Help me please! Can't build first city without CTD!

[RichUT]

I can get the game to boot up and start just fine. I go through the normal single player options and it spits me out on a map that looks just fine. My problem occurs when it comes time to settle my first city. The game pauses briefly, the screen goes black, and I am then returned to my desktop.

I have installed the newest patch and the newest ATI drivers to no avail.

However, when I run the game under the other user profile on my system, I experience no problems. I can build the first city, and play the game as it was intended.

I really want to get it fixed on my profile, because switching back and forth is a hassle. Here are my specs:

P4 1.9Ghz
768MB of RAM
ATI Radeon 9550 256MB AGP card
Windows XP SP2

I also attached my dxdiag in case anyone can see anything wrong there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Rich

 

[residuetiger]

Yeah, I'm having the same problem Rich, i've got an Nvidia GeForce 5700 Ultra, 1G ram, audigy 2 zs. I've tried most of the fixes posted by people here in the Tech Support forum, I've tried new drivers, older drivers, nothing seems to work. I just don't understand.

The one thing I haven't tried though is using the v1.09 patch instead of 1.52. Have you tried both patches?

I'm getting really frustrated here, this was a Christmas gift and I have really been looking forward to playing, at this point I'm considering taking it back for an exchange and picking up something else.

rt

 

[RichUT]

The problem has been consistent regardless of the version. It happened on 1.0, 1.09 and 1.52.

I really don't understand what is different between the two profiles. They were created within an hour of each other and are both a couple of years old.

 

[residuetiger]

Yeah, I tried making a new profile myself and still encountered the problem. I'm currently on the phone with take2, on hold waiting to talk to a real person, maybe I'll get some answers.

rt

 

[RichUT]

Anyone else seen this or have any idea how to fix it?

 

[Zydor]

A long shot - does one profile have Admin Rights, and the other not have them ?

 

[RichUT]

Both have admin rights. My profile was the initial profile created when we first set the system up.

Obviously, there is some kind of difference between the two, but it's nothing that is obvious to me.

 

[themexican734]

I got the same problem it also happens when I try to end my turn if I didn't want to start my first city yet. Please help. I already had the problem with the graphics card and I want this one solved ASAP.

 

[Neon Deon]

Rich your page file useage is 400plus

Try running the game with out any startup programs running in the background. Also turn off all NON MS services too.

Some of your direct x drivers are real old like 2001.

Try downloading directx 9c from microsoft to see if they update.

 

[residuetiger]

Neon,

I''ve been at work and haven't had a chance to chime in here, but I've tried new nvidia drivers, beta drivers, and some old ones as well. Still crashes. I've also tried shutting down most of background crap I usually have running with no success.

One thing I haven't tried is shutting down services. I've been trying to find a good site to use as reference when choosing which ones to shut down and which ones to leave alone. Can you advise on this?

rt

 

[RichUT]

Rich your page file useage is 400plus

Try running the game with out any startup programs running in the background. Also turn off all NON MS services too.

Some of your direct x drivers are real old like 2001.

Try downloading directx 9c from microsoft to see if they update.

I went to MSFT's site and downloaded directx 9c. Once the install starts up, I accepted the end user's agreement and hit next. The next screen just said this component is installed and ready for use. No progress bar showed up to indicate that anything was installed or updated.

Also, I shut down all start up apps other than Norton and MSFT anti-spyware and still get the same issue. I don't think those programs are the issue, as I can play the game normally on profile 2 while they are running.

There has to be some specific difference between the two profiles that I am just missing.

Would it be helpful to post the dxdiag from that profile?

Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.

 

[RichUT]

Anyone else care to take a stab?

 

[Neon Deon]

Neon,

I''ve been at work and haven't had a chance to chime in here, but I've tried new nvidia drivers, beta drivers, and some old ones as well. Still crashes. I've also tried shutting down most of background crap I usually have running with no success.

One thing I haven't tried is shutting down services. I've been trying to find a good site to use as reference when choosing which ones to shut down and which ones to leave alone. Can you advise on this?

rt

Well I got mine from this site, but it went bye bye last week.

http://www.blackviper.com/index.html

I might have a compy of the text that came from the site tho.

Let me check.

 

[Neon Deon]

I went to MSFT's site and downloaded directx 9c. Once the install starts up, I accepted the end user's agreement and hit next. The next screen just said this component is installed and ready for use. No progress bar showed up to indicate that anything was installed or updated.

Also, I shut down all start up apps other than Norton and MSFT anti-spyware and still get the same issue. I don't think those programs are the issue, as I can play the game normally on profile 2 while they are running.

There has to be some specific difference between the two profiles that I am just missing.

Would it be helpful to post the dxdiag from that profile?

Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.

Rich norton is the devil.

I can turn it on and make civ iv crash every time.

turn it off in startup and disable all non MS services too.

It is a sneaky frickin program that wont go away till you turn off the services.

 

[residuetiger]

Ok, I've tried a few things and I'm seeing improvements. What I did was go to microsoft and download the latest DX9(December), uninstalled my nvidia drivers and installed the latest which is 81.98 I believe. I also did a reinstall of Civ4.

What happened for me was, no more CTD's after founding your first city; the game was actually stable and running fine for 30 to 40 minutes, then came the CTD. I had my graphic settings on medium. I did NOT do any of the config changes listed here in the forums, nor did I unpack the art fpk file, so maybe I can try that later.

I was running the most recent Omega drivers for my Nvidia 5700 Ultra, but they seemed to have some shader problems so I switched.

Here's my dxdiag........
View attachment DxDiag.txt

Still crashing but I can't help but feel like this is some progress. Any of you have any suggestions on how to proceed?

thanks
rt

 

[Zydor]

Have you loaded Patch V1.52 ?

Regards
Zy

 

[ccaruso@bigpond]

:

Yeah, I tried making a new profile myself and still encountered the problem. I'm currently on the phone with take2, on hold waiting to talk to a real person, maybe I'll get some answers.

rt

hi, I'm curious as well as i get ctd happen to meway to often, if anyone can fix this mess its gotta be these people, please let us know the outcome of your phonecall. thanks cc

 

[Neon Deon]

Ok here is the docoument pertaining to services in Win XP SP2.

PS dont start with barebones please. Use safe first.

 

[residuetiger]

My phone call to Take2 didn't help, I never got through to a tech.

Oh, Zydor, I was using patch 1.52.