Crashes during gameplay

[KaraPitchou]

From France :

I'm getting random frequent crashes. Is it because of the Video Card ?

CotN_French_v1.2 is allready installed.

Here is my DxDiag, thanks for your help

[Keith]

Your audio drivers are pretty old. See if you can find a Realtek AC97 driver update.

You may have the opposite problem with your ATI 9250. You may want to revert back to an older driver. I'm still using the August 2004 drivers for my ATI 9800 Pro. I've had a few other people with ATI's revert back to the same driver and it seemed to fix their problems too.

If you do decide to revert back, get the drivers from the ATI driver file archive. Download the ATI uninstaller program and use it to remove your current ATI driver files. Then install the driver files you downloaded from ATI.

You can always uninstall the ones you downloaded and put the the current ones you have back on if you don't see a difference.

Make sure your video card is getting enough cooling. Clean out the dust inside your machine and the cooling fan vents.

[Manni]

Also try instead of Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (75Hz) lower down to 16bit and 60Hz which might help.

[Manni]

Hello Phil,

I was told once that lowering the "bit" to 16 takes strain from graph-card. As I said.....it is a matter of trying..........
-------------------

Those random frequent crashes could also be an exausted cpu, maybe too many unneeded started progs running in systray/systemstart.

Hello KaraPitchou...have you done a defrag lately?

Regards

[KaraPitchou]

Thanks for all your answers. I'm still getting crashes (I can play 2 minutes and the game shutdown) :(, although I try that all :

- Reinstall all the BareBone

- Change the Video Driver (MSI RADEON 9250)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6414 (English)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6458 (English)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6462 (English)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6606 (English)

- Change the Audio Driver (Sound Realtek AC97 Audio)
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.6060 (English)

- Upgrade the BIOS of the BareBone and the BIOS of the video card

- Turn up the AGP Vcore at 1.65 V

- Lower to 16 bits and 60 Hz

- Test with cold BareBone and without unneeded started progs

I want to try that :
- ShutDown the AVG Antivirus
- Reduce the frequence or timing of the memory
- Buy a Leadtek WinFast A6600GT TDH...

What do you think?

Kind regards

[Manni]

Hello KaraPitchou,

still crashes and the game shutdown

Does the game just shut down or windows as well?
----------------------
although I try that all
- Change the Video Driver (MSI RADEON 9250)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6414 (English)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6458 (English)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6462 (English)
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6606 (English)

Don`t bother about the "English", they are always in English except for Asia. There are no French-version-drivers.

So you have banged driver on top of driver? Did you use the ATI-driver-uninstall-tool in between the installs as recommended?
-------------------
Change the Audio Driver (Sound Realtek AC97 Audio)
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.6060 (English)
Well done!

Upgrade the BIOS of the BareBone and the BIOS of the video card
- Turn up the AGP Vcore at 1.65 V
- Lower to 16 bits and 60 Hz
- Test with cold BareBone and without unneeded started progs
Well done!
-------------------
I want to try that :
- ShutDown the AVG Antivirus very good!
- Reduce the frequence or timing of the memory not necessary


- Buy a Leadtek WinFast A6600GT TDH...
What do you think?

NOT YET!
---------------------

Did you defrag as recommended?

Please do attach a fresh dxdiag!

What sort of registry-cleaner do you have in use.......if any?

Kind regards

[Manni]

Hello KaraPitchou,

here is your graph-card (French page MSI):

http://www.msi-computer.fr/index.php?page=17&id_type_produit=124&id_prod=430

.......and the suitable driver: (but I think you had that already) see the picture please

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/download/dld/spt_dld_detail.php?UID=618&kind=2

You could also install the MSI-LIVE-UPDATE-tool which might help you further.
---------------
In any case............if you uninstall/change graph-driver DO use either the ATI-Uninstaller-tool (description:The Catalyst Uninstaller is an optional download. We recommend using this utility to uninstall any previously installed Catalyst drivers prior to installation.)

or use the cleaner from : http://www.drivercleaner.net/
there you take the free professional version (I always use that one when changing drivers)

Kind Regards! :)

[KaraPitchou]

Hello


Does the game just shut down or windows as well?

I joined here the message of the crash. Just the game shuts down, after 2 or 5 minutes.


Did you defrag as recommended?

Yes, I reformated the HDD !


Please do attach a fresh dxdiag!

I send it soon


What sort of registry-cleaner do you have in use.......if any?

I don't have any registry-cleaner

;)

[Keith]

You can try the registry cleaner Manni posted the link to or you can try the one I posted about here: http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8078

[KaraPitchou]

Here is my fresh dxdiag.

I tested the game this afternoon on a laptop (a good Compac Presario), and the crash is exactly the same as the crash on my computer. :eek:

[Keith]

Your current ATI drivers are still too old. 12/2003. You should use nothing older than 8/2004.

Try lowering your desktop refresh rate to 60hz instead of 75hz.

Try rebooting the system into the Safe Mode and then try running CotN.

You may even want to uninstall CotN, and then reboot to the Safe Mode and then reisntall CotN.

[Manni]

Yes, I reformated the HDD !
MAIS NON, MAIS NON...........Excusez moi....... but I asked you to DEFRAGMENT the partition C and I.......NOT to format! :eek:

I don't have any registry-cleaner
Apart from RegSeeker you can also use the free CCleaner . Here is the download: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Once installed you can change into French language.

Regards

[imhotep3147]

Hey guys, she must have something else going on in there. Her specs are not bad enough to be getting consistent crashes like that. Even with anti virus software running in the background she should still be able to play, at least for a while. Reason I say this is because her specs are real close to what I had before I upgraded everything and I could play CotN with no problems regardless of antivirus software and firewall. Better maybe to have her post a screenshot of the processes running on Task Manager? Also, the fact that it's crashed on second computer as well seems a bit odd. Perhaps something's getting screwy with the actual installation?

[Keith]

It might be a series of outdated hardware driver files and BIOS as well.

It might be a good idea to use the free system scan at DriverAgent.com (http://www.driveragent.com/) to see what is old on that system.

It will scan the system and tell what is okay and what needs updating. Of course, they will allow you do download the updates if you want to pay them but the scan itself is useful.

[imhotep3147]

While what you're saying is true Phil....I still think something else is wrong...again, it's crashed for her on two computers.....Specs on the Compaq laptop she also tried it on would help tremendously.

edit: and I still say that if it's a driver issue, she must have a crapload of outdated drivers, that video one shouldn't be causing that kind of trouble....(I should know, I ran it, or one dated the same, for almost a year on an x300...a step down from the 9250 if I'm not mistaken.) :D

[Keith]

While what you're saying is true Phil....I still think something else is wrong...again, it's crashed for her on two computers.....Specs on the Compaq laptop she also tried it on would help tremendously.

edit: and I still say that if it's a driver issue, she must have a crapload of outdated drivers, that video one shouldn't be causing that kind of trouble....(I should know, I ran it, or one dated the same, for almost a year on an x300...a step down from the 9250 if I'm not mistaken.) :D

Not all computers respond the same way. Not all hardware will behave the same in different computers.

[KaraPitchou]

Hello,

Here is something new : the crash is not random.

Let the game joined load, and immediately go to right with the mouse : immediate crash on the two computers.

[Keith]

Aha! Now I see what your problem is. I thought the game was crashing as you started it.

Unfortuntely, it is something in the game itself that causes your crash problem. I had the same problem when I was playing round with the Ahketaten city file where I had built a very large city and about a dozen pyramids.

The game, in my case, began to seriously lag becuase the city was so large, and when I moved the mouse too quickly or used the arrow keys to scroll the screen to fast the game would crash just like your save file does.

Your file crashes on my computer also. I'm afraid you'll have to abandon this city and start a new one. It's reached a size where it will just keep on crashing on you. It did it on me twice. You can get it to run if you put the game on pause and then scroll the screen very very slowly, but it will still want to crash on you without warning.

[KaraPitchou]

So, all good :D :D

Thank you very much for your help Keith, Phil Walker, imhotep3147 and Manni :) :)

[imhotep3147]

Glad to see you got it worked out.....darn those big cities! :D