[Solved] ntdll.dll's curse

[Mox1]

Hey there guys, new guy here. So I wanted to play Civ5(G&K & BNW) again after a year break(back then I only had vanilla). Since then I have reinstalled my system twice, as well as upgraded my computer.

Now onto the problem: the game starts fine, cutscenes, loading screen and the menu. But when I go to start or load a game it crashes. As in, the music stops and the windows crash pop-up appears(with the Get Help Online and Close program options, as well as as the rundown what happened). Please note that the loading has already started: the leader screen has shown, and the narrator usually manages to get a word or two in.

Here's the crash info: http://pastebin.com/7XGcFX2X

Here's the DxDiag: http://pastebin.com/Gty6YWQs

I've attempted compability, driver-updating(they're all up to date), integrity-verifying, reinstalling and DLC/Expansion off-switching. None of them work. I have no mods installed.

I've also attempted to replace the ntdll.dll with a copy from the internet, suspecting that it got corrupted, only to stopped by the fact that the ntdll.dll is in constant use by Windows, and so can't be modified, replaced or deleted.

Lastly: the problem seems to be with my computer: it works fine on another one. I can post a DxDiag of that one as well, if you would like.

Please help...

 

[Petek]

If ntdll.dll is corrupt, you might be able to fix it by running the System File Checker from a command prompt. See this article for more information.

 

[Mox1]

"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

Anything else?

 

[Petek]

This is a tricky problem. When the game was released in 2010, we saw several crashes related to ntdll.dll. I think the cause was an incompatibility with some video cards and was eventually fixed by a patch. Since no one else has reported this problem recently, there may be something about your system that's causing the crashes. Here are some things to try:

Your DxDiag file shows that your system (a laptop?) has two different video "cards": An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti and an Intel(R) HD Graphics. We know from experience that the game has problems with Intel graphics. The driver is dated 6/27/2013, which is fairly recent, but it might help if you could find a newer driver. Also, there may be some way to force your system to use the NVIDIA card. I don't know how to do this, but perhaps someone else here can advise if needed. (I think the phrase switchable graphics comes into play.)

Some crashes have been fixed by editing the config.ini file (by default located in C:\Users\(user name)\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5). Find the entry

; Enables the game core to run in a separate thread
EnableGameCoreThreading = 1

and change the 1 to a 0.

If none of this helps, please post again.

 

[Mox1]

Nope, doesn't work. BTW, I haven't done the switchable graphics thingy, I simply disabled my the Intel Graphics Card.

Also, my computer is a box PC. I can post what motherboard I have, but like you can see in the DxDiag, it comes with an integrated graphics card(the aforementioned Intel(R) HD Graphics).

 

[Petek]

OK, two more things to try:

1. Open UserSettings.ini (same location as config.ini), find the line SkipIntroVideo = 0 and change 0 to 1 (assuming it isn't already set to 1).
2. If running in DX11, change to DX9.

If that doesn't help, I'm about out of ideas, but perhaps someone else can advise.

 

[Mox1]

Unfortunately that did not help... ._.

Anythign else I could try? I'm thinking of reinstalling my system during the weekend: see if that helps... :/

 

[Mox1]

A fresh new install of Windows 7, and a fresh new install of the Civilization 5/G&K/BNW. Guess what?

http://pastebin.com/H85FmKYV -_-

Here's the new DxDiag(probably not much changed, considering I didn't make any hardware changes): http://pastebin.com/DmZCFPTZ

 

[timtofly]

Have you given any thought to upgrading to a 64 bit OS?

 

[Mox1]

No... And up until now I haven't realized I have a 64-bit processor(I just googled it)...

If that's the problem then............

I'll get back to you >_>

 

[Mox1]

Wow. Just wow. Installing the 64-bit version of my system somehow solved the problem...

Thanks a lot guys

 

[Petek]

@Mox1 -- Glad to hear that you're good to go.

@timtofly -- Great suggestion! I'll mark the thread as solved.