Having to give up Civ because of this...

[Footie Mad]

I've enjoyed both the original and Warlords expansion, but regardless of my efforts now my computer freezes totally after a set amount of time inside a started game. The time frame is someting like 2-3 minutes at most. What happens is that the screen freezes and no actions are possible, like watching a screenshot. I have tried reinstalling everything, the problem is in all versions of the game.

When I tried the last time my monitor refused to activate when resetting the system, this makes me believe it's some sort of overheating issue that makes something turn itself off automatically. Strangely I have not had this problem with any other game of similar graphic demands.

[b etor]

this is your computer telling you that you play too much civ

[Proteus_MST]

Never say never.
I, for example, habe problems with Caesar IV although my graphics card (Radeon 9250) was bought just 1.75 years ago (luckily no showstoppers).

How old is your graphics card? According to the fact that Civ (after the newest patches) and obviously BtS need the newes Direct X with Direct 3D components it might be that the graphics requirements now are higher than before (so simply buying a new graphics card could suffice)

[Footie Mad]

It's a Geforce 6600 GT, I know it's not a recent one but I was able to play Civ 4 without any trouble for a long time before so why not now?

DirectX version is 9c I think, the latest one available for XP is it not?

[Alexander I]

Originally posted by Footie Mad
It's a Geforce 6600 GT, I know it's not a recent one but I was able to play Civ 4 without any trouble for a long time before so why not now?

DirectX version is 9c I think, the latest one available for XP is it not?

Try updating your DirectX again just in case. Also, when all else fails, a clean install can sometimes save the day. BtS wouldn't work on my computer until I reinstalled Civ4. That's all I can think of that might work, but I'm no techie.

That failing, buy a new video card, I guess. And if that doesn't work either, a new computer.

[Badbonez]

I've had similar problems with the ATI x800 (only slightly faster than the 6600) and eventually what helped the most was uninstalling the drivers and then making sure to re-install the most up-to-date drivers. But Warlords and BtS have updated graphics and the game just runs slower, no matter what. I've decided to upgrade my video card to the ATI 1650 instead of a system re-do. For $150 I should get another year out of the system I have.

Good luck!

[jbp26]

have you noticed any other performance problems? i had a similar before, with the game all of the sudden performing very slowing, freezing, and crashing out of nowhere. i tried all of these different patches, reinstalls, etc., and nothing worked. it turned out the problem was my cpu fan- it was caked with dust. maybe try cleaning your computer out.

[Gyathaar]

Might want to open up the PC and check if the fan on the graphics card is running (or it could be clogged up with dust)

[Footie Mad]

Thanks for the tips, I made an effort to dust off both the motherboard fan and the fan on the graphics card tonight. Also got rid of any dirt inside the chassi, I'm gonna use that Nvidia tool that monitors the temperature to see if that's the culprit. Wish me luck.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Footie Mad
Thanks for the tips, I made an effort to dust off both the motherboard fan and the fan on the graphics card tonight. Also got rid of any dirt inside the chassi, I'm gonna use that Nvidia tool that monitors the temperature to see if that's the culprit. Wish me luck.

to clarify, i had to remove the motherboard fan because the dust was under it- between the fan and the processor.

[Footie Mad]

Originally posted by jbp26


to clarify, i had to remove the motherboard fan because the dust was under it- between the fan and the processor.

Yeah that's what I did as well, going to try starting a game and see what happens soon. Just waiting for the temperature to stabilize first.

[Chopper]

I had problem with artifacts with 6600GT on Vanilla Civ and was resolved with SoundCard driver update. I had a Creative X-Fi ExtremeMusic in the box at the time.

[Smellycowsquid]

Hmm, I have a Nvidea Geforce2MX, and it worked great with Warlords and civ, but now, no leaderhead appears normally, I have no idea what to do, help.

[MoonWolf]

Originally posted by Smellycowsquid
Hmm, I have a Nvidea Geforce2MX, and it worked great with Warlords and civ, but now, no leaderhead appears normally, I have no idea what to do, help.

That card is quite old and wasn't state-of-the-art when released either. And BtS seems to have a bit more advanced graphics (like the fog fading away when exploring), so that can be why you have problems now but not before. You can just in case try the latest drivers from Nvidia, but as the card is so old I'd assume the drivers have made the card utilize it's best years ago.

[fegguk]

I am having the exact same problem every time i try to play. I have a Radeon 9250. Other CIV 4 games work ok and BTS worked Ok last week I managed to loose a whole night sleep over the week playing it.

Will try mucking out the machine to see if that is where the problem is before it melts down. I have to admit to not having opened the case for more than a year. So it could be a bit dusty in there.