Can't Launch on New Laptop

[redfox85 659]

I got a new laptop (a 1260p cpu and iris xe graphics..) .. and moved my SC4 install (both the entire program folder and the registry entries) to the new computer (something I've done 4-5 times since the digital version was released in the late 00's) I keep getting this CTD ... it at first was a instant CTD .. then I turned off the intro and now the CTD occurs upon loading a city tile (I get the two messages .. and then crash.. or it crashes during the first message)

Exception time: 01/27/2023, at 13:29:58.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 11460 (0x00002cc4).
Version information:
Application/module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\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:  C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll.
Exception address: 0x75b56a2e. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00065a2e.

What have I tried fixing it ? I've tried a fresh install of SC4 (I managed to locate the installer, both 4gb patched and not)  I've run through every possible option dealing with audio.. and that didnt work (and do have it listed as off in command line). I've tried both with my wrapper and without it.. tried using all cores or just 1 .. and I still have not been able to get this to work. Verified my language settings are correct.. and also  verified that sc4 is using this dll from the get go. Any other idea's to fix this before I try re-installing the c++ library (and if that doesnt work then a fresh install).

[rsc204 21,863]

This might be worth a try.

[redfox85 659]

k tried that .. tried doing the c++ install (as apparently it was not installed at all).. and also tried removing all the manufactures apps... and still it crashes. The only other thing of note I discovered is that config file sc4 leaves behind suggests the game cant find my audio drivers:

soundDriverName = Unknown
soundCardName = Unknown

although that seems unlikely to cause the issue. Seems like a complete fresh install of win11 might be the next step..

[redfox85 659]

And now got the actual error code from the dump file :

EXCEPTION_RECORD:  (.exr -1)
ExceptionAddress: 75cc6a2e (ucrtbase!memcpy+0x0000004e)
   ExceptionCode: c0000005 (Access violation)
  ExceptionFlags: 00000000
NumberParameters: 2
   Parameter[0]: 00000000
   Parameter[1]: 4a2f1028
Attempt to read from address 4a2f1028

PROCESS_NAME:  SimCity 4.exe

READ_ADDRESS:  4a2f1028 

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at 0x%p referenced memory at 0x%p. The memory could not be %s.

EXCEPTION_CODE_STR:  c0000005

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER1:  00000000

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER2:  4a2f1028

[rsc204 21,863]

Unless you have access to and understand the source code, such error logs simply don't give us any information to work with.

Honestly, I don't see an obvious problem, although SC4 was coded in a variant of C and the previous error certainly seems to suggest you may be missing some vital library to support it.

However, the last user with similar oddness in Win11 found a clean install of Windows and SC4 was sufficient to resolve it. It doesn't of course pin-point the problem, but it's pragmatically perhaps the fastest solution if you don't have to worry about data on the machine.

On 28/01/2023 at 5:21 AM, redfox85 said:

and moved my SC4 install (both the entire program folder and the registry entries) to the new computer (something I've done 4-5 times since the digital version was released in the late 00's)

Just because you've done it before, or that when you previously did it, it seemed to work, changes not the fact that there is no good reason for doing this. The only single advantage is you don't have to run, select options and wait for installer to complete. But, all those links and other things that are handled by the installer, you're skipping those on the basis that you can yourself manually fix it later. The installer does many things, amongst them installing libraries and DirectX that you may require to play the game.

I urge you (or anyone), to always just use the installer, even it takes a little longer. Because for starters, who is doing this often to start with?, but mostly in consideration of how the 2-3m effort you think you're saving, might leave you with hours of troubleshooting instead, just not worth it.

The only data you want from a previous SC4 install should all be inside the SimCity 4 folder in Documents, perhaps you need to restore some Plugins, for example .dlls from the INSTALLDIR\Plugins folder too.

[redfox85 659]

Finally got the game going last nite. Asus is once again installing there bloatware from UEFI during clean installs.  After finally getting win 11 pro to install .. I did use the installer .. however the game had a a new error causing a crash during the start. I then moved my old Apps folder and overwrote the newly installed one .. and that got me into Software mode. To get into hardware mode .. I edited both the Graphic Rules (removing the intel shared memory rule and adding Iris Xe to the fast cards) and Video cards files. I then replaced the wrapper I was using with dgvoodoo .. and then using the launcher to force hardware mode got the game working fully, finally. The PCI-e 4.0 NVME's prolly make the biggest difference on loads I've seen in a while... laptop has a samsung 980 pro and my load times have drop by a bit over half. I had some city tiles take 12 minutes to load .. and now only take 5. Amazing.