards
Zy

 

[Raymond Shaw]

I have a HP ZD-7000 laptop with P4 at 3.20Ghz, 1G of RAM, SP2, GeForce FX Go5600 (Omega 1.6693). When playing the game and only when moving around the map (using the mouse pointer) it will crash to a blue screen error and restart. The problem is somewhat random and doesn't matter how long I've been playing the game but what's consistent is that the problem is from moving around the map.

I've tried cranking down on the graphics using the game's parameters with no joy. Any help would be appreciated.

Attached is my DxDiag

 

[PDXcraterman]

Tried a RAMbooster (see thread here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=153694 but it did not help. It looked promising after using it one time. but it was affecting other games so I removed it and same thing happens...

1 - Load up to load game menu.
2 - Takes 6 - 8 minutes to load game.
3 - Start to play, everything is fine until your turn is over.
4 - Screen freezes for 4-5 min, but the music still plays and the pointer is movable but you cannot move anywhere off of that screen (Like a screen shot).
5 - Then the pointer starts spinning with "Waiting for other civs" for another 4 - 5 min.
Finally my turn again, turn is over, start back to #4 and repeat for or five times when suddenly.... reboot

Here is my lates DXdiag.

Please help if you can. Will try to play the game again in a day or 2,3,4.... Until then..... Back to Civ3

 

[jrod]

I'm having slow or "jerky" video playback with both the game intro and in-game (ex. completion of wonders).

Also, my pointer is flickering constantly.

In trying to improve performance, I've done the following:

- applied all Windows updates
- updated graphics and sound drivers
- closed other background applications
- turned graphics to low & used low-resolution textures in the options screen
- turned off Antialiasing in my display properties
- disabled virus protection

This has made no improvement. Can you please suggest something else? I've attached my 'dxdiag' file.

 

[mda05bjr]

Im also having problems with my graphics.. i think anyway!
When i load up my computer a the ATi technologies folder automatically comes up showing me the "support" folder. When i play Civ within 5 mins the computer monitor will switch off and the power button flash. I cant get the screen on again to carry on playin untill i turn the whole system on and off?

I'm running a Radeon 9550 btw if that helps

Any ideas please

 

[Calder]

Calder, ok, most ATI/NVIDIA drivers support showing the temperature. What you might want to try is to see what the temperature is after such a crash.

These kind of problems are hard to diagnose, for me I from time to time experienced spontaneous reboots. These can be drivers, but also memory, PSU, heat (although I think that only caused crash to desktops for me with Star Wars: KotOR), and some other factors.

Can you try this: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp or http://www.memtest86.com/ or http://www.memtest.org/ and see if you pass through the memory tests so we can at least rule that out.

Temperature after crashes showed 70-75C. Have now got the new fans installed (1 at back, 1 in front of case). After playing a full day without a crash, temp showed 61C. Had one slight hitch immediately after installation of fans, loaded up a Earth Map scenario and couldn't get past my 1st turn without it crashing, but ran a defrag, then was able to play from the 4000BC load without a problem. Have had 2 days solid playing since the new fans, no crashes - until tonight - a CTD! (Error message about video card running out of memory etc etc.) All graphics settings are still low.
As for the memtests, the technician always runs this when installing new RAM, and showed up no probems for me.
Please note I no longer get the spontaneous reboots.
I'm just wondering if there is something in the game's config. settings that may need to be changed to suit the set up I've got. The only things I've changed in there so far is auto saves to save every turn, and turning on a couple of debug features for logging.

Orig. Post with DX-diag: Thread No. 359
Heres my Config. Settings:
Edit: Sorry came up invalid file.

 

[Narzug]

I also have major problems with this game. Its the only game i have problems with (and i have a lot). My pc is a beast with an AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+, 2GB RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT card.

Gameplay is jerky on standard or bigger map, right from the first turn. It gets worse when undiscovered parts of the map gets discovered and is completely unplayable after a while. When I press ALT-TAB and get back to civ, it will run a bit smoother again, for 1 or a few turns (completely random it seems), but still unacceptable....

Tried a lot of tweaks and things, but nothing seems to help. My bro is laughing with his cripple pc, where it works fine. Offcourse i have the latest drivers and civ&windows update

 

[raja2002]

Hi,

since i changed from windows xp home to xp professional i cannot start the game.
when i start it, a blackscreen appears and some civ4-music starts.
my pc is a fujitsu-siemens amilo laptop with a pentium 4, 3,06 Ghz, 512 MB Ram and a ATI Radeon MObility 9000.
the game worked without problems with windows xp home. i updated to 1.52 but nothing changed.
meanwhile i dont now what to do - please "help me"

 

[Zydor]

My guess is its the Video driver & marginal RAM availability. The driver is dated 2003, and out of date. Go to the ATI site and update the driver. Probably whats happened is XPPro needs more system resource than XP home, that will hit main RAM ultimately.

Your graphics (which use main system RAM) are in theory below spec for the game, the additional main RAM use tipped the balance and bang it falls over. Ultimately you will have faced this with Civ IV due to your graphics setup, albeit earlier than might otherwise have been the case - you dont have a separate graphics card.

Game Hardware Specs:
http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm

You will need to minimise as much as possible system & Video RAM use to make more room available for the game. A another driver may help - hence the driver update suggestion. Have a look at the post link below for ways to maximise what you have (your active pagefile is 430Mb, if the game was not running when you took that dxdiag, you have a lot of background services & applications running, all of which eat into your main system RAM).

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3607616#post3607616

Civ IV is a true 3D game, and therefore places a heavy load on the system as a whole, as with all true 3D games, it soon digs out weaknesses in marginal hardware that in the past did not matter.

Regards
Zy

 

[sacredcat]

I just bought a new video card. A 3d fusion Geforce FX 5500 (256 mb). It was a big hit to the wallet but well worth it. I love civ 4 and if you love civ 4 you'll thank yourself for getting a better card.

 

[DGoose]

but I am. Same symptoms, locks up after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay. Everything I have falls on or above the recommended system requirements. I'm fairly positive that all my drivers are up to date. I don't know what to do to it anymore. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Zydor]

DGoose - load Patch V1.52 - links at the top of the home page to the site.

If still hassles - post your dxdiag as an attachment using the 'go advanced' button below

Regards
Zy

 

[DGoose]

Zydor - Sorry for the above vagueness. I've tried both the 1.52 patch and unpatched. I've tried with high graphics, low graphics, the memsaver option on and off, and I usually get my commit charge down to 200-230M before I even try to run the game. My computer is about a year old and I built it myself if that helps.

 

[Purest Warrior]

Seems that this is where the wolves of graphics hang out to howl at the moon, so I thought I might sneak in and drop my very own Dxdiag, in the hope that someone can tell me why my above recommended system is running Civ4 at a painfully slow pace. This happens already around 3000 BC (huge map, granted).
Also, I am not able to see the videos - I get maybe two or three frames during the whole video...
Thx in advance, PW

 

[tkawa6]

The game played fine for two days then began suffering issues with graphic glitches (triangels, boxes, and lines... oh my) consistantly during the last time i played. The Game failed to start giving the "Failed to Initialize Renderer - Check DirectX Version and Graphic Settings" error there after. I originally started with nvidia drivers 77.77 and upgraded/downgraded from 61.77 through 81.98 but the game hangs and hogs the CPU following "init engine." I recently installed Omega drivers v1.6693 and now the games goes straight to desktop but the audio from games is going and the CPU is at 99%.

Other things I tried were windowed mode, disabling movies, and music but with the same results.

 

[tkawa6]

Okay. I reinstalled the nvidia 7.1.8.9 drivers and now is looks like the is going to load but remains a black screen just before the splash screens and movies. No audio this time. Same results with civ4 1.0, 1.09, and 1.52.

 

[CanuckErrant]

Issue:
Only background music and "ambient" noise are audible; all other noises are too soft to hear without cranking up the volume to max.

DxDiag log attached.