SC4 Deluxe constant crashing!

[nekomaster 11]

I recently re-installed Simcity 4 Deluxe on my Dual Core Windows 7 (x64) computer. Never have I seen SC4 crash this much on a dual core (even the one I'm using now). I play for a couple minutes and it crashes.

I've tried setting Simcity 4 to high priority, setting its affinity to one core (tried both cores each), and even using a program (ImageCFG) to patch the game and make it run on one core. Nothing I've done has solved the problem and I really want to play Simcity 4 again (Cities XL 2012 just doesn't have what SimCity 4 provides me)

Is there anything I can do to help solve this aside from lowering my clock or using a virtual machine? Almost everything else runs fine on my overclocked CPU (even on games that use only 1 core)

(Specs)

Mobo : Asus M5A97-R2.0

CPU : AMD Athlon II x2 270 (Stock : 3.4GHz \\ OC : 4.03GHz)

RAM : 8GB Kingston Hyper X Blu @ 1333MHz

GPU : Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 1GB

[7238320 77]

Further info required:

What are you trying to do when it crashes?

Plugins folder empty? Could be conflicting mods.

Game updated? - what is your SimCity 4 version number?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

With the game at build level 1,1,640 or 1,1,641 (fully updated), you should apply the -CPUcount:1 command line option to your game. Just open the shortcut and add this after the final quote being sure to have a space before the hyphen.

Also, check your Catalyst control panel and make sure all 3D options are set so that the loading program can select the ones it needs (SC4 won't set any.)

We essentially have the same machine except I have the AMD/ATI 780 chipset (Radeon 3000) and less memory. Details.

I am on Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-30-generic x86_64) with wine-1.4.1. The program runs fine except you do have to use the in-game save (CTRL+s) to keep things going about every 10 minutes. wine is not a windows emulator but an O/S layer that captures windows calls on-the-fly and recompiles them into native. DirectX gets converted to OpenGL.

There has been a lot of BS about setting this and that, but the one option seems to be key. If you have a 16:9 screen you'll need the custom resolution option as well. To give you a rather full example, here is my start-up command (used by my shortcut). There are a few things on there you won't need for windows.

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

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

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

-f -CPUcount:1 &>~/sc4.log

[nekomaster 11]

I tired the CPU count thing (-CPUcount:1) but that did nothing either.

I do have plugin's, but they're mostly stuff I've used before that worked just fine.

The game's version is 1.1.610.0 . I don't know how to update the game (I looked around on the net for a update/patch)

Never mind, brain derped there for the update. Ill try to see how it runs with the update

EDIT : Still crashes.

Seems to crash if I try to zoom in and out really fast or too much. Then theres also the occasional random CTD when your doing nothing

  Edited September 11, 2012 by nekomaster  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Read some of the other threads about CTDs. Zooming with the mouse will blow the input queue and cause a crash. Try using the number keys 1-6. Save (CTRL+s) frequently during play and most of the crashes will go away if you use the -CPUcount:1 option.

Version 610 is the unpatched original Deluxe. Doesn't work without at least the proper EP1 patch.

[nekomaster 11]

I never had a problem with mouse wheel scrolling before, so why now all the sudden? Im using the same settings I've been using since I got my Radeon HD 6570

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Who knows what happens in that giant box of bugs called Windows? Maybe something has happened in the reporting of the mouse interrupts. Each click of the wheel is an interrupt, so clicking more than five times will always cause trouble. It asks for multiple redraws. Using the numeric keys only asks for a single redraw.

[nekomaster 11]

Well I'm finding that Simcity 4 is crashing even when I use the games zoom or keyboard zoom keys, or when rotating the map. it usually takes only a couple minute to crash at random. I have a bunch of exception reports if that helps at all.

[7238320 77]

Do you have anything running in the background. Antivirus, email, rss feed?

I use Game Booster to shut all that stuff down when playing SimCity.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It might be revealing for you to post the first 20 lines of your latest dump. The hex section isn't useful since we don't have the load map but sometimes things can be found in the prefix.