Known Issues and Solutions

[SarahEspresso]

[Note: This thread was suggested in another thread. This is not a complete list of every bug in the game, only the significant ones with workarounds and solutions.]

A current list of bugs and fixes can be found on PCGamingWiki.

General Problems

* The two most important steps in fixing Civ V problems are updating your graphics drivers, and verifying the game cache. Before anything else, try those steps first.

Fall Patch Bugs

A current and official list can be found here. The following are temporary workarounds until the new patch.

* Many graphics and crashing problems are caused by old drivers. The recent patches change the graphics system, and are based on the updated drivers.

* Game crashes when attacking with a city or ranged unit.

Run the game in DirectX 11 Mode.​

Run the game in windowed mode, or change to strategic view. (This only has limited success)​

* Automatic Annexation (No popup after capturing cities).

Avoid usage of the F keys during the game. Saving and loading the game might also help.​

Other Bugs

* Many problems, such as the game not starting or DLC not being listed, can be fixed with verifying the game cache.

* Units and End Turn button not responding or very slow.

Go to My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\ and edit config.ini with Notepad. Change the line EnableGameCoreThreading = 1 to EnableGameCoreThreading = 0.

This video demonstrates the bug, and how to fix it.


Link to video.​

* If you have having problems with mods disappearing, or subscriptions not downloading, try deleting the mod database. The file to delete is Civ5ModsDatabase.db, and is found in My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\cache\.

* If mods are constantly downloading, every time you start the game, this is a bug in the latest patch. Deleting the database will not fix this.

* Crashing during opening.

If the game crashes before or during the opening movie, deleting or renaming the video files might help.​

* Manually changing resolution.

Go to My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\ and open either GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini or the DX11 equivalent, depending on which mode you use and manually change the resolution. Do not go below 1024x768 (that includes 720p).​

* Leaderhead crashing (crashing when meeting leaders).

Go to My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\ and open either GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini or the DX11 equivalent, depending on which mode you use and manually change the resolution. Do not go below 1024x768 (that includes 720p).​

If you know of any other bugs and solutions, feel free to post them, and I will try to keep this updated. (Mods or admin are welcome to update this as well).

 

[The_J]

The first problem: Play in Dx11 mode.

And in general: Update your freakin' drivers. If you don't do it, it will be the first thing we suggest.

 

[SarahEspresso]

I thought I had updating drivers listed at the top...I either lost it while I was formatting this (I wrote it in notepad first, then reorganized it, and posted here with the font changes) or I got confused. I'll fix that.

Good point on the DirectX 9 bit. I'll update that as well.

 

[heke]

When you update graphic drivers, remove old drivers first manually and use some driver cleaner tool for a final removal. This way you get clean base for new drivers.

 

[Zigarot]

Civ runs fine in DirectX 9, but crashes in DirectX 11.
For me, the cause was the Evolve Client (Gameplay hours-tracking program)

 

[SarahEspresso]

Civ runs fine in DirectX 9, but crashes in DirectX 11.
For me, the cause was the Evolve Client (Gameplay hours-tracking program)

Interesting, I can't find any more information connecting Evolve with Civ 5 crashes. Anyone else using Evolve and having issues?

 

[Meach]

I can't run the game in Dx10 or 11 (never have been able to) Game crashes after 20-30 turns.
Have updated graphic drivers. Hardware passed "Can I play this game" site easily. Have verified game cache. Have deleted both Steam and Civ 5 and reinstalled.
I've tried to attach my DxDiag, but I'm very much a noob.
Is this "Operator Error" or something else

 

[The_J]

*sigh* normally you don't post your problems in unrelated threads.
Does it crash during a ranged attack?
If so, then check if either Steam or Civ5 have been installed in Vista compatibility mode.
How? Right click on the Steam or Civ5.exe -> properties -> compatibilty tab, see if one of the boxes is checked and uncheck it.
EDIT: This should enable you to play in DX10/11 mode, where this bug does not appear.

If this solves the problem, I'll move your post to the right thread, else I'll create a new thread out of this.

 

[mikehunt]

anyone else having to re-issue orders to workers every single turn? Not due to the normal "enemy is near" thing, it happens with workers that have 10+ tiles between then and the closest AI unit
I'll give one a route to order and every single turn I have to re-issue the command

this, like the reloading mod issue and more frequent black with red dot issue (I'd had that graphics glitch off and on from the beginning but it used to take hours to show up and now shows up within a turn or two) started after the latest patch

 

[The_J]

anyone else having to re-issue orders to workers every single turn? Not due to the normal "enemy is near" thing, it happens with workers that have 10+ tiles between then and the closest AI unit
I'll give one a route to order and every single turn I have to re-issue the command

There's a thread about this in the bug section and the devs already said that they're looking at it.

 

[Meach]

*sigh* normally you don't post your problems in unrelated threads.
Does it crash during a ranged attack?
If so, then check if either Steam or Civ5 have been installed in Vista compatibility mode.
How? Right click on the Steam or Civ5.exe -> properties -> compatibilty tab, see if one of the boxes is checked and uncheck it.
EDIT: This should enable you to play in DX10/11 mode, where this bug does not appear.

If this solves the problem, I'll move your post to the right thread, else I'll create a new thread out of this.

When I go to Steam> properties, I do not see a compatability tab. A file search of my C drive failed to show a Civ5.exe
It does not crash exclusively during ranged attacks
This problem of freezing started after the last patch, hence the post in "known issues"
As I said, I have never been able to play in Dx10 or 11.
My sincere apologies for posting on the wrong thread. As I said...noob

 

[Meach]

Found the compatability tab, but Vista not checked. Changed it to Windows 7. No joy

 

[The_J]

Disable it, and restart your computer please.

 

[SarahEspresso]

You said you updated your drivers, but the DXDIAG says you are using drivers dated 9/27/2012, the latest drivers were released on 10/22. I'm not using ATI right now so I don't know if the actual driver is dated differently or not, but it looks like you're not using the current driver. Everything else looks good.

Edit: Try deleting the GraphicsSettingsDX9.ini and GraphicsSettingsDX11.ini files in My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\ and restarting the game. This will lose any graphics settings you've set.