Arrrgghhh!!!!!!!

from Stardock Forums
Getting very frustrated. Updated to 1.02.049 last week using Stardock Central and now the game constantly crashes my computer. Ran fine before the update. Downloaded SmartException, the crash prevents it from logging anything. Happens irregardless of Autosave settings. Music keeps playing but system is froze - have to hold down the power button to reboot. Running Windows XP on a Pentium 4 w/ 256 MB of RAM - O/S and all drivers are up to date. Every copy of debug.err I have seen has ASSERT errors when running MEMMAN.CPP.

Have posted 4 separate times to the forum and have sent e-mails to [email protected] and [email protected] and have not even received an acknowledgement of the problem.

Is there somewhere else I should be contacting for technical support?

I played the game for 2 weeks and LOVED it. No way I can go back to CivIII now, but am at a loss for how to fix this.

ANY help would be appreciated!

Thanks
953 views 26 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Have you tried a complete reinstall? Just starting with something obvious.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Yup. Both from the original download zip, the CD and tried updating using Stardock and the stand-alone patch. No matter what I do, the problem occurs after the software has been running for about 5 minutes. Behaves like galciv.exe is overwriting memory it shouldn't be and crashing XP.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Next obvious question: Any other progs running in the background?

(I feel your pain not be able to play, even if I'm being of no real help!)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I am having a similar experience; the game never crashed until the 1.02.049 update, and now it crashes constantly.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Is it random? Or in a particular spot?

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh, big favor: Do you happen to have a Sound Blaster Live sound card?

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I have onboard sound on my motherboard, I beleive it is audigy 97.

The game crashes every time I try to load a game when it is running (as opposed to when I first start it) I also had a crash just after a computer team (yor?) completed aphrodisiacs.

If you tell me where I can find the logfile I will generate a smart exception report.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I have three threads running on this topic so I will restrict myself to this one as best I can.

I have a dual boot 98/XP machine with the game installed under both operating systems.

XP has no sound drivers installed so I don't think it is a sound problem.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Yea, if you can find the log file, you shoudl have a button that will open up the logfile directory.

The file is called galciv.cra

If I get that, I can find out where/why it crashed.

So you're saying it crashed while saving a game? So like with the auto save?

~SDC~
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok I found the .cra file (I diddn't realize it was created in the root directory). When I open it with smart exception the box is blank. I opened it with wordpad and this is what I got:

Stardock SmartException Logging Information
-------------------------------------------

OS Version : Windows XP
Video Card : RADEON 9700 PRO
Application Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Crash Addr: 005A73D9 01:001A63D9 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe

Processor Registers (x86):
EAX:00000267
EBX:00000000
ECX:00D46190
EDX:0A411C78
ESI:00004800
EDI:00000267
CS:EIP:001B:005A73D9
SS:ESP:0023:00127B6C EBP:00127CD0
DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:003B GS:0000
Flags:00010246


Current Application Call Stack:

Addr Frame Logical addr Module Name
---------------------------------------------
005A73D9 00127CD0 0001:001A63D9 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
004F8F1C 0012F7E4 0001:000F7F1C D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0049CCA1 0012FBFC 0001:0009BCA1 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0049F072 0012FC44 0001:0009E072 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0049E7F6 0012FC60 0001:0009D7F6 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
00550AE6 0012FC7C 0001:0014FAE6 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
00550D69 0012FC98 0001:0014FD69 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0054CD1D 0012FCC4 0001:0014BD1D D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0056F014 0012FCF8 0001:0016E014 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
77D43A68 0012FD24 0001:00002A68 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D43B37 0012FD8C 0001:00002B37 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D45B40 0012FDBC 0001:00004B40 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D45F87 0012FDDC 0001:00004F87 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
7377DF68 0012FE08 0001:0001CF68 C:\WINDOWS\System32\DDRAW.dll
77D43A68 0012FE34 0001:00002A68 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D43B37 0012FE9C 0001:00002B37 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D43D91 0012FEFC 0001:00002D91 C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
77D4438C 0012FF34 0001:0000338C C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
005A89CA 0012FFC0 0001:001A79CA D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
77E814C7 0012FFF0 0001:000204C7 C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll


Debug information for each stardock app follows ....



It seems like this is the problem:

Application Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Crash Addr: 005A73D9 01:001A63D9
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
It crashes at random points in the game. After I reboot, I can restart at the last saved point, it runs a while, and then locks up. It is an XP laptop with no sound card. There are no other applications running.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
I have a new reproducible bug. this one appears to be caused by a UP event. I can see the name of the logfile in smart exception but clicking submit report doesn't seem to do anything. Here is the wordpad version:

Stardock SmartException Logging Information
-------------------------------------------

OS Version : Windows XP
Video Card : RADEON 9700 PRO
Application Exception code: C0000094 INT_DIVIDE_BY_ZERO
Crash Addr: 004B804F 01:000B704F D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe

Processor Registers (x86):
EAX:00007FC3
EBX:7FFDF000
ECX:0A411C78
EDX:00000000
ESI:00000000
EDI:00FF000B
CS:EIP:001B:004B804F
SS:ESP:0023:0012FC20 EBP:0012FEEC
DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:003B GS:0000
Flags:00010246


Current Application Call Stack:

Addr Frame Logical addr Module Name
---------------------------------------------
004B804F 0012FEEC 0001:000B704F D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
00525448 0012FEFC 0001:00124448 D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0050BBDA 0012FF0C 0001:0010ABDA D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
0056E5DE 0012FF34 0001:0016D5DE D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
005A89CA 0012FFC0 0001:001A79CA D:\GAMES\GALCIV\galciv.exe
77E814C7 0012FFF0 0001:000204C7 C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll


Debug information for each stardock app follows ....

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
also include the last part of the debugg.err file with your report. and they might want you to send your saved games to them.

rich
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
You know, I'm wondering, are you guys installing third party mods by chance?
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Omni, looked at your bug - do you have any .upissues? That crash was caused by it not finding any UP issues.

I hate to say it but it looks like something about your install is hosed. :(
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, I installed almost everything in the library. Maybe that is the problem. I guess I will try a clean install.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
At least one of the posted mods will break your game if you don't fix it (can't recall which one right now).

~SDC~
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
I have not installed any of the mods.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I've had a few crashes myself that seem possibly connected with sound; it hasn't been so frequent that I've worried about it too much, but it did give me a little pause.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
Aldar, did you install the bonus pack from stardock? I just reinstalled an reupgraded to .049 and the problems have gone away. Thankfully the total file was only 4.8 meg instead of 86, so it only took about 15 minutes for the whole procedure.

Maybe you should give it a try.
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Is there a problem with Sound blaster live cards working with Gal Civ Frogboy?? I get a crash with an illegal operation every so often with Ndetect and eax listed in details. Figured it was perhaps Norton or sound card. Its fairly rare and usualy just puts the game down to the desktop where I can bring it back up.
Great game BTW...been playing the heck out of it!
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Stumbled into the 'zone of working software' last night. Plugged my USB mouse in and Gal Civ ran perfectly (until 2am - where does the time go????). My laptop has a Synaptics PS2 Port Touchpad - that seems to be part of the crashing problem.