Another crash story

[Lermontov]

Hi folks,

I have a problem in the midst of playing Civilization III where it closes down the game without an error message and I'm back at the desktop. I'll start it up and try again, but the game will crash again exactly at the same point no matter how many times I try. Generally this is later in a game. For example, right now the game I'm playing is at 1792 and I am watching the AI civs make their moves after mine. I get through several civs, then one moves its forces, then starts moving its workers and ... nothing. I don't think those workers like me.

I'm playing Civilization III (129f) on a home-built AMD (1.4 GHz I believe--I've already forgotten) system with an nForce III card, running W2K, DirectX 8.1 and the latest video card driver. No mods, just the straight patch. I've done essentially all the hints on the Infogrames support page: I've turned off all other programs, including antivirus, firewall, etc--everything that can be turned off in the task manager and on the front task bar. I have turned down graphic acceleration, but I cannot turn it down to the level that states, "choose this level for problems occurring with DirectX applications" because then Civilization III only gives me a black screen and the task manager tells me that the program is not responding.

Do you have any other suggestions for me? Oh, I've tried to turn off the animated units too, but it looks like that would only work for a new game since it had no effect on the animation I see when I've reloaded this one.

Thanks,

Lermontov

[zeh]

I would do this:
Copy the .sav (saved games) to a directory outside civ3 directory.
Uninstall, delete civ3 folder and reinstall civ3.
Try to play the last turn before the point where crash happen.
If the game crash at the same point, maybe this is a bug in civ3, so I recommend send a message to firaxis.

[miccofl]

I find that I get the best performance and the least amount of errors/crashes/hangs if I reboot before I begin playing. It may not solve your problem but it's worth a try.

[Lermontov]

Thanks for the advice. Rebooting didn't help. Yes, I should have thought of reinstalling and picking up the patch again (although I probably have the patch in a folder around here somewhere). I might add that I had this problem some time ago too, but not recently after intermediate patches. This cropped up again only with 1.29f.

M. Lerma

[Lermontov]

Dang it! Nope, uninstalling, wiping the civ folder and reinstalling the game with the latest patch doesn't work. It still hangs up as those bloomin' Babylonian workers head off for work.

I tried with just the 1.21 patch too, but it can't run a saved game from the later patch.

Youch! Any other suggestions would be also welcome.

M. Lerma

[zeh]

Hmmm, weird...

I have a sugestion: post the .sav (zipped if possible) and I'll try play it on my machine, with 1.29f patch. My specs are almost the same of yours, except I have Windows ME, but let's try it anyway.
If it works, then probably is a problem in your configuration or on your hardware.
If not, well... I think we have a civ3 bug in our hands.

[Jahi]

i've gotten the same problem on a number of games that i've played. i've given up on civ3 for now. i had a few seaves posted but could not get anyone to d/l them to see if they had the same problem.

i'm running a dell laptop, p3 1 gig geforce 4 card.

[Lermontov]

Putting up zipped sav

zeh,

Thanks for the assist. I'll put up the zip and we can see how things work for you.

M. Lerma

[Lermontov]

Uh, new at this ...

As a newbie, I don't see where my attachment went after I sent it. I think I'll attach again and see if I get a different result.

M. Lerma

[Jahi]

i'll take a lookat it too when i get a chance

[Ethelred]

Xerxes of the Persians. 1790 Warlord - sixteen civs.

Looks like a huge map.

Hit the space bar since you didn't say what you did on the turn.

Babylon popped up to extort for Atomic Theory. You should say what you do so it can be matched. I am going to refuse since you have the power lead, though America is close on power. Hammurabi has a sudden of fit of sense and backed down.

Yep first worker moved and the game crashed all right. I don't have any problems with Civ III so its not a driver.

This usually means that the game HAS been moded. There is nothing outlandish in the number of units or the city count unless this was an unpatched game.

My guess is that the file is corrupted. This happened fairly often with the original version of the game. There was some bug that was occasionaly corrupting files but a earlier autosave would usually be OK.

Unless someone can figure it out you might just try playing on a smaller map. The huge maps are the most likely to have problems if only because there is more happening. Huge map games are tedeous anyway.

Are you using the NTFS file system or FAT 32? FAT 32 is more likely to corrupt a file. Try an earlier save. If that lets you get past 1790 then its likely the file was corrupted somehow.

[zeh]

I don't can do much right now, because I'm at work, but reading what Ethelred write, it's appear a problem with civ3 only.

You said your game is not moded, already reinstalled the game, and as I see you are in Industrial Age (Atomic Theory) and the game only crashed now, I supose it's not a corrupted file, but a bug in the game itself.

My sugestion is that you enter in contact with firaxis and if possible send the game to them.

Anyway, I will play your game tonight, when I'm at home, and see if I have the same problems of you and Ethelred.

[Lermontov]

Here's the word from Infogrames

I received an answer, as copied below. I think it fits in with the diea that I could go back a bit to an earlier game and start from there with no problems. Of course, now I've uninstalled and reinstalled and wiped all but the last .sav away. But heck, it's just a game! (isn't it?)

Thanks for your help, folks.

M. Lerma


"It unfortunately sounds like you've got a corrupted game. In order to
perform a clean install of the game, you'll need to perform the following
procedures.


1) Uninstall the game using the Add/Remove Programs control panel in
Windows.


2) Delete the folder for the game, located on your hard drive. When you
uninstall a game, this folder is usually left behind for you to delete
manually.


3) Restart your computer, and run the programs Scandisk and Disk
Defragmenter. These are two utilities that are provided with Windows, and
they monitor, clean, and repair your hard drive.


4) Disable applications running in the background.


5) Clean the CD.


You can do this by washing the CD under luke-warm water. Use a liquid
detergent that is non-abrasive and use your fingers to spread the soap
evenly across the shiny underside. To dry the CD use a soft cotton
lint-free towel that will not create any further scratches. Paper towels
are highly discouraged due to the abrasive nature of the fabric.


When drying, make sure that you wipe from the inner-circle towards the
outer-circle. Wipe against the grain, so you don't leave streaks the same
way that the laser reads.


6) Reinstall the program.


Alex
Technical Support for Infogrames, Inc.
(425)951-7106"

[Ethelred]

That looks like a standard answer. Might even be the right one. Of course if you are using NTFS and Win2K you may need a utility program to defrag. NTFS is supposed to really need defragging it does help to defrag it anyway. Scan disk is always a good idea.

Should you clean the disc be carefull when you dry the disc. They are right about the paper towels and even toilet paper requires care. If you use a soft cotton like and old T-shirt for instance that would be best. I do use toilet paper myself but I don't rub. I just touch the paper to the drops to absorb them and move it away from the disc. Clean my glasses that way as well. Lots of water to rinse makes rubbing unecassarry.

[SpencerH]

I used to have a similar problem with civ2 where the sav file would get corrupted (somehow). My workaround was to go back a few turns and play it slightly differently. Usually it worked, but it could crash again later. It wont hurt to go through the firaxis response but IMO these sav corruptions are caused by too little RAM and too much game, not by a corrupt program per se. I dont have them with civ3 cos the huge games get too slow for my present system.