CTD problem when reopening after Save

[tariely 4,496]

 This is the Continuing Saga of the Wonky SC4 Install. (it has been gong on for weeeks now, on and off, as I got discouraged or RL interefered.)

SO. The story so far. I consultes Those in the Know. Got various wise advices I tried to follow. Eliminated several explanations.  Got down (apprenhensively) to the hardware. My tech friend came and checked my computer. My hard drives. My head. Various Repairs ensued (while having coffee). We carefully reinstalled SC4. At first try, hurray, everything works. Friends leaves, proudly (and caffeinated to the gills.) I reopen the game just-to-check.

Exact same trouble : intro music, no images, then black sceen. Or (on second try) direct CTD.

I reinstalled the game --all by myself-- to check my nagging thought : success... save... second try... CTD.

OK It now seems clear to me : Something Not Right is Happening on Save.

Anyone has an idea why or,  better, how to deal with it ?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 minutes ago, tariely said:

Exact same trouble : intro music, no images, then black sceen. Or (on second try) direct CTD.

I reinstalled the game --all by myself-- to check my nagging thought : success... save... second try... CTD.

Is this with a completely empty Plugins folder?

[catty-cb 4,392]

if you have a empty plugin folders this post isn't going to help, but back in 2016 someone reported something very similiar happening to them

They found it was a terrain mod that was causing the problem, a few other posts recommend if its CTDing when you start the game to enable Windows XP compatibility mode for SimCity 4.exe

-catty

 

  Edited February 12, 2019 by catty-cb  
added a bit

[tariely 4,496]

Thanks, cathy. But, indeed, there is nothing but maxis vanilla in the empty plugins folder.  And does "when you start the game" correspond to my "starting the game”, i.e. launching ? It doesn't even launch, now...

However badly it annoys me, we're going to install Steam on my windows partition, DL SC4 from there and see if the same thing happens.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

We need a whole lotta system info before we can even make good guesses. What OS? What version of SC4? Is the SC4 process still showing in task manager after you "close" it? How much RAM do you have, and how much is SC4 using? What are your command-line switches?

How old is your power supply (a flaky PS can mimic any and every hardware fault possible, which means that the "repairs" may not have helped (and may not have been necessary).

How did you save your city? Hint: Never save-and-exit.

Others here can probably list more things you should be telling us (like log files to post).

[tariely 4,496]

OS windows 8.1 on a Parallels partition of my Mac, which 's running OS Yosemite.

I confess I'm not sure I even understand what you are asking otherwise, sorry. My SC4 version is SC4 De Luxe, Rush Hour, with all SKU data and patches and what not installed as it is supposed to be. If you tell me how I can check the RAM and how much of it SC4 is using, I could tell you. Idem for "command-lines" whatever those are. Power supply : that would be... what ? the PC on which the partition resides ? It is 5 years old, OK, not paleolithic yet, and we checked it thoroughly, it seems to be in good shape (if that is what you meant.)

You must understand I never had that kind of problem before.Everything was working swimmingly. I was even congratulating myself on how stable the whole shebang was. I've had normal CTDs before, the ones whose causes are well repertoried in the forums, but not in quite some time. However, SC4 borking after one succesfull install possibly because of the Save or not Save or Exit function,  never.

BTW,, as to “never do Save & Exit”, er, why ? I've been doing it forever, and variants of it -- save with the keyboard then exit, save with the game button and exit...) without that kind of problem. Besides, the same thing happened here with Do Not Save.