[1.06] Crash - Happens every time I near turn 300 [edit-possible ATI fix/hint]

from Elemental Forums

Really frustrating. Everything gets slower and slower, sounds disappear, animations dwindle until, finally it just CTDs. No error message, nothin.

http://pastebin.ca/1927337

I was going to paste a link to the dmp file, but its a 0kb empty file. :/

Has happened in every game I've played so far. :( I can't finish a game! Everything is updated, graphics drivers, elemental.

 

edit: So after upgrading my catalyst version from 10.3 to 10.8, my manual fan speed settings stopped responding! I'm running a Radeon HD4850. Anyway, I was pretty unhappy about this, since my card runs pretty hot if the fan stays at 40%. After some digging, I found this thread -

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=135180&STARTPAGE=4&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

I followed the instructions therein to upgrade my card bios. And I was able to reload my most recent elemental game that crashed. I haven't been able to do that before. However, I did have to reboot the machine, so I'll have to start yet another game from scratch to see if it happens again, from turn 0-260ish. I did play about 100 turns past my crash though. The only problems are the slowdowns that I know stardock is aware of.

2,785 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Flashing your firmware is never a good idea.

Remember if it's your card it will happen with every single application that uses 3D graphics. Which is almost everything that's accelerated, even the 2D stuff you see today is rendered in 3D via textured quads.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

?

what exactly is the "it" you're referring to? 

saying it's "never a good idea" is just patently false, friend. its not good to do so without reason or cause, and it's smart to make backups. but "never"? no.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't know if this is related but there was a merging problem with the recent release which messed up many of the buildings. Stardock will likely patch it tomorrow. This could be causing many issues, imo.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

?

what exactly is the "it" you're referring to? 

saying it's "never a good idea" is just patently false, friend. its not good to do so without reason or cause, and it's smart to make backups. but "never"? no.

End of quote

 

ok i'll rephrase it.

"it" was me referring to the symptoms the OP was finding in their game.

 

More importantly unless you can afford to replace it if you brick it, dont flash your firmware unless you have tried absolutely everything else, within reason, first.

You should eliminate all software possibilities first, it's elementary IT problem solving.

 

Two general rules i learnt at college and uni:

#1 If a driver breaks something roll back. This is why corprate networks have testbeds incase an update breaks something. Yes the makers do make mistakes.

#2 Firmware is the last thing anybody should be messing with if they dont know exactly what they're doing. Particularly on a boot critical component because it's a real pain in the ass to restore the old firmware when you can't get past POST.

If you know what you're doing then you shouldn't care what other people have to say in tech advice anyway, you know what you're doing. OR you can afford to replace the component if you brick it, but for the average user just dont do it.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting James009D, reply 3
I don't know if this is related but there was a merging problem with the recent release which messed up many of the buildings. Stardock will likely patch it tomorrow. This could be causing many issues, imo.
End of James009D's quote

Kinda doubt we get patches over the weekend.  :/

My performance on a beefy PC with an ATI card is still dismal after upgrading to the most recent drivers (from 8/25, this past weds).

 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

@cfehunter 

lulz ok you think I'm n00b. that's cool. i've been working with this kind of thing since before you were born. 

You weren't clear at all about the "it" - since you said "it" would happen in every app that has 3D in it. But "it" doesn't, my card runs plenty of other games just fine. 

If you took the time (and I don't expect you did) to read that entire ATI/AMD forum thread, you'd see it was a VERY specific and uncommon problem with certain ATI cards. I'm not even sure the problem was occurring in anything but HD4850s. Someone figured out the fix. So why did I mention it here? Because maybe it can help Stardock, who might know the differences between firmware versions of ATI cards. 

Troubleshooting the Elemental problem is an issue for me, cfehunter, because stardock (rightfully) wants players to have the most updated drivers possible. But putting the most updated drivers on my computer - breaks features. So rolling back, stardock tells me to update the drivers. Update the drivers, and my computer works WORSE. Ever read Catch-22?

So I had to find alternate solutions. Past "elementary IT problem solving" - I've been doing this a while.

but to anyone out there who's not comfortable with rebuilding their computer, yes, don't mess with firmware. If you don't share the specific problems in the ATI/AMD forum thread, dont flash your firmware from the link. If you don't have an HD4850, be sure you know what you're doing.

Hopefully that's enough disclaimers. 

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

OK started from scratch, into the 300+ turn range, NO CRASH! So the firmware upgrade worked. 

Still having the severe slowdown, cpu heavy loading, memory hogging and disappearing sound that have been reported in other threads.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

but to anyone out there who's not comfortable with rebuilding their computer, yes, don't mess with firmware. If you don't share the specific problems in the ATI/AMD forum thread, dont flash your firmware from the link. If you don't have an HD4850, be sure you know what you're doing.
End of quote

Yeah that's about all i was trying to say. I highly doubt you were doing anything with IT before i was born though, being 4 years older than me and all.

 

Anyway i'm glad the fix worked for you, but it's likely (as has been said) a very specific work around, and i wouldnt suggest it to anybody that's got even a slightly different video card.