CivIV- Crash Log

[yiapap]

I'll start by saying that I'm a huge fan of the Civilization series.
I own every single game from the original Civilization to Civ4 and all variations (Colonization, Alpha Cantauri, CTP etc.)

I downloaded the game when it was first released in the US because I just couldn't wait and left my work to pick up my copy as soon as it was delivered to the store in Greece.

My... "demo" game had several problems incl. corrupt sound and crashes to the desktop but, hey, I couldn't complain.

With that said...

Since I uninstalled and reinstalled the original DVD I've been having all sorts of problems. These include:
1. CTD with 640x480 16colours and a windows message saying that nv4_disp.dll is not working. OK, away with the 71.xx drivers on to downloading the 35MB monster NVIDIA update (81.85)
2. Complete freezes. COMPLETE! No Ctrl+Alt+Del, nothing but pushing the reset button
3. CTDs all around. Either when I scroll the map or when enemy units move
4. Yet more CTDs at random intervals
5. When enemy turn starts, sometimes all units and info windows dissapear and I get a "terrain-only" screen which usually takes a percentage of the screen. The rest is pitch black. The mouse pointer is still animated and the units/windows reappear after a few seconds.
6. I also have the ghost-unit move i.e. enemy units moving without animation
7. This is the best: The PC stopped responding and the monitor went to power-save mode! The PC was still on (not suspended!)

So... back to downloading more drivers (my ASUS A8N-E chipset) as well as the latest drivers for my Realtek AC-97 audio card (another 60MB in total)

Turned on logging, turned off sound hardware acceleration, changed the sound options to System/ 4 Speakers/ Stereo, restarted, exited resident apps, disabled the antivirus, said a prayer, updated my BIOS, cleared the cache.

Nothing works.

I can't play the game more than 5 minutes without a CTD!


One thing I have noticed is that most of the CTDs are accompanied by two critical errors:
The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: 6.
The 2nd is the same as above but "part of the event: 7". However both messages have EventID=0, no source and there is no Event with ID=6 or 7

For a game that was my model in stability, the game that I used as an example when somebody gave excuses about "instability in software", I find this TOTALLY unacceptable!

Full Specs:
AMD 4400+, 1GB RAM, ASUS A8N-E, on board sound enabled, NVidia GeFroce 6600 (256MB) on PCI-E, 2xWD360GD (Raptor) in SATA Raid0, WinXP Pro (32bit) fully patched, DirectX from Firaxis.
Oh... and Microsoft mouse/keyboard (you never know )

[yiapap]

UPDATE:
I started over a new game, played till 160BC (1.5 hours), got the terrain-only problem (allunits/gui dissapeared), waited a few secs and my units reappeared.
On the next animation sequence I get the terrain-only again, but this time my monitor goes to stand by (see Crash 5 above).

I verify that the PC is running and try alt-tabbing. My monitor goes out of stand by for a few secs and then back to power save (blinking power led). I try ctrl+alt+del and...
I go back to my desktop with task manager as the active window!
The Civ4 process seems to be running normally (0-2% CPU, 222MB memory). So I alt+tab back to Civ... and my monitor falls asleep... YET AGAIN.

I killed the civ process, rebooted because my resolution was not reverted and am starting to get REALLY annoyed with CivIV.

Any suggestions (except taking the game back)?

[yiapap]

UPDATE:
3rd Game, played till around 1000AD.
I see the terrain-only effect and after a few turns I get a BSOD!!!
STOP 0x0000008E at nv4_disp.dll

It does amaze me how many different crashes I can have by a single game!
It also amazes me how a single game can bring down my Windows XP! Many games have tried and failed, but Civ4 appears to do it in oh-so-many different ways! Amazing!

[yiapap]

Tried RivaTuner to force motherboard compatibility mode, then Pixel Shader v1.4 then Pixel Shader 1.3 w/ Vertex Shader 1.1

I also decreased graphics quality to Medium and turned off animations just in case.

Checked the temperature immediately after a crash. Around 60C, normal.

Also tried playing in Windowed mode. This prevented the terrain-only view but the CTDs remained.

I have confirmed that the CTDs are preceeded/followed by the two events with EventID 0 in the Application log and no entries in the system log.
When I have a CTD I either return to a fully functional desktop (the res reverts) or a fully functional desktop with the Civ resolution (1024x768).

It may be my idea... but... I think that if I restart my PC the game runs for a few more turns than when I don't restart it and re-run the game (memory leaks anyone?).

I'm including more info and attaching my dxdiag file:
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: Greek)
BIOS: Phoenix - Award BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 587MB used, 1872MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6600
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 6600
-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Realtek AC97 Audio

[yiapap]

Downgraded to Forceware 71.89 and this seems to fix most (if not all) of the CTDs!

As I was contemplating to alt+tab and post my "fix" here... I got a BSOD:
STOP 0x0000008E at nv4_disp.dll
once again

This time CivIV knew exactly what it was doing, as I was running perfmon, watching memory usage... so I could "catch it in the act" in case the CTDs were memory related.

[yiapap]

Played two Epic/Huge games with only one CTD.

And no more BSOD.

Thanks to the original poster about 71.89 Forceware drivers!

[tiny toad]

Hi
I`ve had all issues that you have experienced and have added a few `fumes` in other posts here..however last night and the night before i have had 3 hours each time of stable game play, making a total of six hour without any issues...WOW!! i dont know if this will work for you but it has ( so Far) for me. Edit your ini file to play the game in windowed mode. I think theres a post around here that will explain it....

[yiapap]

I did try windowed mode (see #3)

[tiny toad]

Oops sorry, didnt fully read through, anyway it didnt work as i played a full five hours last night without any problems, this morning as iwas waiting for the wife to get ready i fired up my save game and got 1.reboot and then 2.monitor went to standby..!!! oh hum so ive taken my ini file back to full screen i did not notice in the event viewer that at about the same time i got these crashes it said nothing apart from `windows security center` had just started!!! could this be related????

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by tiny toad
i did not notice in the event viewer that at about the same time i got these crashes it said nothing apart from `windows security center` had just started!!! could this be related????

I just came here to mention this possibility. Yesterday I was playing my first 'large' game. I've had no problems at all on normal and had no problems on large. THEN after quitting, XP popped up and said it wanted to install another security update and the malicious program removal tool. This morning the large game was very slow and choppy then CTD. Coincidence? Maybe, but this could be a reason for the variability of the CTD from PC to PC.

[SpencerH]

I used the system restore to return to before the updates and the same game had no CTD.

[ManX]

Same...

I have experienced all of the things you mentioned above.

I also have a geforce 6600GT pci express. I think it could be something with this card. Its a PCI card and maybe that could be something the game wouldnt like.

But I had one more problem when scrolling around. It happens very often.

Look at the pic:








I cant understand WHY Firaxis failed so hard with this game. The concept of the CIV IV is excellent. Its a shame that it doesnt work properly.


I wonder

[marvinkosh]

One possible reason why older drivers may work better for some reason is that, although naturally the game would have been updated to work with the current drivers (you would think!) it will have been tested more rigorously with the drivers that were around while it was being developed.

[yiapap]

@SpencerH
I haven't installed the Malicious Software Removal update. If, somehow, some malicious software manages to bypass my router firewall, my Linux Gateway and my PC antivirus, I doubt that Microsoft's Tool will remove it.

@ManX,
I didn't experience these "artifacts". But a lot of people have. Check the other threads.
Also... I'm not trying to find excuses for Firaxis, but the game's graphics engine is a new concept for Civ games. This combined with the (customisable) scripts and, IMHO, less than vigorous testing is the culprit.

@marvinkosh,
This is exactly why I chose to downgrade my drivers. Downgrading dlls is perhaps the worst thing you can do to your Windows! But it was worth it.
-------------------

UPDATE:
In my current (3rd) game I get CTDs from quick loading a game... When I load the same quick save file from the Load screen everything works fine...
*sigh*

[tiny toad]

Im begining to think there has to be a connection with the windows security center, got another crash this afternoon, and at the same time once again in event viewer it said that windows security center had just activated...this time the crash was a total freeze of the game. couldnt move my mouse or ctrl+alt+del out .had to unplug my pc.
god bless apolyton and its forums, or I`d have gone bonkers by now....