SC4 Time stop

[Realibrad 0]

Ive got a P4, 2gigs of ram, 1550 Radeon pci (not pcie), Windows xp.

Im trying to run a large city but for some reason, after a short time, the days stop. I can scroll and the sound still works. The cpu is at 100% and i cant figure out why. I know the P4 is old, but it should be alble to run SC4 right? I am runing the game in software mode, and all the settings are on low. I can play any of the cities that are medium or small, but the large one just stops. It will be runing fine, then they just stop. Its almost like the game is file swaping. Do the large cities really eat up that much of the cpu?

[KingTitan 6]

a Graphics issue.....what u say is they are running fine..yet, the time stops...interesting...but it seems to me it is still working.....

[Realibrad 0]

Correct. However, the game does slow down if i have the settings on high, but i just figure its because of how slow the graphics card is. Its like all the underlying proesses are just too much for the cpu. But this is an older game, so I would figure that a P4@ 3.06 would be fast enough right? Ive shut down all the processes in windows that i can, my virus scanner is off. The second I start the game, the cpu shoots up tho 100% usage.

[KingTitan 6]

What is your memory at?

[Realibrad 0]

not sure what you mean by that so im just going to give you all that i know about my memory. ive got 2 1gig sticks of pc3200 ddr2 240pin ram. ive increased my virtual ram in an attempt to help this problem and right now its 3 times what i have in physical ram.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Since you are running software rendering, it is not surprising that your cpu is pinned at 100%.  Mine pins at 100% (2GHz Athlon 2400+) with hardware rendering.  That simulator runs several tasks at the same time, and just keeps going, and going, and going, and ...

[Realibrad 0]

So you are saying that there isint anything i can do. If i were to put it into hardware mode, would that help? It just sucks because i built this huge city, and i cant even run it.