*My Specs:
P4 3.2 Ghz - 1GB DDR RAM - nVidia gForce 6600 256MB - WinXP Pro SP2
*My Original nVidia driver version:
81.85 October 20, 2005
* Quick Summary of Fix:
Use the 71.89 April 14, 2005 driver verison found here http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html
MORE DETAILS BELOW->
*My Problem:
Game would crash to desktop after a few minutes of playing on a large map, rendering the game unplayable (had to rerun the game 50 times a day until i got sick of it)
*Things I have done prior to finding the solution that are still being used:
1) Turned all game settings to medium (still crashed)
2) Changed to a fixed swap file of 3GB min and 3GB Max (still crashed)
3) Turned on Link Retrain from BIOS settings (still crashed)
4) Turned off Hyperthreading support from BIOS (was desperate, still crashed)
5) Turned movies off in Civ INI (reduced hangs, but still crashed game)
6) Turned on Windows Mode and played using that (reduced crashes, but still crashed alot)
Please note that im mentioning the above only because i did not roll those changes back when i stumbled on the solution that fixed the crashes for me. Therefore they might be totally unrelated, infact I think they are unrelated. So if you try this fix, then you do not need to do the above.
*The Solution -> What fixed it for me:
I was reading the -Take Two- press release regarding the ATI card fix for this game, and noticed they kept on mentioning "and other nVidia driver problems", that and the fact that coding and testing of the game must have been done with old drivers, since obviously the new drivers were not released yet...I decided to rollback my nVidia drivers to something the coders and testers might have used.
Headed over to www.nvidia.com and downloaded the latest driver (from the OLD drivers) that specifically supports my gforce 6x series, that was the 71.89 April 14, 2005 driver verison found here http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html
I completely removed my previous driver first, and then installed the one above. I have been playing for 2 and a half days now, for a total of about 13 hours without a single crash. Previously I used to crash every 10 or 5 minutes.
I also play Age of Empires 3, and the driver downgrade did not mess that game up.
Hope that helps some of you out there. Trick is to downgrade your driver until you reach a stable one, or just use the 71.89 driver.
P4 3.2 Ghz - 1GB DDR RAM - nVidia gForce 6600 256MB - WinXP Pro SP2
*My Original nVidia driver version:
81.85 October 20, 2005
* Quick Summary of Fix:
Use the 71.89 April 14, 2005 driver verison found here http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html
MORE DETAILS BELOW->
*My Problem:
Game would crash to desktop after a few minutes of playing on a large map, rendering the game unplayable (had to rerun the game 50 times a day until i got sick of it)
*Things I have done prior to finding the solution that are still being used:
1) Turned all game settings to medium (still crashed)
2) Changed to a fixed swap file of 3GB min and 3GB Max (still crashed)
3) Turned on Link Retrain from BIOS settings (still crashed)
4) Turned off Hyperthreading support from BIOS (was desperate, still crashed)
5) Turned movies off in Civ INI (reduced hangs, but still crashed game)
6) Turned on Windows Mode and played using that (reduced crashes, but still crashed alot)
Please note that im mentioning the above only because i did not roll those changes back when i stumbled on the solution that fixed the crashes for me. Therefore they might be totally unrelated, infact I think they are unrelated. So if you try this fix, then you do not need to do the above.
*The Solution -> What fixed it for me:
I was reading the -Take Two- press release regarding the ATI card fix for this game, and noticed they kept on mentioning "and other nVidia driver problems", that and the fact that coding and testing of the game must have been done with old drivers, since obviously the new drivers were not released yet...I decided to rollback my nVidia drivers to something the coders and testers might have used.
Headed over to www.nvidia.com and downloaded the latest driver (from the OLD drivers) that specifically supports my gforce 6x series, that was the 71.89 April 14, 2005 driver verison found here http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_71.89.html
I completely removed my previous driver first, and then installed the one above. I have been playing for 2 and a half days now, for a total of about 13 hours without a single crash. Previously I used to crash every 10 or 5 minutes.
I also play Age of Empires 3, and the driver downgrade did not mess that game up.
Hope that helps some of you out there. Trick is to downgrade your driver until you reach a stable one, or just use the 71.89 driver.