Vista Crashes

[AMBusam]

Hello all,

I've been playing this mod since BTS came out and I've never had an OS problem. Recently, however, I've been experiencing a crash to desktop. The error that Vista is giving me goes like this:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Civ4BeyondSword.exe
Application Version: 3.1.3.1
Application Timestamp: 48317e8a
Fault Module Name: CvGameCoreDLL.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 48f7f427
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00009020
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 3164
Additional Information 2: f31c530d3d12785f4cca5eb2cbce0d8e
Additional Information 3: 5f87
Additional Information 4: 01bff28ec018e5af7a10ed0e25a03bbf

Unfortunately, what this mostly boils down to is a 'General Protection Error'. Not really much help from what I can determine. I posted this over in the bug thread, but Kael is unable to reproduce my crash. Likely, then, the error is due to the OS.
My own programming skills are somewhat antiquated, but I'll try my hand at troubleshooting this. From a search of the forums it comes up every now and again. It might be nice to have some kind of Vista error protocol set up for just such occurrences. I'm assuming that such errors will become more frequent the more players upgrade to Vista and the more Vista users begin playing FfH. If not, at least I'll have tried to salvage a fun game start.

My save is linked here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7354597&postcount=450

If other Vista users would care to try out the save and verify the crash details that would be a good first step. If other computer savvy Vista users would care to offer any suggestions or advice I'd be most appreciative. Anyone's comments are welcome, for that matter.

Thanks to all.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I have Vista. tried your savegame and sure enough it crashed on me as well

no special comment though, just the regular "civ4 beyond the sword crashed" message. how do I get that additional info you posted above?

 

[AMBusam]

Gecko: On the window that comes up there is usually a button to 'Show Details'. Thanks for trying it out.

Now we'll have to figure out what FfH is calling that Vista doesn't like.

Edit: I see that this discussion has continue directly in the bug thread as well. Cabbagemeister discovered the source fo the problem:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7356674&postcount=473

 

[cabbagemeister]

I posted about this in the bug thread. The crash is caused in some way by the flame tile right next to Acheron. Delete the flame in WB, and you can continue the game. Alternately, try the .dll file Kael posted in that thread (I can't try it until tonight).

 

[Kael]

You can get the test dll here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7356827&postcount=477

 

[AMBusam]

Haha, things move pretty quickly around here. Faster than me, anyway. I have tried the file and that does indeed stop the crash. Thanks to Kael and Cabbagemeister.

 

[xienwolf]

Have you tried converting all of the terrain around the flame instead of deleting it? See if changing the tile that the flame is on to another terrain clears the crash, if so then it is probably a fire-extinguishing issue again. If that doesn't work, change all of the tiles around the fire, if that clears it then it is probably a fire-spreading issue.

 

[cabbagemeister]

Have you tried converting all of the terrain around the flame instead of deleting it? See if changing the tile that the flame is on to another terrain clears the crash, if so then it is probably a fire-extinguishing issue again. If that doesn't work, change all of the tiles around the fire, if that clears it then it is probably a fire-spreading issue.

Tested this before applying Kael's dll change or patch g.

Changing the terrain around the flame plot does not eliminate the CTD. Changing the terrain ON the flame plot DOES eliminate the CTD, and the next turn the flame goes out. So it does look like a flame-extinguishing issue. Interestingly, changing the desert plot to grassland causes the flame to go out and causes a burnt forest to appear in the square. This is very strange since obviously there was no pre-flame forest (the plot was originally desert). Could this issue be a weird combination of flame extinguishing and forest growth?

 

[xienwolf]

Could be the source of the issue, if Vista is deciding somehow that there ought to be a forest on the tile, but that desert isn't allowed to have forests.

 

[Kael]

Its a problem on the extinguish. Features check for a variety of things during a turn. If the feature is extinguished partially through those checks then the following checks check the feature to see if they need to do anything. Windows XP ignores those invalid checks, Vista crashes.