Crash to Desktop: Support and Debug

[BleckLord]

Originally posted by sidnitz
Where's this patch that was supposed to be out last week?

I wonder myself sometimes. The silence is deafening.

Fortunately, 2k tech support got back to me (I've only been waiting for a response since Oct. 29th):

Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:42:24
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for contacting Take 2 Technical Support.

We are currently experiencing high volume of calls at the moment. We will
contact you very
shortly.

Please be sure to delete all previous correspondence when replying. This
will help us to process your response in a more timely and efficient manner.

Kind Regards,
Take 2 Technical Support

So why is it my responsibility to send you all the information I've already sent you? Even if I send it again and you respond more quickly, I'd still be waiting until Christmas at the rate things are going.

I must admit, I was quite peeved at Civ 4 CTD issues until The Movies came out. Since then I haven't had a single Civ 4 lament (I haven't even played). I also had a lot of fun playing another 2k game (as much as it pains me to buy from them), Serious Sam 2.

[tiger00]

I've gotten a somewhat repeatable CTD on a current map.

I'm playing the huge Earth map as the Americans, year is about 1620. Fog of war/Black is lifted on North/South America and a small portion of the sea.

Now, as soon as I trade one of the other cultures for their world map (giving a view of the whole globe pretty much) all i have to do is click or scroll around the map for a little while and wham... CTD

System stats:
Pentium M 2.0 ghz
1 GB ram
Mobility Radeon 9700
Win XP
Swap file is 3GB+

Before it crashes the game is using about 500MB ram or so - in any case well under both my physical ram and swap file.

I really doubt its any sort of problem with my machine, I've used it to play HL2, X2, Doom3, and just zipped through the Fear demo a couple of days ago - no lockups on any of those.

I should also note - after the trade for the world map the game "thinks" for a little while, perhaps 30 seconds or so. When it locks up, it only freezes for about 10 seconds before the CTD.

[Sid1]

... and it's two cents from me

I've read through most of this thread and the ones at CivFanatics. I was getting CTDs and the screen lines thingie -- using a PC with similar specs to many of you (yeah, ATI Radeon cards). I've done two things and haven't had a CTD or screen errors since: i) I increased my virtual memory to 2084 (I think that was the figure, up from 1500 or so); ii) I deleted all previous game saves -- quick, auto, and player -- due to the possibility of corrupted files.

Admittedly my games are now of 'Standard' size only and I had all the early renderer and unpack problems. All -- touch wood -- now seems to be running OK.

And yes, I check for available updates every time I fire up Civ4; nothing yet, but the guys must be working their hearts out for us because I sense that they are very proud of this game and don't want us to be disappointed.

[CivNonFreak]

Re: Re: Re: CTD, Freeze, Restarts

Originally posted by dreamwalker

YES I AM REALLY UPSET WITH THIS CAUSE THERE ARE MUCH MORE COMPLICATED GAMES WITH 3D ENGINES, WHICH RUNS WELL. I DON'T THINK THAT THESE COMPLAINING PEOPLE ARE ONLY THE FEW, IT LOOKS LIKE IT A BIT MORE. I HAD MANY GAMES WHICH ALSO REQUIRED PATCH, BUT THEY RUN WITHOUT PROBLEM ALSO WITHOUT PATCH. AND WHERE IS WRITTEN THAT THE PATCH IS GOING TO BE RELEASED? THERE IS NO EVIDENCE, NO MESSAGE FROM DEVELOPERS THAT "WE ARE WORKING ON IT". ALSO CONSIDER WHY THE CIV4 IS NOT SOLD IN HERE IN EUROPE. IT HAD TO BE ALREADY IN STORES BUT IT IS NOT, IT LOOKS LIKE THAT THEY STOPPED DISTRIBUTION IN SOME COUNTRIES IN EUROPE, WHY?

No need to shout. And it makes it harder to read.

Well, I guess you are upset. If that's what makes the time go by quicker for you before a patch comes out, then more power to you. Me, I'm not gonna worry about it. There's no more then a few hundred (if that) people posting/complaining on Apolyton and CivFanatics... thousands bought the game. Of the four people I personally know who bought the game, only I had any significant problems and those are mainly resolved. 'Course none of us had ATI cards.
There is nothing I have seen with this game I haven't seen with a half dozen others. So long as they patch and it works afterwards, then no harm, no foul (imho). Others want to get all pissed off and rant in fan forums... enjoy. If there ain't a patch by Thanksgiving, then I'll start to be disappointed. Nothing in this situation worth raising your blood pressure for.

[wrak_nj]

Win 2000, SP4 - Geforce 4ti 4400 128MB, 1GB system memory... latest drivers / updates for everything.

My system BSODs all the time when playing* Civ4, I think I've only had it safely crash to the desktop once.

The BSOD error is a problem in nv_sys (or something similar). Rather than the cause of the crashes being direct main memory leaks, I put in place some (basic) testing checks and it appears that the majority of the incompetent coding that Firaxis have delivered in this game is in the DirectX / graphics side of the game. The game access and writes over video memory it has not allocated and should not access, it incorrectly uses DirectX calls (passing invalid parameters) and all manner of other texture memory related problems (missing handles, dropped resources, etc). Put simply, the code is a horrible mess, should never have been released and because it's all tied in with the DirectX graphics system, is much, much more difficult to track down and resolve than simple memory allocation problems (I know this from experience).


* "playing" is the small amount of time inbetween waiting for the computer to reboot and the game to finally startup again.

[slashers]

Man, ive tried everything now reinstall in another hard drive, new drivers, rolled back drivers and so on but nothing works im gonna give up until a patch comes out, but do we even know if firaxis is making a patch ?

win xp sp2
Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz
1 gb ram
Nvidia GeForce 6200 256mb

[CivNonFreak]

[QUOTE] [SIZE=... but nothing works im gonna give up until a patch comes out, but do we even know if firaxis is making a patch ?

win xp sp2
Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz
1 gb ram
Nvidia GeForce 6200 256mb [/QUOTE]

One assumes they are coming out with a patch... unless they want to see a mob coming for them with torches and pitchforks.

)

[Stromprophet]

I never saw the acronym CTD till I got civ 4 and looked on the forum here.

I have been a fan for a very, very long time. (Since 90). And I have never once had any problem with any games firaxis every made.

Alpha Centauri, Civ I-III. And I have had different systems for virtually all of those games.

I am very loyal, but this is borderlining on nonsense. I mean the kinds of questions we are asking? Game crashes to desktop and we ask, well what did you change? Did XP update and that cause a problem?

I play computer games a ton, I have thousands. I have never, ever since I had xp experienced a crash (a continuing problem, or progressive problem that seems to be getting worse) because XP decided to update.

How is that anyway to play a game? I have to worry that my installing any other software will affect a game I have?

I apologize for my blasphemy against firaxis, because I am loyal. I play the game now and it is enjoyable, but there are a lot, lot of things that make the game a hardship to play. I just can't imagine so many things could have been overlooked.

Especially people meeting required specs, (and more in most cases) and supporting T & L that still get screwy things and technical issues that should not have to be solved by the gamer.

I do apologize, I'm not flaming anyone or firaxis, but gamers deserve better. I appreciate anyone who is taking the time to find solutions as it has been helpful.

[CanusCerebus]

Successful CTD fix, at least for now

I've tried several methods of fixing my CTD and 'bare terrain' errors including new sound and video drivers, increased page file, setting sound acceleration to none, creating a n ew XP user account, crossing my fingers and toes and just plain prayer.

None of that worked, I could not get past the 1700's on any size map with any number of opponents.

Then last nght I read on the CivFanatics board a post about useing the latest drivers for your card from the card's manufacturer, rather than the reference drivers from, in my case, Nvidia. I promptly went to Gigabyte's site and checked waht they called the latest driver's for my PCX FX5750 vid card. They had 71.84. When I installed these drivers and the sound drivers for my MSI mobo viola! no more graphics errors, no more CTDs, no more choppy music!

I was able to take a saved game which was crashing every five minutes before and play it through to a Space Race victory in about 2 hrs without a single glitch other than a long pause after completing the Apollo program.

Can't say this will work for everyone but it did for me.

[sidnitz]

Originally posted by BleckLord
I must admit, I was quite peeved at Civ 4 CTD issues until The Movies came out. Since then I haven't had a single Civ 4 lament (I haven't even played).

This is pretty much where I am at the moment, although I think I will be pretty p/o'd again if they don't have a patch or workaround available that fixes the crashes and bluescreens on at least one of the three systems I've tested Civ 4 on before XMas.

Just got a copy of The Movies myself today, looks like it should be pretty fun to play around with for a bit.

[edwardj]

real or copied?

I am just curious how many people posting here are and complaining are playing off of a retail copy as oppossed to an illegealy downloaded copy? I'm just curious, you understand!

Ed D

[sidnitz]

Pre-ordered from GameStop in mid-September here.

[edwardj]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I mail ordered mine from EB...got the special edition, although that hasn't stopped my CTDs!

Ed D

PS this from Firaxis:

I would estimate you will see the patch very soon (most likely NOT weeks).
It is in testing now, and will be released as soon as it is complete.

Thanks
Dennis Shirk


It was just sent up to 2K Monday evening for final certification. It
shouldn't be long now (barring any problems).

Thanks

Dennis Shirk

[DocMWood]

Preordered from EB here. Oh, and Civ4 is the *only* game on my computer, brand-new and all updated, and still CTD in late game.

[slashers]

finally a word from firaxis hope the patch will come out soon enough.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=143541