Steam+Civ5 Crashing Randomly In Game

[Ocelot11185]

Hello,
Looking for some help here with Civ5 and/or STEAM. The game crashes for me at random times in DX10/11 mode - it doesn't matter if it is an old saved game, a new game, large map, small map, first turn, 10th turn, or whatever. It will just randomly freeze, forcing me to alt-tab to click the message box that Civ5 has stopped working (and to check for a solution). If there is a pattern to when the crash occurs, I have not noticed it yet. The game has worked in the past, but I took a hiatus from playing it on Windows for 6 months or so (haven't played it on my desktop since Summer 2013 - been playing on a MacBook Pro instead).

My computer can handle the game (settings maxed out at 1440p, high frame rates until crash), as it did in the past, and here is the System Info from DXDIAG:

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System Information
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Time of this report: 1/29/2014, 09:49:40
Machine name: JEFFSUPERI7
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130828-1532)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: MSI
System Model: MS-7673
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/22/11 13:34:45 Ver: 04.06.04
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 32740MB RAM
Page File: 6063MB used, 26674MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode


The Windows Event Viewer shows this about the error:

Faulting application name: CivilizationV_DX11.exe, version: 1.0.3.144, time stamp: 0x525863c1
Faulting module name: d3d11.dll, version: 6.2.9200.16570, time stamp: 0x5153774d
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000a7904
Faulting process id: 0x11d0
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf1c82ada122be
Faulting application path: F:\STEAM\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V\CivilizationV_DX11.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\d3d11.dll
Report Id: 70d73fde-887a-11e3-986a-8c89a5617fd0

I should also note that if I run in DX9 mode I get strange lines and map-tiles which "blurr" across the screen making it unplayable in DX9 mode. Other games seem to work fine (Skyrim, Left4Dead, GPU benchmarks, etc).

What I have tried:

Verifying game cache
Uninstalling and reinstalling Civ5
Running STEAM in Vista SP2 Compatibility
Tried the previous NVIDIA driver official release, current BETA and current official release.
Running the Steamapps files vcrredist_x86.exe, DXSetup.exe, D3D11Install.exe (which says I have nothing to update).
Setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\VALVE to have "Full Control" in regedit.
Running SFC /scannow
As noted above, I have tried playing new Civ5 games, old ones, large maps, small maps.

All result in seemingly random in-game freezing. I would normally say that this sounds like over heating, but it does not occur in any other game. Any ideas?

Thanks for any help/ideas.

 

[Ocelot11185]

Just thought about a couple more things. These crashes:
1) Seem to occur when it is my turn to do things (never on the AI turn).
2) Will occur within 20 minutes of starting a game. Usually earlier on, but never more than 20 minutes or so will go by without a crash.

I also have tried deleting the *.ini Civ5 settings and cache .db files in My Documents as some other posts recommended.

The video card is a GTX570.

UPDATE 1/30
I cleaned my computer out very well last night in hopes that dust was causing an over heating issue. It did not help, and I confirmed again that other games work fine when using 100% GPU for a long duration. I did however try to run in windowed mode - and it works for nearly an hour (the longest it has worked so far). However, this morning, I turned on Civ 5, loaded the game, and it immediately crashed... :-(

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: CivilizationV_DX11.exe
Application Version: 1.0.3.144
Application Timestamp: 525863c1
Fault Module Name: d3d11.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.2.9200.16570
Fault Module Timestamp: 5153774d
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000a7da4
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Link to full DXDIAG: http://pastebin.com/7qicHpji

 

[LAnkou]

Hi,
I have the same problem, Civ 5 crash randomly (between 20 and 40 min after the start of the game).
I stopped playing for 10 months and restarted 2 weeks ago. I had to download the new patch (no problem) but now, every time i play, the game crash (and make my PC crash too).

It is on a personal action too (clicking on an icon or tooltip or anything)

 

[Ocelot11185]

Here is a suggestion: On the 2K Forums a moderator suggested I go back to the latest non-beta driver (which I had already been on, but had upgraded to try to fix Civ5). However, I was able to improve the stability of Civ5 somewhat.

I uninstalled ALL nvidia software from my computer through the Control Panel and rebooted as necessary. Then downloaded the latest WHQL nvidia drivers (332.21) and installed only the graphics portion (not the geforce experience app for example). The result is that Civ5 has fewer random crashes which allowed me to actually play for nearly an hour yesterday without crashing. Unfortunately, there are still random crashes, but at least the average time-to-crash has gone up...