Loading games crashes to desktop

[Thalassicus]

The first time a saved game is loaded works, but attempting to load saves again (without restarting Civ V) crashes to desktop. This seems to occur with saves late in the game.

This problem has existed since release, and still occurs as of patch 1.0.0.62.


64-bit Windows 7
Intel i7 920 @ 2.67GHz
AMD Radeon HD 5700 Series, driver 10.10
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R motherboard
4 GB memory

 

[Petek]

I've never had this problem and I've repeatedly loaded the same game during bug testing. Please post a save file from a game that has crashed on you. Perhaps your save files are being somehow corrupted. Thanks.

 

[Thalassicus]

That's possible. It's happened with every save for me since Civ V's release; here's my current game.

 

[Petek]

I loaded your game (when first starting Civ 5, not from within) and it crashed. I first had to install the InfoAddict mod. I have the Deluxe Edition, same as you, so that wasn't the issue. I then started a new game (with InfoAddict installed), started a new game, played a few turns and saved it. Reloaded it twice in game and no crash. The save file is attached. Does it work for you? If you resave it, what happens?

In this thread another forum member reported what appears to be a similar problem. The difference is that his save game crashed for me only when loading in game. Both he and you have the Deluxe edition, but so do I.

Is your system generally stable? Do you have the latest video drivers? Does your system come with (or can you get) hardware diagnostics? I'm trying to figure out why save files would get corrupted on some systems but not on others.

 

[Thalassicus]

Apologies regarding InfoAddict, forgot to change its AffectsSavedGames to 0 after downloading (doesn't have an effect on the problem though).

I haven't had crash issues with any other game software, and other than this Civ V runs perfectly (no graphical issues or anything), so my system is stable. The 10.10 driver was released a few days ago, same problem occurred before then too. The test save you provided works if loaded twice. You're right that it's probably file corruption, this seems to primarily occur in late games.

The strange thing is the first savegame I attached works if I load it once, but not twice. Doesn't matter whether I reload while ingame or reload from the main menu.

I had the hardware tested when I got the system a few months back, and also ran some checks of my own. I could run general hardware tests again if it would help at all, though the problem appears to be isolated to this one action in one program.

 

[Petek]

At this point, I think your best shot at a fix is a complete uninstall via Steam followed by a reinstall (if you haven't already done so). I know it's a pain to download 4+ GB (unless you have a disc), but I doubt that anything else would help. You could try verifying your game cache or deleting your cache files first, if you like.

 

[AttilaTheHun]

This is happening to me too post-621. I cannot load any saves, except the first one after the game is restarted. Pre-621 I was able to load saves during the early game, but as the game progressed, loading from within the game would cause a crash.

 

[geegee]

same problem here

 

[Perkus]

I can confirm this happens, but only later in game and on larger maps. I had it happen on a standard-size map reproducibly, but never on two small-sized maps.

I've read other threads where it's been diagnosed as a memory problem - 4GB isn't enough for it to hold its current game while it's loading another one - even if it's the same save! You would think it would first flush the current game first... Adding extra memory apparently helps.

I don't have the Deluxe edition, BTW.

I still have the save(s), but they're quite heavily modded, including Info Addict.

 

[javaja]

This is now occurring on both my desktop and laptop as well. ONLY on modded games, and it doesn't matter at what point in the game I am (beginning or later). I've tried disabling mods one by one but even with all off, my modded games crash when loaded - occasionally I get one load out of them. Never two.

**EDIT: This was not an issue prior to the Mongol DLC. I had fixed other issues on my laptop the day before Mongol DLC released and was not having these problems. Didn't run Civ V on my laptop again until today when I noticed the issue on my PC and tried to duplicate it.

Intel® Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 DIMMs
512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

 

[Thalassicus]

For me it occurred even the week before the modding tools were released, so it's probably not specifically due to modding. Some people have had it with mods, some without... some with DLC's, some without. Mods and DLC's probably just increase savegame size or other effects that run into the problem sooner...

 

[lucky146]

There are other threads about this (at the official forums). Search for memory leak. Also, check your task manager and how much memory it's sucking up when trying to load saved games. You are probably hitting over 2 when trying to load and it's crashing. This has been reported by numerous people. No fix. When I decide to play a game, I simply don't exit. I either play a small map and plan to have enough time to finish it, or I don't bother to start it. It sucks.

In one of the other threads on this, what is described as happening is the game is writing some line repeatedly (1000s of times) at the end of a save file, and this is causing the problem.

edit -- Here's one of the threads and the first page has a dev response saying they are looking into it. That was over a month ago.
http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88736

 

[javaja]

I think my issue is different. I don't have "large" save game files. I checked into that post above me regarding memory leaks, and it doesn't apply either. I'm just getting the CTD and "report to MS" notification when I load any game with a MOD-- but I know it's not any MOD causing it, because this happens with all MODs disabled as well. The issue seems to be related to this thread, as it is a flawed saved game, but I'm wondering if I ought to start a separate thread as the cause/effect relationship seems to be different.

**EDIT: Also don't have Deluxe Edition, just for the record.

**EDIT2: Strangely, this issue disappeared, though the last patch was 1.0.0.62.1 which is when I started having the issues in the first place. Steam has not updated my game as I've been running in offline mode almost exclusively. Very strange...

 

[Perkus]

My saves that were crashing are "only" about 2.4MB, and don't appear to grow unreasonably. I don't think uncontrolled save file growth is the culprit here.