Another CTD error

[javaja]

Hello.

I'm a returning CTP 1 player with a Jan 2008 Dell XPS 720 high-end gaming system. System specs will follow.

After a clean install of a factory-patched v1.12 CTP1, I click Play to run the game on the autoplay screen and receive immediate CTD. Then the default error screen "An error has occurred. Send notification to Activision?" Which of course is irrelevant as Activision is no long involved with CTP. I have tried running in compatibility mode for 98/ME and 2000 modes. The only noticeable difference is instead of instantly popping the error, I get a black screen and a flash for a second before the CTD and error appears. I never reach a splash screen, game loading screen, intro screen, or anything else. All that works is autoplay. Install went fine. Have tried reinstalling twice.

System specs will follow: please note I'm using the latest PRE-Phys-X drivers for my NVIDIA card (which seem to be the most universally compatible with all programs to date.) I'll include driver version later if necessary, too lazy to look it up atm.

I need help to work around this issue in any way possible. I'm not a technical whiz, but I am generally familiar with Windows and basic internal protocols for Win XP, I can access root directories, enter basic DOS commands and navigate system folders... so layman's explanations of general technical solutions shouldn't pose any difficulty, and I'll ask if I misunderstand something.


My Components

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition SP:3
MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 500GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 250GB Seagate SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
MONITOR 22 inch UltraSharpâ„¢ 2208WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
VIDEO CARD 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
SOUND CARD Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D) Sound Card
SPEAKERS Bose Companion 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System

INTERNET Time Warner Cable 15 Mbps downstream

[thehappies]

I have a Dell desktop running XP and I always have some trouble with it. I run my CTP program in windows 95 compatability mode--and make sure you do that on the actual file, not the shortcut.

In addition to the factory patch, there is a patch called the 1.21 hack (the file name is CivCTP121update). You'll know you have the right one if you look at the readme file and it says "don't flame me!". Gotta love that. It should be right at the top of the following page:

http://apolyton.net/downloads/links/c-patches-184

And finally if you go to C:\Program Files\Activision\Civilization-Call To Power\ctp_program\ctp and find the 'userprofile' text document and change the line from debugslic=no to debugslic=yes, it might (cross your fingers) work.

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

[javaja]

Aye, running in compatibility for Win95 (and others), with the 1.21 hack installed, and debugSlic=Yes, identical reaction as previously described incident.

It DOES however seem to try a little harder to load. I get the desktop magnification (result of the game trying to switch my desktop's much greater resolution to the game's default resolution) for a few seconds, and an extra screen-flash (black to desktop to black, etc) than I was getting before. Overall it seems to be thinking slightly more intelligently. But the end-result is the same, the process simply takes an extra 5-10 seconds to complete.

Thanks for the tip. Open for more suggestions =)

[javaja]

It occurs to me I probably ought to note that I altered the game's default installation directory. This oughtn't have caused any issues, but some older games can be finicky.

I don't like installing to Program Files, so I changed the default directory to "C:\Games\Activision\"

I can't think of any reason this should have any impact on the performance of the game, but as it's not strictly the way the game defaults, I figured I should mention it. Any experiment requires as much control as possible, after all.

[Martin Gühmann]

It occurs to me I probably ought to note that I altered the game's default installation directory. This oughtn't have caused any issues, but some older games can be finicky.

I don't like installing to Program Files, so I changed the default directory to "C:\Games\Activision\"

I can't think of any reason this should have any impact on the performance of the game, but as it's not strictly the way the game defaults, I figured I should mention it. Any experiment requires as much control as possible, after all.

No that isn't the cause, what you can try is to update the video drivers, if I remember correctly that were the indeo video drivers, you should also find more about them in this forum.

To check whether it is indeed about the video you could prevent the game from playing the intro movie by just starting the game without the CD in the drive.

-Martin

[javaja]

Roger, same results without the CD in the drive, it doesn't even ask me to insert the CD, I just get a CTD as soon as it tries loading the game.

I was hoping I could avoid updating my NVIDIA drivers, as the modern ones seem to fail miserably -- but I will give that a shot. I'm thinking the issue has to do with a too-advanced (Quad Core) processor, or video card, and updating drivers for older games hasn't previously helped much - usually I end up temporarily rolling them back.

But, I will give the newest NVIDIA drivers a shot and see how that goes, I probably should have tried that on my own already. Will post results.

[javaja]

Also -- I have tried setting the processor priority for the program. I can't do it. Since the game never actually loads, I can't access the task manager with the process running to assign it a priority. If anyone knows how to manually set the processor priority for a program while it is not running, please let me know.

[javaja]

Alright, I feel a bit foolish. With latest video drivers, the game runs.

HOWEVER. I still get the game minimizing to desktop 3 (THREE!) times during the loading sequence. The opening menu (select Single Player, Multiplayer, etc.) is incredibly choppy and glitched - text hovering in wrong places, superimposed over other images, scrolling mouse over the screen creates pixellated blocks, behind which you can see the ACTUAL menu layout. It's very distorted.

Not sure how this will affect the remaining gameplay. But at least I get the game loaded now. Still looking for workarounds for the graphic issues.

[Maquiladora]

Alright, I feel a bit foolish. With latest video drivers, the game runs.

HOWEVER. I still get the game minimizing to desktop 3 (THREE!) times during the loading sequence. The opening menu (select Single Player, Multiplayer, etc.) is incredibly choppy and glitched - text hovering in wrong places, superimposed over other images, scrolling mouse over the screen creates pixellated blocks, behind which you can see the ACTUAL menu layout. It's very distorted.

I had a similar problem (albeit with a much older Nvidia graphics card and drivers). What I used to do was lower the hardware acceleration on the graphics card one notch until the distortion disappeared.

[javaja]

Gameplay successful. The choppy start did not repeat when I went from Win95 to Win98 compatibility. I'm currently halfway through a game with no further errors detected. Thank you all.

[Keygen]

Personally I've never had any problem running CTP for the past 10 years. I've changed 4 or 5 system, and 3 versions of Windows and always worked like a charm, a bit slow with the loading times on the first machine though but without any further problem.

[javaja]

I'm sure anyone looking for answers here will find that incredibly helpful to know. Thank you.