A Different Crash Bug -- Solved

[rls669]

When I first got Civ 4 it would lock up hard at random intervals, sometimes with the sound stuttering. I updated my sound drivers and it seemed to fix it. After a while it started doing it again; this time it got progressively worse until the game wouldn't even load the intro before crashing.

I read every darn post in this forum and tried every suggestion, nothing worked. Finally I physically inspected the computer and found that the motherboard chipset fan had failed. I replaced it and everything's fine.

So if nothing's working for you, remember that Civ 4 is a very demanding app and running it generates a lot of heat. Even if you don't have an outright fan failure like I did, insufficient cooling or too much overclocking could be to blame. Some programs are very sensitive to overclocking and will crash a system that will run everything else just fine.

[Darg]

I've only ever seen my computer behave the same way as it does with Civ4 when it's been overheated so I agree that that's probably the cause of many crashes. Short of getting water cooling I'd reccommend making sure the fan vents at the back of your PC are not blocked and that it is in an open space with room for air to circulate around it. New fans can also be bought fairly cheaply and will probably help out your computer when it's running high end programs. Finding a place to put the fan in your box can be tricky though especially with factory built computers like Dells that leave little room for expansion.

[cyric100]

When I first got the game it was crashing regularly. Using motherboard monitor to monitor as I played it showed the CPU temp just shoot stright up until death. Replacing the CPU fan drastically reduced the crashes (I could now play for more than 2 turns at a time), but didn't eliminate them completely.

Eventually I reduced my memory timings in the BIOS to 'Normal' which seems to have eliminated my crashes completely (even though nothing else crashed with the faster timings, freaky).

Now if I could just solve some random slowdowns...