Anyone elses Civ4 CTD like mad?

Melhisedek · Post by **Melhisedek** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:05 am

Patched up, all the latest drivers, bells and whistles. Rig plays every other game without a hitch.

A64 3200
6800GT
2Gig RAM

I can't play for more than 5 minutes before a totally random CTD happens

Turnabout · Post by **Turnabout** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:40 am

Is it the nv4_disp.dll one?

ydejin · Post by **ydejin** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:11 am

Hey Melhisedek, as I posted in the "Civ4: 3d makes me sad" thread, I've got two graphics cards. With the ATI 9550 it crashes in mid- to late- game regularly, sometimes every turn or two. With my old-school GeForce 4 Ti, game is solid as a rock. That's with the latest ATI drivers (as of when Civ4 was released) and having uninstalled/reinstalled DirectX.

So yeah, I'm feeling your pain. New Civ4 patch should be coming out shortly (I think it's supposed to be out within the next week or so), so here's hoping this takes care of our problems.

Melhisedek · Post by **Melhisedek** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 5:43 am

Well I wouldn't know if it is "nv4_disp.dll" as this is the fastest CTD in the world. Incredible. I'm browsing through research tree, release mouse, paff I'm at desktop.

I'm at loss here, no idea what causes the bloody crashes as my rig is rock stable (running F@H 24/7 for a year)

Worst thing is that I'm hooked and really want to play this one :/

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:09 am

For a data point I'm running Civ4 without any CTDs, 2.8 GHtz P4, 1GB RAM, Radeon X800 Pro with the Catalyst 6.1 drivers.

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 11:24 am

check some of the Civ forums to see if people there have the same issue.

civfanatics.com
apolyton.net

Geezerone · Post by **Geezerone** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:44 pm

Before the last patch I was having CTDs whenever I played large or huge maps. And my machine has a ATI X800 Pro, Athlon64 3000, and 1.5G of RAM. (It was worse on my laptop with only 750K of RAM)

But the patch seemed to have fixed the memory management issues. Since then I think I only have had one CTD. I feel your pain though.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 2:11 pm

Geezerone wrote:Before the last patch I was having CTDs whenever I played large or huge maps. And my machine has a ATI X800 Pro, Athlon64 3000, and 1.5G of RAM. (It was worse on my laptop with only 750K of RAM)

But the patch seemed to have fixed the memory management issues. Since then I think I only have had one CTD. I feel your pain though.

I was in the same boat myself. Here's a few things to try (no promises but when I had crashing issues before these helped make the game playable again for me on huge maps late game):

*Re-install dx 9.0c out of the dx directory on the install disc, it shipped with a special version of dx so you want to install the one off the disc. I think the newer version of dx that MS just released after Civ IV came out likely also has the same stuff so that might work too.

*Play Civ in windowed mode. You can set the civ iv config .ini file (in your installation directory for a file called "_Civ4Config") to ask every time you start the game if you want to play in windowed mode.

*Of course make sure you have the latest video drivers and the 1.52 patch.

*Once you have the 1.52 patch you can go into the aforementioned config .ini and try turning on the MemSaver function (change from 0 to 1).

*Try 'SyncInput=1' in the Sync input to smooth interface line in the civ4config.ini.

*While you are in the ini you may as well change autosave to happen every turn and to keep a max of 100 autosaves. This will save your ass when you crash or later on when you get the game running will save your ass when you make a poor decision.

*After you make chages you probably want to clear the game cache. There is a game cache in the user profile. Apparently some config info gets saved there, so it should be cleared after every change. Look for it here
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\My Games\Civilization IV\cache (WinXP).

Hope this helps. Before the patch the two biggest life-savers for me was playing in windowed mode and changing the sync input. Also try playing on a smaller map.

Melhisedek · Post by **Melhisedek** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:50 am

Looks like this helped

Played for good 2-3 hours last night with no crashes at all

I don't know how to thank you mate!
Of course I've got some 3½ hours of sleep last night because of it but I better get used to it. This one will devour my life like 3rd one did

Cheers!

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:03 pm

Melhisedek wrote:Looks like this helped Played for good 2-3 hours last night with no crashes at all
I don't know how to thank you mate!
Of course I've got some 3½ hours of sleep last night because of it but I better get used to it. This one will devour my life like 3rd one did
Cheers!

No, no, no, you have it wrong. This one will make CivIII look like it was beneficial to your social/work life. Beware the addiction.