20-02-2002 18:42									#1
	Crash Test Dummy--Suggestions Plz Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

I'm looking for some input on the subject of improving this game's stability on my PC. I've been hoping that the patches would help, but things haven't gotten any better for me.

As a general rule, when playing on a standard sized map, about the most I can hope for is about 90 minutes of game time before I get an error message that "Civilization III has caused an error in civilization.exe" and the game crashes on me, leaving my computer in a funky state, with no choice but to reboot. Occasionally, I'll get a total lockup.

Trying to play on larger maps is a crapshoot. Playing on huge maps is a futile exercise, as crashes come early and often, as do total lockups.

This behavior has been consistent from day 1. The patches have neither helped nor exacerbated the problem.

My PC exceeds the recommended specs for the game by a healthy margin. It's a Celeron processor, 667Mhz, with 192Mb of RAM, 3D graphics card, gigabytes of empty HD space. Running Windows ME. Windows updates are current. Not state of the art, but not exactly an antique either.

The Civ line of games has never been a model of stability, but this is the first time that I've had frequent crashing that persisted beyond the first couple of patching attempts. My supposition at this point is that Firaxis has done all they are going to do in the area of stability, and that I'll be having to address the problem from my end. If anyone can provide suggestions, or point me to an old thread that might help, I'd appreciate it.

	20-02-2002 23:09									#2
	Re: Crash Test Dummy--Suggestions Plz Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by Analyst Redux I'm looking for some input on the subject of improving this game's stability on my PC. I've been hoping that the patches would help, but things haven't gotten any better for me. As a general rule, when playing on a standard sized map, about the most I can hope for is about 90 minutes of game time before I get an error message that "Civilization III has caused an error in civilization.exe" and the game crashes on me, leaving my computer in a funky state, with no choice but to reboot. Occasionally, I'll get a total lockup. Trying to play on larger maps is a crapshoot. Playing on huge maps is a futile exercise, as crashes come early and often, as do total lockups. This behavior has been consistent from day 1. The patches have neither helped nor exacerbated the problem. My PC exceeds the recommended specs for the game by a healthy margin. It's a Celeron processor, 667Mhz, with 192Mb of RAM, 3D graphics card, gigabytes of empty HD space. Running Windows ME. Windows updates are current. Not state of the art, but not exactly an antique either. The Civ line of games has never been a model of stability, but this is the first time that I've had frequent crashing that persisted beyond the first couple of patching attempts. My supposition at this point is that Firaxis has done all they are going to do in the area of stability, and that I'll be having to address the problem from my end. If anyone can provide suggestions, or point me to an old thread that might help, I'd appreciate it.

Someone mentioned about a compatibilty setting you can check, I'm guessing in the .exe properties dialog, that can be set to Windows 98 compatibility. It seems that both ME and XP has some issues with the game unfortunately. Sorry if I'm being vaque, but it runs just fine on my 98 system.

	20-02-2002 23:22									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Analyst

well out of the box civ3 was pretty stable but when i started making changes it would start chasing often, however when i reinstalled it that seemed to help alot

also here is a question for you, which version of directX are you using? i'm using 8.0A under windows 98 with no problems, but i have a friend who has windows 2k, and windows ME and he says that directX 8.1 makes his system unstable when playing games

hmmmm other than that i recommend doing a member search for a guy named speed bump, he's the new QA manager at firaxis and he might be able to help you more

	21-02-2002 20:07									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Korn, the only mods I've made to Civ III have been to apply the patches, so that isn't it. As I said, the patches have neither improved the situation, nor made it worse. I'm using whatever version of Direct X that came with the game. (Been a while since I bought a new game, which is the only occasion for wanting to ugrade those drivers, generally). I was on 7.0 before the game installed.

Willem, thanks for the suggestion. I'll check out the properties on the .exe program to see if there is anything to be gained by tinkering with it.