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

[patrokc]

Okay - its an old chestnut. I have an hp laptop running XP with 512MB ram -
I have Sid Meyer's Pirates which runs fine, and uses the same graphics requirements as Civ4 (ATI tech Radeon 9200). I've installed the program several times and installed the 1.52 patch. I still run into the same problem - The program will load, I get the initialize scene, and then receive the DONE graphic. The audio starts shakily but there are no graphics.

 

[asmodai]

I am using Civ 4 on a single monitor (tried dual but it only starts up in one, so switched the display directly to single) with a Matrox Millenium G400 card. I believe (not sure) that the card does not support T&L but haven't found any changes to the civ4.ini file that can help (followed many suggestions from the Black terrain forum but nothing seems to work).

From another forum:

"No WoW will not work on the G400 since it has no Pixel and Vertex shaders as well as no Hardware TnL support. You can check the list here
http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=aww0830p"

 

[asmodai]

When I play a game, all I see are the units, things on top of the land(I don't see any terrain),citys,the waves, everything except the terrain. My build version is 1.52. I'm also not willing to pay for anything to fix this or upgrade my computer, just want a patch or a download.
Edit: Couldn't upload dxdiag file

Complain to Take 2 or Firaxis then.

 

[asmodai]

I've just rung the guy who installed my new system and he was thinking of adding an extra fan at the back but didn't have one in stock at the time. When I told him about my problems playing Civ4, he's now going to install an extra fan and well then know if these crashes were hardware related.

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.

 

[damonlundy]

About the year 1400 A.D. my game completely freezes up when I press return to end the turn. I have to kill power to my computer and reboot. It does this consistently no matter what features I tweak in the .ini file or simply through the in-game options. I have the latest patch 1.52 applied. I have left the computer on for a couple of hours before, but it continues to hang. I can play the turn before and all other turns before this particular one with no problems other than an occassional wonder video freezing up.

I have a P4 1.6 Ghz Windows XP Pro machine with 768 MB of RAM. My video card is Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 with the latest drivers installed (build is 12/05) and my sound is motherboard integrated Realtek AC'97.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! I loved CIV 1 and 2, but hated CIV 3. I absolutely love CIV 4. It reminds me alot of the first two!

I set my page file to 4096MB min. and max.

I ran Msconfig and first chose to hide Microsoft services and then disabled everything else. I then chose to disable all on the startup tab.

Thanks,

Damon

 

[Brickner]

I just installed Civ IV and upgrade to the latest version. At random intervals, between 5 to 15 minutes my screen freezes, has a bunch of crazy colors and the only way I can get out of it is by rebooting the computer. I had a similar issue with pacific fighters and did everything which included making sure i upgrade all my drivers, i even updated my system bios, bought more ram and now have over 1 gig, new sound card audigy 2 zs plus 5.1 speakers. I can play graphic intense games like fear at maximum settings and have not had one problem. your help is greatly appreciated.

DXdiag attached

Brickner

 

[Farkle]

Hi, all!!

Just wanted to drop my error log/DXdiag.txt file in. I'm running into the Chipmunk sound problem on my Civ 4 game. The problem is, I'm using an Echo MIA MIDI sound card for my computer, and I don't think it has a driver for the Miles 2D... all it has is WDM and ASIO. It's a pro-sumer sound card (I'm a composer), so it isn't designed for gaming. Any advice from anyone would be super appreciated. Thanks!!

Farkle

 

[asmodai]

Just wanted to drop my error log/DXdiag.txt file in. I'm running into the Chipmunk sound problem on my Civ 4 game. The problem is, I'm using an Echo MIA MIDI sound card for my computer, and I don't think it has a driver for the Miles 2D... all it has is WDM and ASIO. It's a pro-sumer sound card (I'm a composer), so it isn't designed for gaming. Any advice from anyone would be super appreciated.

I have emailed the guys at Rad Game Tools with regard to this issue.

From what I understand, and I have asked them to verify, is that their Miles system nowadays is an API layer on top of the DirectX DirectSound API, so that would mean that they just leverage of the support from DirectX and the Windows drivers.

I have also sent them the relevant stuff from your DxDiag text.

If/when I hear anything back, I will let you know.

 

[asmodai]

More information (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...us/directx9_c/DirectSound_Driver_Models.asp):

"Under the Windows Driver Model (WDM), DirectSound does not have direct access to the sound hardware, except in the case of hardware-accelerated buffers. Instead, DirectSound sends data to the kernel mixer. The kernel mixer's job is to convert the format of multiple audio streams to a common format, mix them together and send the result to the hardware. In a sense, it does what Dsound.vxd does. One major difference is that Dsound.vxd mixes only DirectSound buffer data, but the kernel mixer mixes all Windows audio data, including data from applications that use the Win32 waveOut functions. The rule that DirectSound and the waveform-audio output device cannot both be open at the same time is not true on systems with WDM drivers.

Of particular importance is the kernel mixer's relationship with the audio hardware. the kernel mixer is the only software on the system that can specify the format of the hardware's DMA buffer. It selects the format on the basis of sounds it is asked to mix. It sets the output format to the highest-quality format of sounds that it is asked to mix, or to the closest format to this that the hardware supports.

This has one very important implication: DirectSound cannot set the format of the hardware's DMA buffer. For your application, this means that the hardware format is based on the data you actually play. If you play a 44 kHz file, Kmixer will mix all data up to 44 kHz and ensure that the hardware is running at 44 kHz.

As an application developer, you don't choose the driver model used. That is completely determined by the type of sound card, the version of Windows, and the installed driver. For this reason, it is very important that you cover all possibilities when you test your application. DirectSound might be using Dsound.vxd or it might be using the kernel mixer, and you should ensure that your application's behavior and performance are acceptable on both."

 

[asmodai]

Also, found more information that since the v5 drivers of Echo Digital Audio they support DirectSound. So that would mean their WDM drivers are DirectX compatible.

 

[robur]

Hello

I got kind of a strange problem. I'm not sure if it is a graphic issue, but i think so.
Installation of Civ4 is no problem. also when I start civ4 there is no problem until the loading attains "done". but afterwards, I just can hear the music, but either the intro nor the game doesn't start. strange is that the computer doesn't say anything if it has problems or not. It seems that the game would run, but I can't see it. as if just the monitor doesn't receive anything from the computer. Please help me.

I'm really sorry for my poor English...I'm Swiss...

 

[asmodai]

I got kind of a strange problem. I'm not sure if it is a graphic issue, but i think so.
Installation of Civ4 is no problem. also when I start civ4 there is no problem until the loading attains "done". but afterwards, I just can hear the music, but either the intro nor the game doesn't start. strange is that the computer doesn't say anything if it has problems or not. It seems that the game would run, but I can't see it. as if just the monitor doesn't receive anything from the computer. Please help me.

You didn't say if you applied patch 1.52 or not.

I'm really sorry for my poor English...I'm Swiss...

I'm Dutch, so what.

 

[siebertt]

For all you who have problems with having fog of war on the terrain and leaderheads not working, I had the same problem. I found out my ProSavage video card was below the minimum requirements, so I put in a 64 mb one (also below requirements) and the game works okay under low graphics.

 

[robur]

Hi asmodai

I did apply patch 1.52, but it's still the same: after loading and attaining "done" the monitor doesn't make anything whereas in the background I hear the music and the man who tells the world's story in the intro.

great! you're dutch! i hope you will win the soccer's world cup this year!

 

[peivand]

Hi. My Pc has recommended system requirements , the game installs and runs fine , but after playing a while , usually reaching the 1800´s , the game crashes to desktop.

The real problem is when loading the game. Only 10 % of loads are succesuful. The loads that can´t load and crashes to desktop say: "problem with video card, out of memory". My card is ati radeon 9200 , 128 mb and i have the latest drivers.
I put "performance" over quality in the configuration. I have the 1.52 patch , and the game is in "low" graphics.

What i´m doing wrong ?

Thanks.

 

[Zydor]

Try
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3543548#post3543548 Posts 36-38.

If not fix it, post again as a new thread in the main Forum with as many symptoms as you can remember, someone will pick you up from there

Regards
Zy

 

[AgentSilentOne]

I have has a lot of problems running Civ IV. First I had the XML problem. Now I load, but it sticks at my desktop, but if I Alt-Tab to my desktop and back, I get only the music and my mouse pointer.

I have searched the forums for help, but have not been able to find any simular problems. I have updated everything I have.

I have attached my DirectX Diagnostics file.

 

[asmodai]

Just wanted to drop my error log/DXdiag.txt file in. I'm running into the Chipmunk sound problem on my Civ 4 game. The problem is, I'm using an Echo MIA MIDI sound card for my computer, and I don't think it has a driver for the Miles 2D... all it has is WDM and ASIO. It's a pro-sumer sound card (I'm a composer), so it isn't designed for gaming. Any advice from anyone would be super appreciated.

Paraphrased answer from the Rad Game Tools guys:

If the card works with DirectSound the Miles part should basically have no issues. Of course, that does not exclude it from any issues.

Best bet is to see if it passes the DxDiag sound tests without issues, and then ask either/both Echo and Firaxis about support for DirectX with this card.

 

[Pendle Witch]

Wonder Movies

Hi,

I`m one of the lucky guys who doesn`t seem to have major problems with this game. I do have one problem which has arisen since the update to 1.09 (and has got worse since 1.52).

All movies in the game (with the exception of intro and religion founding movies) are unwatchable

ie. Plays one second - pauses one second... and so on

Whilst I appreciate that others are having REAL problems with this game, please can anyone give me a steer on this one

Dell Dimension
P4 2.8GHz
768MB DDR ram
Geforce FX5200 v 81.98 (Running Rivatuner to drop Pixel Shaders down to 1.4)
Directx 9c
13GB free on Hard Disk
Recently defragged

Any info would be gratefully received

regards
Pendle Witch

 

[MATTIMUS]

Hello! I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 with 128mb ATI Mobility Radeon x300 video card. Civ 4 runs great at first, but then keeps crashing, saying that it is out of video memory. Apparently even 128mb is not enough!!! Or is it? I've tried reducing all the game graphics options to "low," and have turned off all movies, etc. What else can I do to fix it? I don't think my video card driver is out of date bc I just bought this laptop new 2 days ago.

Here's my dxdiag results attached. If it didn't attach, let me know.