v1.52 Game freezes after about 2-15 mins of gameplay

[Scalpel]

Alright, I tried to find a posting about a similar problem, but can't quite find one that matches my plight:

I have talked to Take2's tech support until they told me they'd have to "escalate me", and someone would get back to me in 2-7 days!!! Here's the problem:

My game hard locks up after 2-15 minutes of gameplay, if I'm lucky. Sometimes it even locks up in the menu system just setting up a game! Here are my specs:
P4 2.4
1GB RDRAM
Nvidia GeForce 6600GT
SBLive! XGamer 5.1
More than 15GB free HD space
If you need any other specs, feel free to ask.

I have Windows XP, SP2, the latest drivers for Bios, Vid card, Sound, DirectX, the 1.52 patch, and NOTHING has worked at all. Tech support had me disable all startup items, that got it to last for 15 minutes (just long enough to hang up with them thinking everything was cool) once, and then after that, my average game is 3 minutes, or about a turn and a half. I have tried deleting my cache folder, changing autosave to 0, memsaver to 1 (tech support's idea again), my virtual memory to 1500, and then 2000, like I have seen several ppl suggest on these forums, tried disabling AGP Texture acceleration and sound card hardware acceleration in dxdiag, have tried playing with no sound, low graphics settings, all to no avail. I tried reinstalling, playing without the patch, installing under a different Windows user, and almost anything else short of witchcraft you can think of.

I have not come across anyone dealing with this exact situation, so I thought I'd start a new thread. I never get an error message, never CTD, no graphical artifacts, and no rebooting, just a hard lock, no mouse, no keyboard responses at all. My computer runs many other games (BF2, HL2, etc.) with zero problems, so I really am at the end of my rope! If anyone out there can help, I would be so appreciative!


Sincerely,

Scalpel

 

[dodgy_007au]

Dude, welcome to the club.
i have the EXACT same problem as you.
i updated the latest drivers from ATI for my Radeon 9600XT but that hasn't done squat. i am pretty sure it is something to do with the graphics card being chewed up for memory and then the whole thing freezes up..even Mediaplayer stops playing..

Wish i could offer you some advice, but i am not known for my tech abilities
just thought i would let you know that i feel your pain, brother

 

[dodgy_007au]

PS...
even bloody worldbuilder crashed after about 10 minutes!!

 

[DGoose]

I have the same card and same problem. I'm beginning to think it's the card.

 

[Scalpel]

I forgot to post my dxdiag originally, but here it is. Ok, not sure why it won't let me attach it to this post as well, but here's a link to another post I attached it to:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=155017

Can someone out there help me? PLEASE!

Scalpel

 

[Zydor]

I know this will sound crazy .... but, your sound driver is nearly 4 years old. Devices "compete" for space on the internal Bus. If there is a badly behaved driver - or way out of date - it can act in a way other than that expected by the internal Bus, cause conflicts. There have been several cases of this on the Board.

Cant guarantee it will in your case - but you been everywhere else - nothing to loose .... updated drivers at the Creative web site.

The only other thing you can try is a TOTAL purge of Civ IV so there is nothing left of it anywhere, an auto de-install can leave bits behind which sometimes cause issues. I can point you at the routine for that if you want to try it.

I am certain its not the card, too many out there working ok. There is an issue with one make of 6800 (not the 6800 itself) and they are working with NVidia on that one. If a 6600 issue was lurking it would have shown up by now on the Board. So something is clashing on your setup .... obviously question is what ....

Give the sound driver a go, then a clean install - I well understand you may not want to do the clean install after your efforts, let me know if you do.

Regards
Zy

 

[Scalpel]

I appreciate your quick reply! I know it looks like it's 4 years old, but I have been all over the Creative website, even used their auto-update program, and according to them, I have the latest driver. If you find one newer, I'd be MORE than happy to give it a whirl, but since I'm running a 5.1 XGamer, they say that that driver is the one to have. Weird, but true. I would even be willing to try a driver not intended for use with my card if someone suggested it, but according to Creative, the one I have is the most recent for a 5.1 card. Do I need to just go out and upgrade my sound card? Hate to do it, but will if I have to.

And yes, I would like your suggestion on the complete clean install, I have tried everything else, I have no problems doing that.

Thanks again.

Scalpel

 

[Zydor]

Dont buy a sound card on spec - we dont know for certain its that. Pity about the driver, its going to put doubt in the mind as its not positively checked as such. Its not imp;ossible its that, it is 4 years old - equally, need to be carefull about grasping at straws ....

Clean Install
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=152620

Regards
Zy

 

[big Deezy]

I have Windows XP, SP2, the latest drivers for Bios, Vid card, Sound, DirectX, the 1.52 patch, and NOTHING has worked at all.

I had same probs with similar specs. The problems is the latest video card drivers. I downloaded an older version of my video card driver (1.71, i think). I have not had any problems since!

Good Luck!

 

[Scalpel]

Tried both the clean install, as well as rolling back the driver to 81.95, and it still locked up after roughly 5 mins of smooth play. Anything else my friends?

Scalpel

 

[Scalpel]

Also tried rolling back to driver 78.03, with no luck there either. I don't think it's a video driver problem...

Scalpel

 

[Scalpel]

Zy,

Any other suggestions? I am just reading through threads and trying everything possible right now. Seems that after installing the Dec 05 DirectX, and using RivaTuner to force vertex and pixel shaders to 1.1, things got a little bit better, haven't crashed in the menu system for a while, but it still crashes about every 20-30 minutes. I'm trying everything these days, and Take2 keeps telling me to call back later... Argh!

Scalpel

 

[Zydor]

Much of the "checklist" is in this thread
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=155217

Satrting to run out of ideas with yours to be honest. You have a good well tuned system - low pagefile - good card & processor etc, nice setup .

I am convinced its not the card, so few 6600s have had issues, most of those end up being non-civ related, or different hassles.

Does not help you - kind of statement of the obvious.... but something is clashing in memory, obviously question is what ...

I am still suspicious about your sound driver ... despite what they said. Your dxdiag shows
SB Live! Audio [D400]
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0252 (English)
7/19/2002 10:47:52, 837548 bytes
I find it hard to believe there is no later version of driver. Try digging around here
http://www.creative.com/support/

There is a driver download section, autoupdate util and a knowledge base.

If that driver is "way" out of date, it could be causing hassles on the internal bus - everything in the PC ends up on the internal bus (as such), if its badly behaved/out of date re the other devices it could case dramas there.


Regards
Zy

 

[Scalpel]

Man,

I know you don't believe me, but I am telling you, Creative just keeps saying that I have the latest drivers. I have looked all over that site. I've used the auto-updater, I've scoped around, and as crazy as it sounds, Creative won't let me have them. Yes, it's bogus, I mean, how can there not be ANY updates since 2003 for my sound card? (Not sure why it says 2002 in Dxdiag, because the Creative site says 2003, and yes, I did uninstall the old ones before putting in the new ones) I have no idea. BUT, I did some looking around (not on Creative's site, bleh) and found a site that said it had some drivers for a Live! card, so I plugged them in, and viola! The game runs for 20 mins, then crashes. I haven't timed it, but it's almost like clockwork, just as soon as I think maybe my crash worries are a thing of the past, boom, it all locks up! I went ahead and showed you my dxdiag again, just so you can see the new ones.

Oh yeah, and don't worry about my video drivers, I can update them to the 81.98 whenever, it's just that I saw a thread that recommended trying the older 71.98, which also didn't work...

I would even be willing to try the Audigy drivers not made for my card, if someone told me to, but right there on the Creative website, it says it's ONLY for the Audigy cards...

Ok, I hadn't made every single one of those changes in your checklist, but I have now, and I'm going to try this whole thing once again. If it doesn't work this time, I'm thinking I'll just wait until the next patch, I mean, this is crazy.

And one last thought, I think I have an on-board audio card Realtek 650 or something, should I try taking out my Live! card and just going with the Realtek? Either that, or buy a new sound card? Grasping at straws...

Scalpel

 

[DaLuni]

Hmm, I use Realtek and it works like a charm (on board sound card as well). Have you tried simply changing the sound source in the control panel (under "sound and sound devices" or something similar, I'm using a Swedish version of WinXP) to the Realtek one?

 

[Zydor]

I believe you - I feel the frustration leaping through the window

Good thought from DaLuni re the RealTek - that would eliminate the creative one as a problem source. If it works, make a creative wooden doll and stick some pins in it - would be wonderfully theraputic

Re new sound card - I wouldnt until you have positively worked out that it is the creative card. Would hate to see you buy a sound card only to find it was something else ... but obviously its your choice.

Go back to 81.98 when you can - that update implimented support for DirectX 9.0c, so its important re Civ IV.

Regards
Zy

 

[Scalpel]

Alright, finally had some time to mess around with it this afternoon, and despite having made every single change you outlined in your checklist for the ini file, super updated drivers for the Realtek, (12/05) it still locks!
Is my video card overheating, or what? I have seen that suggested, and I dl'd Rivatuner, but don't see anywhere on there how to "underclock" my card, as some have suggested. Anyway...

I'm out of ideas, and quite frankly, I don't have any more time to mess around with this. It looks like a fantastic game, I have loved the part of one game I've managed to get into, but it sucks that they made such a piece of crap as far as compatibility. If you suggest something, I might get to it sometime, thank you so much for your help, but I might as well wait until someone comes out with a fix for this thing.

Scalpel

 

[Scalpel]

Alright, no, I can't give up! I can't help it, I want to play this game so bad! Someone help me, PLEASE!!! I'll try ANYTHING! /me runs off into corner to weep the bittersweetness that was his small taste of Civ IV...

Scalpel

 

[Zuba]

Hello Scalpel...
I have the EXACT same problem as you.
I upgrade my memory from 512MB to 1GB, and at this moment...rs ...everything looks fine.

Regards
Zuba

My specs:
P4 2.6 HT
1GB RDRAM
Asus 8200 Deluxe 64MB
SBLive! XGamer 5.1
More than 30GB free HD space

 

[Scalpel]

I already have 1GB ram, so I'm not sure that getting more is the answer. I don't think it's a ram problem...