ATI Card - VPU Recovery - Fatal Crash Issues

[Sgt_Serge]

Hi Folks,

following issue: when playing I get a warning about VPU Recovery restarted the graphic card drivers as they weren't reacting. A few minutes later my monitor turns black and goes into power safe mode. Up to now the only way to resolve this was to reboot my pc.

It seems to happen most often if not always when the diplomacy screen comes up.

My specs:

P4, 3,2 Ghz
1 GB RAM
ATI 9800 XT 128 MB
Catalyst 5.10
Driver Version 8.18

[TheWalrus]

I'd suggest your card is overheating. If you are overclocking you should normal clock and try again. You may need a new one or a better cooling solution.

[Nostromo]

I have an ATI 9550 and I have a similar problem. It could be what they call the infinite loop problem. Its not a problem specific to CIV, and its not a problem specific to ATI cards. It happened to me while playing Neverwinter Nights, while playing Vampires: the masquerade bloodlines. The only solution that worked for me was removing the videocard: the damn thing was crashing all the time. Some people have this problem once in a while whereas others, like me, have it frequently. A real pain in the butt. One of the reasons why PC gaming sucks! Now I can't play a single game that requires a decent videocard. Thank God, no CIV for me!

Consult the ATI web site, they have some possible solutions. Their solutions unfortunately didn't work for me, but they could work for you. If it doesn't work, contact them.

Check here:

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge

And good luck!

[A.J. Caesar]

nostromo:
...
One of the reasons why PC gaming sucks! Now I can't play a single game that requires a decent videocard
...


A lot of cards are installed incorrectly (that is upside down) so they cannot dissipate the heat; when the temperature become too high they may cause system crash.
It can be resolved as first avoiding overlclocking of the GPU (never good) and/or reducing main cpu frequency...
Probably this is your prob...

---------------------------------

For CIV I have not understood yet what kind of hardware is supposed to be "really" recommended...

[nauris]

Try setting your AGP speed to 4x and disable fast writes. These have fixed the VPU recovery problem for many people.

[Sgt_Serge]

Thanks nauris! This solution actually works!

Ah... finally I can wipe these Egyptians off the face of earth...

[Nostromo]

Lucky bastard

[JELEINEN]

I had this problem. I just opened up my case and stuck a fan in front of it, and it's never happened since (I had to do the same thing while playing Guild Wars).