Crashing City Tile

[Shortsonfire79 1]

So as of last night, the main city that I play in has started crashing virtually right after it loads.

I'd suspect its my computer, but the computer is brand new (about 1 month old) so it couldn't be that. I turned down all the graphics to low, and turned off clouds, waves, and UI translucency, (which make the game quite terrible to look at) and it still crashes.

I've tried loading a new region, and importing the city, and it still happens. So its just that single city tile.

I wouldn't blame it on downloaded content, as I've been playing SC4 for about a week without problems now.

Its the biggest city I've ever made (pop just over 100k) and I'd really appreciate not having to delete it/start over. And the city itself isn't 'good' enough for me to just let it go on its own.

If you need any other information, I'd be happy to provide it, though if you need comp specs, you'll have to point me to where I can find them, I'm playing on a PC, though my regular computer is a Mac, so I'm not that well versed in Win7 operations anymore.

Thanks for the help, if you can provide any.

[jacksunny 741]

When your city loads, can you see the city before it crashes or does it crash while it shows the loading screen?

To help you, we will need to see the first 20 lines only of your latest exception report.

You also mentioned that plugins are not the problem as you have been playing a week now without any problems. During this time did you install anything new? If so try removing it and seeing if your city loads.

[Shortsonfire79 1]

Okay, seeing as my post was moved to the bugs section, I read the pinned thread here. So I'll be trying to update this post as best as possible ASAP. Unfortunately, that thread is from 2005, so the link that has solutions to crashing doesn't lead anywhere.

Still don't know the specs of my computer, I'll try to figure out how to get that soon though.

I'm running SC4 deluxe, with NAM, and a whole bunch of other plugins. (no more than 20) Like I said before, I've been playing for a week, where the first day I installed all the plugins/mods/bats that I wanted, and since then, SC4 has been running smoothly. I haven't installed anything new (yet) and seeing as this crashing thing is a problem, I may not at all.

When your city loads, can you see the city before it crashes or does it crash while it shows the loading screen?

To help you, we will need to see the first 20 lines only of your latest exception report.

You also mentioned that plugins are not the problem as you have been playing a week now without any problems. During this time did you install anything new? If so try removing it and seeing if your city loads.

When my city loads, I get about 3-5 seconds of gameplay, before the screen blacks out, and brings me to my desktop. This actually started happening on my second city too, but I got about a half hour of (unsaved) gameplay in.

Where would I be able to get this exception report?

I assume plugins are not the problem, but later today, I will remove them all and see if that helps. (hopefully it doesn't screw up my game though. XD)

[jacksunny 741]

When my city loads, I get about 3-5 seconds of gameplay, before the screen blacks out, and brings me to my desktop.

This may sound like a strange question, but what speed is your game running in when you enter that particular city? A while ago someone had a problem where their game crashed at the same date no matter what they did. Try putting your game on pause right when you enter. IF you still have the problem then you can rule that out.

Where would I be able to get this exception report?

In you Simcity folder in my documents, there should be a folder called "Exception Reports". Post the first 20 lines of the latest one.

I assume plugins are not the problem, but later today, I will remove them all and see if that helps. (hopefully it doesn't screw up my game though. XD)

Did you try loading the city again when you did that? If so what happened? And it won't mess up your game as long as you don't save.

And can you also go into command prompt and type dxdiag. A window should pop up displaying some info about your system. Post a screenshot of that window.

[Shortsonfire79 1]

Thanks Jacksunny. When I load the city, it now lasts for about 2 seconds, and the city is in play mode, but nothing is clickable at the moment...

I moved all the plugins to a separate folder, and all there was was a popup that said that there were two files missing or something, I couldn't read it quick enough.

Heres the exception report:

[code]Exception time: 07/19/2011, at 12:13:09. Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION. Current thread ID: 4696 (0x00001258). 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: 1.1.610.0 System version: Windows NT 6.1 System memory: 4096 Megabytes total, 4096 Megabytes free. Exception module: C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe. Exception address: 0x0050bb50. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00104b50. Registers EAX: 00000000 EBX: 00000000 ECX: 00000000 EDX: 0018f8b8 ESI: 0af4e4f4 EDI: 00000000 CS:EIP: 0023:0050bb50[/code]

and here is the dxdiag thing.

On a side note, I imported the region to my macbook pro, where I also have sc4 deluxe installed, and the other city tiles work fine, where this city causes my game to crash. I think its just because something got screwed up with the city tile, possibly a faulty save or something...

[jacksunny 741]

Try this:

Right Click your Simcity shortcut on the desktop and select properties. Under the shortcut tab there should be a text box beside something that says "target". Leave the text that is currently there, but at the end add -CPUCount:1 . Make sure there is a space between what is originally there and this new text.

This might fix it, but the city is probably corrupted.

[Shortsonfire79 1]

It didn't work. Oh well, thanks for everything. Should I leave the CPUCount:1 there, or remove it?

Thanks Jacksunny.

[Gringamuyloca 47]

Heres the exception report:

Exception time: 07/19/2011, at 12:13:09.

Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Current thread ID: 4696 (0x00001258).

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: 1.1.610.0 this needs to be at least 1.1.640

System version: Windows NT 6.1

System memory: 4096 Megabytes total, 4096 Megabytes free.

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

Exception address: 0x0050bb50. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00104b50.

Registers

EAX: 00000000

EBX: 00000000

ECX: 00000000

EDX: 0018f8b8

ESI: 0af4e4f4

EDI: 00000000

CS:EIP: 0023:0050bb50

...

You might want to check out Beebs' For the Eager, Yet Overwhelmed Newcomer for information and links.

[jacksunny 741]

Yes, probably should have mentioned that. The update you need is the nightlighting update. It allows custom content to have lighting in game. It won't solve the crashing, but is an essential component.

[CaptCity 4,868]

Since the version number is 610, the EP1 update is needed for version 638 before the nightlight patch. It's available through the post Gringamuyloca mentioned. I would update the game before calling the city "finished" or going on a plugin hunt...

As for the crashes, you say you did not add or take out any plugins before the crashes started, but did you plop anything new into city - specifically any custom seaports or airports.

[Shortsonfire79 1]

Oh, didn't know this was still going.

I have nightlight, actually. I stay on day time, but I have it for sure.

I read that overwhelmed thing before I started downloading all the plugins and stuff, it was a great thread!

I don't understand why updating it now would affect it. It worked for a week before now, without the update you mention.

I don't recall adding any new ploppables. I know I have a power station that looks like a giant pink flower (its quite common, I've seen it around). And I recently (a day or two before the crash) added a car-pedestrian ferry, which is standard in the game. I have the two first airports, both stock.

What I DID recently add though, was the convention center. The standard one. That was the last thing that I added.

I've also come to realize I can't delete the city tile. Well, I can. Since I can't load the city, I can't use the detonator thing to blow up the city. So I would have to delete the city from the region view, which would leave a black city spot. Then I would have to import a blank city tile from another reloaded region.

I'm just going to leave it like that.... I think.

Thank you gentlemen.

[jacksunny 741]

You should try the update anyway. You never know...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You should try the update anyway. You never know...

Check the version number of your game. The dump says Deluxe, no updates.

[Shortsonfire79 1]

Alright, updated my game, ran the game, and still, it crashed the same tile.

[code]Exception time: 07/22/2011, at 06:13:58. Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION. Current thread ID: 3648 (0x00000e40). 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: 1.1.638.0 System version: Windows NT 6.1 System memory: 4096 Megabytes total, 4096 Megabytes free. Exception module: C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe. Exception address: 0x0050bd60. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00104d60. Registers EAX: 00000000 EBX: 00000000 ECX: 00000000 EDX: 0018fc5c ESI: 0c913874 EDI: 00000000 CS:EIP: 0023:0050bd60[/code]

It didn't quite get to 1.640 though, I got it from SC4 devotion

Thanks gentlemen.

  Edited July 22, 2011 by Shortsonfire79  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Alright, updated my game, ran the game, and still, it crashed the same tile.

Exception time: 07/22/2011, at 06:13:58.

Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Current thread ID: 3648 (0x00000e40).

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: 1.1.638.0

System version: Windows NT 6.1

System memory: 4096 Megabytes total, 4096 Megabytes free.

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

Exception address: 0x0050bd60. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00104d60.

Registers

EAX: 00000000

EBX: 00000000

ECX: 00000000

EDX: 0018fc5c

ESI: 0c913874

EDI: 00000000

CS:EIP: 0023:0050bd60[/code]

It didn't quite get to 1.640 though, I got it from SC4 devotion

Thanks gentlemen.

Hmmm. Let's see. Yes, you have successfully updated to EP1 on Windows 7. The anomaly I see in this dump is that the program is not occupying any memory.

Truly strange, if you actually have a dump of empty memory, which does not appear to be the case. But if your memory is empty, that means that the start address set up by the program loader is null (zero). The way a program starts is the start address is set up and then the system transfers to it. This causes a page fault, which should load the page. But if this is zero, you get what you got. But the dump routine is part of the program, so here is a mystery.

Now, your system has more real memory than this program can ever use. It is a 32-bit program which can never use more than 4GB of real, but if it needs to, it can swap areas out to the virtual space (swap file) in need. Maybe this is a GPU problem. Please check your GPU controls and make sure that any and all options are set so that they will be enabled only if requested by the program that is being loaded. This legacy program doesn't understand any GPU options that have come into existence since it was written.

Failing this, please try this test:

Rename your Plugins folder to Plugins.old and start the game. See if you can then open this tile, ignoring brown boxes and missing plugin messages. If it opens successfully, you have a bad combination of plugins, which is entirely possible.

If you use the day/night cycle in the game and have any BAT-created lots, you will need the BATupdate (to 640) to have night lights on these lots.

  Edited July 22, 2011 by A Nonny Moose