Crash, Crash and Crash.

[djbill]

When I play the Caesar 4 v1.1, after at least 30 minutes the games freeze the video, but the music continuing to run. After one minute the screen become black and I’ve turn off my pc with reset button. When the pc restart, Windows say it restored from a serious error. Any solution?

[mouse]

You need to roll back your video drivers to a driver dated between January 2006 and May 2006. The drivers your using for your video card don't seem to work for most Ati card users.

[djbill]

from readme file...

SUPPORTED VIDEO CARD CHIPSETS WITH LATEST DRIVER VERSION INFO:

ATI(R)

All cards supported by Catalyst(TM) Drivers (Windows(R) 2000/XP): v6.8

----------------------------------------

I've the the latest version of Catalyst: v6.9

[djbill]

I've segnalated this problem to ATI Driver Feedback Crew. Maybe will be resolve in the 6.10 or 6.11 version...

[Turambar]

When I play the Caesar 4 v1.1, after at least 30 minutes the games freeze the video, but the music continuing to run. After one minute the screen become black and I’ve turn off my pc with reset button. When the pc restart, Windows say it restored from a serious error. Any solution?


yours works for 30 minutes!?! no fair :(

mine lasts about 15...

[mouse]

It sounds very much like your video card is overheating the black screen is usually a sign of this problem. To test for this problem open the side of the case and use a small household fan to blow into the case. If it solves the problem then card overheating is the problem.

[djbill]

Wht is it the "overheating"? Sorry but I don't know english very well :(

[Amenirdis]

'overheating of the video card' è quando ta carta di grafico(?) surriscalda (= è troppo caldo).
Mi scusa, ma non parlo italiano molto bene. :o I hope you understood what I tried to say.

[djbill]

Don't worry. Your italian is better than my english.

[djbill]

It sounds very much like your video card is overheating the black screen is usually a sign of this problem. To test for this problem open the side of the case and use a small household fan to blow into the case. If it solves the problem then card overheating is the problem.

But I've played the demo version for two hours without problem...

[mouse]

Sorry my Italian doesn't exist but your English is just fine:D
The demo was not the newest code and the map was very small so did not work the video card as hard.

[Calamity]

C4 wont cause your GFX card to overheat. Overheating is usually caused by overclocking, power surges, and just high tempatures do to the cooling fans not performing as well, or just your room temp is way too high. It does not make your screen turn black, when a card overheats artifacts start to show up on the monitor. A game wont ever overheat a card...low FPS and lag will most likely be a result of poor performance.

[djbill]

C4 wont cause your GFX card to overheat. Overheating is usually caused by overclocking, power surges, and just high tempatures do to the cooling fans not performing as well, or just your room temp is way too high.

I Haven't overclock my card and I haven't a fan (passive cooling).

[mouse]

Calamity sorry to disagree with you but I know form experience that an overheating video card will produce a black screen in some applications.

[djbill]

This is a chart after 15 minutes of gameplay.

Grey = CPU Core
Green = Ambient
Red = GPU Core

[djbill]

I reach this temperature with another game like as Need for Speed Most Wanted, Unreal Tournament 2004, ecc. But I never view a black screen. So it's a problem of C4 Graphic Engine...

[djbill]

Any solution?

[djbill]

Where is the technical support?

[Will Jennings]

Where is the technical support?

Hi, Djbill,

Sierra's technical support doesn't monitor these forums -- if you need a prompt official response, you should call the number in your manual. But I can tell you that we're looking into a general instability problem with x600 cards. The symptoms sound a bit different from what you're describing (the most common symptom is an ordinary crash or freeze), and what you've described in your first post is typical of a hardware issue (Caesar IV can work the graphics card quite hard (and uses it in a very different way than first-person games do, so it can expose hardware problems that aren't visible in other games) and with poor cooling or adverse environmental conditions, you may get problems like yours from overheating -- but from the charts you show, that doesn't look to be your problem).

I don't have a solution for your problem. It may be the same issue other folks with x600's are experiencing, which we're looking into.

[Matt9537]

yes same as me...i got an x600 and my game does freeze, crash and it get black screens and my monitor turns it self off....

[Jornie]

Same here for the X800XT PT using 6.5 driver. Black screens & severe graphics corruption. Only two games in my collection have this issue (THQ's Company of Heroes and C4.

The ATI site does suggest large triangles indicates overheating - but then again the older drivers were alway slowing down GPU cycles due to overheating. The newer drivers seemed to fix those issues.

I'm currently testing out some ATI solutions. See http://www.ati.com/online/customercare/solutions/gamesrevised.html