Just won... WTH!?!

[CivFan91]

Something odd and annoying is afoot!

I just won my first Conquest (just got the game, and just beat Mesopotamia). It showed me all of the usual showering of praise, like "Luck, it was all luck!". Then, I get to the part where is shows your score. When I click the "X", I get THIS MESSAGE...

 

[gmaharriet]

How disappointing!!! I know I always like to savor the moment when I've first accomplished something new.

 

[vmxa]

Probably a video issue, I used to see that all the time, until I pulled my ATI 9800 PRO.

 

[CivFan91]

Well, how can I fix this? I have a 256MB nVidia Video Card, and 512 MB of RAM. I've updated my drivers, and have 42 GB of free space. I saved my game on the last turn, so I tried replaying it. I tried rebooting. I tried reinstalling. I did everything I think I can do. But it does this EVERY TIME!!! In this exact place!!! PLEASE don't tell me I have to start over! I'd just about lose it!

 

[Tomoyo]

Did you have an auto-save?

 

[CivFan91]

Yes. I saved it ON THE LAST TURN of the scenario. I see what you would like to see. You want to know if the game-save is corrupted, right? Well, I'm attaching a zipped file. I saved it at the end of the last turn, after loading the last turn from AUTOSAVE. I will include both saves (end of turn, and the autosave) so you can check.


Save Games were once here.

 

[CivFan91]

Oh, by the way, It's a Conquest, so you'll need Civ III Conquests or Complete to play it.

 

[Sadan01]

Just tried the game you posted. Worked for me just fine.
I've attached the next screen where it asks if you want to play on or not.
Next time you see that error, click to see more detail of the error and post back here. Maybe it is a video issue (probably) so we'll be able to work out what is wrong and how to fix it

 

[CivFan91]

Just tried the game you posted. Worked for me just fine.

I'm attaching a zip file with two detailed pics: One of the Details button results, and one of part of the technical info. (It's too much to show it all.) I will have to delete the game-saves; we're past that part of the issue, and don't need them anymore. Let me go into more detail about the problem:

I get to the screen shown in the first pic at the top. When I click the X, the game pauses for a few seconds. Then, the music stutters and repeats, and I get the error. Then, after it closes, the game and my computer sits there. I have to CTRL-ALT-DELETE and close Civ3Conquests manually. Then, I am in control of my computer again. To add insult to injury, Civ REFUSES to consider this Conquest "Complete", so I HAVE TO GET THIS WORKING!

Difficulty level: Chieftain

I am new to Conquests, and went to beginner to get to know the additions to the game...

 

[vmxa]

Maybe you could play around with the sound files and screens that are used for that section. Try to replace them with something else to see if you can get past that problem.

 

[CivFan91]

I'm not sure where to do that... I looked in

Civilization III Complete\Conquests\Text\

and

Civilization III Complete\Conquests\Conquests\Mesopotamia\Test\


I didn't find anything...

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

I'm having the exact same problem .
I didn't see this thread and posted in the bugs subforum. here

You are not alone!

 

[DBear]

@Fugitiv

downloaded your saves and they worked just fine for me. And I have an 8MB video card w/128MB RAM.

 

[citizen001]

wow... im speechless

 

[CivFan91]

FugitivSisyphus, I'm so happy I'm not alone. I would hate to know I botched up my computer like this. See, everyone? It's not my fault!!!

Dbear, I have to say I'm speechless, too. As I said before, I have 512 MB of RAM and 256 MB Video RAM, amounting to a whopping 768 MB total RAM! This should not be happening to me. If someone could be so kind as to tell me how to get past this problem, I'd really appreciate it. My computer has been giving me problems since day one, and I've "invested" around 1.5 thousand dollars. Yeah, that $1,500! All this to play top-of-the-line games. I guess what I want is to be able to skip the screen shown in the top pic. You know, just go directly to the Game Over, Man! Screen. Or even better yet, to automatically say Good, I'm Done! without even seeing that screen. Actually, that second idea is best. The problem isn't the Victory Screen, it is the next screen.

So, someone please tell me how to fix this. I really am in a bind, here.

 

[Sadan01]

Just downloaded the error zip file and took a look. Noticed two main things:

1. Error occurs in module Civ3Conquests.exe (and you are using Civ3 Complete yeah?)
2. The exception is 0xC0000005 which is commonly known as an Access Violation. These errors are sometimes very difficult to troubleshoot. So some questions:

Does this error occur whenever you complete a game of Civ3? Or does it only happen when playing this scenario?

Do you see the 0xC0000005 Access Violation error with any other program on the machine?

Some things to try (in no order of severity or precedence):

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling Civ3 onto the computer? I dont know if there are any patches available for "complete" but if there are, reapply them too.

What type of RAM are you using in the system? You have 512Mb of system ram (forget the video ram on the GPU) in the system. Do you have only one DIMM (1x512Mb) or 2x256Mb DIMMs in the machine? If you have 2 (or more), try taking all but one out and then try the scenario again. Sometimes this error is caused by either faulty RAM or a dusty/dirty/faulty DIMM slot on the motherboard. By taking all but one DIMM out of the machine, you can eliminate some of these possibilities.

If this doesn't work, go to this website and download MemTest86 and run it over the system RAM. If there are any errors, it usually means that there is faulty RAM in the machine. If you dont have a floppy drive (as it needs a bootable floppy disk to run), you can download an ISO image to burn to a CD (and it's bootable) here (direct link to download).

Let me know how you go. Good Luck

Sadan01

Edit: One more point - If you have anti-virus software running on the system, disable the real-time protection (or even all of it) and try the scenario again. Anti-Virus software has been known to cause these errors in a variety of applications - It is usually Norton Anti-Virus that can cause this error but I am sure other AV software is susceptable.

 

[CivFan91]

All right. Let's go over your questions:

Regarding the file name

All Civ III Complete really means is that I have both expansion packs ready-to-play, and I can choose vanilla civ, PTW, or C3C. Complete is really just a virtual switchboard (okay, human clicked on PTW, so launch the PTW Pack... He clicked "Complete", so launch the Conquests pack by deafault...) So the program is Conquests, run by Complete.

Regarding other games

I created a scenario that ended after the first turn (not really a GOTM )and it worked. A standard, no scenario game is in progress, but I expect it to work if/when I win.

Regarding the Access Violation

I have NEVER seen this before. Any time a program crashes, it's usually an "out of memory" issue, which I don't have very much anymore.

Reinstall?

Actually, I tried that before I even posted. I never go to a forum first; I hate saying: "Oops, I never thought of that newbie solution."

Memory Problem?

Luckily, I have two memory sticks, so I tested this out. I removed one, played turn, game crashed. Shut down, put in the other, tested, crashed. Then, I spent 5 minutes trying to put the stick back in, only to find out I was trying to put it back in facing the wrong way...

Virus Scanner?

I have Norton AntiVirus 2005. I made an EXEPTION to Civ III Complete and all it's subfolders, so it won't scan that directory all the time. Yes, the game still crashes...

BTW, I tried the MemoryChecker, couldn't figure out where the results were stored, got ticked off, and re-formatted my almost-ruined diskette...

 

[Sadan01]

Virus Scanner?

I have Norton AntiVirus 2005. I made an EXEPTION to Civ III Complete and all it's subfolders, so it won't scan that directory all the time. Yes, the game still crashes...

By what I've quoted above, you essentially are saying that you've stopped the anti-virus from scanning inside the Civ3 Complete directory structure on the HDD, however the real-time protection is still on. Is this correct?

Have you tried turning the Auto-Protect (real-time protection) off completely before starting up Civ and then trying that scenario again? Note: Disconnect yourself from the internet first, even if you have a persistant connection such as DSL or cable.

I dont have the link here but I did find another thread on Civfanatics that mentioned that turning off the av-protection completely solved this error (C0000005 - Access Violation). If this is in fact correct and one possible solution, then it would make sense in a way. The real-time protection would be scanning any file in memory that is active, which would include Civ3Conquests.exe or Civ3complete.exe. The Access Violation occurs on the same file.

I could be completely incorrect here but give this a go. It might just solve the problem.

Sadan01

 

[TheAlakazam]

I advise you to do the following to try: First, copy your saved file of that game and paste it on your desktop. Then reinstall the entire conquest. Then when you are done, move that file back to the directory (it has to be the correct one or else it will not work). Now you can try to run it and hopefully that works. I had that problem once when I was looking up to files of pictures in Conquest in the directories in my C:\ drive. The problem was only solved when I reinstalled the game.

 

[Sadan01]

G'day Cool,

C3CFanatic0014 has already advised that the game has been reinstalled. I quote from their post:

Reinstall?

Actually, I tried that before I even posted. I never go to a forum first; I hate saying: "Oops, I never thought of that newbie solution."

@C3CFanatic0014: Regarding Memtest86, even though the results may not have been saved or recovered, do you remember seeing any errors pertaining to your DIMM modules?

I just wish I could find these bloody threads I found the other night regarding this error on here . I found two threads in particular - one I mentioned before aluded to the Anti-Virus causing the problem and the other mentioned that it was the Meso scenario and one other that this problem occurred on. All other epic and scenario's worked fine. If I find it again, I'll post the links.