My game crashes to desktop frequently with no warning

[crazyhore132 0]

 At any given moment it will just quit straight away with no warning. I dont know what more else to say but ill give my system specs:

Windows 7

3GB Memory

AMD Turon II Dual core moblie M500 2.2GHz

64bit operating system

Thanks in advance.

[DCMetro34 576]

Well, we need some more info. When does it crash, and what are you doing?

[DocRorlach 25]

You might want to try the solution detailed in this Omnibus article. In order to determine if this is really for you, take the following steps:

1) start the game until a region is loaded.

2) Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to start the Task Manager

3) Switch to the Processes tab and sind simcity 4.exe

4) right-click on it and set Affinity to a single CPU (usually CPU0)

5) right-click on it again and set Priority to Real TIme.

6) close the Task Manager and return to play.

If the crashes stop altogether, or at least will happen only once or twice a day, the solution outline in that tutorial is for you.

You can also download a PDF version of it from the SC4 Tools site.

[crazyhore132 0]

DocRorlach, I follow your instructions till I get to (5) when I get the message 'unable to set Real Time. The priority was set to high instead' Any idea whats happening?

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

Originally posted by: crazyhore132

DocRorlach, I follow your instructions till I get to (5) when I get the message 'unable to set Real Time. The priority was set to high instead' Any idea whats happening?quote>

If that is happening to you then it is becsue you dont have sufficent privlages on your user acconut.

Or to put in in Mircosofts terms:

Creating realtime priority threads requires a privilege (SeIncreaseBasePriorityPrivilege) so it can only be done by administrative users.

High should work just fine for you, The Affinty in the last step is the most important and prevents most of the crashes. That link above shows how to enable Real Time, buit its really not nessary, High is a great alternitive.

[DocRorlach 25]

It may be that Win7 has different restrictions on "Real Time" than Vista. "High" should be good enough, though. BTW: are you using any of the compatibility options (need to be set on the EXE itself). I think - but am not sure - that checking the "Run as Administrator" may influence your ability to set the priority.

Nota Bene: Microsoft's unfortunate naming convention for users has lead to a lot of frustrated confusion. Everyone who installs Vista or Win7 is included in the group of administrators. However, the system user called Administrator is actually a kind of Super-Admin, the rights of which go far beyond those of the standard Administrator Group. While the user/owner of the installation's "Administrator" is a somewhat lesser Admin. Just try and stop the Task Scheduler service as a logged in user - you cannot, whereas the system's Administrator can.

[crazyhore132 0]

I set SC4 to run as an administrator. Now whenever loading up my computer asks me if it is ok for SC4 to access the hard drive. However the game still quits like before

[DocRorlach 25]

Even with priority and affinity changed? If that is the case there are only two options left: your graphics card settings, or a download (mod or plugin) is giving you grief.

Graphics card: apart from the obvious, i.e., latest drivers specific to Win7-64bit, most cards do have settings specific for games. nVidia, for example, lists the most common shooters or RPG's or whatever they are called and can set itself up for these. However, it does allow for adding games, and in doing so shows what it actually does when the game is loaded (Anti-Aliasing, transparency, multi-display set-up, etc.).

Setting these first to the minimum requirements and then experimenting with the settings may help.

Additionally, SC4 has several graphic options that will affect performance. There's full list of command line switches that can be added to the shortcut - you can find it under Other Tutorials in SC4 Devotion.

Finally there is the plugins folder: to see if that causes the problem, remove all custom plugins from My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins and play the game "naked". If it is still crashing, your plugins are safe; if it stops its untimely exodus, you need to bring back plugins in small batches, testing after each group has been added if the crash returns. Tedious, but necessary.

You might want to let folks know the make & model of your graphics card; others with the same card may have a solution.