Crashing? I need your help plse

[Jeff Fiske]

I noticed something that may very well be coincidence, but is worth pursuing further. Everyone whos' DXDIAG I looked at had multiple CD/DVD drives and the drives letters went up to E (some to G, or I). (Exception was one person, who may have had a fragmented 2.gb remaining on his HD.)

You can help us narrow this down, by posting your DXDIAG in this thread (or refering to a previous post I may have missed) if you crash Because you opened a trade route AND you only have a C and a D drive.

We are still gathering information about this, because we have x1600, 9600's, 6600 (AGP & PCX) etc... We can't reproduce it. If we can't replicate it in house it is close to impossible to fix, so I am hoping to narrow things down.

I really apreciate your patience on this and thank everyone for their help, including our fans who do a great job of trying to help all of you so we can concentrate on making great games.

So, if this turns out to have nothing to do with it at least we will know and move on to the next possibility.

Thanks and hopefully we will have everyone building their empire shortly.

Jeff

[Jeff Fiske]

Heh, I looked at that dx diag earlier and was following up off the board. Obviously, if we come to some resolution or make any progress, that information will be passed on.

That certainly was a pretty vanilla machine, above spec.

However, I should clairfy, I really am looking for people Crashing with the trade routes- who also only have C& D drives.

I guess it is time to edit my post.

[SoulJas]

I have crashes with openin trade routes also. Here is my DxDiag.

[PCDania]

@SoulJas

From your Dxdiag file:
Drive: C:
Free Space: 1.6 GB
Total Space: 11.1 GB

You have way too little free space on your C: drive unless you have moved your pagefile and even then it would be good if you could free up some space on C:

[Jeff Fiske]

All hard drives should be kept to 20% free. This is what MS says. I am not saying you need that, but you definately need more room than you have. Remember, virtual memory uses your hard drive, and if you have that little room you probably will see problems.

I would delete what you can, uninstall game, Defrag, and try again.

That should take care of it. If you can get to 20% free space, that would be ideal for your system in general.

Hope that helps, and please let us know if it does.

jeff

[Keith]

I've got a lot of these types of posts on the tech board at Sierra too.

One person narrowed it down on his system to the fact that he was opening the trade route without having built the city. The game locked up every time. Then he built some housing got some pottery in stock and then opened the trade route and he had no problem.

[perebo]

just a question, I'm not trying to start trouble or be in a negative mood or anything, i'm seriously curious...

Honestly, seriously, honestly(dont lie to me now): Did you guys do any play testing for this game?

Thanks for your time

[mouse]

Perebo I can answer the question about play testing but it will be up to TM to give details. Yes the game was play tested:D

[yoshi]

I have the same problem

[Jeff Fiske]

I have the same problem

Right, you also have d,e,f,g drives.

I am looking for people who are seeing the problem and ONLY have a C& D drive.

If nobody shows up with that problem, on Monday AM, I build a machine at work with a setup similar to yours, wipe it clean, and see if it dupes. If it does, we can fix it.

[Jeff Fiske]

I have crashes with openin trade routes also. Here is my DxDiag.

Right, and you also have D,E,F,G etc... only looking for people with C&D drives ONLY.

Seems like we are narrowing down this problem at least.

[Jeff Fiske]

Thanks for observing and your attempts. HERE (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?p=123704#post123704) is a post by one with no replies yet, but a good thorough explanation with her DxDiag attached.

Sincerely,
Phil




In PM problem was fixed. (By using sugs from this forum.)

Compleate PM posted here, with permision.

Originally Posted by Beavil
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Fiske
Of all the machines posted, yours seems 100% good to go, where I have found small quirks in others. We played the game with no problem on Athalons far worse than yours and plenty of nvidia 6 series cards.

One thing, I have some saitek stuff (that rocks btw) but going back years ago, they had notorious driver issues. Could you try swaping out your keyboard if you have a different one?

Let me know how it goes, we hopefully will have you and everyone else running soon.

Thanks,
Jeff



Hi Jeff,

Since I posted I have had some success - I was just getting ready to post again when I saw your message.

I am not sure what might have worked, but here is what I have done both good and possibly bad:

Possible problems:
I had updated my graphics card driver AFTER installing C4. I uninstalled the demo AFTER installing the full version of C4.

Here's what I have done that resulted in some success:
I uninstalled C4. My graphics driver had been updated to the most current version. I used .NET 2.0 that came on the C4 installer disc 1 to repair my .NET 2.0 file (just in case) before re-installing C4.

I then installed C4 and now the game is running and I have successfully completed the first two tutorial levels of the Kindgom Campaign (and now it's time to sleep!).

The game play stutters/lags a bit if the narrator is talking at the same time I am continuing to place items, open and close menus, etc. But, it hasn't crashed and that's always a good thing!

I am running the game at the best performance settings right now. I plan to stress test the quality settings Saturday evening. Please let me know if you think there is something else I can try that may remedy the stuttering/lag.

Thanks very much for your help! The forum has been a great help to me today.

Thanks,
Bea

Great news- can you post in the forum? Or do you mind if I make this entire PM public?

Thanks

Please feel free to make the PM public (it saves typing!)

Thanks.

[Jeff Fiske]

just a question, I'm not trying to start trouble or be in a negative mood or anything, i'm seriously curious...

Honestly, seriously, honestly(dont lie to me now): Did you guys do any play testing for this game?

Thanks for your time

Yes we tested it. VUG tested it. Other people tested it as well.

I think that time will will show that besides a very small percent of people, the product is very bug free- particularly in comparison with similarly complex Strategy Games.

Also, I will point out that if you start going back to the begining of either Tech forum for CotN or CaesarIV 90% of the problems do wind up being system config issues. 5% wind up being machines with serious issues (dead vid fans, dying power supplies, etc.) and 5% wind up being legitimate issues TM needs to address. If you think about the thousands of people playing the game, not posting problems here, the fact that no review I have seen mentions any issues, I think this is more evidence of why we have a reputation for bug free products. (No products of this complexity are truely bug free, it is a relitive term for us, and anyone.)

Our other reputation, is we support our products, so stick around, have some paitience, and we appreciate your help and participation in the process- it helps us all.

Jeff

[Jeff Fiske]

just a question, I'm not trying to start trouble or be in a negative mood or anything, i'm seriously curious...

Honestly, seriously, honestly(dont lie to me now): Did you guys do any play testing for this game?

Thanks for your time

I just found your DX diag on another forum, I see that you also have two CD/DVD drives.

Hopefully we are onto something here, though you are not crashing on the trade route are you, or just having problems with saves?

Can you do me a favor. Post your Caesariv.INI file? (shows as caesarIV configuration file). I am curious what these two lines say, in addition to other settings.

Installed From Directory \PROGRAM FILES\SIERRA\CAESAR IV\
Installed From Volume C:

Jeff

[imhotep3147]

Hey Jeff, it might be worthwhile to look at the specific brands of cd/dvd drives as a possible issue. When COTN first came out I (and some others) had serious problems with Phillips drives....had to go through like 2 or 3 brands before I finally found one that the game would work with.....could be something similar here? IIRC the problem was with Phillips, Sony, and ...... some random off-brand I don't remember the name of from Walmart. Finally found a Lite-on that agreed with the game. The crashing and hard-freezing problems I had back then sound similar to what some of these guys are experiencing. Also, might be worth a shot to see if poor ventilation due to having so many drives crammed into a tower could be an issue as well? Don't know what most of the posters are running with, but my poor little Dell tower doesn't care for too much stuff in it....it runs hotter than Hades in there with 2 opticals and 2 hardrives, and I have fans blowing on it. :D

[SoulJas]

Guys, my system is toatlly fine! I`m keepin C drive clean. All swap files, software.. etc, are located on the other drives.

[sls]

OK mine is still crashing on the trade routes and I now only have C: & D: drives. :( Attaching my DxDiag.

[yoshi]

I have no idea what's wrong =.

[Jeff Fiske]

I love this card, I think it is a good card for the money, doesn't run hot, but it seems to be involved in quite a few reports- particularly the AGP variety.

We had some quirkiness with this card back in early august, as we did with the 9600, but like I said, that was a while ago- and not this bad.

The good news is we should be able to make a rig similar to someones machine and perhaps even duplicate it.

Bad news it won't get you playing today, you will still have to wait so bear with us.

Jeff
(At one point or another over the past 14 months we have had problems of some sort on almost every chipset series, so don't read too much into my mention of early August issues.)

[Natty Dread]

Hello,

I have more than a C and D drive, however since this seems the place to post problems with trade route crashing I thought I'd throw mine in here too, you never know (and I certainly don't know).

I've been lurking here all morning and have tried pretty much all the suggestions here to try and fix the problem. The only thing that has worked is to play the game for a while and establish a city and THEN open a trade route. Not the best solution but it will allow me to otherwise enjoy this so far kick a** game!

Cheers!

[mouse]

Yoshi just .5gb free space on C drive of course your having problems not enough free space for windows to move files around. Surely not enough space to play CIV and 5 cd/dvd drives.

[osardi]

Caesar IV almost ALWAYS seems to freeze on the trade route map screen, immeditaley when I click "Yes" to the question the game asks, "Pay to open this trade route?".

Seems like I'm having the same problem as everyone else, so I'll just list the specs of my computer to see if I can help:

Caesar IV (with Patch 1.1 installed)
Windows XP Home edition, SP2
AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz, 1 Gb RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, 128 Mb DDR SDRAM (driver ver. 8.291.0.0)

Please let me know when this problem gets fixed so I can finally play the game in it's entirety. :(

Orlando

[yoshi]

Yoshi just .5gb free space on C drive of course your having problems not enough free space for windows to move files around. Surely not enough space to play CIV and 5 cd/dvd drives. i know have 11 gb free space(over all), and it's still not enoguh

[mouse]

Yoshi you need enough space on the drive with the page file and windows to be able to move files around. MS recommended free space on that drive should be about 20% of the drive/partition not overall.

[yoshi]

k...

[yoshi]

I have 13 gigabites free on my c drive

[rummy]

I had no problems trading either land or sea up until republic map 3. Thats with a fully functioning city of 1000 with plenty of goods to sell in the warehouse.

There are alot of x1600's having this same problem. Everyone's dxdiag here looks very similar to mine. I have 2.6 Gb 29% free on my C drive. I've tried Catalyst 6.5 and 6.9. DirectX is all upto date and I have sp2 and .NET2.0.

I can't think of anything else outside of wiping C and starting over or upgrading. I hope you guys track it down soon Jeff, I was really enjoying the game nice job btw :)

[Davidicus]

Just wanted to add my info for the devs. I too am having the freezing crash issue. It happens, however, not when I open a trade route, but when a demand from Rome window pops up. I click on close, and the system freezes.
I have included my DXdiag AND my last save game, that is consistantly crashing when the next demand from Rome pops up.

Edit: Turning off all of the auto-pause options in settings seems to have completely solved the freezing issue for me, so far anyways.

[yoshi]

I have 20% of my c drive free. thats 14.91 gigabiytes, and it still is crashing to desktop whenever i attempt to open a trade route

[Manni]

Yoshi

after freeing all that space on C (hoping you have left XP on!!)

Did you run defrag on C straight after?
If not and you intend to defrag now then just defrag and leave the pc alone until it is done!!
Emptied the temp-folder in C/Windows?

[Gard]

I am having random freezes/crashes. Sometimes it will crash not long after it loads the scenario or saved game, other times it may take it a good 20 minutes or so to crash.

There was one time where the windows error dialog came up after reset telling me that "windows has just recovered from a serious error." I sent the report and it transferred one to me recommending that I turn hardware acceleration down, which I did and it only resulted in an invisible mouse cursor in the game, making it unplayable. This error report only came up once though.

The game also crashes my Linksys print server utility of all things lol.

Anyways, I also have multiple CD drives and have attached a copy of my dxdiag report.

[Manni]

Hello Gard and welcome

did you by any chance defragged your only partition C BEFORE you installed the game?

Been using a registry-cleaner lately?

Try this one: http://www.ccleaner.com/

[mattzor]

I'm getting crashes all over the place. However, the main point is when a message pops up on screan, usually a demand from Rome, and I click the close button. (Once when I clicked the send button).

[Manni]

Hello mattzor

did you defrag your Drive: C: Free Space: 32.9 GB Total Space: 76.3 GB
BEFORE you installed the game?

[Gard]

No, I didn't run defrag before I installed the game. I generally don't bother with that because I have it set to do so once a week while I'm in bed.

[Manni]

Good idea to run it regulary. But you should have to cut out problems and go the safe way. After all.....there were some 500 MB`s rolling in.........

Which do you use?
The sytem defrag or O&O or Perfect Disk?

[Gard]

I use XP's defrag.

[Manni]

I use XP's defrag.
OK. Problem with XP`s is that it says NO when you just check the need but SHOULD be done really. One should ALWAYS run it no matter what it says.

[Willius Billius]

Hi Guys

My game crashed upon opening up trade to Caralis.

What I did was as follows:

I started playing in the Kingdom( the tutorials) at about the 4th episode
when you get to Genoa.

I started as per normal add houses then get industry up and running(pottery) also set out the Equite houses with a working fountain.

Money was starting to get tight so I tried to open up trade with Caralis, when I did it froze and my only way out was alt.+f4 .

Then I decided to play one of the stand alone scenarios ( the 1st one whatever it is, over with the Parthians in the middle east) the very first thing I did was try to open up a trade route and it froze as well.

Then I went back to the tutorials and played Genoa again this time I opened up a trade route right away and still froze.

The game settings are at minimum.

For the time being i'm running a geforce fx5500 (until i get a new video board)

and I will post my dxdiag below

Bill

[mattzor]

Hello mattzor

did you defrag your Drive: C: Free Space: 32.9 GB Total Space: 76.3 GB
BEFORE you installed the game?

I have defraged twice and reinstalled twice.

[jbaby901]

My game freezes after a few minutes of play. My ATI Catalyst control center pops up and tell me it had to reset my card, or something to that effect. my DXDIAG is attached.

[sls]

x1600 showing up alot.

I love this card, I think it is a good card for the money, doesn't run hot, but it seems to be involved in quite a few reports- particularly the AGP variety.

We had some quirkiness with this card back in early august, as we did with the 9600, but like I said, that was a while ago- and not this bad.

The good news is we should be able to make a rig similar to someones machine and perhaps even duplicate it.

Bad news it won't get you playing today, you will still have to wait so bear with us.

Jeff
(At one point or another over the past 14 months we have had problems of some sort on almost every chipset series, so don't read too much into my mention of early August issues.)Great...I just bought that card yesterday for my desktop computer thinking it would be a great card for my needs. I was tempted to buy a really expensive card but decided that seeing as though all I play are these city-building games, it would do the job. Just my luck. :( I wanted to play on my desktop because I couldn't get my laptop to stop crashing (random crashes unrelated to the world map).

So when I couldn't play on the desktop today I decided to play around again with my laptop (uninstalled the demo & full game, re-installed the game & patch, disabled all background & start-up programs, wireless turned off, display set to 1024 x 768 on both the laptop & the game) and I've been able to play OK so far...just starting Corinth. I'm going to start enabling some necessary programs 1 at a time over the next few days & see what happens but at least I've been able to play it & have to say I love it. :)

[BBoz]

Here is my dxdiag... Basically it's a Core2Duo iMac.

I seem to have problems when the clear window dialogues come up and on the trade screen. BUT, I have turned off pausing during population and Caesar request messages and that has helped a LOT. I was having one game always crash going into and buying trade routes. I tried pausing the game, then going in and buying the route and back out and play again, and it worked fine.

Still get lock-ups in other areas sometimes. Always seems to be when a transparent dialogue box is coming up though.

[PhilL]

Jeff:
I have crashes while opening trade routes. I read your post about multiple drive letters and tried something. I disconnected the other drives so I only have C and D but the game still crashes when opening trade routes. I have identified and attached both dxdiag files one with all the drives and one with only C and D.
I have found that if I place a house and let it fill up I was able to open routes. But this isnt always the case sometimes it seems to need an associated industy started. Ie: If the route requires pottery I need to place a clay or pottery factory. One thing for sure is building things helps the situation.

PS: I didn't see it in the dxdiag but I have onboard video that is disabled and am using the agp slot.

Edit: Played the demo and never one crash Must have played it 40 times.

Prolly unrelated but I also had a problem with the cd key being invalid for online registration,(that is fixed now) THX REED

Another prolly unrelated fact. I allowed the game to attempt to install direct x 9.0_c despite the fact I had it already. Expecting it to tell me this is not needed because it was already current. This has been the result installing other games. This did not happen I recieved an error instead. I went to windows update to have it install direct X 9.0_c and there it was reported that I had the current version.

I tried something else I took DEMONARBO and put it in my scenarios file of the full game. found it listed in scenarios and it loaded but crashed when I tried to open a trade route. This didnt happen when it was in the demo.

Good luck with this situation and thanks for your efforts. If you need any more information please let me know.

[rummy]

I cleaned up my registry, defragged and have plenty of room on C now almost 50%. I played a full day without any problems trading by sea or land. When I finally got to republic map 3 things went bad. Now even a new game has problems but, I was able to open one trade route without it crashing.

In the first map I choose Mediolanum. Starting a fair sized city I decided to open a route to Noricum (Land route, sells iron), success! (First one today in hours of trying). I then tried to open Latium (Land route, buys clothing, sells spices), crash. Restarted and was able to open Noricum again, then tried the third route Sardinia (Says Land route but is on an island?? could be a problem? buys pottery, sells cosmetics) crash. Opening either of those two without opening Noricum also results in a crash.

I don't understand it. I can't see how its a hardware problem with so many people having the same exact issue. With the fact that I played with no problems for a whole day without changing/editing anything, and now I can't. I posted my dxdiag earlier but no one commented on it. Will someone look through it and see if they can spot anything that might be causing this?

Rob

[mouse]

Rummy according to the DX diag file in your post the free space on C drive is just slightly more than the size of your page file. Is your C drive on a hard drive by itself or is that a partition on a larger drive. If it's a partition then you need a larger partition for the operating system. Windows needs room for the full (largest page file) and to move files around like the DX files and video driver files:D

[Manni]

Mouse is right rummy.

You could try the following: (I have it set myself this way)

There is plenty of room on your H-drive. You have stuck in Memory: 1024MB RAM.
Now take off the page-file from C (if it is there) and open it on H where you set in for mini and maxi the same size.

Put in 2400MB .

Straight after reboot (important) defrag C (cuz there are gaps now) and H
and try gaming again.

Give a note if it did some change to the better. :)

[Keith]

Hello Gard and welcome

did you by any chance defragged your only partition C BEFORE you installed the game?

Been using a registry-cleaner lately?

Try this one: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Or you can use the Windows Live Online Safety Center if you have a registred copy of XP. I use it regularly. It's arleady fixed one person's crashing problem on the Sierra forums.

Sticky: How many of you have ever cleaned your registry file (http://forums.vugames.com/thread.jspa?threadID=32870&tstart=0)

[Manni]

Or you can use the Windows Live Online Safety Center if you have a registred copy of XP. I use it regularly. It's arleady fixed one person's crashing problem on the Sierra forums.
Absolutely right!

Here is another splendid tool which gets the registry in order, it will be defragged:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

It does not delete anything but puts things together and cuts out holes.

NTREGOPT NT Registry Optimizer Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP

Free and in English

[Gard]

I ran that tool for the fun of it to see if it would catch anything that Norton Systemworks didn't, but it did not.

[loyd]

I have the same problem when openning trade route.

Here my Dxdiag

thanks

[Manni]

Hello loyd,

you could try it with the driver version 91.47 instead of the 91.31 you are using now.
Apart from that use a registry-cleaner, defrag your C and D

Best of luck!

[Manni]

I ran that tool for the fun of it to see if it would catch anything that Norton Systemworks didn't, but it did not.
Which tool did you run?

This: Sticky: How many of you have ever cleaned your registry file

or this: NTREGOPT NT Registry Optimizer ???

When I read "Norton Systemworks" ..........?!
That could be your main problem..........
Norton is a sucker on system and cpu

[vic_4]

Hello loyd,

you could try it with the driver version 91.47 instead of the 91.31 you are using now.
Apart from that use a registry-cleaner, defrag your C and D

Best of luck!
With the demo I had problems with 91.31, no more after installing 91.47

[Manni]

Good to hear vic_4 :) :) :D

[rummy]

Rummy according to the DX diag file in your post the free space on C drive is just slightly more than the size of your page file. Is your C drive on a hard drive by itself or is that a partition on a larger drive. If it's a partition then you need a larger partition for the operating system. Windows needs room for the full (largest page file) and to move files around like the DX files and video driver files:D

Ah crap mouse, I posted the wrong dxdiag. This is the new one after I cleaned up everythng. C and D are partitions on the same hard drive, E and H are on a different HD. I gave XP 10 Gb back in the day, little did I know it doubles in size every six months :).

The new dxdiag shows that I have almost half (4.52Gb) of my C drive empty. Page file size 229Mb, 2231 available. The game requires 2Gb of that correct? Now that I have space can I increase the size available or should I just move it to H. And how/where do I find the page file and move it where windows knows where to find it? Is it virtual memory you guys are talking about?

Edit: I plan on a full upgrade within the next month or so, I just need a solution to get me by until then.

Thanks again,
Rob

[Gard]

Which tool did you run?

This: Sticky: How many of you have ever cleaned your registry file

or this: NTREGOPT NT Registry Optimizer ???

When I read "Norton Systemworks" ..........?!
That could be your main problem..........
Norton is a sucker on system and cpu


I ran all the Windows tools. Norton Systemworks slowed my computer down any. In fact, Systemworks, unless its running a test, has never used even 1% of the cpu at any given time. Norton Internet Security/Antivirus is a whole other ballgame. One of the key files for them, CCAPP.exe, is a memory & cpu hog. Best thing to do is disable the antivirus while running games and it kills that problem. Anyways, I run games and apps far more intense than C4 all the time and have never seen Systemworks slow it down.

[Manni]

I have almost half (4.52Gb) of my C drive empty. Page file size 229Mb, 2231 available. Very good!

The game requires 2Gb of that correct?
No rummy, it was ment for free space on C harddrive!

I increase the size available or should I just move it to H. And how/where do I find the page file and move it where windows knows where to find it? Is it virtual memory you guys are talking about?
YES rummy, look at the screenshot and try to find it on your machine.
Sorry............it is in the wrong language but it might lead you right.

When you have finished, reboot and do a defrag on C and the partition where page-file is now!

[Manni]

I plan on a full upgrade within the next month or so, I just need a solution to get me by until then.

So do I!

I want that Intel Quadro-CPU-stuff! :D :eek: :D

[rummy]

So do I!

I want that Intel Quadro-CPU-stuff! :D :eek: :D

Hah I think I'll stick with the Core 2 Duo. I've seen the power supplies that will run the quad cpu's and quad sli's and they are ENORMOUS (1 kilowatt) and cost upwards of $600.

Thanks for the timely post btw, you guys are on the ball :cool:

[yoshi]

i have 20 Gb free on my c drive... and my brother got pissed that i got rid of thousands of tiny itty bitty programs;). nut it's still not working :(

[Manni]

Hah I think I'll stick with the Core 2 Duo. I've seen the power supplies that will run the quad cpu's and quad sli's and they are ENORMOUS (1 kilowatt) and cost upwards of $600.
.........and yet more! No worries......I have been on Slot-machines in Las Vegas! :D :D :D

[Manni]

i have 20 Gb free on my c drive... and my brother got pissed that i got rid of thousands of tiny itty bitty programs;). nut it's still not working :(

Alright.
Which registry-cleaner are you using......if any?

Try CCleaner from here: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Do run CLEANER and ISSUES

Afterwards do a reboot and defrag the lot.

All best! :)

[rummy]

Ok, this is how things look now. I have a 142Mb page file with 3854Mb available, 31% free (3Gb) on my C drive. I'm off to try it out.

p.s. this is the last thing I'm trying before I put my comp out to the road for pickup lol

[yoshi]

Ok manni, cleaned out my comp (had alota crap in their) and fixed a bunch of issues, now i am defraging, and will be while i am at chruch.

[rummy]

Ok I'm just tired now. I was able too open 2 trade routes and I crashed on the third. I was really getting hopeful after the second one #%!$!@#$. I haven't had this much trouble with a game since doom 2 came out and I had to hold left shift at boot up to clear up enough ram (4mb) lmao. It's all up to tilted mill now.

[PhilL]

Or you can use the Windows Live Online Safety Center if you have a registred copy of XP. I use it regularly. It's arleady fixed one person's crashing problem on the Sierra forums.

Sticky: How many of you have ever cleaned your registry file (http://forums.vugames.com/thread.jspa?threadID=32870&tstart=0)

Thanks for the info. I ran this and it took 2 hours. I did full scan . It found loads of stuff and fixed most of it. But this DID NOT fix the trade opening crash. :(

Cross link to my other post with dxdiag of multiple drives and just C and D drive
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=124274&postcount=45

[Zamolxes]

Yesterday, after deciding to reinstall windows xp, my poor old WD hardrive decided to give up after 6 years :mad: . So i had to buy a new one, after i burried the old one in the closet ;) .
Anyway, right now i'm running XP PRO, on a clean 150 GB hardrive, that has nothing but the operating system and latest drivers.
C4 is installed on a 2nd hardrive that i use as storage for everything.
Attached is 1st dxdiag, with current configuration and service pack 1. I'll install SP 2 in shortwhile and i'll post a 2nd dxdiag.

Oh, in two of the crashes, i was able to catch an error message from windows that was saying:
"The instruction at 0x2112d840 referenced memory at 0x07577fd0. The memory could not be "read" "
I also caught a glimpse of error reports that windows sends automatically over internet, but i wasnt able to copy it. Next time if pops, gonna copy it down by hand and post it here.

[Keith]

Thanks for the info. I ran this and it took 2 hours. I did full scan . It found loads of stuff and fixed most of it. But this DID NOT fix the trade opening crash. :(

Cross link to my other post with dxdiag of multiple drives and just C and D drive
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=124274&postcount=45 (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=124274&postcount=45)

Unfortunately I don't see anything obvious. Have you tried shutting down the background apps listed in the article I have linked to several times here and on the Sierra boards and before running the game?

General Troubleshooting - How to disable background applications (http://www.europesupport.com/vivendi_current/(erl1t52fet1sn0fh5r5yvl2o)/Pages/ViewFAQ.aspx?FAQID=1792)

[Keith]

Yesterday, after deciding to reinstall windows xp, my poor old WD hardrive decided to give up after 6 years :mad: . So i had to buy a new one, after i burried the old one in the closet ;) .
Anyway, right now i'm running XP PRO, on a clean 150 GB hardrive, that has nothing but the operating system and latest drivers.
C4 is installed on a 2nd hardrive that i use as storage for everything.
Attached is 1st dxdiag, with current configuration and service pack 1. I'll install SP 2 in shortwhile and i'll post a 2nd dxdiag.

Oh, in two of the crashes, i was able to catch an error message from windows that was saying:
"The instruction at 0x2112d840 referenced memory at 0x07577fd0. The memory could not be "read" "
I also caught a glimpse of error reports that windows sends automatically over internet, but i wasnt able to copy it. Next time if pops, gonna copy it down by hand and post it here.

You don't have the correct DX9 version installed that comes with the game nor do you have Windows Service Pack 2 installed which NETFramework 2.0 lists as a system requirement.

Install SP2, then run the DX9 isntaller that comes with the game. You can do this by clicking on the INSTALL DIRECTX 9 on the game start popup menu.

You may even have to reinstall NETFramework 2.0 afterwards just to be sure.

Your Radeon 9000 card is not DX9 compliant. It is a DX8.1 compliant card. You can probably run the game but only if you reduce all the in-game video features to minimums and be sure to turn SHADOWS OFF in the SETTING > VIDEO menu of the game.

[Cartpusher]

After many tries at Caralis (tier 3 republic campaign) and a few tries at Burdigala (online), I would like to report the following:

I cannot open trade routes before starting to build. I'm not sure why this is a part of the game because there are some of us who prefer to choose our trade routes at the beginning of the scenario while planning our cities. This would be especially useful in CIV because we don't even have access to the building until the route is opened. I don't want to start a town and find out later that I am nowhere near the available landing sites.

In Caralis and Burdigala, after throwing up a few buildings and making some trade goods available, I CAN open Latium, but attempting to open Cisalpine Gaul causes a complete freeze when I click "yes" to spend the money. The only way to escape is to do a hard reboot with the on/off button. I left it overnight once to see if would eventually move forward, but eight hours wasn't enough.

I apologize for having the wrong number of drives, but I thought my experience might narrow the search for this bug. I had no trouble running the demo. I was able to visit the empire screen and open all three trade routes before starting the city. Is it possible that changing from a thin green line to a thick red one has introduced the bug?

[PhilL]

Unfortunately I don't see anything obvious. Have you tried shutting down the background apps listed in the article I have linked to several times here and on the Sierra boards and before running the game?

General Troubleshooting - How to disable background applications (http://www.europesupport.com/vivendi_current/(erl1t52fet1sn0fh5r5yvl2o)/Pages/ViewFAQ.aspx?FAQID=1792)

Yes I have all the non essential items shut down. Like I said above I can run the demo no problems but the full game code has changed something that is causing problems. I put demonarbo scernario in the full game and it crashes too.

[Keith]

Jeff

I just had someone post on the Sierra boards that disabled his second drive in his system and Caesar IV stopped crashing on him.

game crashes randomly/reboots machine (http://forums.vugames.com/thread.jspa?threadID=32969&tstart=0)

[Gard]

Interesting...

I noticed from reading the threads too that alot of the people not really experiencing problems are using it on a laptop as well. Most laptops generally only have 1 hd and 1 cdrom, which could explain the lack of problems on laptops.

[Cartpusher]

How does one disable a drive?

[PhilL]

How does one disable a drive?

turn off the pc and open the case and disconnect the wires runing to it. Then restart. This does require you know which drive is assigned which letter.
Some bios let you do it here also.

[Gard]

If you don't want to fool with the inside of the pc, you can disable it through windows as well...

1. Open "My Computer"

2. Click on "View System Information"

3. Click on the "Hardware" tab

4. Click on "Device Manager"

5. Click on the little "+" sign next to "DVD/CD-ROM Drives" or "Disk Drives"

6. Right-click on the device you intend to disable and click "Disable"

7. Reboot PC

Hope this helps. :)

[SirKnightTG]

Hmm, my desktop pc has 3 HD's and I get trade route crashing (as some may remember from my post a few days ago) but on my notebook (which has one HD) it works fine.

I can't think how having >1 HD would cause a crash. I've debugged some interesting crashes before but this is just weird.

[Manni]

I don`t think it will work this way Gard.

As soon as you reboot windows "discovers new hardware" and there you are again.............
One has got to open the tin and disconnect the second drive physically.

Correct me if I am wrong!

[Gard]

Windows would only discover it if you clicked the "remove hardware" button. :)

The disable button disables it, making it disappear to some extent, but when you go into device manager, you will see it there with an "x" on it. So basically, windows will acknowledge its there, but will not load any drivers to operate it. I have done this a number of times over the years.

[Manni]

Thanks Gard! :)

[Willius Billius]

I have only one harddrive and one cd-re writer. the HD is 150 gig with 70% freespace.

Mine froze when trying to open up after placing houses and industry and froze when I opened up trade with Caralis right at the start of the game.

I spent today running registry cleaners, (all the ones that were posted here i downloaded)defraged...

That did help, tonight I played and waited until I had the resources to open up a trade route with Caralis and it worked fine, and then froze shortly after returning to the game.

I restarted my saved game( at the point where I was ready to open up trade with some resources stockpiled) then opened up the trade route and palyed for about 20min. went back in to the empire map and came out sucessfully,then went back in again and came out sucessfully and then went to talk to the advisors and it was there that the game froze.

It almost appears as if it's an intermitten bug?

This time i'm going to play after temporarily disabling norton antivirus and see if that helps any.

Bill

[yoshi]

Windows would only discover it if you clicked the "remove hardware" button. :)

The disable button disables it, making it disappear to some extent, but when you go into device manager, you will see it there with an "x" on it. So basically, windows will acknowledge its there, but will not load any drivers to operate it. I have done this a number of times over the years.YIPEEEEEEEEEEEE! I got to 3 trade routes open! then it crashed, BUT WHO CAREs, it worked... some what, i must retest to see if it works again :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Gard]

Glad to hear it worked to some extent! We may be taking baby steps right now, but we are headed in the right direction! :D

[yoshi]

actually gard ity only worked once :(, but i can still open trade with latium... but latium sucks for a good trading becasue the only thing i can make locally is pottery, and gispene gaul takes pots for iron, which i can make into weps and armour and utensils that other places take, and i can't open trade with gisipine caul or any other, besides latium. *GASP*

[Gard]

Uninstalled the game from this PC and installed it on my guineau pig computer to see what it would do. It crashed on that one as well, even sooner than it did this one as a matter of fact.

[Cartpusher]

Yoshi:
If you're having trouble in Caralis, Latium buys wine. You can produce that in Caralis. But I agree that starting with Cis. Gaul is better...if you can. Have you tried disabling a drive yet? Sounds weird, but it worked for me.

I disabled my DVD drive according to Gard's instructions and was able to open three trade routes in Burdigala. I got greedy and tried to go back for more...total freeze when I clicked on the empire icon. Previous to that I had uninstalled CIV and the demo, ran ccclear, and defragged.

[jbaby901]

I can open trade just fine. My crashes seem to be random. I get a freeze then the game screen minimizes, My ATI Catalysts pops up and says " VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands". All my drivers are up to date, defrag is done, I used Windows One Scanner (or whatever its called) and cleaned up alot of stuff. No avail.

[rummy]

I was able to play a little today, finished one map actually. I opened three trade routes spacing them out by a few months. When I tried to open the first route on the next map, crash. This is such a strange bug.

[yoshi]

Yoshi:
If you're having trouble in Caralis, Latium buys wine. You can produce that in Caralis. But I agree that starting with Cis. Gaul is better...if you can. Have you tried disabling a drive yet? Sounds weird, but it worked for me.

I disabled my DVD drive according to Gard's instructions and was able to open three trade routes in Burdigala. I got greedy and tried to go back for more...total freeze when I clicked on the empire icon. Previous to that I had uninstalled CIV and the demo, ran ccclear, and defragged.
I disabled my Cd-rom drive (left my DvD/ cdrom drive) and it worked for 3 trade routes, i got greedy like other peps and tried tog et anthor it crashed :( and i've never been able to get gisipine gaul and sometimes not even latium :(

[yoshi]

here's some sound advice, IF you ever do get a trade route going, get out of empire, and S-A-V-E. it may be the only solution so far *sigh*

[PhilL]

I too was able to open latium I have saved . Build a little more then save b4 attempting to open any trade routes.

I tried the DEP turn off thing posted by Keith. http://forums.vugames.com/thread.jspa?messageID=337586񒚲

This allowed me to open Cisalpine Gaul 3 times but I was greedy and tried latium with out going back into the game and it crashed. Didn't save with cis gaul open. Haven't been able to open it again:(

[Yenot]

I've been playing the Caesarea senario. I've actually been able to open trade routes successfully in the last day and then again tonight I crashed. I've had 4 trade routes open at one time. I was cautious and each time I got one open I was saving. But I might have a possible trigger. I hadn't successfully responded to a request for goods from Rome.

I went back in after rebooting and tried to open a trade route early before I even had a request from Rome and it crashed. Rebooted and back in, I tried it again after a request but before I had enough goods to send them and it crashed. Rebooted again and this time I waited to try to open the trade route until I had sent goods to Rome I was able to open them.

I'm sticking my dxdiag file up, but I don't think there is anything noteworthy there. I'm running multiple drives on an AMD 1.6G machine with 512 memory. My OS is XP Pro which was recently reinstalled on a new hard drive

Note that as long as I'm not playing online I have had no trouble with trade routes at all and it is both of the online versions that I do.

and of course it won't be as simple as that

btw awesome game ...

[bjornmmcc]

In case you missed my thread: http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10415

here's a DxDiag from someone who only has one hard drive and one optical drive installed. (Read my thread to see the differential of the drive letters.)

[PhilL]

I seen someone post a list of processes running while playing the game of a pc without problems. I thought it may be helpfull to see the list of a machine that is having the trade bug.

[kipue]

following phil s post, here s the one from my problem-free computer.

[JuliaSet]

Hello Jeff,

I tried to install the game on the older computer. Empire Trade caused a crash for me.

Basics about the computer:
Athlon2800, ATI 9600-128, with a Gig of ram,

I have one drive partitioned with a dual boot.
I also have a separate storage drive (F:)

I have more room on my storage drive, so I tried to install C4 to that drive. I had error messages and the install was incomplete.

I rebooted the computer and then installed to my default location.

The game itself installed nicely, I did get an error message when I tried to install the mysql connector, but it could be from a previous installation. (I selected "repair" and then dropped out of the install window.)

Just to be sure I used a zipped file of that name and completed the mysql connector install/?overwrite. Everything seemed to go well.

I booted the game, tested the online portion of the game, choose Caralis, then went to the Empire level and tried to open trade with Gaul. CTD with an MS error message.

Enclosed dxdiag for the machine in question and a screen shot of the ms error message.

[Keith]

I have only one harddrive and one cd-re writer. the HD is 150 gig with 70% freespace.

Mine froze when trying to open up after placing houses and industry and froze when I opened up trade with Caralis right at the start of the game.

I spent today running registry cleaners, (all the ones that were posted here i downloaded)defraged...

That did help, tonight I played and waited until I had the resources to open up a trade route with Caralis and it worked fine, and then froze shortly after returning to the game.

I restarted my saved game( at the point where I was ready to open up trade with some resources stockpiled) then opened up the trade route and palyed for about 20min. went back in to the empire map and came out sucessfully,then went back in again and came out sucessfully and then went to talk to the advisors and it was there that the game froze.

It almost appears as if it's an intermitten bug?

This time i'm going to play after temporarily disabling norton antivirus and see if that helps any.

Bill

You really shold update those audio drivers. I've seen old audio drivers cause many a strange problem. Yours are 4 years old.

I've seen problems in the past where the codec used to make one of the game audio files would cause the old drivers to crash the system or just lockup.

[Keith]

I have a question that just occurred to me. I'm trying think outside the box again......


How many of you that have had crashes did not install MySQL?

Anyone crashing not using the 1.1 patch?

Could this crash somehow be connected to firewall software in some way?

[kipue]

I followed the install on my computer, so I have the MySQL thingy. Didn t patch though, no crash, no firewall on that computer (not planning on going online with caesar4 for a little while.)

[Keith]

You may want to try the 1.1 patch anyway. It couldn't be worse than it is now and you never know it just might help even if you don't go online.

I was playing 1.0.0 for a while and I had 3-4 crashes in it. I haven't used the online function of the game, but I do have MySQL installed. I patched to 1.1 and my crashes have not been duplicated yet.

[kipue]

I ll try this out when I m home, and keep you posted if I feel any changes.

[Gard]

I have a question that just occurred to me. I'm trying think outside the box again......


How many of you that have had crashes did not install MySQL?

Anyone crashing not using the 1.1 patch?

Could this crash somehow be connected to firewall software in some way?

1. Have it installed
2. I crash with and without the patch
3. Tried with and without firewall, with no different results.

[Elamite]

I have not experienced "any" errors or crashes (including trade crash) so far in the Demo or the full version. See the DirectX file attacked for my computer specs.

I am simply posting this to help your data base of information. My case is a case of no crashes I experience no problems other than slowness of performance when graphics are high. Note: I have not played mission 4 yet.

Brief of Specs:

Pentium 4 - 3.0 Ghz Dual Core (4MB L2-Cache)
2GB DDR2 single channel memory (Samsung)
Asus GeForce 7600GS - 512MB DDR2 video memory - PCI-E x 16
Asus P5LD2 Motherboard - FSB 800/1066 (running at 800 FSB)
Western Digital 250 GB SATA hard drive - 7200 rpm - 16MB cache (4 partitions)
Pioneer Dual Layer DVD burner
Windows XP Pro with SP2 and DX9.0c

[PhilL]

I installed mysql from the game disk
crashes with and without the patch
no software firewall but a hardware one in my cablemodem router.

Why does demonarbo.scn not crash in the demo but crash when put in the full game?

another thing I tested.
I can open empire screen,
click a city,
click to open trade,
click no on the new window, it closes
click on open trade again then crash.

[Keith]

There is less in the demo Narbo, Phil.

[Yenot]

I have a question that just occurred to me. I'm trying think outside the box again......


How many of you that have had crashes did not install MySQL?

Anyone crashing not using the 1.1 patch?

Could this crash somehow be connected to firewall software in some way?

I have MySQL installed
I have the 1.1 patch installed, wouldn't let me play online until I installed it
I have firewall software and crashed with or without

[Keith]

I have MySQL installed
I have the 1.1 patch installed, wouldn't let me play online until I installed it
I have firewall software and crashed with or without

Yes, the patch is essentiall a connectivity fix for the Caesar IV Online Community part of the game so I'm no surprised that you couldn't get online until you patched.

[PhilL]

There is less in the demo Narbo, Phil.
I dont think I made myself clear,
I backed up my scernerio folder of the full game.
I copied the DemoNarbo files from the demo and pasted them into the scernerio folder of the full game.
I then started the full game found demonarbo in the load scernerio menu
loaded demonarbo succesfully.
I was able to build but opening trade crashed the game.

The demo ran without a problem.

I tried to put caralis into the demo by renaming the files demonarbo but it reported invalid save. game version problem

[Simulus Maximus]

Although I have two CD/DVD drives; i.e., more than just C & D drives, I thought I would post here too. I started several posts last week so I apologize if I am being redundant. DxDiag is attached.

I have had hard crashes playing both with and without the patch. It does not necessarily crash when opening a trade route; in fact, I have been able to play with a trade route in place for a few minutes. I updated my video driver. I disabled ALL non-Microsoft background apps. I even returned the slightly scratched game disk for a new copy, and reinstalled the game. Still it crashes constantly and I cannot play. Crashes occur at various times -- placing housing, building aqueducts, and at other times.

Thanks for trying to help & I hope the game will be playable soon. If it isn't I think the company should accept returns, because my local Gamestop sure as heck won't.

[Scra99tch]

Having same problem with trade routes and you are interested in my multiple drives. I have one partition on my drive that is strictly used for swap file.

Here is my dxdiag.

As you may know at some points I can open trade routes at others I can't even get into the empire map.

I also have outdated audio drivers but cannot find any newer ones.

[sls]

Oh I feel so bad that you're still having problems SM. :( I am too (gave up on my desktop even after buying a new video card :( ) but have managed to play on my laptop even with the crashes. They are random (like yours, even with background programs disabled) but sometimes I can go for quite a while without one so I've managed to get to Corinth. I know this doesn't help much but just wanted you to know I understand how frustrated you must feel. I hope someone can figure out what's going on soon so you can get your game up & running.

[Simulus Maximus]

Oh I feel so bad that you're still having problems SM. :( I am too (gave up on my desktop even after buying a new video card :( ) but have managed to play on my laptop even with the crashes. They are random (like yours, even with background programs disabled) but sometimes I can go for quite a while without one so I've managed to get to Corinth. I know this doesn't help much but just wanted you to know I understand how frustrated you must feel. I hope someone can figure out what's going on soon so you can get your game up & running.

Thanks sls, that is very kind of you. I know the powers that be must be frantically trying to figure out what's wrong; they don't want unhappy customers, and it sounds like there are a ton of those! There is much more to my life than a computer game, and I while I would like to play C4, if a game crash is the worst thing to happen to me today, I am a very lucky person.

[Yenot]

Ok I crashed after fulfilling an order but when I had an outstanding request from Rome when I tried to open a trade route. First trade route opened just fine after I fulfilled an initial request from Rome for goods. Then I got a request for goods that I have to import so tried opening the trade route to get those goods and it crashed.

[loyd]

I tried everything i saw in this forum. I unplung my 2nd hard drive, I turn of my 2nd Cd-Rom, I turn off every Lan drives I had, I have close Any unusefull software that might running in background.

I remove all virtual drive i had on my computer.

I install Nvidia last drivers 9.1.4.7, I made a clean registry, Have something like 40 Go free space on my C drive.

I have an Athlon 1800+
512 Mo DDRAM
Ti-4200

here is my DXdiag.


The game work fine exept for ONE thing, when I click on the empire button, the game crash (9 time on 10) When I'm abble to enter the Empire section, the game crash when I try to open a trade route. Since I cut off the number of drive, it was really more stable I open 3 trades routes, something I would not be abble to do before... :D

Do you have something to propose ?

Thanks !

[knoddy]

ok thought i would post to help, i dont seem to be having any crash issues. ive played the whole learning campaing, and the game crashed once, on the genoa map, right at the start while i was trying to place farms. After that i havent had any trouble, i played saracuse with 4 trade routes open and no crashing (best map ever, SOOOOO much farm land lol). ive just started on narbo and am waiting to see wether i crash at all. heres my DXdiag, hope it helps.

i have 3 hard drives and 2 cdrom drives so i dont think this bug has anything to do with multiple drives.
c = main hdd
f = old hard drive from my old PC with all my old crap on it lol
g = storage HDD.
d = dvd/cd drive
e = cd burner.
again hope this helps

Cheers Knoddy

[Isit]

I'm having the same problem everyone else is. For me it started the day after I installed the game playing online in the Alexandia scenario in the caesers challenge. After building a city for a while I attempted to open a trade route which crashed my game with a hidden error box. From this point on I have been unable to open trade routes in any scenarios. Prior to this I had completed the tutorial missions and up to republic three.

I have also tried the various fixes suggested in this thread, namely freeing up more space, defraging, updating video drivers, updating to SP2 and running the Microsoft online utility to clean up the registry. The registry utility allowed me to open up a trade route for the first time after running but upon exiting and restarting the game, the problem has reasserted itself.

[Yenot]

has anybody else paid attention to whether the following conditions are true for them when having trouble opening trade routes? I cannot successfully open a trade route if either of the following conditions are true

Haven't successfully fulfilled a request for goods to Rome
Have a request for goods to Rome open


I can play just fine and open as many trade routes as I want otherwise

[existenz]

Crosslink to thread containing possible solution to trade routes crashing
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10474

[Simulus Maximus]

has anybody else paid attention to whether the following conditions are true for them when having trouble opening trade routes? I cannot successfully open a trade route if either of the following conditions are true

Haven't successfully fulfilled a request for goods to Rome
Have a request for goods to Rome open


I can play just fine and open as many trade routes as I want otherwise

This is not true for me. I have been able to open a trade route and even do some trading (I forget the name of the level; it's in the tutorial campaign where you trade pottery by ship) for a while, but then the game crashes at random-seeming points.

[Arnos]

When the program finished loading a map, the game appear for a sec. then then my computer restart!! When the Windows restart i get an error message but only numbers appear! :mad: Caesar IV

[Amenirdis]

Arnos, we need more information than that. Please post your DxDiag file for starters. Thank you.

[Arnos]

Where can i get that DXDiag file?? :p

[Arnos]

ok i found DXdiag, my computer is only 1.0GHZ but the other components are better then the minimum requirements and i played other games that asked 1.5-2.0 GHZ and runned greatly. I hope it will work with 1.0GHZ :(

[Amenirdis]

Follow this wonderful step-by-step (http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=122513&postcount=1) explanation from Phil. It's even a sticky. ;)

[Turambar]

I get a crash between 10 and 20 minutess into the second mission of kingdom (not based on time playing, seems to be based on scenario time, because i always seem to be on the 'bathhouse, lumber camp, furniture factory, luxury market' time area of building my city when it crashes.) the mouse freezes, but the music continues, then after a while the screen turns black, but with the mouse still visible, and the music still playing. then i am forced to restart because nothing can exit the program

i used to get the vpu recover error, but i disabled it because i thought it might make the game run.

here's the dxdiag.

[gstommylee]

Heres mine i did have the trade routes crashing before the temp fix. heres my dxdiag.

[Arnos]

I don't know why i don't get an answer but i will write again i don't write again my problem because i writed already i have only 1.0GHZ but i think that have to be enough because i played other games who asked 2.0GHZ or better and it worked greatly. I will send again my DXdiag.

[Amenirdis]

I don't know why i don't get an answer but i will write again i don't write again my problem because i writed already i have only 1.0GHZ but i think that have to be enough because i played other games who asked 2.0GHZ or better and it worked greatly. I will send again my DXdiag.
Hey, Arnos, we have a real life going on, too, you know. ;) Most people who help here are not employees of TM.

Well, the 1 GHz is a problem. It is very well possible, that it can't handle the load of the game. Besides, you have only a bit more than the minimum of Ram, so it can't take much of the load off the CPU. Also, the 5200 is an old video card by now and is as well a bottleneck.
Turn off all background applications before starting the game. Defrag your harddrive, if you don't already do it from time to time.

[somedec]

I have experienced the crash bug on the Empire screen with regularity.

The timing is irrelevant. I encounter it randomly before the city is built, after the city is built, before the resource to be traded is available or after. But it does happen most of the time.

It definitely seems to have something do with the drawing of trade routes (the red lines). Before a trade route is established I can go the Empire map with impunity. Trying to open a trade route will often crash upon affirming my selection, when the game is trying to update the map with the new route. Once a route is in place, it then becomes nearly impossible to open the Empire map at all without an immediate crash. However, upon a very rare occassion I have been able to open the Empire map with existing trade routes and add a new route.

The graphics configuration of the game also seems to be irrelevant -- I have tried low and high game resolutions, all levels of graphical features, different versions of drivers, etc.

As you can see from my enclosed dxdiag.txt, I do have several partitions (not just C and D): a 4G partition used solely for swap, the C drive is used solely for the OS, and E is for installed applications & games.

Trying the fix suggested in another thread of setting EmpireLevel/TradeRoutePolys to false seems to have fixed the problem. It will take further playtesting to verify the results ;) I have now completed a previously impassable level by opening new trade routes. I can open the Empire screen without problems. Of course, the game results screen tells me that I cheated in large red letters due to the change in the data file.

[vaelryn]

Count me among those crashing when I tried to open a trade route (and has just a C and D drive). Nero's solution worked to fix it for me, so at least I can still play! I've uploaded my DxDiag.txt file to hopefully give you all more data to try and pull from.

[Marcus Aurelius]

I am experiencing the trade route bug, like may others it seems...

I have a C and a D drive only.

When I try to access the empire screen in order to open new trade routes, it works most of the time, although the game sometimes crashes there. When I am in the empire screen and try to create a new trade route, it crashes 95% of the time.

I tried Nero's fix by modifying the "TradeRoutePolys" parameter in the txt file, and it worked. THANKS NERO ! This way I can play the game until the guys at Tilted Mill fix the problem.

I've attached my dxdiag file.

[Koswo]

My Game Crashes on Startup.

Anyone know if there is any program conflicting with C4? I think thats my problem as Manni could'n find any other problem. Ill send you the printout of microsoft's error report and you might find anything.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<DATABASE>
<EXE NAME="CaesarIV.exe" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_PRIVACY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="binkw32.dll" SIZE="338944" CHECKSUM="0x4E4E7E04" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.5.21.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.5.21.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1.6c" FILE_DESCRIPTION="RAD Video Tools" COMPANY_NAME="RAD Game Tools, Inc." PRODUCT_NAME="Bink and Smacker" FILE_VERSION="1.6c" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright (C) 1994-2004, RAD Game Tools, Inc." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x0" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.5.21.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.5.21.0" LINK_DATE="04/05/2004 17:48:02" UPTO_LINK_DATE="04/05/2004 17:48:02" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="C4DotNetReg.exe" SIZE="16384" CHECKSUM="0xDF52D52C" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="C4DotNetReg" COMPANY_NAME="Tilted Mill" PRODUCT_NAME="C4DotNetReg" FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="C4DotNetReg.exe" INTERNAL_NAME="C4DotNetReg.exe" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright © Tilted Mill 2006" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="08/17/2006 18:00:42" UPTO_LINK_DATE="08/17/2006 18:00:42" VER_LANGUAGE="Språkoberoende [0x0]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="C4Exec.exe" SIZE="24576" CHECKSUM="0x6A5A1C47" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="C4Exec" COMPANY_NAME="Tilted Mill" PRODUCT_NAME="C4Exec" FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="C4Exec.exe" INTERNAL_NAME="C4Exec.exe" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright © Tilted Mill 2006" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="08/21/2006 12:58:11" UPTO_LINK_DATE="08/21/2006 12:58:11" VER_LANGUAGE="Språkoberoende [0x0]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="CaesarIV.exe" SIZE="11976704" CHECKSUM="0xBD0FB485" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1, 0, 0, 0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Caesar IV" COMPANY_NAME="Tilted Mill Entertainment" PRODUCT_NAME="Caesar IV" FILE_VERSION="1, 0, 0, 0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="CaesarIV.EXE" INTERNAL_NAME="Caesar IV" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© 2006 Tilted Mill Entertainment, Inc." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x816042" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="09/05/2006 00:21:54" UPTO_LINK_DATE="09/05/2006 00:21:54" VER_LANGUAGE="Engelska (USA) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="granny2.dll" SIZE="485888" CHECKSUM="0x8EBA5D7D" BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.7.0.2" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.7.0.2" PRODUCT_VERSION="2.7.0.2" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Granny" COMPANY_NAME="RAD Game Tools, Inc." PRODUCT_NAME="Granny" FILE_VERSION="2.7.0.2" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Copyright 1999-2006 by RAD Game Tools, Inc., All Rights Reserved." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x0" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="2.7.0.2" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="2.7.0.2" LINK_DATE="04/11/2006 18:49:43" UPTO_LINK_DATE="04/11/2006 18:49:43" VER_LANGUAGE="Engelska (USA) [0x409]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="Mss32.dll" SIZE="372736" CHECKSUM="0x647B014A" BIN_FILE_VERSION="3.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="3.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="6.6c" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Miles Sound System" COMPANY_NAME="RAD Game Tools, Inc." PRODUCT_NAME="Miles Sound System" FILE_VERSION="6.6c" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright (C) 1991-2004, RAD Game Tools, Inc." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x0" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="3.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="3.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="05/22/2004 22:38:42" UPTO_LINK_DATE="05/22/2004 22:38:42" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="RomeScriptInterfaces.dll" SIZE="53248" CHECKSUM="0xF58FD39E" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="RomeScriptInterfaces" COMPANY_NAME="Tilted Mill " PRODUCT_NAME="RomeScriptInterfaces" FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="RomeScriptInterfaces.dll" INTERNAL_NAME="RomeScriptInterfaces.dll" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright © Tilted Mill 2005" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="09/01/2006 15:31:14" UPTO_LINK_DATE="09/01/2006 15:31:14" VER_LANGUAGE="Språkoberoende [0x0]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="ScriptServer.dll" SIZE="24576" CHECKSUM="0x5FD0F1B3" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="ScriptServer" COMPANY_NAME="Tilted Mill " PRODUCT_NAME="ScriptServer" FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="ScriptServer.dll" INTERNAL_NAME="ScriptServer.dll" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="Copyright © Tilted Mill 2005" VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x4" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x0" LINKER_VERSION="0x0" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.0.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.0.0" LINK_DATE="09/03/2006 18:35:42" UPTO_LINK_DATE="09/03/2006 18:35:42" VER_LANGUAGE="Språkoberoende [0x0]" />
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="unicows.dll" SIZE="245408" CHECKSUM="0x643AB719" BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.4018.0" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.4018.0" PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.4018.0" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Win9x Systems (MSLU)" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 95, Windows (R) 98, and Windows (R) Millennium Operating Systems" FILE_VERSION="1.0.4018.0" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="UnicoWS.dll" INTERNAL_NAME="Godot.dll" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x1" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0x47F53" LINKER_VERSION="0x60000" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="1.0.4018.0" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="1.0.4018.0" LINK_DATE="04/21/2003 18:53:20" UPTO_LINK_DATE="04/21/2003 18:53:20" VER_LANGUAGE="Språkoberoende [0x0]" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="997888" CHECKSUM="0x182FEB99" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Klient-DLL för Windows NT BASE API" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Operativsystemet Microsoft® Windows®" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.060704-2349)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. Med ensamrätt." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF97D6" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:57:10" UPTO_LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:57:10" VER_LANGUAGE="Svenska [0x41d]" />
</EXE>
<EXE NAME="kernel32.dll" FILTER="GRABMI_FILTER_THISFILEONLY">
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll" SIZE="997888" CHECKSUM="0x182FEB99" BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" FILE_DESCRIPTION="Klient-DLL för Windows NT BASE API" COMPANY_NAME="Microsoft Corporation" PRODUCT_NAME="Operativsystemet Microsoft® Windows®" FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.060704-2349)" ORIGINAL_FILENAME="kernel32" INTERNAL_NAME="kernel32" LEGAL_COPYRIGHT="© Microsoft Corporation. Med ensamrätt." VERFILEDATEHI="0x0" VERFILEDATELO="0x0" VERFILEOS="0x40004" VERFILETYPE="0x2" MODULE_TYPE="WIN32" PE_CHECKSUM="0xF97D6" LINKER_VERSION="0x50001" UPTO_BIN_FILE_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" UPTO_BIN_PRODUCT_VERSION="5.1.2600.2945" LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:57:10" UPTO_LINK_DATE="07/05/2006 10:57:10" VER_LANGUAGE="Svenska [0x41d]" />
</EXE>
</DATABASE>


I dont mind if you dont look at this I understand you but thx for any feedback its greatly appriciated.

Thx again Manni :D

[Yoritomo0078]

The demo had the same problem for me as in the game.

The game crashes intermittently, sometimes it freezes or it comes up with an error message.

I even went to the trouble of reinstalling XP to clean up the system, but to no avail.... I know my sound drivers are a tad old but these are the only ones that are current, everything is up to date.

Ive even turned down all the graphical features but still have the same problem.

Can anyone help?

[Snakey77]

My game has been crashing but not because of trade routes( as far as I can tell)

Not sure how many missions I have done Up to Caralis.
1st crash. The game crashed back to desktop when Caesar's men came to remove me from office. ( I used the Tab to GO THERE when the box came up. Worked for about 5 seconds then crashed) I went back about 5 autosaves changed a few things and Caesar's men never came and I finished the scenario without problems. Trade Routes were open.

2nd crash. Late in scenario (the one before Caralis) The game froze twice at the same spot and I had to reboot the computer (no reset button). 1st was building a prefect house, 2nd time was building a Theatre. I was heavily in debt and out of favour with Caesar's men about to attack. It was then that I went to the forums. While there I found a gold cheat and thought i Would give it ago. I gave myself 10000 Denarii, Caesar was happy, I paid of some other attackers and low and behold the game didnt freeze and i finished the scenario. 2 trade routes open.

3rd crash. On Caralis scenario Game started game opened 2 trade routes and laid the ground work for a new town while game was paused. Unpaused game and my population grew to around 700 people. Game froze when I built a prefecture and Engineering post. Had to reboot. (edit froze again just after I snubbed the Caesar's tribute request) about 20 minute play time from last crash.


12951

Heres the gyst of my setup

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire T300
BIOS: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 311MB used, 2150MB available
irectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
Card name: YUAN RADEON 9600
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI RADEON 9600 Series AGP (0x4150)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4150&SUBSYS_415012AB&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6517 (English)

[Manni]

Hello Yoritomo0078

Your is Current Mode: 1280 x 960 (32 bit) (75Hz)

please try 1024 x 768 16bit 60Hz

I found a new sounddriver for your SB Live !

go to: http://www.zdnet.de/treiber/man_prod_ud/creative_soundkarten_ud-wc.html

and roll down half until you see ................see the screeny.......try it! :)

------------------
Another thing:

You have these Rom/DVD-drives:

HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B

AOPEN CD-RW CRW5232

ever had a look if there are fresh firmwares available? It might be a "reading-fault" or conflict with securom-reading.......

[jobu70]

Posted this to another thread but am posting the DxDiag here as asked. Manni could not find anything wrong with my system but did ask me to go from 1600x960 to 1024x768. I had defragged about 3 weeks ago.

Hope fully we can nail this bug quick.

[Keith]

Try what Vanthi just poted in the other crash thread. Check your ATI control center or Catalyst Control Panel and set all the options to "let the application decide" on those that have optional settings.

I would suggest rebooting then try the game if you made any changes to the settings.

[Manni]

You are still at 1600 x 1200 (32 bit) (75Hz)

I had defragged about 3 weeks ago.
You had better defragged C before you installed Caesar4 , no matter HOW many weeks ago you did the last.
Be always on the safe side and make sure fragmentation is out.

[reggie]

I'm also problems with the screen freezing up. Then the screen goes black and I have to restart the computer. Everything on the games works great until then. As with a few posts it seems to have to do with the amount of time played more than what is being done on the game.

[Yenot]

This is not true for me. I have been able to open a trade route and even do some trading (I forget the name of the level; it's in the tutorial campaign where you trade pottery by ship) for a while, but then the game crashes at random-seeming points.

I only crash when playing online ... all of the other senarios I can play fine out of the box. This is one weird bug

[mouse]

Reggie your video drivers need to be updated to 2006 drivers try the one's dated between January and May 2006.

[Eggbutt]

Please check mine. I only have C & D drive. This is a new computer. I don't understand why the game crashes.

Thanks A lot.

[jobu70]

So with all things good with my DxDiag file I followed the last of the advice I was given. I reduced my resolution to 1280 from 1600 and made sure my ATI Catalyst was already set to "Let application decide". I rebooted the system.

I started a new game of Syracuse. Opened three trade routes and built three trade centers in my intial city layout. I mothballed them early to prevent them from getting workers. Ships still came.

I played the game for about an hour building a decent size city of 660.

A dialog box from Rome came up asking for wheat. As soon as I moved my mouse, wammo. The game froze for 20 seconds and my system re-booted.
Same outcome, different scenario each time I crash with the exception of the dialog box (which always occurs) and possibly the city size which I think is always in the high 500's to low 600's. I may be reaching for straws here but this game is so sweet and I would like to at least get thru the first level. :o

[Manni]

Please check mine. I only have C & D drive. This is a new computer. I don't understand why the game crashes.
Thanks A lot.

Eggbutt try instead of

Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz) = 16bit and 60 Hz
-------------
You have ATI-Catalyst 6.8 running, try Cat 6.9

[thebeasle]

Game runs pretty well when I turn down all of the settings. The only crashes I get now are when I click on a land-based trading post and when it rains.

[Manni]

Right thebeasle,

you have Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6614 installed which is ATI-Catalyst 6.5 from May 06

Some others with ATI here turned down because of crashes from newer drivers to 6.5 or even 6.3 and had theirs improved afterwards.

Yours seems different, why not try Catalyst 6.9 from Septem 06 ?

[Cadfan]

I suspect I'm a bit late to this game, and I've only read the first page. Here's my dxdiag on principle.

I have the trade route bug. I have an A drive (disk drive), a C drive (hard drive) and a D drive (dvd drive).

I must admit to being somewhat skeptical as to Tilted Mill's inability to reproduce this bug, and the alleged fact that this bug was not noticed prior to release. If indeed the problem is having more than a C and D drive, I have to admit I am quite surprised that none of your test systems has a disk drive.

I suppose my opinion matters little as I do not intend to return my game, but I have a significant degree of trouble believing that anything is going on other than the release of a product with known bugs in order to meet deadline.

One clear error out of a massive, massive game may not seem like much from the perspective of those who program the game, as obviously they did an excellent job on the other 99.9% of the program. But from the perspective of the end user, it really doesn't matter if the game has one bug or one hundred. The upshot is the same.

[jobu70]

...deleting the ATI Catalyst software entirely and just leaving the driver intact? Has anyone tried this?

What is the big difference between this game and COTN(which I run beautifully) that I am having this crash I wonder.

Cadfan I hear you my brother but they will get the fix up, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[thebeasle]

I had Catalyst 6.9 when I first installed Caesar IV. The game crashes with that driver too.

[Manni]

I had Catalyst 6.9 when I first installed Caesar IV. The game crashes with that driver too.

Sorry to hear, can you attach a new dxdiag please?

[scooter]

i just installed a heavyduty VGA card cooler fan on and it solved my previous problem.

[Elamite]

its time people stopped being of suspiceous of their hard drives or defragging as a possible cause of the errors. The error is happening based on an event that happens inside the game not based on how your hard drives are operating. your hard drives are operating the same way from beginning of the game to the end. If the problem was the hard drive then the game should crash right from start not half way into the game based on a graphical change. It doesnt make any sense to me why some of you keep manipulating your drives and defragging them.

When there is a "hard" crash (computer rebooting/blue screen) the error is CPU and RAM based not hard drive based. Even when a program gets terminated it is because it violates system resources such as RAM or CPU allocation.

I dont see how this could be related to HDD or CD drives.

[vic_4]

its time people stopped being of suspiceous of their hard drives or defragging as a possible cause of the errors. The error is happening based on an event that happens inside the game not based on how your hard drives are operating. your hard drives are operating the same way from beginning of the game to the end. If the problem was the hard drive then the game should crash right from start not half way into the game based on a graphical change. It doesnt make any sense to me why some of you keep manipulating your drives and defragging them.

When there is a "hard" crash (computer rebooting/blue screen) the error is CPU and RAM based not hard drive based. Even when a program gets terminated it is because it violates system resources such as RAM or CPU allocation.

I dont see how this could be related to HDD or CD drives.
I don't know if it is pertinent, but I had hard crashes with a new hard disk, and same with another of the same kind, but not wiyh a different one from the same brand, so apparently there can be incompatibility.

[Kluelos]

There's a sweet little utility from Ashampoo called "Magic Defrag", which runs quietly in the background to constantly defrag your disks at idle moments. I've been very pleased with it.

One very large and heavy brickbat to Microsoft for not figuring out the need for this, and incorporating it into, oh, about Win95 and everything since. You know Vista won't have it either. Lots of anti-piracy crap but a background defragger? No way.

But I do have to agree that I have never had a problem playing a game, that defragging had any effect on. This may be the current support bugaboo, something pointless but time-consuming to make the customer do while you close the ticket. It used to be MSInfo until somebody finally caught on that it's a registry reader, not a file checker, and windoze makes a registry entry for every driver it ever learns about, whether or not that driver's still installed.

[Manni]

Care to try again?! While the harddrives might be working as they should, many people uninstall, install, and/or reinstall applicaitons over time. Thic CAN/WILL lead to fractured sectors so disk clean-ups and defragmenting SHOULD be a common practice. Yet, many don't and why it is and has been suggested for a LONG time. We cover ALL possibilites here and doing this HAS helped some people, so if it is not suggested some wouldn't be playing even right now. Phil

Complete agreement.

If it is senseless and unnecessary .....why has XP an onboard-defrag? :rolleyes:

[PCDania]

But I do have to agree that I have never had a problem playing a game, that defragging had any effect on. I have a couple games that starts hating me if I don't defragment my harddisk.

The more defragmented the harddisk is the slower everything goes both reading and writing files. In games that makes big saves the risk of corrupted saves are much higher if the harddisk is not defragmented frequently. I've through the years helped quite some people getting games installed or to behave simply by tell them how to do a little maintainance of their computer: Delete the contents of the Temp folders, check for virus and spyware, check the harddisk for errors and then defragment it. In some cases it has also had a positive effect having people to disable their antivirus program during installation and in some cases also having it disable while playing, this has especially worked for people using Norton. Note: When you play games online DO NOT disable your antivirus program unless you are ready to take the risk.

BTW, my experience is that it's a good idea to disable the antivirus program while installing .NET.

[Estavius Maximus]

Not only is it good to defrag frequently, it's important to defrag before installing any of these new, memory hungry, graphically spectacular games. It's also important to make sure ALL programs are NOT running during installation. Ctrl+Alt+Del (Task Manager) is the only sure way to see what programs are running in the background. There are half-a-dozen steps people can take to run games at their best, without experiencing system-caused confusion. These are best in another string, however. For the purposes of this string, though, make sure it's plugged in before you call the electrician. Don't install games if your system is in need of regular maintenance and house cleaning. Pin-pointing problems becomes almost impossible if this isn't heeded. Sure, these larger drives take thirty minutes or more to defrag, but it must be done. So do it.

Another proclivity of Windows products is a rather loose (to be nice about it) approach to handling the registry. Installing and uninstalling lots of software and games doesn't completely erase registry keys written in during an install. There are some good utilities out there that will defrag your registry - find and remove dead registry entries. This is a must when running Windows products. I suggest having nothing boot with your system, and removing all icons from the start-up folder. Some people feel it's necessary to have all this proprietary software boot with their machines...CD drive monitors...auto updates...MPEG software....It's really best to launch programs on an as needed basis, than to overwork your system from both ends, stuff running in the background while trying to fool with these very intricate game programs.

[Manni]

Not only is it good to defrag frequently, it's important to defrag before installing any of these new, memory hungry, graphically spectacular games. It's also important to make sure ALL programs are NOT running during installation. Ctrl+Alt+Del (Task Manager) is the only sure way to see what programs are running in the background. There are half-a-dozen steps people can take to run games at their best, without experiencing system-caused confusion.

One could not say it better!

20 out of 50 would not have minor trouble if they`d do it the way you describe.

Just to think of it......Installing for instance Caesar IV.....there are about1.1 GIGS rushing onto harddrive. :eek: :eek:

[Justinian X]

Is this the correct forum to post the dxdiag for review? I initially posted in another string, but reading this might be the proper one. At any rate, I have tried quite a bit of different things to stop the random game freezing w/out succes & am out of ideas & would appreciate any help please. I haven't been able to get beyond the training missions (on the 4th one currently) & it doesn't matter what action I am doing the game will be running fine for about 20 minutes before either freezing up completely requiring me to hit the power button off & on again, or it will just spontaneously restart my computer. Another strange thing is that I will even just have the game sitting on pause not even doing anything (to test if it would crash) & at about that time threshold, it craps out.

I've updated my graphics drivers, updated Windows XP to SP2, have about 38% free space, did an error check & defrag after uninstalling the game first before reinstalling it. I've tried other ideas such as shutting off autosave option & the auto-pause options. I've tried setting everything to the lowest settings & still nothing works. One such crash sent me to the Microsoft error log site to list possible fixes for the error which specifically said to uncheck the "enable write combining" box which I tried but also did not work. I haven't even gotten as far as to be able to try opening trade routes to see if they will crash the game. I even went so far as to in Task Manager, tried setting the game to a higher priority to see if that would work but no deal.

One suggestion someone made that I haven't explored completely is disabling some more of the systems background actions via task manager. Although I have disabled some of them such as the anti-spyware/anti-virus stuff I have, I'm not entirely sure what all I CAN disable safely. And what remains doesn't look to be using very much memory usage either (none more than 10,000K), so don't have too much hope that this option is going to help either.

Am I just totally hosed here & need to get a newer video card or something else? My system as it is now certainly meets all of the requirements to play the game.
Attaching dxdiag here & appreciate any help anyone can provide. Thx...

[Cadfan]

If the problem you are having is the trade route flaw, then defragging is clearly not the solution. That is clearly an error in the system. Its repairable based on instructions in the other sticky thread.

The only reason we don't have a patch is because Tilted Mill is hoping to patch other, less common bugs all at once. So, sucks for the tons of us who have the trade route bug. This is speculation, but I'm pretty certain.

[JuliaSet]

While you are waiting for a real "fix," and if you want to play the game, I have uploaded a work-around for the Empire level crashes. There are starting saves here http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10719 with trading ports opened on the first few scenarios.

If you want someone to open a trading port for you, that's the place to upload your save and request a specific trading port for opening. Someone will do that for you and you should be able to continue playing. (if it is only the Empire trade bug that is bothering you.)

This will result in a win without the "YOU CHEATED!" message.

[Cadfan]

Well, as an update, on my current level I can no longer get into the trade route screen. I successfully opened a trade route (YES! CHAMPAGNE FOR ALL!), but greedy as I was, I attempted to open a second. The second crashed my system. Now, I can no longer enter the empire level map at all. Doing so creates the same crash that failure to open a trade route creates.

This has made the scenario I am playing unwinnable. I need a certain degree of prosperity that is only possible with exotic goods. I cannot get them.

[PCDania]

@Justinian X

Try open your case and let a household fan blow into it and see if that helps.

[triker13]

Hello everyone, new to the forums.

Ceasar 4 keeps crashing on me like so many others here. I have updated as far as I can tell. Not sure what to do about the audio update. I have searched for recent driver updates, no luck. This problem of a black screen and restart after only 5-10 minutes never happens with any other high graphic requirement games I have played (Age of Empires III, Black and White 2, Fable, etc.). Any suggestions?

Thanks

[PCDania]

Might sound stupid but try open your case and let a household fan blow air into it.

[jobu70]

OK.

I uninstalled Caesar 4. Uninstalled my Catalyst 6.9 drivers. Did a thorough cleaning of the system to get rid of any residual crap. Defreagged the hard drive even tho Windows told me I did not have to.

I shut off all running applications except anti-virus and firewall.

Reinstalled Caesar 4 and set the graphics to "Best Performance".

Finally I was able to play throguh a whole game without crashes. the gfame is not as pretty anymore but at least I can click things and not have a crash. Will try to beat the level tonight and see if anything else happens.

Guess my RADEON 9550 256 just sucks.

[Manni]

I have updated as far as I can tell. Not sure what to do about the audio update. I have searched for recent driver updates, no luck.

Try this for Intel Integrated audio:

http://support.intel.com/design/motherbd/software/ias/download.htm

Don't know your Intel Desktop Board model number? Use the Board ID Tool which you will find at the bottom of the page.

Good luck!

[Marcus Aurelius]

I am experiencing the trade route bug, like may others it seems...

I have a C and a D drive only.

When I try to access the empire screen in order to open new trade routes, it works most of the time, although the game sometimes crashes there. When I am in the empire screen and try to create a new trade route, it crashes 95% of the time.

I tried Nero's fix by modifying the "TradeRoutePolys" parameter in the txt file, and it worked. THANKS NERO ! This way I can play the game until the guys at Tilted Mill fix the problem.

I've attached my dxdiag file.

OK, Since then I've upgraded my system. Here are the details:

Athlon XP 3200+ --> Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
MSI NF4 MB w/ 1Gig DDR-400 --> MSI i975x MB w/ 1Gig DDR2-800
NVidia 6600 GT 128M --> NVidia 7900 GTX 512M

I did not change the hard disk and software (of course XP updated the drivers automatically...) and I reverted back to the original NewConstants.txt parameter file. So it is basically a fresh Caesar IV install with patch 1.1. And the trade route does not crash anymore !

BTW, I'm still with a C & D drives only...

[jobu70]

...that I DID NOT install the 1.1 patch. The game was working and I wanted to play it. The hell with this troubleshooting crap :D I got two kids, one ont he way and no time.

Again I do miss those beautiful sunsets.

[Justinian X]

Might sound stupid but try open your case and let a household fan blow air into it.

Thanks for the suggestion, but no deal. Still crashing. I've even since disabled as many background programs & tried but still getting the random game freeze lock up & need to hit the power button off & on to get it unstuck.

Guess I am SOL. Any ideas about when some fix patches are coming? Anyone have any other ideas I could try?
I guess the next logical troubleshooting step I should take is to stand on my head, spin around 5 times & chant REDRUM repeatedly while gargling hot salt water.

...and I had such high hopes for this game.

[PCDania]

I've never used onboard sound so I don't know if this is possible: If possible try change the settings for Hardware acceleration for your sound. You can do it on the Sound pane in Dxdiag.

If that doesn't work try roll back your graphics driver. There's no need to try the drivers you have allready tried out. Try start with the 84.21 driver, I know it might sound a little crazy but sometimes the newest driver is not allways the best if one does not have the newest series of graphics card. Remember to uninstall the old driver before trying a new one. Also disable your antivirus software while installing a new driver.

It takes some work but I hope it's worth it.

Also try check if there are updated chipset drivers for your motherboard.

[Cadfan]

Add me to the evergrowing list of people who have editted the NewConstants.txt file.

It tells me I cheated every time I win a level, but... I don't care anymore.

[domus]

After i playing on Syracuse at 5-10 minutes.. i got it message or etc....my computer hang or reboot...please help me?????

[mouse]

If the messages are causing the crash go into game settings-interface-pause message put a tick mark by each one, click on ok,start playing.

[jeridan]

I first encountered this problem in Narbo. I have not had the crash problem I have read about in the trade screen. Mine happens with the trade depots. After placing a trade depot when I click on it to set the orders it completely freezes my system and I have to hard reboot.

Edit: I have followed the instructions for updating my video card drivers using the dhmodtool and the freeze still occurs, but instead of having to hard reboot vpurecover restarts my vidcard and i can continue to play, woohoo at least I can play!

Edit: Appears as thought the rain also triggers a freeze as well, and the vpurecover only works twice before it cannot recover in hardware mode and switches to software mode and the game doesnt seem to run in software mode.

[Denario]

My game started to crash today everytime I clicked on an exotic market or when I clicked on the orders for a warehouse. The exotic market froze the game and clicking on the orders for the warehouse closed the game. Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

dxdiag attached!

Oh, if it makes a difference, this is a scenario I made. But my other scenarios are ok.

[Rnett]

Try replaying one of your old scenarios. If they still work but the new one doesn't, then you know it's the scenario.

[Ron4Swat]

After i successfully installed the full-version the game crashed during start with the "caesar 4 has encountered a problem and has to close" - message and a debug-info similiar Keith posted at http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9553&page=4.

After some investigation (long story) i found out that my caesariv.exe was corrupted (differs "only" in some thousand bytes, same length as the correct version).

After some more investigation (another long story) i found out that after the installation of Caesar4, before the installation of DirectX is started, there is executed some sort of linking with bind.exe.

Caesar 4 delivers most (all?) of the needed libraries, but in my case one of this libraries (binkw32.dll) was already installed (under C:\Windows\system32) and bind.exe used this version instead of the delivered.

Problem: It was a older Version (productversion 1.0q, file-version 3.0.0.0). Seems it missing a symbol (message in the dos-box: BIND: _BinkDX9SurfaceType@4 entry point not found in C:\Windows\system32\binkw32.dll).

After i renamed the binkw32.dll and reinstalled Caesar4 i was able to start it (no time to play it yet, to busy with installing ...)

[Will Jennings]

My game started to crash today everytime I clicked on an exotic market or when I clicked on the orders for a warehouse. The exotic market froze the game and clicking on the orders for the warehouse closed the game. Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

dxdiag attached!

Oh, if it makes a difference, this is a scenario I made. But my other scenarios are ok.

If this crash is just in the scenario you made, it's probably because there are too many goods types available in the scenario. Try reducing the total number of goods and raw materials types to be 27 or less.

[Justinian X]

I wanted to post this in one of the Sticky forum topics to try to get it to the most people. For those of us that have been having the game freeze/lock up issues whereby resulting in needing to hit the power button off & on again to unlock, here's a possible solution to try that has helped fix my issues & have thus far allowed me to run the game w/out it freezing & locking up on me. For the record, my freeze issues have not come w/ any specific action in the game (such as opening trade routes, etc.) but at random after a time threshold of about no greater than 20 minutes or so. I have of course been trying many, many of the various suggestions in the forums to help resolve & none had worked until I tried the suggestion posted by Amenirdis (Dankeschön Amenirdis!) in this thread: http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=130926&postcount=8

You can also read the entries before & after the forum's entry #8 for further detailed info about what these changes do, specific steps how to do it, etc. To summarize what I did, after starting the game & while it is in the main menu, I alt-tab back to the Task Manager. Not only did I change the game's Affinity as per his suggestion, but I also changed the game's Priority to "High" & then toggled back into the game & started on one of my loaded games. Not sure if that second step matters one way or another, but it hasn't messed anything up & it certainly didn't hurt to do it. Besides that it will default back to the original settings once you stop & start the game up again so you'd need to do these steps each time playing.

Good luck & I hope this helps. Thanks again to Amenirdis.

[XPav]

Running on a 20" iMac (early 2006), under Bootcamp.

The "INI" hack fixed the crash exiting the trade/adviser screen, but did not fix the hang when dismissing "Rome requests" dialog boxes via Ship It or Later button.

Changing CPU affinity also did not help.

[Adrian1986]

high, for the demo, after i click begin ( to begin game) when the game starts loading, a sound beeps once and then i get, in windows, an error from the game,

i get Unable to register COM interop. Message: requested registry access is not allowed

and Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Lybrary
runtime library error
program C:\........
this application has requested the runtime to terminate it........
two pop ups

thank you

[Manni]

Hello Adrian1986

you are using ATI Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6462 from 2004 which is antique

Try it with installing ATI-driver version Catalyst 6.5 from May this year instead

Sounddriver dates from 2001, do find a newer one from here:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/softwareupdate.asp?nSUFlag=1&sDestUrl=http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/&hdAllProduct=1&LangID=1033&hdDspLangID=1033

In case you have XP on D installed which shows up as:
Drive: D:
Free Space: 0.1 GB
Total Space: 20.9 GB

there is NOT enough space for XP to swap files

(WHERE IS YOUR C-drive ???) :eek:

All 5 visible partitions show very few free space, you ought to do some cleaning or deleting unused stuff.

[mouse]

XPav the solution to the freeze related to messages is to go into game settings-interface-enable eveything under the pause messages.

[Justinian X]

I wanted to post this in one of the Sticky forum topics to try to get it to the most people. For those of us that have been having the game freeze/lock up issues whereby resulting in needing to hit the power button off & on again to unlock, here's a possible solution to try that has helped fix my issues & have thus far allowed me to run the game w/out it freezing & locking up on me. For the record, my freeze issues have not come w/ any specific action in the game (such as opening trade routes, etc.) but at random after a time threshold of about no greater than 20 minutes or so. I have of course been trying many, many of the various suggestions in the forums to help resolve & none had worked until I tried the suggestion posted by Amenirdis (Dankeschön Amenirdis!) in this thread: http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showpost.php?p=130926&postcount=8

You can also read the entries before & after the forum's entry #8 for further detailed info about what these changes do, specific steps how to do it, etc. To summarize what I did, after starting the game & while it is in the main menu, I alt-tab back to the Task Manager. Not only did I change the game's Affinity as per his suggestion, but I also changed the game's Priority to "High" & then toggled back into the game & started on one of my loaded games. Not sure if that second step matters one way or another, but it hasn't messed anything up & it certainly didn't hurt to do it. Besides that it will default back to the original settings once you stop & start the game up again so you'd need to do these steps each time playing.

Good luck & I hope this helps. Thanks again to Amenirdis.


Well the Game's run with this workaround was pretty good while it lasted & although I did get the game to run for periods of longer than an hour using the above workaround I had posted last week, the freeze/crash issues returned. Now, this would have been fine for me since I usually didn't play C4 for much longer than that anyway, except for one thing: The updates I had done updating drivers, etc. etc. began crashing my #1 game that I play the most, Battleground Europe WWII Online. Upon doing the troubleshooting, I had discovered that it was the update that I did to my Realtek AC97 sound driver - one of the many updates that was recommended to me for finding a C4 workaround - that was causing BGE to crash & then restart my computer (at least it restarted my computer - C4 only freezes it up completely). I then rolled back the AC97 sound driver to the last version I was using before & -BAM- no problems with BGE since.

During the course of my troubleshooting the BGE crash problem, I had completely uninstalled C4. I have since made the decision NOT to reinstall it & will try NO further workarounds or attempts to play it in it's current majorly bugged-out condition. Enough, as they say, is enough.

From all that I've been reading in the forums, websites, etc. I want to make a fun, yet gravely realistic prediction here: That is that there will be NO patch that will be fixing our game random freeze/lock-up issues anytime before Christmas 2006.

August 2005 was when I had first heard the news that Caesar IV was being developed. For more than 13 months the anticipation built & seemed like it couldn't come fast enough. Now, that point having been said, from this point my paragraph could go 2 directions: 1) I slam TM to oblivion for dashing my hopes & dreams for a bigger, better, badder Caesar game or 2) I put the game out of my thoughts completely & accept the fact that if I've waited for 13 months, then what's another 3 months, or 6 months, or 12 months? Frustrated as I am, I decide to choose the latter & remain optimistic, yet realistic. Hope for the best -- a patch by the end of this year -- but prepare for the worst -- a patch by the end of the Next year.

P.S. I have since started playing Children of the Nile once again so I can at least enjoy that. For anyone in the same boat as I am w/ the random freeze/crash issues that have NOT played CotN, check it out. It's actually a very solid game unto itself & will at least get you "part of the way there" to reaching something Caesar IV-esque.

salud!

[jobu70]

Same here....back to CoTN and maybe some CIV 4.

Your prediction scares me because by then who knows what will be out for PC's that will suck my time and the console wars will be in full swing

Can you say Wii?

[Washi]

Hello! I have the same problem... the game crash when I visualize the trade routes :(

Here's my DxDiag ;)

[Manni]

Hello! I have the same problem... the game crash when I visualize the trade routes :(

Here's my DxDiag ;)

Try the TRADE-ROUTE-FIX from NERO:

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10474

Apart from that try and lay off your Drive: H: Model: Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device

[mouse]

Washi you need to roll back your video drivers to drivers dated between January and May 2006. The driver you are using disables some features of older video cards.

[Pappy]

NERO's workaround worked for me. Thanks NERO!

[bullet brain]

the trade route worked a few times, just by clicking open trade at start of game. but usually it crashes.

[Manni]

Hello bullet brain

thanks for the dxdiag.

I think you have far too few free space on C

Drive: C:
Free Space: 0.6 GB
Total Space: 14.7 GB

is your virtual drive also located on C ?

In case your system Xp home is on C there is not much room for XP to swap files about (I just saw that it IS on C)

[oliversl]

This solved my problems!!!

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10474

I could not open trade routes, now its fixed.

Sierra, please include this fix in the 1.2 patch, thanks ;)

[Kiya]

This solved my problems!!!

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10474

I could not open trade routes, now its fixed.

Sierra, please include this fix in the 1.2 patch, thanks ;)

Well..... I certainly hope Sierra will not do this. Instead TM would make a totally new fix that not only fixes this one but does not make a new 'abnormality'. If I understood right this 'fix' does make you able to open trade routes, but also it states 'you cheated' in your win screen. Thus not giving you the right for online playing.

[Adrian1986]

hi i have the same problem as i had before, my game never worked ,

high, for the demo, after i click begin ( to begin game) when the game starts loading, a sound beeps once and then i get, in windows, an error from the game,

i get Unable to register COM interop. Message: requested registry access is not allowed

and Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Lybrary
runtime library error
program C:\........
this application has requested the runtime to terminate it........
two pop ups

these popups popped up and right after i opened the game, the game never made it, to get further in the game i launch C4DotNetReg.exe and then i can get in the game - as far as the main menu

thank you

[Manni]

Hello Adrian1986

Phil Walker is right...............your sounddriver demands updating!

You have a SB Live! Wave Device card/onboardsound and driver from 2001

look here for newer a driver:

http://www.creative.com/language.asp?sDestUrl=/support/downloads

there you choose your country first and then carry on.......... :)

You still have few free room on your partitions.........

[undelete]

Yes we tested it. VUG tested it. Other people tested it as well.

I think that time will will show that besides a very small percent of people, the product is very bug free- particularly in comparison with similarly complex Strategy Games.

.....

Jeff



WoooHooo!! I'm in the "small percentage of people"!!!! :D I got *almost* all existing crashes! (except the rain one, it rains just fine :p )
I wish I had that one too!:mad:

I got the traderoute bug. (even though it doesn' *always* crash-sometimes if I remove the displayed tags from cities works).

I have narrator issues in the "tutorial", it either stops speaking in the middle of a sentence (with audio to "performance") or crashes when changes hint. I even repetetly crash on the first tutorial when entering the city again when first talking to the councils (I got past that with playing around -too- much with everything in options..)

I have the warehouse "orders" crash, not always though.

And I have lockups-crashes or the game crashing with something might told on the screen as an error message, but when I press ESC I return to windows with no message (IF I am lucky and I don't need resetting..)
I am a pc user and gamer from 1994.. It's a long time and this is the first time this ever happened.Hell---I played betas more stable :p
I really love this game and got ALL the series of CB games (Favourite::)Pharaoh:) )

Please do your magic and I'll checking around for a 1.2 patch (maybe it should be "2.0" patch :rolleyes:)

PS. Tell Sierra/VU I want a 3D Pharaoh 2 with lots of different of Monuments! (I'm pretty sure a lot of ppl are!)
PS2. My drives go up to L:\ :D (with removable media)
I'll try just C:\ and D:\ and the "3G virtual memory" trick today..
If I don't get working around I 'll make a DxDiag to post.

Greeting from Greece and thanx for reading my "nagging"! :cool:

[lightdark]

I used Nero's temp fix for the trade routes locking up. But there is one more lock up. When raiders come in, I pause the game and tell my fighters where to go--then it locks up in pause mode.

My main wish is that this game would crash, not just lockup. I would like that fixed :-)

DXDiad attached

[undelete]

---UPDATE----
The Traderoute Fix Worked for me.
The 1GB RAM + 3 Gigabytes Virtual Memory made Caesar IV crash less often,and I think a crash-lockup is more certain when I have a lot of menus
displaying eg. Overlays+building menu,and clicking on build roads button with that open crashes me.
I get a "game exeption" on the taskbar but I can not read what it says as I get a desktop stuck with what I was seeing in C4 when it crashed,I will incluse a snapshot in the future.
And It's not a "after sometimes crashes", but can happen even under 2minutes time after playing the game.

Happy gaming to everyone!

[Liantasse]

I am now into the second stage of Kingdom, and my game freezes after less than 5 min of playing :(

[Liantasse]

Hello, Phil! Thank you for responding. As I am quite illiterate with computers, please could you let me know if I understood you correctly? Should I uninstall my current Catalyst driver and replace it with version 5.4 (which is an older one)?

[Adrian1986]

hi
i have the demo version for caesar IV
as i click the application file for the game, caesarIV.exe or whatever its name is i get two errors and the game doesn't load.
i left screenshots with the errors maybe that helps
also i have updated drivers and done other things that could possibly help, as they were said previously in this this forum
thanks bye

[Idios]

Also have the trade routes error...

Greetings from Idios

[Adrian1986]

hi, after previous replies posted and after fixing stuff up with my computer to make caesar IV work, it still doesn't work


this time i have uploaded a screenshot (it is the first screenshot) of where exactly the game stops working and goes on to crash, and i have uploaded screenshots for the errors i get. they are pretty much the same errors i reported before in my previous replies.

u can see in the previous posts what else i have problems with, nothing is fixed

also, i have done what u said will work and it still doesn't work

i have also tried different settings for graphics and sound and i get the same result

also if i don't run the file RegisterDLL.bat before opening the game the i just get an error mesage as the one in the second screenshot

hope u can help me to make it work

thanks

[jayokearney]

Folks,

A bit f help needed - am seasoned at strat games - have recently deflected from Mierers Cic to Caesar and am really loving the game. Got it 4 weeks ago - and for first 2 weeks no probs.
Suddenly after just 10 mins play games crashes (have C, d, e, drives) but it occurs when I bring out the military to defend - PC completely shuts off and restarts - only message before hand is that 'monitor is going to sleep' have changed game setting but to no avail.

PC is literally out of the box and exceeds all required specs.

Can anyone help pl

Jay

[Manni]

they are pretty much the same errors i reported before in my previous replies.
also, i have done what u said will work and it still doesn't work

That is no surprise! You have NOT done what you were asked to do: GET RID OF THAT ALCOHOL!


i have also tried different settings for graphics and sound and i get the same result
No you haven`t!
You are still running in Current Mode: 1152 x 864 (32 bit) (75Hz) !!
No sound update. Sounddriver is from 7/19/2002

No chance this will work. Just Memory: 512MB RAM available, wrong video-driver, no room left on any of the partititions.....and where is C by the way?

[Adrian1986]

hi thanks mann and phil for answering
hi, i completely took out the alcohol program even out of the registry, there were remains after i took it out the first time, yes i have tried different video and audio settings
i uploaded the most updated file dxdiag

and more to say when i click begin (to start the game in C IV) i get a beep and then it stops, then a few seconds later music starts playing

i have two different windows installations on my computer and i couldn't use the c when I set up the computer, in the beginning and i am gonna free space on the other partitions

hope to hear more,
thanks

[Adrian1986]

hi what about the screenshot that i attached it says it cannot write in the registry.

btw i have f as a boot partition, if it's best to have c as boot partition for this game, then i will log on to my second installation of windows and install the game there

[Adrian1986]

aiii, ok thx for all the help man

[jayokearney]

Phil ,

Thanks for getting back to me...so quickly and no worries for being blunt - all advice appreciated. Will go to your stick thread and will get back to you.


Cheers

Jay


Welcome! You'll have to excuse me for being so blunt, but "out of the box" means nothing. Many new PCs are not setup properly to begin with, so we need your DxDiag file to see what might be wrong. If you didn't notice, there are step by step insturctions of how to provide it in the opening post of my Sticky thread. Only after we have that file, can we advise. My Best!

Sincerely,
Phil

[sherrill11]

I am having crashing issues due to trade routes, rain, and just about everything else. Below is my DxDiag, please help!

[Governer Silius Cirilius]

After fixing the trade route problems, I played the game online for a month with no real problems. The other day I played the regular game and saved tier 2, now the game crashes my computer frequently for no apparant reason. This happens online and in regular game. It does not seem to matter the size of a city or the speed of the game.

[sherrill11]

I anyone really working on this, or should I just forget about playing? I crash constantly. I am on the Empire Scenarios now, and after about 5 minutes of game play I crash and have to hard boot my system. I am attaching my dxdiag & msconfig files. Have a Merry Christmas.
~Sherrill

[Manni]

Hello sherrill11

You have installed the driver Catalyst 6.9 for your Video-Card ASUS Extreme AX300SE/T

The 6.9 is unsuitable for that card.
It has been experienced that an older driver works a lot better.

Therefore do download the Catalyst driver 5.4 from here:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1031

or if you`d like it together with ATI-Control Center from here:

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1032

When download is finished do UNISTALL the present driver from the "Installed Programs-List" , the present Control-Center too if installed.

Reboot the machine and forget about the helping-window from the system but find the downloaded Catalyst 5.4 and install it please.

Reboot and install thereafter the 5.4 Control-Center.

Give a wink if it worked alright! :)

[mncoeltj]

I am yet another who experiences trade route crashes. Attached is my dxdiag.


Thanks in advance....

Michelle:)

[Manni]

See here please:

http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10474

[Manni]

In any case..............Phil is right, they are antique.

Look here for fresh sounders for your Creative SB Live!:

http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/ once there you choose Sound Blaster....then LIVE!....and LIVE! again

You can even use the SoundBlaster LIVE UPDATE here:

http://www.soundblaster.com/language.asp?sDestUrl=/support/downloads/su.asp

[Fintara]

When I start the game and see all the menu's to start a game, everything seems right, but then I try to start the beginning tutorial. A couple seconds go by when the game starts, I see a road, but then the computer restarts without any warning at all, it happens every single time within 5 seconds starting.

[Kiya]

Hello and welcome Fintara :)

Not so good news for you. Your PC doesn't seem to meet the requirements. Your processor is only Intel Celeron ~1.1GHz, when Intel Pentium IV (or equivalent AMD Athlon) 1.6 GHz is the minimum. Celeron is not even Pentium IV, it's kinda 'light' model.

Then it is your graphic card. It is able to run the game, but it's just about above the line. It has the newest and very bad drivers I'm afraid. But changing those won't help you I think because of your processor.

[mouse]

Note about Creative Live series sound cards they are very old cards and there are no new drivers for them. Creative cards by default except for maybe the very newest model install game ports and firewire drivers those drivers do not impact on C4.
No sound card is connected to the hard drive if it's connected to other than the motherboard it would be connected to cd/dvd drive.