Continuing Crashes

[likk9922 1]

Hey everyone, first of all I think this is a great forum and I'd really appreciate a little advice.

I have had Sim City for many years and put it on my new Windows 7 computer some time ago.

When I first installed it, I experienced the well-documented frequent crashes on my machine.

I have been using the fix for at least six months now (changing the target to this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -EH:off -CPUPriority:high).

I was working fine until a couple of weeks ago. I have quite an expansive city going, with at least 10 city tiles and a regional population of ~2 million (just starting work on the suburbs). It started being unable to hold up for more than an hour or so, and now it will barely even let me begin to fill in a new tile.

I hate to abandon the city I have been working for months on as a result of technical issues.

Any tips?

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

Once your population gets into the millions, the game tends to be unstable on the average computer. Especially if you have a fair amount of plugins.

If the crashes are only ocurring in this particular city, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do but save a lot.

[chimeran 208]

I installed this on my computer (Win7 Pro 64bit) and have had zero problems. The next day, I installed a copy for my girlfriend and she's had all sorts of problems. I've been looking around for answers and I think I've come up with a few.

1) A lot of people have said that they have problems with ATI video cards. I have NVidia. If you have an ATI card, be sure to turn off as many background processes as possible before starting the game (as mentioned above). If there's any video program running (youtube, vlc, itunes, etc), definitely close them.

2) Lower some of the video display settings in the game. Shadow rendering sucks up a lot of CPU power, and if you can only stand lowering 1 setting, this is it.

3) Command lines are your friend. Even more so if you run a multi-core processor. Here's a couple you should use, or at least know for reference:

-CPUCount:1 (For multicores, forces the game to a singlecore. Eliminates problems for many)

-intro:off (Turns off the intro movie)

-rXXXxYYYxBB (sets custom resolution, given by Width x Height x Color Depth 16 or 32. Great for widescreen displays)

-CustomResolution:enabled (Must be used with the previous switch to work proper)

-W (Forces windowed mode, for easier application switching)

-CPUPriority:low (Lower priority helps when running windowed, not as necessary when running full screen)

These are all added to the end of the Target Field wherever you're shortcut is. Right click the shortcut, then add those to the end of the Target. For example, I have a multicore cpu and a strange resolution, so mine now looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -f -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1732x1289x32

After installing on my Windows 7 64-bit machine, I did find my Sim City 4 Rush Hour from the Sim City Box did crash often.

I reduced my crashes from 95% of the time to about 2% of the time by the following:

1) Create a desktop shortcut to Sim City 4

2) Right-click on the shortcut and click on Properties

3) Click the Compatibility tab

3a) Check the box "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows 2000"

3b) Make sure the first two settings (Run in 256 colors, Run in 640x480...) are not checked

3c) Make sure the last three settings (Disable visual themes, composition, etc.) are checked

3d) Check "Run this program as an administrator"

4) Click the Shortcut tab and click the Advanced button and check "Run as Administrator"

5) Click Ok on the Advanced dialog

6) Click Ok on the Shortcut properties

these were culled from the web so see if any of this will help. i had to do a complete re-install to deal w/my CTD problem myself and i see that you have your cpu priority high, try low instead

[likk9922 1]

Once your population gets into the millions, the game tends to be unstable on the average computer. Especially if you have a fair amount of plugins.

If the crashes are only ocurring in this particular city, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do but save a lot.

Ah, so if I've installed a bunch of buildings and NAM, that could be contributing to the instability?

Chimeran, your first quote is what I have now. I'll try out the second one's advice too.

[chimeran 208]

Ah, so if I've installed a bunch of buildings and NAM, that could be contributing to the instability?

Chimeran, your first quote is what I have now. I'll try out the second one's advice too.

i don't think NAM in itself causes instability but the Hotfix should address any problems and the more plugins you have it can cause the game to become unstable. at least what i've read so far.

[Traveller 28]

I too had a problem with persistent crashing until recently. What fixed it for me, was I completely stripped out my plug-in folder and re-introduced them singly or in small batches, and went through each one to insure it was the latest version possible. Youd be suprised how many lots get updated and the old ones dont get removed on stex. This makes it easy for older, possibly buggy lots to remain in your plug in folder. I used cleanitol as much as possible as well. Lastly, I made sure Sc4 was running in single core mode. Between all that, my crashes practically disappeared. I suspect it was probably the plug-in over-haul that did it, but im sure the rest of fixes helped too. Previous to this, crashes were frequent and frustrating. Now, my region 5million+and over a dozen towns cites is pretty much error free.

[z1 566]

Neither the NAM nor large cities inherently make the game any more crash-prone. I have both NAM and large cities on Windows 7, with my cities around 2 million, and my game never crashes. Nor is it necessary to use any compatibility modes; I have found that Windows 7 is the most stable platform I have ever used for SC4. Instead, I think Traveller's advice is the best here. Also, your "-CPUPriority:high" switch is definitely not needed; it may be causing problems. Standard priority works fine.

Finally, additional plugins in and of themselves don't cause problems. I myself have a plugins folder over 4 GB. It's which plugins you have that determine whether or not you have problems. In tracking down plugin problems, you might find it helpful to read

[chimeran 208]

I too had a problem with persistent crashing until recently. What fixed it for me, was I completely stripped out my plug-in folder and re-introduced them singly or in small batches, and went through each one to insure it was the latest version possible. Youd be suprised how many lots get updated and the old ones dont get removed on stex. This makes it easy for older, possibly buggy lots to remain in your plug in folder. I used cleanitol as much as possible as well. Lastly, I made sure Sc4 was running in single core mode. Between all that, my crashes practically disappeared. I suspect it was probably the plug-in over-haul that did it, but im sure the rest of fixes helped too. Previous to this, crashes were frequent and frustrating. Now, my region 5million+and over a dozen towns cites is pretty much error free.

while i don't have any huge regions myself i did a total re-install and put everything back and like Traveller i used Cleanitol when installing to take out redundant files and prevent conflicts

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

Neither the NAM nor large cities inherently make the game any more crash-prone. I have both NAM and large cities on Windows 7, with my cities around 2 million, and my game never crashes. Nor is it necessary to use any compatibility modes; I have found that Windows 7 is the most stable platform I have ever used for SC4. Instead, I think Traveller's advice is the best here. Also, your "-CPUPriority:high" switch is definitely not needed; it may be causing problems. Standard priority works fine.

Finally, additional plugins in and of themselves don't cause problems. I myself have a plugins folder over 4 GB. It's which plugins you have that determine whether or not you have problems. In tracking down plugin problems, you might find it helpful to read

Right, but I'm willing to bet you have a computer with an Intel i7, a 10000 RPM hard drive, 8 GB of RAM, and a nice video card. I'm running on an i3 with a pretty low-end hard drive, 2 gigs of memory and only the machine's built-in graphics hardware, and I can tell you there is definitely a correspondence between population and SC4 performance/stability.

If our friend Likk has low specs like me, I would say this issue is unavoidable.

[chimeran 208]

this is my rig and i still get lag b/c of the video card

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

Other OS Description Not Available

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Name xxxx

System Manufacturer TOSHIBA

System Model Satellite P775

System Type x64-based PC

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date TOSHIBA 1.80, 12/14/2011

SMBIOS Version 2.6

Windows Directory C:\windows

System Directory C:\windows\system32

Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Locale United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"

User Name xxxxx

Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB

Total Physical Memory 5.91 GB

Available Physical Memory 3.44 GB

Total Virtual Memory 104 GB

Available Virtual Memory 101 GB

Page File Space 97.7 GB

Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Name Intel® HD Graphics Family

PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_FC001179&REV_09\3&11583659&0&10

Adapter Type Intel® HD Graphics Family, Intel Corporation compatible

Adapter Description Intel® HD Graphics Family

Adapter RAM (1,323,991,040) bytes

Installed Drivers igdumd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igd10umd64.dll,igdumdx32,igd10umd32,igd10umd32

Driver Version 8.15.10.2430

INF File oem2.inf (iSNBM0_C0 section)

Color Planes Not Available

Color Table Entries 4294967296

Resolution 1600 x 900 x 60 hertz

Bits/Pixel 32

Memory Address 0xF7800000-0xF7BFFFFF

Memory Address 0xE0000000-0xEFFFFFFF

I/O Port 0x0000F000-0x0000F03F

IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967286

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF

Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\igdkmd64.sys (x.xx.xx.xxxx, 11.66 MB (12,231,584 bytes), 6/27/2011 12:55 PM)

Drive C:

Description Local Fixed Disk

Compressed No

File System NTFS

Size 682.10 GB (732,397,826,048 bytes)

Free Space 271.21 GB (291,205,218,304 bytes)

Volume Name xxxxxxxxx

Volume Serial Number xxxxxxxxxxx

Drive D:

Description Removable Disk

Drive E:

Description CD-ROM Disc

Drive Q:

Description Local Fixed Disk

Compressed Not Available

File System Not Available

Size Not Available

Free Space Not Available

Volume Name Not Available

Volume Serial Number Not Available

  Edited August 12, 2012 by chimeran  

[Traveller 28]

Neither the NAM nor large cities inherently make the game any more crash-prone. I have both NAM and large cities on Windows 7, with my cities around 2 million, and my game never crashes. Nor is it necessary to use any compatibility modes; I have found that Windows 7 is the most stable platform I have ever used for SC4. Instead, I think Traveller's advice is the best here. Also, your "-CPUPriority:high" switch is definitely not needed; it may be causing problems. Standard priority works fine.

Finally, additional plugins in and of themselves don't cause problems. I myself have a plugins folder over 4 GB. It's which plugins you have that determine whether or not you have problems. In tracking down plugin problems, you might find it helpful to read

Right, but I'm willing to bet you have a computer with an Intel i7, a 10000 RPM hard drive, 8 GB of RAM, and a nice video card. I'm running on an i3 with a pretty low-end hard drive, 2 gigs of memory and only the machine's built-in graphics hardware, and I can tell you there is definitely a correspondence between population and SC4 performance/stability.

If our friend Likk has low specs like me, I would say this issue is unavoidable.

Im sorry, but the issue IS avoidable. I know this, because I fixed my own problems, and very recently too, which is why I posted what I did. My 'high-end' system was crashing SC4 constantly, yet I overcame that, and I certainly didnt run out and by an I7 or an overpriced SSD drive to do it. Yes, it is possible to overtax SC4, but you should know enough to recognize that for what it is. If SC4 is overtaxing your PC, then your likely crashing in most every other 3d title on your system as well. Anyone is capable of dialling down the video settings to mitigate that problem. No, in most cases, crashes in SC4 come from conflicting plug-ins, incomplete patching, and also probably high on the list, trying to run SC4 on dual core system, for which an easy fix exists. Its takes time and patience to fix crashes in SC4, and its not always easy, but simply saying LOW END SYSTEM, -CANT FIX, is hardly sound advice.

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

-snip-

Im sorry, but the issue IS avoidable. I know this, because I fixed my own problems, and very recently too, which is why I posted what I did. My 'high-end' system was crashing SC4 constantly, yet I overcame that, and I certainly didnt run out and by an I7 or an overpriced SSD drive to do it. Yes, it is possible to overtax SC4, but you should know enough to recognize that for what it is. If SC4 is overtaxing your PC, then your likely crashing in most every other 3d title on your system as well. Anyone is capable of dialling down the video settings to mitigate that problem. No, in most cases, crashes in SC4 come from conflicting plug-ins, incomplete patching, and also probably high on the list, trying to run SC4 on dual core system, for which an easy fix exists. Its takes time and patience to fix crashes in SC4, and its not always easy, but simply saying LOW END SYSTEM, -CANT FIX, is hardly sound advice.

Yes, I have trouble running lots of games. All I can say is SC4 consistently gets unstable for me when my cites get into the high hundreds of thousands. It never crashes for me in smaller cities. I had the same problem before I discovered custom content. But the original topic poster's case, I've discovered you're right, because of this piece of info I missed:

It started being unable to hold up for more than an hour or so, and now it will barely even let me begin to fill in a new tile.

That's plugins at work, not crappy computers. It must be something you've recently downloaded Likk.

[chimeran 208]

Im sorry, but the issue IS avoidable. I know this, because I fixed my own problems, and very recently too, which is why I posted what I did. My 'high-end' system was crashing SC4 constantly, yet I overcame that, and I certainly didnt run out and by an I7 or an overpriced SSD drive to do it. Yes, it is possible to overtax SC4, but you should know enough to recognize that for what it is. If SC4 is overtaxing your PC, then your likely crashing in most every other 3d title on your system as well. Anyone is capable of dialling down the video settings to mitigate that problem. No, in most cases, crashes in SC4 come from conflicting plug-ins, incomplete patching, and also probably high on the list, trying to run SC4 on dual core system, for which an easy fix exists. Its takes time and patience to fix crashes in SC4, and its not always easy, but simply saying LOW END SYSTEM, -CANT FIX, is hardly sound advice.

not to burst your bubble but the lower the system the greater the odds of system crashes. yes, SC4 is an old game that works better on older systems b/c of compatibility and using a single core vs. dual cores or higher. i have UT2K3 on my rig now and it's blinding fast on it's highest settings but back in 2003 when it came out it brought the highest end system to it's knees on it's highest settings. vanilla SC4 will run just fine on a low end system but once you start adding extra components (plugins) the risk of system crashes rises exponentially due in part that the game was never meant to be used in such a fashion. you could never run SC4 w/3 gigs of plugins on a 2001 computer w/o system crashes b/c of the hardware limitations involved. and that's even putting the plugins in correctly w/o conflicts. if you don't believe me, rig a PS1 to try and play a PS3 game. will never happen even if you got over the programming languages barrier b/c it's the hardware that makes the system.

[chimeran 208]

Hey everyone, first of all I think this is a great forum and I'd really appreciate a little advice.

I have had Sim City for many years and put it on my new Windows 7 computer some time ago.

When I first installed it, I experienced the well-documented frequent crashes on my machine.

I have been using the fix for at least six months now (changing the target to this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -EH:off -CPUPriority:high).

I was working fine until a couple of weeks ago. I have quite an expansive city going, with at least 10 city tiles and a regional population of ~2 million (just starting work on the suburbs). It started being unable to hold up for more than an hour or so, and now it will barely even let me begin to fill in a new tile.

I hate to abandon the city I have been working for months on as a result of technical issues.

Any tips?

to tackle the issue at hand i don't think it's a plugin per se but could be contributing to the problem but it's this line i find most interesting :

When I first installed it, I experienced the well-documented frequent crashes on my machine.

SC4 has never crashed on me due to it's installation and only crashed b/c of a plugins which leads me to think that there's a hardware/software conflict that's probably not plugin related. did you alter some aspect of your computer prior to the SC4 installation ? or perhaps rushed the installation process ? also are you using a downloaded (legal or cracked) or a physical copy ? i have 3 copies of SC4 myself (maxis/electronic arts downloads)(physical box set). and have you tried compressing and defragging your hard drive lately ? there is a handy program i use to fix my registry which might help or might not but it can't hurt.

http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

the best registry cleaner that's free and doesn't use a time trial like others. i use it all the time when installing any programs to fix any registry errors and also your anti-virus may cause a conflict w/SC4. i have kaspersky and use the gaming profile and force it to concede resources to whatever i'm doing (not running scans while i'm gaming)

if all else fails the LAST resort is to find your cities in your Regions folder, copy them someplace safe and either strip-out your plugin folder like Traveller or uninstall, remove every folder associated w/SC4, repair your registry, reboot and re-install. it will be a pain to put everything back in but it just might fix the crashing since you said you have Win7 system.

  Edited August 12, 2012 by chimeran  

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

Nah, it's definitely plugins. Read my post previous to this one.

[Mister Giggles 310]

Hey everyone, first of all I think this is a great forum and I'd really appreciate a little advice.

I have had Sim City for many years and put it on my new Windows 7 computer some time ago.

When I first installed it, I experienced the well-documented frequent crashes on my machine.

I have been using the fix for at least six months now (changing the target to this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -EH:off -CPUPriority:high).

I was working fine until a couple of weeks ago. I have quite an expansive city going, with at least 10 city tiles and a regional population of ~2 million (just starting work on the suburbs). It started being unable to hold up for more than an hour or so, and now it will barely even let me begin to fill in a new tile.

I hate to abandon the city I have been working for months on as a result of technical issues.

Any tips?

Since the game worked great in the beginning, it doesn't now, and nothing you've mentioned would have affected stability...

1: Have you recently (Within the last month) installed new plugins related to terrain, trees, seaports, or airports? Have you tried a major city WITHOUT plugins (Low wealth, dirty industry...)? Do you plop a lot of network-related puzzle pieces?

2: What is your virus scanner, antimalware solution, spyware solution, and general computer maintenance solution? How often do you USE them? How often do you defragment?

  Edited August 12, 2012 by Mister Giggles  

[chimeran 208]

Nah, it's definitely plugins. Read my post previous to this one.

but he was already having problems at installation before plugins or at least that's how it reads which makes me think it's a computer issue but a faulty plugin will make matters worse

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I have had more crashes with my new machine than I ever had with my beat up old HP box running XP. But my problems are now mostly solved, and the simple avoidance procedure of using the in-game save once in a while (CTRL+s) prevents almost all crashes and I can play for hours now.

I am on Linux, and there have been some serious growing pains with the windows execution layer (wine) as it's development runs to keep up with everything thrown at it from Redmond and others. Currently the beta (wine-1.5.10) is very stable for software rendering while it cannot run hardware rendering at any recognizable frame rate. Running software rendering doesn't bother me.

Of course, I've thrown the game a few curves with a dual core AMD processor, and a 24" DIV monitor, but these are solved by command line options. This is the script that makes it work for me. Any suggestions gladly received.

date

env WINEPREFIX="/home/john/.wine" \

wine "C:/Program Files/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" \

-intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software \

-CPUcount:1 &>~/sc4.log

date

The date commands merely let me know how long I've played. The sc4.log is the wine console output in case there is a difficulty.

And I have created a shortcut for this that looks like this:

Naturally, the script is kept in /home/john/bin which puts it on the search path.

  Edited August 12, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[likk9922 1]

So I deleted my newest plugins and am getting more errors.

Now I get distortion on the sides of my cities and the edges are blue...

I think it's because I downloaded this plugin ( ) on a whim just to see how it looked very recently. And I just put it in my plugin folder, apparently I didn't install it quite correctly.

The readme says that there should be .png files in my plugins folder for the Sim City tile backgrounds. I don't think I ever had those? I am just very confused! I know I did something to screw my game up, I'm just not really sure what it was or how to fix it now...

[chimeran 208]

just gave it a quick test and this is what i got :

this is not your average mod i'm afraid since this is affecting the programming of the game itself. the PNG files mentioned in the readme are the files necessary to render the background where your city tile "floats". they are located in your games's plugin directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\simcity4\Plugins and not your documents plugins

C:\Users\username\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins

in essence you are playing with fire and hopefully you made back-ups of the original background images that came w/your game. if not, you will need to reinstall

if you placed the files in your documents plugins folder then simply remove the folder and it should resolve the conflict if you didn't touch the background images in the game's plugins folder

  Edited August 16, 2012 by chimeran