Strange crash problem

[nile_girl]

Hi there, I'm having a bit of a problem in that I'm trying to play the first level (Nekhen) and it crashes in exactly the same spot each time (7.59pm, Shemu, 2368BC). This is the second time I've tried to play this level - my first saved game won't even load now - the game crashes as it's loading.

I've read through previous threads and have tried the following solutions:


The resolution of my screen and the game agree (1024x768, 60Hz)
I have disabled the audio on the game
I disabled my virus software


None of these helped!

My laptop is only about a month old, but I have attached a dxdiag for you and a print screen of the the first bit of the error report I get (don't know if this will help). I'd be glad of any help as I really want to get on with the game!

Thanks a lot,
Julia

[MarkDuffy]

Welcome to our family, Nile_girl! :)

I hope you have Patched the game. I just wanted to add this in case it would help.

Good Luck! :)

[Keith]

nile_girl, which city is it?

Your computer may not be able to handle a large city on a huge map and is running out of resources to run the game at that specific point in the game.

If you have a really huge city, you may either have to abandon it if it is just a open build or sandbox map or restart the map and build a smaller city the second time through in the scenario or campaign portion of the game.

Something is corrupting your save game file. You may want to turn off the autosave mode of the game from the settings menu. Then make a point of making periodic manual saves of the game yourself as you play. Give each save a unique name like Nubt-1, Nubt-2, etc. That way if the game crashes you can go back to a previous save and restart from there.

[nile_girl]

Hi, thanks for your replies. I forgot to say on my original message that my game is patched and I checked the version number to make sure! Also, I haven't plugged in a monitor - in fact I don't have any external hardware attached.

The city I'm playing is Nekhen in the campaign mode, so, to the best of my knowledge, it's not a huge city.

But I will try disabling the USB and the autosave and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again,
Julia :D

[mouse]

Nile girl it appears to me that your playing on a laptop with onboard video. If that's the case it's also the problem since most onboard chips do not support T&L which is needed for CotN.

[nile_girl]

Hi guys, to update you, I've tried disabling the autosave and that hasn't helped. I'm afraid I'm not sure how to disable the USB drive, though. Do you think a complete reinstall would help at all?

Cheers,
Julia

[Amenirdis]

Nile girl it appears to me that your playing on a laptop with onboard video. If that's the case it's also the problem since most onboard chips do not support T&L which is needed for CotN. That's right. She said it's a laptop.
If I remember correctly, CotN does not support/run on the S3 chips. Too bad the old official homepage doesn't exist anymore, but I'm pretty sure this video chip is not able to fully run CotN.

[tobing]

Does not run on S3 chips, yes. I'm pretty sure that it doesn't run on integrated Intel graphic chips as well, but I maybe wrong here.

I was really surprised to see that the official page has gone... :eek:

[Amenirdis]

Does not run on S3 chips, yes. I'm pretty sure that it doesn't run on integrated Intel graphic chips as well, but I maybe wrong here.

I was really surprised to see that the official page has gone... :eek: Right. Thank you for confirming it, Tobing.
It's a shame the site is gone. :(

[Keith]

Here's the list of cards I posted back when CotN was new:

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34204&postcount=6

[nile_girl]

So, I've been doing some research on the net, and it would seem that, in line with what's been said about the compatibility of graphics chips, they're just not suited to 3D game playing. There's all sorts of stuff out there, particularly on forums, but I'm finding it a little confusing and would be grateful if you guys could help me straighten this out.

By the looks of it, I'll have to get a proper graphics card, but I don't know whether I have an external slot for it or not - how would I know? Also, some people 'out there' were talking about not being able to upgrade if the chip is integrated on the motherboard - is this right? Or were they just referring to upgrading internal cards?

If it is possible to upgrade, could someone recommend a card to me (and not at the top end of the price list, either, if poss - I'm a part-time worker and student - I'm not drowning in cash!).

Thanks
Julia
??? :confused:

[Amenirdis]

Phil: Nile_Girl has a laptop.

[Amenirdis]

With so many DxDiags to look at and remember, that's not very surprising. :)