Illegal operation on startup (NOT A DELL)

[letterafterz]

Hey Guys.

Problem's been killing me. The game USED to run, and i left it alone for a while. Now it doesn't run at all. I get a windows illegal operation message whenever i try and run it. I've tried enabling logging, but due to the nature of the crash no information of any use is actually recorded in the log file...

I'm NOT running a TSST CD/DVD drive, I've even attempted a NOCD crack to see if that would solve my problem, it didn't (I have a legal copy, i was just interested if it was caused by my CD drive).

I have no problems with any other games i'm running. Really bugging me because I have a massive craving for some Civ 4...

 

[letterafterz]

I've also now tried using older drivers for my ati graphics card, and reinstalling the game twice.

please help

 

[crunch]

I presume you followed these steps to enable logging: http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_logging.htm. What's in the init.log file?

Try eliminating possible crash causes by turning off audio, movies in the ini file.

Have you tried to uninstall, manually erase all remaining civ directories, reinstall, repatch?

 

[letterafterz]

Ok, I've encounted a new problem on top of this now. I've done complete re-installs each time. And I WAS able to configure the logging before, yet it yielded no results.

However NOW on this install, my .ini file only contains this data:

[GAME]

; Move along
CheatCode = 0

[CONFIG]

; Sync input to smooth interface (may run slower)
SyncInput = 0

; Force numlock always on while playing
ForceNumlock = 0

[DEBUG]

; Break on memory allocation order #
BreakOnAlloc = -1

And nothing else...

any ideas?

 

[letterafterz]

bump?.........

 

[crunch]

Just add this line to the ini file
LoggingEnabled = 1

 

[badassk9]

I have the same problem. It once worked and now it doesn't. I didn't install any mods or patches either. I tried completely deleting all Civ files and reinstalling, patching, not patching... nothing! there's always a windows error message, the kind where an error is found and the program has to be ended and they ask you if you wanna send a report to microsoft.

I tried the logging thing, here's what's in my init file:

[647.171] DBG: CIV Init
[647.234] VERSION: App: C:\Programme\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Civilization4.exe
[647.234] VERSION: Build: Thu Mar 30 17:49:29 2006
[647.234] VERSION: 1.6.1.1841 (45604)
[647.812] VERSION: Mod Loaded: none

 

[letterafterz]

This is my log file;

[9299.265] DBG: CIV Init
[9299.265] VERSION: App: D:\Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Civilization4.exe
[9299.265] VERSION: Build: Fri Mar 31 01:49:29 2006
[9299.265] VERSION: 1.6.1.1841 (45604)
[9299.281] VERSION: Mod Loaded: none

seems we have exactly the same problem.

EDIT: I also tried version 1.09 and same problem...

 

[crunch]

I noticed that badass probably has non-english (german?) windows installed. How about you, letterafterz?

Does your Windows user name contain some weird german/whatever characters? Try creating a different user (with administrative rights / without special letters) and reinstall the game.

BTW just guessing here, don't blame me if it's useless...

 

[badassk9]

nope, while I do have the german version of windows installed, my user doesn't contain any weird letters, besides, it worked perfectly before, that's the wierd thing.
on another note, while I wasn't playing CIV4, my Norton Antivirus was updated and I installed, played and uninstalled Call Of Duty 2. CIV4 itself I didn't touch and the mod I used was Bluemarble and switzerland. again, they worked fine for weeks.

 

[crunch]

perhaps call of duty comes with its own directx, reinstall directx.
you can also try to disable the antivirus, or uninstall it... definitely worth trying imho

 

[badassk9]

I also thought of that, I downloaded and installed DirectX 9.0c and uninstalled the antivirus, still no luck

 

[letterafterz]

Even though I have COD2 installed as well, it was installed AFTER I posted about this problem, so I doubt that has any impact.

I've experimented with reinstalling Direct X and have tried disabling all background programs from even starting up in msconfig with no results.

 

[crunch]

The init.log says Mod loaded: none. Bah, try starting a mod (doubleclick some file in the Public Maps directory.

*clueless*

 

[badassk9]

still not working. would be nice if someone other than crunch and letterafterz would look into this thread.

 

[letterafterz]

Hmm, no difference in the log file even after trying to load up a mod map.

This problem is starting to grate a bit, I REALLY wanna play civ.... sigh

badassk9, what programs are you running on your computer? Maybe we have the same program installed causing a problem with the safedisc protection or something?

Do you have daemon tools or alcohol 120% installed? What other games? Also what hardware are you running on?

 

[badassk9]

Most of the programs I have, I also had when it was running, however I have Emule, Azureus and Norton AntiVirus which always constantly download updates. Other than that, I have Daemon tools 4.03, which I tried uninstalling.
My specs are: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ , 2079 MHz, 1024 MB RAM

 

[letterafterz]

ya nothing seems to match there...


What video card and sound card are you using?

 

[badassk9]

RADEON 9500 AGP and NVIDIA nForce audio. Didn't update any drivers so everything's as it was when it worked.