Lock Up on Large & Huge Maps..

[Pursewarden]

I've installed the patch.

My game still always locks up on large or huge maps, even if I'm only using 8 civs. Surely the size of the map alone can't be overloading my computer. Any ideas fellas?

My Spec

Celeron 466
128mg Ram
Voodoo3 2000 (updated drivers)
Soundblaster PCI 128
Win98se
8.4 UDMA HD



Edit: Is the swap file something to do with it possibly? How do I change that?

Thanks again

[The Viceroy]

At what point does it lock up ? and how much space do you have on your C:\ partition ?

One test you can do, is to use monitor .. to see exactly how much memory/pagefile size is being used ... start CIV3 up and see what happens ..

Does the lock up allow you to still flick back to desktop ???

[Dragonfly]

I'm getting the same problem. And it hurts. I want to play on a huge map with 4 or 5 opponents, for a big empire.

Most of my lock-ups occur as a graphics glitch. Whereever I happen to be when it hange the system "blinks", my units colors changes to blue (not my color), and the system hangs. No mouse movement, no keyboard strokes. CTL-ESC doesn't work, CTL-ALT-DEL doesn't work. Have to hit the power switch to re-boot.

I had managed to get up to 1050 AD in the pre-patched game, but that was after hundreds of hangs, and hundreds of re-boots, and constantly going back to the last auto-saved game and replaying the last turn. It was getting totally unplayable, especially for a big empire.

I applied the patch, totally re-installed, then patched, re-booting between each step ('cause I'm anal, and I wanted to be sure), and I started a new game. It froze while I was moving my 3rd Warrior.

(Brand new computer)
AMD Athlon 1.4Ghz
nVidia GeForce2 Pro
Win 98SE
Maxtor 30Gb HDD
Plextor 16/10/40 CD-RW
Creative SoundBlaster Live!

[Dragonfly]

Update: I used some advice I found in another thread, and downloaded the nVidia 12.40 drivers, and just finished about 2 hours without a hitch in a new game. It may luck, or I may have solved the problem.

Interestingly, having very sharp eyes, I did note on a few occasions my units did very briefly flash in a new color (blue), but then went back to normal, and the game continued fine. Since that was what the lockups were before, I have every hope it's fixed now.

[GeorgeG]

Originally posted by Dragonfly
I'm getting the same problem. And it hurts. I want to play on a huge map with 4 or 5 opponents, for a big empire.

Most of my lock-ups occur as a graphics glitch. Whereever I happen to be when it hange the system "blinks", my units colors changes to blue (not my color), and the system hangs. No mouse movement, no keyboard strokes. CTL-ESC doesn't work, CTL-ALT-DEL doesn't work. Have to hit the power switch to re-boot.

I had managed to get up to 1050 AD in the pre-patched game, but that was after hundreds of hangs, and hundreds of re-boots, and constantly going back to the last auto-saved game and replaying the last turn. It was getting totally unplayable, especially for a big empire.

I applied the patch, totally re-installed, then patched, re-booting between each step ('cause I'm anal, and I wanted to be sure), and I started a new game. It froze while I was moving my 3rd Warrior.

(Brand new computer)
AMD Athlon 1.4Ghz
nVidia GeForce2 Pro
Win 98SE
Maxtor 30Gb HDD
Plextor 16/10/40 CD-RW
Creative SoundBlaster Live!

Thanks for the input Dragonfly, I'd been having serious hangs like you describe, eventually, something really cracked and windows 200 wouldn't load up anymore (not certain that its Civ 3, but seems like an awful coincidence. What I've been haunted with lately is the "Civilization3.e.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows". I've lost two games completely, where something happens (1000AD and 1250AD) that I can't reload and get around the error. So that game has to be abandoned. I guess I'll look for newer drivers. . . .

[Pursewarden]

hmmm so it looks like a problem with graphics card drivers in your case then. I've updated mine for the Voodoo2 3000 but I still have these crashes on large and huges maps. It freezes up during the AI's turn. What's odd is that it plays fine on medium map with 8 civs but not the larger maps. Even with just 8 civs.

Anyone else having problems with Voodoo2 3000s?

I have to say I am rightly pissed off with Firaxis/Infograms. If aspects of the game don't work with certain hardware then PRINT IT ON THE BOX!

[paranoidandroid]

Similar problems

I'm having similar problems, though I can't tell if they are video card-related or not.

I installed the patch about five days ago, but only today have I been having problems. On Large or Huge maps, I will be able to play for five minutes or less, but then either my computer will lock up completely (frozen screen, no mouse movement or keyboard input) or it will spontaneously reboot. I am not getting the graphics glitches (blue flashes, etc.) others have described.

I downloaded the latest drivers (I think) for my video card, and the problem persists.

I'm not sure if the problem goes away on smaller maps. It may just take longer to take effect. I will test this once I have the patience to go through multiple reboots.

I'm currently in the process of upgrading to Windows XP. Hopefully that will solve the problem.

My system specs:

Home-built machine
ASUS A7M266 Motherboard with AMD-761 Chipset
Athlon 1.4 GHz Processor
512 MB DDR RAM
ASUS GeForce 2 GTS Deluxe (V7700)
30 GB Western Digital HDD
Samsung 24x CD-R/RW (SW-212B)
SB Live! Value OEM Sound Card

Any advice welcome. Do Firaxis representatives regularly look at this board?