SimCity 4 Rush Hour keeps crashing on my Windows 8.1 Laptop

[TheCjm1999 11]

I have had SimCity 4 Rush Hour installed on my Windows 8.1 Laptop for nearly 2.5 years and I haven't had any issues with the program at all. However, over the past week, whenever I try to load a city in my region, the game always crashes. I can actually load the game and enter the regions, but it's just whenever I click on a city tile and load the city that the game crashes. The frustrating thing is, I have almost tried everything, but it still hasn't made a difference. Numerous times I have changed the CPU in the game file (to just CPU 0) and have run the troubleshooter, however the game still crashes whenever I load a city. Is there anything that you could suggest which may solve the problem and stop the game from crashing when I load a city? Thanks. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

First, expect some kind of plugin problem.  For example, have you changed a terrain or water mod?  If you have, it was necessary to first remove every trace of the previous one.  With a terrain mod, you need to get rid of any flora it may have created.  You can add the command option -flora:off to remove all flora from a tile.  You must then reverse this with -flora:on after you have changed mods.  Unfortunately this applies to all tiles in a region.

Another possibility is incompatible plugins.  If you have added any plugins recently, find them by date and move them all to a folder away from the game structure.  If the game then runs, you get the fun of putting them back one at a time until you find out which one is causing the problem.

Failing that, if you are running from CD, did you reverse the patch KB3086255 which turns off the Safe Disk DRM and prevents CD resident versions of the game from running altogether.

Those are the main problems that might occur in a fully patch game with build level 1,1,640 (or 1,1,641 except the last).

If you are not up to one or the other of these build levels or are running on a MAC then we can perhaps discuss this further to explore the problem.

[TheCjm1999 11]

On 5/5/2016 at 3:39 PM, A Nonny Moose said:

First, expect some kind of plugin problem.  For example, have you changed a terrain or water mod?  If you have, it was necessary to first remove every trace of the previous one.  With a terrain mod, you need to get rid of any flora it may have created.  You can add the command option -flora:off to remove all flora from a tile.  You must then reverse this with -flora:on after you have changed mods.  Unfortunately this applies to all tiles in a region.

Another possibility is incompatible plugins.  If you have added any plugins recently, find them by date and move them all to a folder away from the game structure.  If the game then runs, you get the fun of putting them back one at a time until you find out which one is causing the problem.

Failing that, if you are running from CD, did you reverse the patch KB3086255 which turns off the Safe Disk DRM and prevents CD resident versions of the game from running altogether.

Those are the main problems that might occur in a fully patch game with build level 1,1,640 (or 1,1,641 except the last).

If you are not up to one or the other of these build levels or are running on a MAC then we can perhaps discuss this further to explore the problem.

 

Thank you for your response Nonny Moose.

 

Fortunately, I don't have any water or terrain mods in my plugin files. The majority of my plug-ins are for transport and buildings, which I don't think would impact the game in the same way?

 

I added two plug-ins in early April and another one a week or two later. I have removed the three plug-ins from the SimCity 4 game structure and for the time being, I have placed them in my general documents folder. However, the game still crashed when I loaded a city after I had restarted the computer (after I had removed the plug-ins), uninstalled the KB3086255 patch and started the game afterwards. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

And are you running now?

If not, what is the current build level of the executable?  Find it with Windows Explorer search, right click it and choose properties.  The build level should be reported under version.

[TheCjm1999 11]

No it isn't, unfortunately.

Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but how can you open / find Windows Explorer? Is it in the control panel? 

[Compdude787 916]

3 hours ago, TheCjm1999 said:

No it isn't, unfortunately.

Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but how can you open / find Windows Explorer? Is it in the control panel? 

Windows Explorer is the program that shows you all the files and folders on your computer.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If you can't find Windows Explorer access your Help system and it should direct you on how to find it.  It is the basic file system interface that shows you your folders and files in a user friendly layout.  And while you are about it, spend some time with that program and learn about your storage system.  It really is necessary if you intend to have a computer at all.

[markussaage 762]

On 8.5.2016 at 4:30 AM, TheCjm1999 said:

No it isn't, unfortunately.

Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but how can you open / find Windows Explorer? Is it in the control panel? 

Press the "Windows-Logo"-key on your keyboard and hold it (on the left side of the keyboard right next to the "STRG"-key)
and then press "E"-key. That's the shortcut to open the Windows-Explorer.
Always helpful to know I think!

Kind regards!

[TheCjm1999 11]

On 5/6/2016 at 5:32 AM, A Nonny Moose said:

And are you running now?

If not, what is the current build level of the executable?  Find it with Windows Explorer search, right click it and choose properties.  The build level should be reported under version.

 

I went into Windows Explorer and searched for it, however there were no results. So I went into my documents folder and right clicked the SimCity 4 folder. I then chose properties, however the version or the build level did not show up. I must be doing something wrong...

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

In windows explorer search for the file SimCity 4.exe.  This is the program executable file where you will find the build level in the properties (version tab).  Mine is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps.  If you got your game from Origin or Steam it might be buried in their proprietary structure.

The folders and files in the Documents folder are the game's user area, you need to access the installation area.

You might have to make file extensions visible (it is an option).  These are normally turned off for some ridiculous reason known only to some clot at Microsoft.

[TheCjm1999 11]

Thank you for your help so far. I searched for SimCity4.exe. on Windows Explorer and this is what the result was. I don't know if this would effect it any way, but about 25 or 30 "app crash" documents appeared in my results as well. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, you can delete the crash documents which are probably just dumps.  Your result shows that you have the CD version of the game patched to the maximum level with both Maxis patches.  As a result, this pretty much points to a Plugin problem.

Since you have been able to run in the past, I suggest you sort your Plugins by date of file creation and remove any that you've added since you started having crashes.  Just move them to a folder out of the game structure.  A folder on your desktop is a good spot.  Then try running.  Each time you get a successful run, put one of them back.  When you crash again, the culprit is likely the last one you put in.

There may be nothing wrong with that plugin, but it may conflict with another one.  You could run Rivit's Datanode program against your entire plugins suite, and it should (may not) flag all possible conflicts.

[TheCjm1999 11]

I managed to remove nine plug-ins which I have installed during the past two months. Ultimately, I also deleted the 3086255 update, restarted the computer, launched the game and it worked! In the end, one plug-in was the reason behind the crashes. Thank you so much for your help A Noony Moose. I really appreciate it!  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You are welcome indeed.  Perhaps you need to spend a little more time learning about what is happening under the hood of your machine.  Windows Explorer is a good starting point  unless you intend to become a programmer.  One of the most important things on your computer is your storage, and you should always be able to find out where things are in it.