Windows 8 CTD during save and exit to region and corrupt city files

[Droric 101]

Simcity 4 Deluxe (Steam Version)

Core i7 2700K

16 GB Ram

2X Nvidia GTX 580 (happens with SLI on or off)

120GB System SSD

3 TB App Raid-1 Volume (Simcity is installed here already tried installing to the 120GB, same effect)

Virtual Memory 800 MB fixed on System Drive, 16800MB fixed on App volume

Steam Launch Options: -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -w -intro:off -CPUCount:1

 

 

I have already attempted the following to fix the issue:

4 GB patch

Remove all plugins

Set high priority on process

Set CPU affinity to a single core

Tried using Simcity 4 Launcher

 

 

I have been troubleshooting this for hours upon hours and haven't been able to figure out why my Simcity region(s) crash when a change is made to a map, save and exit to region and the game crashes nearly 100% of the time.  Sometimes it requires saving a city twice to occur.  I have included a copy of my crash report for hopes that someone may be able to help me.  Crash is easily reproducible so testing a fix is simple...

 

 

 

Exception time: 07/26/2013, at 23:41:44.

Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Current thread ID: 4408 (0x00001138).

Version information:

Application/module path: D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe

Application/module version name: SimCity 4

Application/module version: 1.1.641.0

System version: Windows NT 6.2

System memory: 4096 Megabytes total, 4096 Megabytes free.

 

Exception module:  D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.

Exception address: 0x007abcf1. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x003a4cf1.

 

Registers

   EAX: 00008001

   EBX: 0eed0f94

   ECX: 0eed0f94

   EDX: 00008080

   ESI: 00000104

   EDI: 0e5f2bf0

   CS:EIP: 0023:007abcf1

   SS:ESP: 002b:0018fa20  EBP:00000000

   DS:002b  ES:002b  FS:0053  GS:002b

   Flags: 00010202

 

Loaded Modules

   Address          Size Module             Path

   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   0x00400000    8511488 SimCity 4.exe      D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe

   0x77030000    1404928 ntdll.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

   0x76e40000    1245184 KERNEL32.DLL       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\KERNEL32.DLL

   0x74a60000     679936 KERNELBASE.dll     C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\KERNELBASE.dll

   0x6fff0000     684032 apphelp.dll        C:\Windows\system32\apphelp.dll

   0x6fda0000    2375680 AcGenral.DLL       C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcGenral.DLL

   0x76b10000     724992 msvcrt.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\msvcrt.dll

   0x76db0000     212992 sechost.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\sechost.dll

   0x74660000     114688 SspiCli.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\SspiCli.dll

   0x76210000     262144 SHLWAPI.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\SHLWAPI.dll

   0x6fd10000     557056 UxTheme.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\UxTheme.dll

   0x76900000    1138688 USER32.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\USER32.dll

   0x76800000    1036288 GDI32.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\GDI32.dll

   0x74000000     135168 WINMM.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINMM.dll

   0x6fcf0000      73728 samcli.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\samcli.dll

   0x747b0000    1150976 ole32.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ole32.dll

   0x766d0000     569344 OLEAUT32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\OLEAUT32.dll

   0x6fcd0000      81920 MSACM32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSACM32.dll

   0x743f0000      32768 VERSION.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\VERSION.dll

   0x75090000   17588224 SHELL32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\SHELL32.dll

   0x73ed0000     110592 USERENV.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\USERENV.dll

   0x6fcb0000     102400 dwmapi.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\dwmapi.dll

   0x74680000    1183744 urlmon.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\urlmon.dll

   0x76160000     712704 ADVAPI32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ADVAPI32.dll

   0x6fc50000     393216 WINSPOOL.DRV       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINSPOOL.DRV

   0x6fc30000      77824 MPR.dll            C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MPR.dll

   0x76260000     704512 RPCRT4.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\RPCRT4.dll

   0x74650000      36864 CRYPTBASE.dll      C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CRYPTBASE.dll

   0x73fd0000     172032 WINMMBASE.dll      C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINMMBASE.dll

   0x76c70000    1269760 combase.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\combase.dll

   0x73f30000      69632 profapi.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\profapi.dll

   0x764d0000    2064384 iertutil.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\iertutil.dll

   0x74ed0000    1802240 WININET.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WININET.dll

   0x745f0000     331776 bcryptPrimitives.d C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\bcryptPrimitives.dll

   0x73f50000     479232 SHCORE.DLL         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\SHCORE.DLL

   0x6f9c0000    2555904 AcLayers.DLL       C:\Windows\AppPatch\AcLayers.DLL

   0x74d20000    1765376 SETUPAPI.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\SETUPAPI.dll

   0x6f9b0000      12288 sfc.dll            C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\sfc.dll

   0x76ab0000     286720 CFGMGR32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CFGMGR32.dll

   0x767e0000     122880 DEVOBJ.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DEVOBJ.dll

   0x6f9a0000      57344 sfc_os.DLL         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\sfc_os.DLL

   0x764b0000     131072 IMM32.DLL          C:\Windows\system32\IMM32.DLL

   0x74b70000     905216 MSCTF.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSCTF.dll

   0x74030000      32768 WSOCK32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WSOCK32.dll

   0x6dff0000     540672 DSOUND.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DSOUND.dll

   0x536b0000     843776 OPENGL32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\OPENGL32.dll

   0x55680000     135168 MSVFW32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSVFW32.dll

   0x76df0000     327680 WS2_32.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WS2_32.dll

   0x73cf0000     258048 POWRPROF.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\POWRPROF.dll

   0x56e50000     143360 GLU32.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\GLU32.dll

   0x6e6c0000     888832 DDRAW.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DDRAW.dll

   0x76a20000     552960 COMCTL32.dll       C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.9200.16384_none_bf100cd445f4d954\COMCTL32.dll

   0x76b00000      32768 NSI.dll            C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\NSI.dll

   0x6e6b0000      28672 DCIMAN32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\DCIMAN32.dll

   0x73850000     106496 CRYPTSP.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CRYPTSP.dll

   0x732f0000     253952 rsaenh.dll         C:\Windows\system32\rsaenh.dll

   0x76310000      24576 psapi.dll          C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\psapi.dll

   0x70730000     430080 tiptsf.dll         C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\tiptsf.dll

   0x74ca0000     475136 clbcatq.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\clbcatq.dll

   0x61180000    1150976 propsys.dll        C:\Windows\system32\propsys.dll

   0x69720000     344064 rasapi32.dll       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\rasapi32.dll

   0x6d460000      90112 rasman.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\rasman.dll

   0x58d80000   12881920 nvd3dum.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\nvd3dum.dll

   0x6e600000     315392 MMDevApi.dll       C:\Windows\System32\MMDevApi.dll

   0x6e590000     344064 AUDIOSES.DLL       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\AUDIOSES.DLL

   0x73250000      36864 Secur32.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\Secur32.dll

   0x72fa0000    2064384 comctl32.dll       C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.9200.16579_none_8937eec6860750f5\comctl32.dll

   0x73260000     532480 winhttp.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\winhttp.dll

   0x73e20000     303104 mswsock.dll        C:\Windows\system32\mswsock.dll

   0x73e00000     131072 IPHLPAPI.DLL       C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\IPHLPAPI.DLL

   0x73cc0000      32768 WINNSI.DLL         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINNSI.DLL

   0x6f760000     327680 oleacc.dll         C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\oleacc.dll

   0x73e70000     155648 ntmarta.dll        C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntmarta.dll

   0x6e570000      32768 avrt.dll           C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\avrt.dll

   0x6d510000     507904 DbgHelp.dll        D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\DbgHelp.dll

 

Call stack:

 

Stack data: (ESP is 0x0018fa20)

0x0018f8a0   5f010000 24f81800 20fa1800 00000000 91510377 c0750200 feffffff 1e590877 

0x0018f8c0   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 

0x0018f8e0   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 

0x0018f900   feffffff 1e590877 c5550877 b4750200 c0750200 9a234618 38f91801 b4750200 

0x0018f920   b4750200 48370777 0000ae02 00000000 c0750200 9aca5100 03000000 b4750200 

0x0018f940   00000000 01000000 9b000000 00000000 00000000 7e0b9300 780bae02 9826b600 

0x0018f960   ed515000 acf91800 71cf9000 14607b11 c0e37a00 14607b11 1409ed0e 940fed0e 

0x0018f980   74fa1800 e02b5f0e 00000000 02000000 00000000 5c044f27 d4f91800 30069f00 

0x0018f9a0   0000ae02 00000000 35069f00 b4750200 09000000 04000000 14587b11 acf91800 

0x0018f9c0   245c7b11 00fe1800 d8f89e00 8863ae00 ffffffff 35069f00 52069f00 b4750200 

0x0018f9e0   7d069f00 10040000 04000000 00000000 74fa1800 7e0b9300 a00bae02 a4234618 

0x0018fa00   0d565e00 140eed0e 7d6a8200 b0750200 f02b5f0e 140eed0e e9bc7a00 80800000 

0x0018fa20   74fa1800 c42b5f0e 04010000 09e77a00 04010000 2be77a00 940fed0e 00000000 

0x0018fa40   1418c411 c42b5f0e 00000000 00000000 00000000 1409ed0e 04f71b13 147cd712 

0x0018fa60   00000000 0000f03f 00000000 00aee73f 71cf9000 04f71b13 60187b00 c42b5f0e 

0x0018fa80   143ec411 147cd712 60fb1800 c088ab00 4c01d10c 14fb1801 1418c411 04f71b13 

0x0018faa0   147cd712 00000000 14f41b13 50f71b13 50f71b13 1008a800 141e4412 591e4412 

0x0018fac0   5a1e4412 00000000 50f71b13 145e9c02 02020000 19010000 02020000 19010000 

0x0018fae0   a5d09900 cad09900 f40b4413 143ec411 0cfb1800 e8cc9900 30fb1800 00000000 

0x0018fb00   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 30fb1800 00000000 00000000 

0x0018fb20   00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 

0x0018fb40   00000000 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff a4117213 00000000 00000000 00000000 

0x0018fb60   00000000 ab1f7b00 c4a9a002 147cd712 24fc1800 14689d02 207dd701 748bab00 

0x0018fb80   780bae02 9826b600 cf555e00 94bad412 1499c102 04000000 cc56a800 00000000 

 

Instruction data: (EIP is 0x007abcf1)

0x007abc71   4e 18 8d 84 cd 28 01 00 00 8d 5e 20 3b c3 74 21 8b 38 8b 2b 3b fd 74 19 85 ff 74 07 8b 17 8b cf 

0x007abc91   ff 52 04 85 ed 89 3b 74 08 8b 45 00 8b cd ff 50 08 8b 4e 24 85 c9 74 0c c7 46 24 00 00 00 00 8b 

0x007abcb1   11 ff 52 08 8b 4e 28 85 c9 74 0c c7 46 28 00 00 00 00 8b 01 ff 50 08 5f 5e 5d 5b 59 c2 04 00 83 

0x007abcd1   ec 0c 53 8b 5c 24 14 8b 03 55 8b 6c 24 1c 68 80 80 00 00 8b cb ff 50 18 84 c0 0f 84 eb 00 00 00 

0x007abcf1   8b 55 00 68 00 08 00 00 8b cd ff 52 18 84 c0 0f 84 ca 00 00 00 8b 45 00 56 57 8b cd ff 50 30 8b 

0x007abd11   55 00 8b cd 8b f0 ff 52 30 8b 10 8b 48 08 8b 3e 2b ca 8b 56 08 2b d7 89 4c 24 10 3b ca 89 54 24 

0x007abd31   14 8d 4c 24 10 7c 04 8d 4c 24 14 8b 78 04 8b 50 0c 8b 46 0c 8b 09 2b d7 2b 46 04 89 44 24 10 3b 

0x007abd51   d0 89 4c 24 18 89 54 24 14 8d 44 24 14 7c 04 8d 44 24 10 8b 00 33 ff 85 c0 89 44 24 10 7e 51 33 

 

 

 

 

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Do you ever switch away from the game during a save or save/exit?  This is a no-no.  The game goes bonkers if it loses focus during a save.

[Droric 101]

I may have forgot to mention I also followed the CTD guide on this site and it did mention not alt tabbing or switching tasks while saving. I do not let the window loose focus because of that but it doesn't help.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The dump is completely normal for the kind of crash you are getting.  When posting a dump, we can only use the first 20 lines. 
All that hex is just garbage because we don't have the source.  Your program is the latest and shows you running windows 8 (NT 6.2).

 

Since you loaded from Steam, it is possible that using a start up other than theirs may cause a problem, but I doubt it.

 

Using windows explorer, locate your executable (the path is on the dump), and create a new desktop short cut for it.  Then edit the Target box to contain

 

"<complete path name>" -intro:off -CPUcount:1 -UserDir:<path to your SimCity 4 user space ending in a slash (\)>

 

Notice that the spaces are critical (one before each option hyphen).

 

Then try the game starting from here.  (if your stuff is on C at c:\<you>\Documents\SimCity 4\ you can skip the last item).  This should open the game without problems.  Because of the nature of the problems we can't fix in the game, you should do an internal save (CTRL+s) every 10 or 15 minutes or so.  This causes a garbage collect and seems to reset the main cause of CTDs.

 

If you want to do some more digging on options, here is the link for the discussion of them.

 

Your machine is way overqualified to run a legacy program from 2003, so it will take TLC to keep it going.  Once you find the way, it will always work.  Many people are running on Windows 8 so it is just a matter of finding the correct set up.

 

I've never run Windows after XP, since I couldn't load Vista on my machine.  I switched to Linux.  Here is my command line, if it will help you, that runs with the Linux Windows Executive program using Windows 7 decor.

 

"C:/Program Files (x86)/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe"  -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software  -f -CPUcount:1

[Droric 101]

Thanks for your help Nonny Noose!  I see you around this forum quite a bit helping everyone with their technical issues!  I did not realize I could move the user folder content to another location as I suspected that my RAID-1 array may possibly be interfering with my saves.  I have also narrowed it down where CTDs only seem to occur when updating the region.  This is why the problem is so critical.  I have enabled file history on my Windows 8 PC (AKA Shadow Copies) to have Windows create a backup every 10 minutes but most of the time these backups won't work because the region tile is broke and it will not let me load the game.  I then need to replace the cities with older versions to be able to load the game.  The setting of the user profile has me thinking.  For the time being its currently running in VMware Workstation 9 (copy from work ) and works okay in Unity but I really want it to run natively because when it isn't crashing it runs fantastic on my system natively.  If i get a chance ill remote my machine (on a trip right now) and test the setting of the user profile since my My Documents has been relocated to my data drive as well as most other rewritten folders as to save the life on my SSD.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Now that is interesting.  Unity?  Are you running a decor of Linux?  If so, you should be running using wine.  If so, here is my full script:

 

#!/bin/bash
date
env WINEPREFIX="/home/john/.wine" \
wine "C:/Program Files (x86)/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" \
 -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software \
 -f -CPUcount:1 &>~/sc4.log
date
 

No fuss, no mess.  To change to hardware rendering change to -d:directx

 

And no virtual machine.

[Droric 101]

Whoops perhaps I did not explain it correctly.  Unity is a mode within the VMWare L2 Hypervisor that allows for a window within a VM to be shown on the host machine (which is Windows .  The VM is running Windows XP x64 and that will run Simcity 4 just fine but its a bit sluggish.  I have probably spent way too much time working on this to be honest and should just settle for software mode within the VM as this works acceptably but I don't like problems I cannot solve!  I wish I understood a bit more about programming as I have already attempted many things to diagnose what is actually occuring including capturing traces with procmon but have been unable to determine the root cause.  I think I am going to try to change the location of my plugins folder to the C:\ and change the user profile path with the string you included in your second post.  I'll post back with the results if I can reproduce the issue, hopefully not!!

[Droric 101]

Hmm okay well moving the UserDir to my C: didn't work so I reinstalled the game to my SSD as well and tried that and still was able to reproduce the issue.  Grr this will be the end of me

[Droric 101]

One more thing.. it appears the game saves just fine when you do a CTRL-ALT-S save, repeated 10 times no corruption.  CTRL-S crashes the game and corrupts the city nearly 80% of the time...  Wondering if this might help to diagnose anything otherwise I might just have to write a script to autosave using the CTRL-ALT-S method and never use CTRL-S, Exit and Save or Save and Exit to region.  What are the negatives of saving via CTRL-ALT-S as opposed to CTRL-S?  No region map update?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Probably, but why are you running a VM at all?  SC4 runs fine on Windows 8.  You seem to be going all around Robin Hood's barn to kill some minor misunderstanding of how to run the program in native mode.  XP is not necessary.

 

Mind you, your machine is like taking an elephant out to track at gnat.  SSDs are all very well as long as you remember that they are read-mostly to extend their life.  This means your swap space should not be on that drive, nor any of your city files.  And running a RAID in shadow mode (as we old guys call that) is rather a bit of overkill for a little 2003 game, eh?

 

If you use the stuff in my command line it should run just fine on any windows platform of the NT.x ilk.  There is nothing really special about Windows 8 except for the sub-total orchidectomy that Microsoft performed on it.

 

Let us know how you make out, but I would just scrap that VM.

[Droric 101]

I am only using the VM to play because it is the only stable way to save. It does not crash within the VM, or at least not once in 10 hours. This issue is with Windows 8 not the VM. I would love to ditch the VM but native windows 8 is where the problem occurs. Also I have 800 mb of swap on my ssd or else my system will not perform a memory dump in the event of a system crash.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If that 800mb swp file is being used as virtual space, you might easily have created a death sentence for your SSD.  There must be someplace else you can set up your swap space using the appropriate system variable.

 

I don't see why you are having problems with saves.  Others on Windows 8 do not report this.

[Droric 101]

The 800MB of Swap is needed for crash dumps only and I don't think is even utilized since I have 16 GB of RAM.  I am completely stumped as to why saving doesn't work properly in Windows 8 for me.  The game is completely stable otherwise and I can play for hours with no crashes but as soon as I do a Save and Exit to Region or Save and Exit the game crashes and corrupts the city file.  Very frustrating but I may be able to deal with it by just saving only the city with CTRL-ALT-S since that does not appear to ever crash.  I'll definitively post a resolution if I find one!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Good luck with this.  CTRL+ALT+s doesn't update the region snapshot I believe.  Your problem with the other saves is, perhaps, that they do update the region image.  If you don't care about the region image, then carry on regardless.

 

Perhaps, since you have such a big machine, you might want to set up a dual boot for Ubuntu (Linux) and run under wine.  I don't have save troubles, just an occasional system hang that I haven't been able to track down.  This software is free, has a lot of free apps, and co-exists with Windoze in many different manners as you decide.  If you want to have a different experience from Windows, give it a try.

[Droric 101]

I guess this leads to another question.  Since I seem to have narrowed it down to the region image being updated does anyone know by chance where that file is?  I think it may be linked to the first city created because when I have a corrupt save two cities have identical modified times.  I thought about dual booting Linux as another alternative.  Does WINE support any form of DirectX or OpenGL for hardware acceleration?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

wine (all lower case) supports both directx and openGL, but the openGL work in the game is buggy and incomplete.  If you go the Linux route, set yourself up at Windows 7 and use winetricks to load directx 9.0c (d3dx9).  Should run fine in either software or hardware rendering.  I can only use software rendering due to a problem with my GPU being out of support by the vendor (ATI/AMD).

 

It is really too bad about the openGL set up for the game as openGL is the default for Linux.  All the 3dx calls get converted by wine on-the-fly.  wine acts like a .NET JIT compiler for windows calls.

[Droric 101]

I wen't down the Linux Rabbit hole last night and seem to have came out on top.  I ended up installing Ubuntu 13.04 64-bit with EFI support since my system has been updated to a UEFI bios.  I have installed the nvidia-current drivers, wine and Playonlinux.  I have the game running fairly quickly in DirectX mode with the game setup running Wine 1.6 RC5, directx9 runtime and the OS type is set as Windows 8.  The openGL mode in Simcity 4 works fine for my implementation but Simcity doesn't allow for HD texture packs such as the LK's Appalachian Terrain Mod in OpenGL mode so I am using DirectX (software won't work for HD Textures either).  I have set Wine's DirectX to use OpenGL as the driver in Playonlinux as opposed to GDI and disabled GLSL (not sure of the exact setting) and things seem to be 100% stable and saving is working just fine!  I wish the framerate was a little bit better but oh well.

 

Again thanks for your help Nonny and I will be trying to spread some of my knowledge on this forum as well to other's that may be in need.  I will mark this resolved although it never really got fixed for me in Windows 8 but linux is an acceptable working solution.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Welcome to Linux.  You'll find a in general off topic for us Linux users.

 

How do you like GRUB?

[Droric 101]

Oh I had quite a fun time trying to get GRUB 2 setup since Ubuntu 13.04 currently does not recognize Windows 8 as an Operating system so it will not play nicely by itself.  I had to resize, add partitions for SWAP, /, and /BOOT and install.  After that I found that GRUB2 did not register itself as an EFI bootloader within my BIOS (I think it's my mainboard manufacturer's issue not Ubuntu/Grub) I ended up installing another EFI loader.  I had to replace the Windows Boot Manager entry with refind and now use that to select between Ubuntu and Windows 8 without issues.  Oh an then I had a broken windows manager because the nVidia driver's were not installed so the windows manager would crash upon loading.  After installing the nVidia driver's from recovery I got everything up and running.  I then decided to try another nVidia driver and broke my system again and was back into recovery to revert and go back to the Nvidia-Current package which seems to work okay.  Luckily I have had a decent amount of experience in Linux or else this 4 hour process would have surely been a 2 day procedure since I am vaguely familiar with Debian/Ubuntu systems.  This seems to be my typical experience with Linux but everything is actually working so perhaps I will try to start using Linux more often.

 

I just now need to setup a mount point/driver's to access my Software RAID-1 if this is even possible for access to the majority of my data.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Shouldn't be a problem to pick up your RAID.  If it is always on-line just add it to your /etc/fstab.  You can get the proper GUID from the system.  You might want to download gparted to make finding it easier.

 

I remember something about Microsoft doing something in Windows 8 to prevent users from setting up dual boots, but since I don't use any MS software other than what gets hauled in by wine/winetricks, I kind of ignored the whole issue.

 

How many physical drives are in your Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks?  I just looked up raid in synaptic (better in many cases than the software centre) and it seems that, even though I don't have one, the system has a driver loaded as default.  Happy hooking up.

[Droric 101]

I finally figured out what was causing the CTD in Windows 8....

 

Windows Search Indexer - (I index all my drives normally now disabled)

 

The game runs flawlessly now no more crashing when saving.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Holy cow!  I wouldn't even have thought of that because I always turned the never to be sufficiently damned indexer off on every Windows instance I have ever used.  My lump of yuck, a.k.a. 50 years in computers, told me that this was a bunk idea.