Having to give up Civ because of this...

[bjsiders]

Mine used to freeze up like this - turned out I had old drivers for my sound card that were causing problems. Updated them, no problems since.

[fegguk]

I have upgraded the drivers did not work although other games now work better

[MoonWolf]

Well, sorry, mate, your card is also quite out-of-date. To try to limit the possible cause of the problems (and perhaps I'm wrong too), is it possible for you to borrow a better card from someone? Just to try?

[fegguk]

Ok my PC is now a couple of years old. However BTS did seem to work fine for a week and I have never had any problems with previous incarnations of the game. Although on reflection I did get a number of errror messages a few weeks ago with war lords, again not something that has happened before, so may be it's the machine

When I get home I will check that the things not clogged with dust. I suspect this might be the problem or perhaps something more sinister.

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by b etor
this is your computer telling you that you play too much civ

Sorry but I don’t agree with this translation.

A more accurate translation would be that the computer is admitting to being obsolete and requesting that you upgrade it with a model that will not give you any problems with Civ

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by fegguk
Ok my PC is now a couple of years old. However BTS did seem to work fine for a week and I have never had any problems with previous incarnations of the game. Although on reflection I did get a number of errror messages a few weeks ago with war lords, again not something that has happened before, so may be it's the machine

When I get home I will check that the things not clogged with dust. I suspect this might be the problem or perhaps something more sinister.

I assume it might be the Patch 3.02

As I said I also have the Radeon 9250 and on the first day everything worked fine. But on the second day I began to encounter similar poblems like footie mad.

it was on this day that I installed patch 3.02 (before everything as running on 3.01, with the connected problems like a non functional advanced start).

As I also encounter problems with Caesar IV because of some modern DirectX things it uses and as BtS needs the newest DirectX to work, I also strongly suspect that the problem is related top the graphics card.
If everything goes right I may get a new graphics card during this week, maybe already tomorrow. So that I can see if the problems disappear with it (I assume a Radeon X1600 Pro or X1650 Pro with 256 MB should be sufficient to work with the game )

[fegguk]

QUOTE]If everything goes right I may get a new graphics card during this week, maybe already tomorrow. So that I can see if the problems disappear with it (I assume a Radeon X1600 Pro or X1650 Pro with 256 MB should be sufficient to work with the gameQUOTE]

I have been considering an upgrade for a while so would be interested to see what happens with your system. Not sure if my funds will stretch to a new but more ram and a new grafix acard maybe PC

[MoonWolf]

By some used parts You should get RAM and a used graphics card for you computer fairly cheap 2nd hand. As you have a Radeon 9250 (which is AGP I hope), there is no reason buying a brand new one as you will not be able to use it when you buy a new PC later (new PC's have PCIe as main graphical interface)

[fegguk]

Thanks for the advice moon wolf. It is an AGP any advice on what to get to replace the 9250

[MoonWolf]

No problem!

Depending on the rest of you system, you should look for X800 from ATI or 6600GT/ 6800 from Nvidia. They shouldn't cost much now and will give you a great perfomance increase comparing to what you have now. I think X1600 from ATI came in AGP version also and from the Geforce 7-series, you have 7800GS, but they will cost some more I think. If Civ is your main game, go for a 6600GT from Nvidia and save money for a new computer later on (or go for the 7800GS if you want to keep you PC "alive" for still some time)

[famousguy]

this happens with me all the time with some scenarios. like during the final frontier in BtS within like five minutes all of the sudden i get an error and i have to report it.

[famousguy]

this happens with me all the time with some scenarios. like during the final frontier in BtS within like five minutes all of the sudden i get an error and i have to report it.

[snoopy369]

Definitely check your directx (though if you got BtS it should be fine). 9.0c is the version DX has been for years, and is meaningless; they release new builds under the same version number very few months. Microsoft is trying to be confusing, for some reason...

[Footie Mad]

An update for anyone who's interested, perhaps it can help others with similar problems. Having checked that all drivers and versions were up to date and concluded that it probably was the graphics card causing the freeze, I used the Nvidia tool that monitors GPU temperature and observed this while booting Civ 4.

It should be mentioned that I turned town all graphic setting to lowest and cleared any dust blocking the fan on the graphics card before this. While you're right a 6600 GT is on the weaker side for playing this game it's still very much possible, the pain limit for the GPU is at 127 degrees celcius and while playing it fluctuates between 80 and 95 degrees.

It it were to rise dangerously high there's always the option of removing the casing of the computer as well as simply taking a brief pause in gaming in order for the card to cool down. Turns out I didn't have to give up Civ because of this after all.

[jules213]

Hi all.

Ok, i'm having this problem, although with me it doesn't matter if i'm playing or setting up a game or letting it sit idle on the menu screen, after 5 minutes or so it freezes. first the graphics then shortly after the sound goes a bit late night camden high street.

i've tried all the suggestions here: DirectX 9.0c, tried updating my drivers for graphics and sound, cleaned out the inside of my comp, lowered graphics settings to low whever i can, uninstalled and reinstalled Civ IV and BTS...

...nada.

I'm using a GEForce 6600 (with 256mb) . AMD Althlon 64 processor 3200. 2 GB of ram. I don't buy or play any other games (and the sodding irony here is that i had to build this computer to play Civ IV in the first place because my tired old Dell couldn't hack it and wouldn't take a graphics card that could lol).

Can anyone please let me know what I should do? And is that buying a new graphics card? And if so, what is the cheapest card I can buy that will work well.

So far playing the Civ IV series has cost me £35 for the original £20 for Warlords £20 for BTS and £450 for a new computer. £525 to play one game lmao.

Many thanks.

Oh, and if anyone can help quickly that would be appreciated. The constant 5 minute teasers i get have whet my appetite