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Civ IV + Nvidia = CRash to desktop , Hard freezes, and the general smell of poo

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  • #1

    Civ IV + Nvidia = CRash to desktop , Hard freezes, and the general smell of poo

    Specs:

    nvidia 6800gt (gigabyte)
    Drivers tested: many. 71.11, 81.85, 81.87 (beta)

    After a good first two days, I had no crashes to desktop. I did have one hard freeze (had to reboot). Now, I get crashes to desktop FREQUENTLY (every 10 minutes). I also get hard freezes. I have 8gb ram, so I doubt a memory leak is killing me that soon.

    Any help out there?

    I've tried a bunch of settings in the .ini file, and they didn't help (e.g., turning off unit animations, running it in windowed mode, etc.).

    How on earth could they release a game in this state? First the ATI problem, now this.


    sd
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I have 8gb ram,
    What's your OS? 64 bits? In 32 bits you can't adress more than 4Gb, and normally only 2 are available to the programs, the rest being used by Windows.
    Clash of Civilization team member
    (a civ-like game whose goal is low micromanagement and good AI)
    web site http://clash.apolyton.net/frame/index.shtml and forum here on apolyton)

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    • #3
      xp-64
      sd

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      • #4
        The game CTD's for me quite often..

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        • #5
          You should ask 2K games if they did some testing on 64bits systems. Since the game is 32bits and has been compiled that way, there might be a few dll's that don't sit well with the OS?
          I know some products, like some Microsoft development environments, don't run on XP64bits even if you tell them to run like 32bit.
          Clash of Civilization team member
          (a civ-like game whose goal is low micromanagement and good AI)
          web site http://clash.apolyton.net/frame/index.shtml and forum here on apolyton)

          Comment

          • #6
            argh

            Dual NVidia 7800 GTX cards in SLI
            AMD 4800+
            4 Gb RAM
            XP Pro

            Crash to Desktop every half hour.
            One Reboot/Blue screen of death (yes, a BSOD, the first ever on this machine)

            Did the upgrades, did the DirectX sound downgrade performance trick...

            At least I know to save after every five turns...so when it does crash, I can just load the last save.

            Comment

            • #7
              When are some of you folks going to learn? It isn't most people's setup. It isn't x64. It isn't what driver you have, whether you have sound hardware acceleration on or not, or any of a hundred settings on your computer or in ini files or in directx.

              THE GAME DOESN'T WORK FOR MANY PEOPLE. IT WAS NOT TESTED PROPERLY. STOP PRETENDING ANYTHING ELSE IS TRUE.

              For the record, I have two dozen other games on my computer. The ONLY game that has given trouble is AOE 3's network code, but then, they were making Firaxis look good for the first few days (n.b.: AOE 3 works now).

              sd

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              • #8
                You say for the first two days it ran well. If it ran well then, it should be able to run well now. Are you playing differently now? Larger maps? Are you monitoring system temperatures? Have you tried reinstalling CIV and seeing if that helps the issue?

                The programming hasn't changed, but your stability has. So it follows that the programming probably isn't the source of the instability.

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                • #9
                  The programming hasn't changed, but your stability has. So it follows that the programming probably isn't the source of the instability
                  Not necessarily. I've had a similar experience.

                  When I started my first and only game in Civ4 it didn't crash for many hours. Slowly, the frequency of crashes has increased, from one every several hours to one every ten minutes or so.

                  I haven't changed any system properties aside from installing the game, geting ATI catalyst 5.10, and runing the unpak fix for ATI cards.

                  Perhaps it is in the code, related to the number of units in the game, or options that become more frequently used as civs grow. if so, then someone who played slower than I might have gone a day or two before geting a crash, even now a slower player might only see problems 1/2 or 1/3 as often.

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                  • #10
                    I've started to quicksave after every turn. Auto saves are just too infrequent to prevent loss of vital, civilization critical, military data.

                    Also:

                    There is a one-to-one correlation between Civ4 crashes and some cryptic logs in the Windows error log. I'll post a copy in a sec.

                    Forgot to put system specs:

                    AMD Athlon64 3000+ (socket 754)
                    1GB Ram
                    WinXP Pro.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Originally posted by BleckLord
                      Not necessarily.
                      Which is why I used "probably" and asked if he was playing differently now.

                      When I started my first and only game in Civ4 it didn't crash for many hours. Slowly, the frequency of crashes has increased, from one every several hours to one every ten minutes or so.

                      I haven't changed any system properties aside from installing the game, geting ATI catalyst 5.10, and runing the unpak fix for ATI cards.

                      Perhaps it is in the code, related to the number of units in the game, or options that become more frequently used as civs grow. if so, then someone who played slower than I might have gone a day or two before geting a crash, even now a slower player might only see problems 1/2 or 1/3 as often.
                      If you start a new game does it run fine again? Are the crashes reproduceable, or just random?

                      As the game progresses it certainly uses up more memory and taxes the hardware more. Heat could be an issue, as could faulty RAM or mistimed/overclocked RAM and CPU.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Civ IV + Nvidia = CRash to desktop , Hard freezes, and the general smell of poo

                        Originally posted by stormslayer
                        Drivers tested: many. 71.11, 81.85, 81.87 (beta)
                        I was wondering if you encountered any better results with 81.87 beta. I'm using a GeForce4 Ti 4200 and I found that the game was a bit more responsive. Although it still becomes extremely unstable on the larger maps and occasionally CTD's even on a standard map. Overall I did notice a minor improvement.. did you find the crashes happen more frequently on larger games? I know I did

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                        • #13
                          I've started to quicksave after every turn. Auto saves are just too infrequent to prevent loss of vital, civilization critical, military data.

                          I can help you with this one:
                          In the .INI fiole set:

                          AutoSaveInterval = 1
                          It will now auto save every turn.
                          Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing?
                          Then why call him God? - Epicurus

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                          • #14
                            The problem with autosave interval = 1, is that it only saves 4 or so autosaves, so you can't go back to avoid WW3.

                            You can quicksave using 'shift-F5' right before you press enter for your next turn. That way you keep your every 4th turn autosaves.


                            I've created a thread for helping to debug crash to desktop issues. I don't think this is limited to Nvidia or ATI alone.

                            Apolyton Civilization Site
                            http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141282

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Aeson,

                              No overclocking here, not even using cool-n-quiet on the 64. RAM has been run through marching C and checker-board ram tests.

                              Memory leak does not seem to be the cause (if it is, there is a nice garbage collecter after the crash), because after the crash memory use is back down to about WinXP standard.

                              Processor heat is probably not an issue, I've been runing folding on the machine 24-7 since I built it.

                              No other 3D intense games have been crashing (FEAR, HL2, Battlefield 2) recently, so I don't think its graphics card heat, plus I'm running an aftermarket cooler on the AGP card.

                              It could be Sound blaster related, I've had more than a crap-load of problems with SB causing game crashes. Thats why I started the new thread. I want to see what people are running and try to see any patterns.

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