Constant Crashing

Text from the debug.err file
-----------------------------------------------

Debug Message: Version v1.0X.1 last updated on: Mon Mar 6 13:57:14 2006
Debug Message: Could not find a TGN Serial No.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 3/11/2006, 01:27:40
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: DESKTOP
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp.050928-1517)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: )Phoenix - Award WorkstationBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Physical Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 207MB used, 3731MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip Type: GeForce 7800 GTX
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0091&SUBSYS_02C210DE&REV_A1
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Dell 2405FPW (Digital)
Monitor Max Resolution: 1920,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.8198
Driver Date: 12/10/2005 03:06:00
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Realtek AC97 Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0059&SUBSYS_CB8410DE&REV_A2
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: ALCXWDM.SYS
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.6030
Driver Date: 2/17/2006 17:15:34
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0



Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 60
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 32 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: RGB in format 6:6:6, Masks reported as ff0000:ff00:ff
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 369e99
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: initailizing bink
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.
Debug Message: Clear data definitions.
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\brad\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\*.StarSystems
*DEBUG ERROR: ***Unable to find required tech ImpossibleTech for PirateShip. ***
*DEBUG ERROR: ***Unable to find required tech ImpossibleTech for Starbase. ***
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\brad\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.shipclass
Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\brad\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\ships\*.shipcfg
Debug Message: Reading Star Names
Debug Message: Reading Star Names... Done
Debug Message: CustomRaceWnd: Cannot find OBJID CustomRace_Description_Text
Debug Message: CustomRaceWnd: Cannot find OBJID CustomRace_Tab_Homeworld
Debug Message: Creating Galaxy
Debug Message: Set galaxy size.
Debug Message: Killing threads.
Debug Message: Kiling civs.
Debug Message: Killing ships.
Debug Message: Killing rallypoints.
Debug Message: Killing misc objects.
Debug Message: Killing stars.
Debug Message: Killing anomalies.
Debug Message: Killing space resources.
Debug Message: Killing colonies and planets.
Debug Message: killing scenario.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Creating Random Map
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Stars
Debug Message: Number of Unplaced Stars: 6.
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Planets
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Anomalies
Debug Message: Num Anomalies: 34
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Resources
Debug Message: Creating Random Map... Done
Debug Message: Creating Civs
Debug Message: Terran Alliance: Intellence -> 30
Debug Message: Altarian Republic: Intellence -> 30
Debug Message: Arcean Empire: Intellence -> 30
Debug Message: Torian Confederation: Intellence -> 30
Debug Message: Creating Civs... Done
Debug Message: Updating ZOC.
Debug Message: Updating ZOC.
Debug Message: Galaxy Create... Done
Debug Message: UIBeginGame called with g_ulLocalPlayerID = 1
Debug Message: setting size 16 x 0
Debug Message: setting size 16 x 0
Debug Message: setting size 16 x 0

BSOD definetly sounds more like a Hardware error than software bug. I have had plenty of CTD with CG2 but updating drivers , game and setting virtual memory to 2g fixed it for me.

I suggest you run memtest Link, let it go around 500-800% and see if any errors pop up, if do its your memory at faul most likely.

Is your system stable at other games or is it just GC2 that keeps on crashing.

ps. I read from forums that Nvidias drivers have somekinda dual-core problem in them.

interesting

Debug Message: No files found matching mask C:\Documents and Settings\brad\My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2\*.StarSystems

Are you Brad too? or is this an optimisation for Frogboy?

I had the game crash a lot on me, although not as severe, and I thought it was a hardware problem. But other games worked fine. It could be a driver issue as a lot of things usually are, you just have to keep up to date with that. But I solved my problem simply by turning the software mouse cusor off by going to the 'video options' menu in the game and selecting 'hardware mouse cursor'. Just thought I'd mention that. Oh and dual core CPU's do have some issues thats for sure.

I almost the same debug.err file whenever i try to load a game...

I had a very similar issue on my Nvidia 6600GT SLI system. Game would start running, and I would get some flickering on the screen, and then it would go black and reboot. I was running the 81.98 driver like you are. I actually downloaded the latest Beta driver from Nvidia (84.20 at the moment), and I've not had the issue at all since that.

Here is the link to my description of what I was seeing:

https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=162&AID=106695

I don't know if you are willing to try a beta driver from NVidia or not, but I was desperate and it seemed to help. I'm currently not running in SLI mode, but I'm going to try that out later.

Q. You guys are not trying to load a saved game up from before a patch update are you? If so .... dont as it will cause a CTD. If you have implimented a patch update then start a fresh game, do not reload an old one. This has, as far as i can remember, been the rule of thumb on GC1 & 2 upgrades.

May be wrong on this but try and see. If its your first game and it is still crashing please be patient help is on its way

Thanks for the ideas everyone. But no luck. Still hanging and causing BSODs in the Nvidia driver (nv4_disp.dll) soon after getting to the initial tech screen. Have other people managed to get the game working on an AMD system with a GeForge 7800 GTX graphics card?

sam0t : I mentioned in the original post that I have run many other modern games w/o problems. I tried a few of those again last night to make sure nothing changed. They all work fine. Also I can run Prime95 Torture Test for many hours with no problems as well as the MemTest86 built into my BIOS. I'd guess this is a bug in Nvidia's drivers that GalCiv2 triggers on my system that other games manage to avoid.

Aeek : I am also Brad

Mumblesh: I tried hardware cursor but that didn't help. I'll fiddle with some of the other video settings. I have the latest drivers for everything.

Teufelbrau: I tried the beta Nvidia drivers. Unfortunately no help.

Darth Griffin: I don't even have a saved game to load. Have not even been able to start my first game

BSOD is a definite hardware.  No software product should be able to cause a BSOD as they run at ring 3.

There's something unhappy hardware wise.

BSOD is a definite hardware. No software product should be able to cause a BSOD as they run at ring 3.

With all due respect, that is not correct. Kernel mode (ring 0) drivers can cause BSOD without any hardware problems. No user mode software should be able to cause a crash directly, but when they call drivers that have bugs they can cause a crash. I am actually the author of another Indy game and during development found a sure fire way to crash Windows with a certain ATI driver version through DX calls.

Given the large number of modern games that I have played on this system, I am fairly confident this problem is a bug in a graphics driver that GalCiv2 triggers. Maybe even specific to an overall hardware setup like mine. But I'm pretty sure it is not bad hardware.

Is there a debug build or some way I can run the game with trace logging enabled? Might be informative to know what happens just before the crash.

With all due respect, that is not correct. Kernel mode (ring 0) drivers can cause BSOD without any hardware problems. No user mode software should be able to cause a crash directly, but when they call drivers that have bugs they can cause a crash. I am actually the author of another Indy game and during development found a sure fire way to crash Windows with a certain ATI driver version through DX calls. Given the large number of modern games that I have played on this system, I am fairly confident this problem is a bug in a graphics driver that GalCiv2 triggers. Maybe even specific to an overall hardware setup like mine. But I'm pretty sure it is not bad hardware.

You are correct.  It is either a bad driver or bad hardware.  But user mode software should not be able to cause a BSOD.

Is there anything I can do to help you figure out what GalCiv2 is doing that runs into this driver/hardware bug? There is probably a workaround since other games are fine. It wouldn't be Windows if there weren't lots of potholes to avoid

The good news is that this is very easy to repro, so it might be easy to find and fix.

In my own game the issue was an incorrect use of a DX surface that caused the system crash. Probably never tested by ATI since the game wasn't following the rules. I totally agree that this should not have caused a blue screen, but it can happen.