Endless CTDs

[Loney 22]

SC4 had constantly crashed, around 30 minutes to two hours after I load a city. The CTDs started when I installed SC4 Deluxe Edition onto my new laptop. I also installed my region, plugins, and pictures that were on my old laptop. I already had all of the patches for the game.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Processor: Intel i7 Q720 quad core, 1.60 GHz per core.

RAM: 4GB

Graphic card: ATi Mobility Radeon 5730

The crashes often occur when I move around in the city map or zoom in/out. I used the arrow keys and mouse to move around in the map (both resulted in crashes) and used the mouse's scroll wheel and the zoom in/out arrow in the game (both resulted in crashes).

Plus, the music would occasionally stutter, and sometime it would stutter just before the crash.

I checked the amount of RAM I had while SC4 running, at most my computer was using around 2.2 GB of RAM.

[joshriddle 29]

Read at the top:

 Before you post about a bug or crashing issue, read this!

There you should find help.

[Loney 22]

I tried running SC4 in Window XP SP3 and SP2 compatibility mode. None of them stopped the game from crashing again.

[joshriddle 29]

The game has many bugs in it, and sadly one of them are CTDs. It will never be fixed. But here is a good long list of what you can try.

1. Apply the Maxis patches, all the way to build 640
2. Defrag and clean your hard drive (example)
3. Run the game in compatibility or as an administrator
4. Create a shortcut to the SC4 Executable and put this in the target control under properties: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c START "high priority sc4" /high "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -intro:off
5. Check for viruses or trojans
6. Make sure your copy of the game is legal
7. Never mess with critical SC4 files unless modding

[psander5 198]

...And if all that doesn't eradicate your CTD's  there's a trick to zooming that I use myself.  It's not an ideal way to play the game, but if you scroll right off the map - head to the top right of the screen - until you can's see much or any of the land then zoom to the level you require and scroll back into the play area.  I started doing this after I was suffering a chronic problem with CTD's when zooming, and since then It rarely happens.  You just have to be careful.  

Like I said, it's not a solution, but it might make playing a bit more bearable.  Don't forget to save often too.  

Also, set your computer's affinity to use one processor to play SimCity.  The game's not good with multiple core processors.  I only started doing this a few weeks ago, but I haven't had a single random CTD since.    

[joshriddle 29]

Or just use the zoom in zoom out buttons on the mayor panel.

[Loney 22]

Originally posted by: joshriddle

The game has many bugs in it, and sadly one of them are CTDs. It will never be fixed. But here is a good long list of what you can try.

1. Apply the Maxis patches, all the way to build 640
2. Defrag and clean your hard drive (example)
3. Run the game in compatibility or as an administrator
4. Create a shortcut to the SC4 Executable and put this in the target control under properties: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c START "high priority sc4" /high "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -introff
5. Check for viruses or trojans
6. Make sure your copy of the game is legal
7. Never mess with critical SC4 files unless modding

quote>

1. Applied all of the patches already.

2.

Exception time: 07/14/2010, at 20:29:05.

Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Current thread ID: 3116 (0x00000c2c).

Version information:

Application/module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe

Application/module version name: SimCity 4

Application/module version: 1.1.640.0

System version: Windows NT 6.1

System memory: 4020 Megabytes total, 1464 Megabytes free.

3. Tried that

4. Tried that

5. It is legal

6. I haven't modified SC4.

Originally posted by: joshriddle

Or just use the zoom in zoom out buttons on the mayor panel.

quote>

That also induced CTDs.

[dietercl 5]

set your processor affinity to using only 1 core. it did the trick for me.

[joshriddle 29]

Yes, set affinity to one core, and also, it seems you are really in a fix. And what was that exception report for? This wasn't apparently related to Windows Disk Defragmenter. Defraging is the best thing to do.

[Loney 22]

Originally posted by: joshriddle

Yes, set affinity to one core, and also, it seems you are really in a fix. And what was that exception report for? This wasn't apparently related to Windows Disk Defragmenter. Defraging is the best thing to do.

quote>

I already ran defragging, no help. I wasn't sure if the Build 640 you were referring to was in the exception report.

I am going to try running SC4 on one core.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You are ok at build 640 according to your exception report.  If you still have problems after setting the affinity to 1 processor, try marking the executable to run with XP or Win'98 compatibility.  With '98 you don't need to worry about whether it is 32 or 64 bit.

[Loney 22]

I ran SC4 on XP SP3 and SP2 compatibility mode, both resulted in occasional crashes when I zoom in/out.

I then tried running it in...

-Window 2000: Resulted in a BSOD twice in a row upon loading the region. O_o?

-Window 98: SC4's splash screen popped up, but it did not start. I checked the task manager, it did not list SC4 in its screen in the "Applications", "Processes", or "Services" tab.

-Window 95: SC4 refused to start, not even displaying the splash screen.

I ran it on Window XP SP3 and proceeded to set it on one core. I don't think SC4 crashed over a span of a hour of frequent zooming in and out, but the time simulator's and region/city loading lag had gotten worse. So worse that my +4 years old laptop could outperform my current laptop.

I think I am stuck between three choices, run SC4 in Window XP compatibility mode with all cores, run it with one core without any zooming related crashes but with worsen lag, or run SC4 on my old laptop.