Odd Graphics Problem, post if you have it too, or a solution

[MacDeepBlue]

I have noticed that some other people have a similiar problem but there does not seem to be a solution to this graphics problem (see screenshot). I have noticed that it only does it on Large maps and it almost always happens when diplomacy is initiated. Just in case they are coorolated I also have the crash to desktop, crash and automatically restart the computer, occasional long freezes, and the wonder movies are choppy (but intro is fine). My system stats are:

Windows xp64
AMD 64 3800+
1 gig ram
256 meg Geforce 6600 (PCI-e)
1.09 patch

Post if you have the same problem and see if we can isolate what it is (lowering graphics settings and messing around with stuff does not seem to fix it for me).


http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/deepblue/civilization/index.album?i=1&s=1

and just because it is about the funniest thing ever I am posting this photo of a william wallace statue my friend just took because it gave me something to laugh about when dealing with all this civ frustration:

http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/deepblue/civilization/index.album?i=0&s=1

 

[rebby]

I managed to get rid of that problem by decreasing the AGP aperture size from 64M to 32M (in BIOS).

 

[MacDeepBlue]

How do i do that? And not being much of a hardware person, can I do that when I have a pci-e card? If not, any other ideas?

 

[bsebesty]

Folks !

Is this the type of checkered-board screen crash that you have seen ? (See my attachment.)

I am so fed up with it that I have now photographed it.
It always happens.
I have had about 5-6 attempts at least.
It always happens roughly at the same time: during the tutorial at around 10 mins into the game (at or before around the part about the religion).
I have not tried it during the regular game, as I do not want to before finishing the tutorial.
I checked GPU temperature by ALT-TAB-ing (sorry I have no other tracing method). Before about 30 sec of crashing, it was in between 80-90 degC, while the treshold was set at 120 degC.
I have not had a screen crash in other game (including graphics intensive stuff).

Config is:
Athlon XP 64 3500+
1 gig RAM
GeForce 6800GT, driver 81.95
Patch 1.09

Pleeease help, I am so fed up. Tell me what details I need to provide to find a solution.
I'd like to have this fixed before the holidays

Thanx,
Balazs

 

[bsebesty]

and the file ...

 

[Neon Deon]

Folks !

Is this the type of checkered-board screen crash that you have seen ? (See my attachment.)

I am so fed up with it that I have now photographed it.
It always happens.
I have had about 5-6 attempts at least.
It always happens roughly at the same time: during the tutorial at around 10 mins into the game (at or before around the part about the religion).
I have not tried it during the regular game, as I do not want to before finishing the tutorial.
I checked GPU temperature by ALT-TAB-ing (sorry I have no other tracing method). Before about 30 sec of crashing, it was in between 80-90 degC, while the treshold was set at 120 degC.
I have not had a screen crash in other game (including graphics intensive stuff).

Config is:
Athlon XP 64 3500+
1 gig RAM
GeForce 6800GT, driver 81.95
Patch 1.09

Pleeease help, I am so fed up. Tell me what details I need to provide to find a solution.
I'd like to have this fixed before the holidays

Thanx,
Balazs

80 to 90 and that is (Centigrate)?

Thats appears to be way hot.

 

[Zydor]

80-90degrees C ! eeek thats way way too high. You must take action immediately to reduce that you are in real danger of frying your cpu. A threashold of 120 is no good either, it will burn out before it hits that.

Dont go rushing out buying all sorts of gizmos to cool it - not yet anyway - dont forget the basics like unclogged fans, heatsink dust accumilation, airblow cleaning the inside of the case etc. Once the basic maintenance is done on it, recheck temperature, if still too high you will need to get someone to take a real hard look at it to find out whats happening.

Basic guide to cooling, and some links and further tabs around and above the article here

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/143

 

[KingAl]

I have noticed that some other people have a similiar problem but there does not seem to be a solution to this graphics problem (see screenshot). I have noticed that it only does it on Large maps and it almost always happens when diplomacy is initiated. Just in case they are coorolated I also have the crash to desktop, crash and automatically restart the computer, occasional long freezes, and the wonder movies are choppy (but intro is fine).

While the other issues may be unrelated, the actual graphics issue and the restart on crash sound (and look) like hardware issues to me. The sort of graphics issues that occur due to in-game bugs are generally speaking like the 'black terrain' issue or problems like textures appearing in the wrong places (this is all just from experience). The complete mangling of the 3d portions of the screenshot suggest some problem with the videocard to me, personally- maybe such as overheating (or perhaps driver clashes). Restarts are often due to the power supply not holding out when other components are sapping more power than it can supply- so the graphics card working hard could cause a sap of power. It may be that both issues are interrelated: sometimes the graphics card overheats due to high workload and sometimes power cuts out before it can reach that point. It is also important to note that power supplies often produce less power than officially cited when the operating temperature is high.

Of course, my assessment of the issue may all be completely and utterly wrong. But if it is right, then the best solutions would be to get a new power supply which has a higher output (a reliable, brand name one) and cooling system (you find PSU calculators on the net that can tell you how much power you need- and make sure you include cooling in the calculations). You probably want to look into other possible solutions that are less expensive first, and see if anyone who really knows what they're talking about can support this suggestion (I don't want to be responsible for the needless splurging of money), but be careful because high temperatures and power issues can ruin your components.

EDIT: When you say it only happens on large maps- have you tried Huge maps etc.? The diplomacy catalyst would make sense because it means more 3D operations for your card, and if it happens on large maps then that may be due to the need to render such a large map, but if it happens only on 'large' maps and not on the even bigger ones then that sounds much more like an in game bug.

 

[Woody]

80-90degrees C ! eeek thats way way too high. You must take action immediately to reduce that you are in real danger of frying your cpu. A threashold of 120 is no good either, it will burn out before it hits that.

Simmer down, his GPU was that temp, not his CPU. 80-90 C is within normal operating temps for a 6800GT. I have the same card and it will run around 70C under load and I have above average cooling.

PS the 120 degree threshold is the value set by default by the nVidia drivers. If the GPU core would reach that temp the card would automatically throttle back the clock speed to keep from damaging the core.

 

[lord_graywolfe]

well i have had a bunch of different screen problems with the game but here is my latest. ive never seen anything like this, its very pretty but really hard to play on. any ideas on whats causing it?

 

[Jabbaz]

ouch. uninstall the acid-trip terrain mod. :S

 

[bsebesty]

Thanx for the feedback, folks !
Woody is right ! IT IS THE GPU TEMPERATURE IN DEGREES CENTIGRADES ! (80-90C)
PSU is 650W Q-Tec with 2 fans (suck & blow ).
Video card is MSI with standard fan.
Case is Thermaltake XaserII with 4 fans (2 fans sucking and 2 fans blowing).
I'll do a vacuum cleaning of the vents and case, but I would not think anything is wrong with that.
I would think that if overheating is an issue than some other game (BF2, Half-Life2, Quake4) or some stress test would have had that signalled it to me ...

???

Balázs

 

[bsebesty]

Please help. The case is now clean ... but still crashes. I would not think it's overheating, it must be sy else ....

Balázs

 

[Harkonnen]

A lot of memory and CTD issues were resolved by this fix:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309&goto=newpost

 

[sanguis]

I think I have the same problem bsebesty. I have a Athalon 1.8Mhz, geforce Ti4200 128mb, and 1gig RAM. I also thought it might be heat, the CPU was 55C before cleaning, and is now 45C. The video card wasn't very dirty; I couldn't clean it much. My games pre-patch used to go 1-2 hours before crashing, now it happens within 5 minutes even on this 'tiny' map I'm trying to play in. When it crashes, my screen is filled with green/yellow/white hashes all over.

So far, I've tried:
-many combinations of the .ini file tweaks,
-lowest settings: no sound no movies etc,
-16bit color,
-the harkonnen DLL,
-fixed page file size,
-reinstall Civ
-use a separate login (on XP)
-the nvidia tweak tool (including under-clocking my video card),
-multiple nvidia drivers (oldies and the beta),
-the un-PAK procedure
-32mb AGP aperature setting in BIOS (was 128mb)
(each while clearing cache).

Please help. The case is now clean ... but still crashes. I would not think it's overheating, it must be sy else ....

Balázs

 

[sanguis]

I am having more stability now, due to under-clocking the video card (set the slider all the way down this time, previously I only underclocked halfway down).
To test, I set the Mhz back to normal and the crash re-surfaced.

Your card is probably different, but mine is standard at 250 Core Mhz and 446 Memory Mhz; the new settings for me are 192 Core Mhz and 343 Memory Mhz (for Geforce4 Ti 4200 128mb). You can do the underclock with either the nvidia software or the NVhardpageSE program.

hope this helps others.

 

[Neon Deon]

Wow Betty what a big Power supply you have!

I can not remember any more which NVidia was the power hog. But, I believe you have that covered anyway.

Open the case one more time.

This time verify that the power plug to the graphics card is not shared with any other device (Like the hard drive). If it is, find a plug that is open and not connected to any thing else and use that.

 

[Harkonnen]

sanguis
This is definitely hardware problem. No software aspect should turn monitor picture into different RGB colors.

When you get over this problem, set your AGP aperture back to 128Mb (or 256Mb if BIOS allows that). This will help with any ongoing fixes, should they come from Firaxis or from me.

 

[Harkonnen]

sanguis
I said in many threads that disabling AGP is actually a bad thing. There was another offer of such kind - reducing vertex shaders version from 2.0 to 1.1. Not only it has effect on other games, but also GPU heats much faster with vertex shaders version 1.1

Did you try to lower vertex shaders version with RivaTuner or whatever tool you use?

P.S: I don't know about pixel shaders though...

 

[monoxism]

Not the same problem, but it's graphical corruption too. Happens whenever I go into world view, and only then: