Laptop hard crashes / resets when invading a planet

from GalCiv2 Forums
Got a major bug that showed up with the new invasion screen. Most of the time when invading a planet after clicking the attack button the screen on my laptop flashes blue with green lines running through it then the system resets, frequently involving a chckdsk scan. After booting back up I get a message saying Windows recovered from a major problem. Those few times when this does not happen immediately on hitting the attack button after the invasion is over it happens when trying to bring up another menu such as shipyard, colony screen, etc.

Basically planetary invasion kills my laptop instead of the enemy.

This is still present in the latest (96b.001) version.

I have a Compaq Presario laptop with AMD Turion64 processor and an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card running Windows XP.

Any other info I can give or send somewhere?
2,496 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Please open your debug.err file in notepad, and copy/paste the contents into a post here. This will give us some technical information that can help troubleshoot your problem. The location you'll find the debug.err in varies depending on your game version:

Twilight of the Arnor:
My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor

Be sure to copy the debug immediately after the error occurs; if you start the game again, the debug will be erased and recreated for the new session.




Just offhand though, a BSOD or crash-reboot generally indicates a hardware or driver fault. If you were able to run Dread Lords without this problem, then the first thing to try would be to disable enhanced rendering and mixed VP in the game's options. Given your video chipset it possibly won't be able to handle it properly (perhaps catastrophically so).
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Updating to the latest drivers seems to have corrected the problem, I'm playing through a new game now to make sure. I suspect the VPU recover option in the Catalyst Control Centre is helping, or even responsible. Still, its at least a clue to a possible problem with the new invasion screen - never had any problem like that in any version before it was added. Since its not happening anymore and I've been playing I don't have Debug file from right after a crash, sorry. Here's the top of the latest one, it at least gives info on the laptops hardware.

Debug Message: Version v1.80g Twilight of the Arnor beta 4b last updated on: Mon Jan 21 18:01:22 2008
Debug Message: Checking DX Version.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 1/28/2008, 19:40:17
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: YOUR-4105E587B6
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_qfe.070227-2300)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: Presario V5000 (EP426UA#ABL)
BIOS: Ver 1.00PARTTBL
Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-32, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz
Physical Memory: 894MB RAM
Page File: 302MB used, 1864MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: ATI MOBILITY RADEON XPRESS 200
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: ATI Radeon Xpress Series (0x5955)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5955&SUBSYS_30AE103C&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic Television
Monitor Max Resolution: 640,480
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6764
Driver Date: 12/20/2007 22:08:18
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Conexant AMC Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4370&SUBSYS_30AE103C&REV_02
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: camc6aud.sys
Provider: Conexant
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.0595
Driver Date: 8/2/2005 04:58:00
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If updating your drivers sorted it, then it's a fair bet that it was simply outdated or buggy drivers at fault :)