Game is hard locking my PC

[just some kyle]

I just bought Caesar IV today (horray! I am so excited!), but I havent really been able to enjoy it yet. My PC is being hardlocked while playing, so far this has happened twice. I downloaded the latest patch for CIV, and to my knowledge I have the latest drivers for my hardware.

My system specs:
Athlon AMD 3200+ 32bit CPU
1gig DDR Ram
Geforce 6600 256mb graphics card
160gig hard drive

and then attached is my DxDiag.txt file, so hopefully someone can help me. I've been excited to play Caesar IV since E3 2006, so hopefully I can get my problem fixed as fast as possible. :P

[Manni]

Good hardware stuff! System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC. (thank heavens no DELL again....)
Apart from old sound-drivers all seems well and in order.

[just some kyle]

I did find that my drivers for my nforce board are outdated by 2 years or so. so I am updating those, and my video card drivers are outdated by a month.

and thanks for the comment on my computer! :D I built it myself.

[just some kyle]

the audio drivers I just updated a minute ago. I do have a secondary hard drive, its 60gbs, but Caesar IV is installed on my primary hard drive. Both hard drivers are IDE drives. I will try to run Caesar IV first right now and if it crashs then I will disconnect my secondary hard drive. Thank you for the suggestions!

[existenz]

Your dxdiag shows an Xbox gamepad USB attached, that might be the one you need to disconnect. I wouldn't disconnect an IDE harddrive. :)

[just some kyle]

Your dxdiag shows an Xbox gamepad USB attached, that might be the one you need to disconnect. I wouldn't disconnect an IDE harddrive. :)

It is possible that the drivers for that gamepad can cause Caesar IV problems. I don't think so though, but i'll disconnect it while i'm not using it. I play a lot of flight sims. :)

[Manni]

I
and thanks for the comment on my computer! :D I built it myself.
My compliments!
I can only go in the shop and tell them what to stick together. :D ;)

[mouse]

Nice system as a fellow builder I know the fun of building one:D
Since your getting a hard lockup while playing my suspect would be something running in the background. Virus scanners (some brands, Norton software, any disk scanning utilities) firewalls and any software that auto updates including system restore thus sucking focus from the game.

[Keith]

just some kyle, if this is a laptop computer, do you have Windows active desktop running? You may want to set it to windows standard mode or shut down active desktop and see if that helps.

[just some kyle]

Nope, I am on a desktop PC. So far so good your guys suggestions have worked. The game hasnt crashed yet. So I am going to slowly start activating programs and have them working in the background while I play to see what happens.

[Keith]

Ok, let us know the results and if what program it is that might have caused the problem if you find one.

[just some kyle]

Okay I got another crash and I am not starting to think its a heating issue. But I really just dont know anymore.

[PCDania]

Nice system you got there, am a builder myself :D

Have you checked at Asus and nVidia for updated chipset drivers for your motherboard? The nVidia and Asus forums might have some advice on what drivers are the best for your motherboard.

[just some kyle]

Yes, I updated everything last night and am still getting crashs in just Caesar IV. I ran a few very graphic intensive games (Lock-On: Modern Air Combat, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and X3: Reunion) and none of those games crashed after over an hour of playing each. So I really think its a problem with Caesar IV itself, and is a bug in the game that is causing my problems. Looking at the tech support boards here, I really don't believe anymore that its my PC. The demo ran without any problems too.