Locks up between 2-5 minutes into game

[Big Ev]

Bumping this thread till a solid fix is found

this is so stupid that we have to make our own custom hot fixes

 

[vyshka]

ya - same problem with autosaves turned off. I am beginning to think that there is simply a problem with FEAR and with Civ 4 and Nvidia cards. BF2 on high is extremely demanding yet it DOES NOT crash after hour of play. In fact, I dont' think it has ever crashed.

On a side note when I was talking to tech support I had the guy look at the picture you posted. He said "wow that's weird".

I actually hit it before on BF2, but not since I updated my Audigy 2 ZS drivers.

 

[vyshka]

Hey guys I have the same problem as most of you except my vcard simply stops outputting video and my monitor goes into standby and the game crashes. I to have a Geforce card. I have the FX 5900XT 256mb vram card. I was using the latest Nvidia drivers version 81.85 and the game would crash and my video card would be put into some sort of safe mode where Direct3D is disabled and the resolution is locked at 640x480. I tried installing an older version of the drivers and the game runs longer before crashing. My current Nvidia driver version is 78.01. The game does have a memmory leak but its minor. I dont think that is the cause of the crashing. In most cases when a game crashes with no error message or causes some odd graphics it is the video card causing the problem. It could be a memmory leak within the video though. Most memmory crashes produce errors though. Unfortuatly MS has made it real hard to remove DirectX. If u simply run the install program for version 9.0c it will not do anything if you already have a verion of DX that is equal or newer than 9.0c. I'm going to try using DirectX Eradicator and installing a fresh copy of 9.0c that did not come with Civ4. If that doesnt work I will try an older version of DirectX.

I don't remember where my copy of DX9.0c is from originally, but it is not the one that came with Civ4 and I hit the problem. I have run into this in BiA and BF2, but they were resolved with a change to my Audigy 2 ZS drivers. At least I haven't run into it since then with those games.

 

[godochaos]

I no longer get blank screen and lost monitor signal

Per advice in another thread i went into the advanced setting for the video card and UNDER clocked it 25% or so. I played for 2 hours straight after that.

PS my card worked fine prior to this and it is NOT overclocked

 

[阿里巴巴]

I agree with you. My computer locks up with huge map everytime but works fine with standard map.

For some people, this problem could be caused by a memory leak. Others are describing similar problems on other threads and I am also experiencing this problem as well. When your game locks up, check the HD light, if its lit solid, then Civ 4 is extensively using virtual memory which is what causes the system slowdown. Eventually the leak will cause all available memory to run out and the program crashes. I also found a direct correlation between map size and how soon the program freezes; larger maps appear to cause the freeze sooner. I found an optimal map size that seems to be stable, played for several hours and not one freeze. In the mean time, we have to wait for Firaxis to acknowledge the memory leak, then find it, and then to fix it.

If you do not see any hard drive activity while the program is slowing down, or you experience this on even small maps, its probably not caused by a memory leak.

Hope this sheds some light.

Don

 

[Shadowlord]

The FEAR demo also comes with a not-yet-publicly-released version of DirectX 9.0c - it uses d3dx9_25.dll, whereas Civ IV uses d3dx9_26.dll. I think perhaps the problem is in DirectX itself, and maybe there's a reason MS hasn't released these as 9.0d (or whatever) yet.

On the plus side, maybe Civ IV actually will work for me - I didn't have any problems running the FEAR demo, other than a mediocre framerate on minimum settings. (Which is ridiculous. NOLF2 runs as smooth as silk on maximum settings, and looks better than FEAR IMHO...)

Edit: To get the latest version of DX, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/ - Use the "DirectX 9.0c Redistributable for Software Developers" link. Maybe that's newer than the one on the Civ IV CD? Or maybe not. (I haven't gotten Civ IV yet myself)

 

[riksb]

have been having similar probs with the game. It starts okay. But into a SP game.

sometimes intermittently the screen freezes, or the graphics just goes bezerk.
I have not had it automatically reboot on me though.

It seems to freeze alot in the diplomacy window, when another leader wants something. But that isnt the only time it freezes or crashes.

i have an p4 2.6GHz, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 card wt 5.10 latest drivers.

Anyone have similar happen?

Man I havent seen a game behave this poorly right out of the box in years!

 

[nho3]

Hey guys I have the same problem as most of you except my vcard simply stops outputting video and my monitor goes into standby and the game crashes. I to have a Geforce card. I have the FX 5900XT 256mb vram card. I was using the latest Nvidia drivers version 81.85 and the game would crash and my video card would be put into some sort of safe mode where Direct3D is disabled and the resolution is locked at 640x480. I tried installing an older version of the drivers and the game runs longer before crashing. My current Nvidia driver version is 78.01. The game does have a memmory leak but its minor. I dont think that is the cause of the crashing. In most cases when a game crashes with no error message or causes some odd graphics it is the video card causing the problem. It could be a memmory leak within the video though. Most memmory crashes produce errors though. Unfortuatly MS has made it real hard to remove DirectX. If u simply run the install program for version 9.0c it will not do anything if you already have a verion of DX that is equal or newer than 9.0c. I'm going to try using DirectX Eradicator and installing a fresh copy of 9.0c that did not come with Civ4. If that doesnt work I will try an older version of DirectX.

Ok I tried DirectX Eradicator but its not compatible with Winxp SP2 so I used a different program. The program I used uses commands in winxp safe mode to manually replace all the Dx files with the original Dx files that are on the SP2 CD or from the I386 folder for the SP2 installation files. The program can be found here: http://www.3dcht4u.de/3dc/kfd53t5fes8z/directx-dx9uninstaller.zip
The thing is with SP2 is Dx a core component in the system so you can't uninstall it or at least MS doesnt want you to. The only way to change your directx without installing a newer version is to restore the files from the SP2 install files. I have done this and so far I can play the game for a few hours before crashing. Now the game simply closes when it crashes instead of doing freaky stuff to my computer.

Another thing to be aware of is the ThemeParseLog.txt file is not the main error log file for the game. The error that it is reporting is not making the game crash. If I delete that file and launch the game it will be created instantly with the same errors about "Civ4Theme_Custom.thm" and the game loads just fine. The actual log files are located in "C:\My Documents\My Games\Civilization 4\Logs"
If the game is crashing before it finishes loading then you may want to look in the file int.log. That files shows what is being loaded when u run the game.

The following is what it looks like if the game has loaded successfuly.

[7981.359] DBG: FILE Cat Init
[7981.515] DBG: Using XML cache
[7981.515] DBG: Game Init
[7981.515] DBG: Multiplayer Init
[7981.937] DBG: Audio Init
[7982.796] DBG: ArtFileMgr Init
[7982.796] DBG: Python Init
[7984.984] VERSION: CIV Version: 0
[7984.984] VERSION: Save Version: 100
[7984.984] DBG: Input Init
[7984.984] DBG: Engine Init
[7986.406] DBG: Engine: Axis Engine Initialized
[7986.406] DBG: Engine: Scene Graph Initialized
[7986.437] DBG: Engine: Shaders Initialized
[7986.609] DBG: Engine: Scene Lights Initialized
[7986.625] DBG: Music Start
[7986.625] DBG: Font Init
[7986.671] DBG: Total Frame MS: 5693.0 FPS: 000 Min:000 Max:000 Avg:000 SampleFilter:10.000000
Time : Ave : Min% : Max% : Num : Profile Name
-----------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
[7986.687] DBG: Begin MenuManager
[8002.468] DBG: Engine: Camera Initialized
[8036.578] DBG: SyncRandSeed is 7993982, MapRandSeed is 7993982

After reading through all the log files I do not see any errors that are the cause of my game crashing. Although I am sure it doesnt get a chance to create the error since the excutable instalty stops running. Windows Event manager shows an error at the times that the game crashes but it cant identify the error.

It sure is annoying that the game crashes after a few hours but thanks to Autosave and the fact that I don't have to reboot my computer to play the game again makes it tolerable. This game is awesome and I am sure they will release a patch to fix this crap sooner or later.

 

[vyshka]

The FEAR demo also comes with a not-yet-publicly-released version of DirectX 9.0c - it uses d3dx9_25.dll, whereas Civ IV uses d3dx9_26.dll. I think perhaps the problem is in DirectX itself, and maybe there's a reason MS hasn't released these as 9.0d (or whatever) yet.

On the plus side, maybe Civ IV actually will work for me - I didn't have any problems running the FEAR demo, other than a mediocre framerate on minimum settings. (Which is ridiculous. NOLF2 runs as smooth as silk on maximum settings, and looks better than FEAR IMHO...)

Edit: To get the latest version of DX, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/ - Use the "DirectX 9.0c Redistributable for Software Developers" link. Maybe that's newer than the one on the Civ IV CD? Or maybe not. (I haven't gotten Civ IV yet myself)

I have tried it. It installs a d3dx9_27.dll. I still get the problem. I have turned off hardware acceleration for DirectSound and that didnt help. I have tried various versions of the nvidia drivers from 71.89 - 81.87.

 

[Crimson Shadow]

bump

Well? Is there any other solution besides downclocking to avoid screen corruption, reset or monitor going into stand-by (power saving) mode with 6800GT?

Have anyone tried turning AGP off? (If you have AGP card.)

I just checked Civ 4 cache and found in it crc.dat file. Hmm? Can that be some sort of a sigh that something is wrong with the game?

 

[archer75]

I have a 6800GT. No problems whatsoever.

 

[Crimson Shadow]

Well at least someone who can play the game with 6800GT. Can you check your cache Civ 4 directory [C:\Documents and Settings\User_Profile\Application Data\My Games\Civ 4\cache] if you have crc.dat file in it?

 

[Crimson Shadow]

Can any 6800GT/Ultra user confirm that Civ 4 is working properly with GFX settings on high?

I read somewhere here, that setting graphics detail on medium will solve all problems with screen corruption, reboots and so on with 6800GT. So I ask again, is this true?

P.S. Sorry for a "double" posting, but a bump is necessary.

 

[Aegis]

The only thing that might have went wrong is that disk 1 ended up being the play disk and not disk 2.

I also thought this was rather strange. This is not the first time that a Firaxis Play Disc did not work for me, though. Civ III Complete's Play Disc did not work, however the Install Disc let me play.

Is everyone's discs backwards, or is it just a select few?

I am also experiencing the Monitor-shut-off phenomenon during the course of a normal game. It worked perfectly well during the Tutorial mode, though. I will turn off the auto-save function tonight, re-install a true DirectX9.0 and then try again. I have a Radeon 9200 video adapter, btw.

 

[bluegnu]

Same problem. Nvidia 6800GT. 5 - 10 mins in the screen corrupts and the monitor goes blank. Hard boot required to get the system up again. This is really poor show to release a game as buggy as this...there must be thousands of people who are experiencing graphic-related problems if the boards I've visited are anything to go by. Still, publishers must get their game in the shops in good time for Christmas - no matter how unplayable it is. Tsk.

 

[Synister]

Experienced same problems with my German copy of CivIV. , but in 2 different ways

1) Monitor turns into standby-mode, computer continues working, but with obviously no effect, reset doesn't help - i have to turn power off/on.

2) Monitor exactly looked like the one on page 1 of this thread, same procedure as in 1) necessary.

My System: Athlon XP 2800+, 1 GB Ram (tested both of it with Memtest - no errors, then single in game - crashes with both), GeForce 6800GT, SB Live 5.1, MSI KT3-Mainboard with VIA-Chipset.

NOW the strange thing: Not only Civ does that, but WoW (since the release of Patch 1.8.0), AND (as i experienced yesterday) HL2! I was frustrated and turned to Madden (won the SuperBowl BTW ) - no crash in hours.

What do WoW, Civ IV and HL2 have in common, what Madden does not have?
Some kind of graphics-routine?! Could there be a problem with my GPU?!

BTW, i tried drivers 78.01, 81.87 beta, 81.85, and 66.93 - same problem on all of them.

Comments or Help would be very appreciated

Greetings from Germany,

Synister

 

[Aegis]

Ok, I have turned off Auto-Save, uninstalled DirectX9c, reinstalled DirectX9B (from my Civ III Conquests disc), and installed Catalyst 4.12, and now the game works just fine.

Now the only problem is that while attempting to type this message last night on the forum, my monitor went into standby.

 

[Crimson Shadow]

This can be important for users who experiences screen corruption or monitor going into stand-by mode (maybe even for users with reboot problem) AND FOR FIRAXIS (sorry for caps).

Disclamer: This is valid for CRT monitors. It probably does not apply to LCD monitors as they are working differently.


I just found in PythonDbg.log the following

XX SCREEN TURNED ON

SCREEN OFF

XX being random number between 1 - 99

The last screen corruption happened only 1 hour ago. The most strange is the fact, that I was able to ALT-TAB into (monitor) Stand-by mode instead to WinXP desktop. The music and SFX worked correctly and there was no indication of any error (either WinXP or the game itself).

Either is there something really strange with Firaxis way of writting into screenbuffer or is this function in some way interfering with monitor refresh frequency and causes monitor to go into strand-by mode because its screenbuffer refresh goes beyond monitor capabilities. And as CRT cannot do it and to prevent any damages to itself it goes into stand-by mode.

If the latter is the case than that is really shoddy programming on Firaxis part. If you have resolution on your CRT on the very edge of monitor capabilities than reduce resolution by one notch and to be safe even frequency of refresh.

That is of course assumption on my part and is based on my own fact, that I have been able to play the game for almost 3 hours without problems on lower resolution (1024x768@100Hz to be exact). Than when I had changed resolution from 1024x768@100Hz to 1152x864@100Hz there comes the problem. On higher resolution (1152x864@100Hz) I cannot play the game for more than 20 minutes as I get a screen corruption.

As I don't have so much time to test it, Try it for yourself.

I hope that some Firaxis's members read this board and hopefully even this topic.

 

[Noey]

Hello everyone,

I had the problem that my monitor switched into stand-by modus after a few minutes. This problem occured in all new 3d-games a tried (star wars: the lord of the sith, farcry and civ4).

For weeks I searched the internet and tried several drivers etc. I guess it is something about directx and crt-monitors.

The solution for now is, as godochaos mentioned earlier, to go into the menu of you graphic card and underclock it. I have a nvidia 6800LE with a normal clock speed of 300Mhz. I had to set it to 100Mhz. After I had done this I could play all games without problems!!!

This solution can only be temporary and I hope that the microsoft developers and the game devs can fix it soon.

Hope this helps some of you, I couldn't stand it, the new civ version and not being abled to play, so enjoy!

 

[Emperorz]

I have similar problems. Computer locks down in 5 mins of playing of Civ 4, no grapichal errors though. The same happens also in Wow and Railroad Tycoon 3, but i changed them to windowed mode and random locking dissapered since. But this dont work in Civ 4 . I Tried the Windowed mode and still locking up.

Whats funny is that Wow didn't have lockups a few moths ago. I thought that it came with a bad patch. I made no hardware changes and didn't change my drivers. For some weird reason games have started freezing ever since. I've checked for viruses and Adware - Nothing. Im thinking of formating my HD and reinstalling XP. But only when i go desperate enough . I'd rather wait for a patch.

P4 3,0 Ghz
Geforce 6600GT AGP 125 RAM
512 RAM 400 Hz
INTEL 865 MoBo
Tried the latest Nvidia drivers - Locks up.