xoham

I am having trouble running SimCity 4. Occasionally, at random times, it crashed the computer hard to a blank blue screen, followed by rebooting the computer.

Other games such as World of Warcraft, or Half-life 2 Counter Strike have no problems.

My Catalyst, motherboard, and Directx drivers are up to date. On SimCity forums they really don't have an ideas.

I don't think this is a heat problem since it can happen very quickly or much later and seemingly more demanding games have no trouble.

Would Omega help with this maybe?

This card replaced my HIS Radeon 9800 pro which decided to stop working after about 1.5 years of use.

Thank you for your advice.

AndyMutz

i'm sorry i don't have a solution for your problem, but my old 9800pro also stopped working after 1,5 years.. what a coincidence

-andy-

cswiger

Hey, welcome to DriverHeaven, xoham--

SimCity 4 seems to use a great deal of CPU and RAM, and likes lots of video memory, but it doesn't seem to demand much GPU power. If you're having crashing problems, I'd check your CPU fan and PSU cooling first before looking into drivers or your graphics card. The other thing I'd try is to make sure AA is disabled or set to application preference.

You might want to check the application log SimCity generates when the program runs, and make sure it is identifying your system options and the graphics card reasonably. I hadta add the PCI ID of my x800 Pro into the graphicscard rules file and tweak it a little bit to pretend my card was a Radeon 9800, otherwise the game would fall back to some generic "ATI Rage" like mode. If I get a chance later tonight I'll look up the details and be more specific...

__________________
Do you remember Shalebridge Cradle?
Beware! The Cradle *doesn't* forget....

AMD Opteron 185 @ 2.6GHz/200HTT | 2GB G.Skill DDR3200 @ 2-3-2-5/1T | 512MB eVGA 8800GT @ 600/1800 | SB Audigy 2ZS eX, Outlaw 1050 6.1ch amp, Paradigm speakers | MSI K8N Diamond Plus mainboard | black Lian-Li USB68 case + Foxconn FX600-GLN 600W PSU | 2xWDC3200AAKS (RAID1) | Sony GDM-F500R CRT, BENQ G2400W LCD

xoham

Thank you for your help.

The CPU fan is spinning nicely though it is a bit dusty. I may look into checking its temperature somehow (maybe mobo tools can do that). However, I noticed that the crash occurred both after prolonged gaming, and after a very short period. So I think it is unlikely a heat proplem.

I may also try the driver cleaner tool and reinstall the catalyst driver. I am not sure I was careful to clear the driver out when I replaced the 9800 pro with this 850 pro.

xoham

This was in the log file and it looks good except for the sglDriverVersion. If that is DirectX, then it is misreading the version or maybe the game does not use later versions.

CPU = AuthenticAMD
sglDriverName = DirectX
sglDriverVersion = 2.0
driverName = ati2dvag.dll
driverVersion = 6.14.10.6571, GUID: D7B71EE2-80B-11CF-B273-1223AFC2CD35
cardName = RADEON X850 Series
cardVersion = Vendor: 1002, Device: 4b4b, Board: 3121002, Chipset: 0000
cardIdentity = RADEON X850 Series
soundDriverName = nvapu.sys
soundCardName = NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
buildType = Release

I also used their "Easy" application and found that my 9800 driver is lurking around. I will attempt to remove it.

Let me know if any further data from that file will help you. Thanks again.

xoham

I used "Driver Cleaner PE" to clean out the old drivers then I reinstalled my Catalyst drivers from my CD. The game ran for an hour or so without a problem.

I'll post again if it fails.

xoham

It failed. Seems to happen when ever I am dragging new transit

Sandok

So did mine mate

xoham

I tried a microsoft mouse instead of my logitech. Same problem.

I would suspect the power supply is insufficient except that Counter Strike and World of Warcraft work fine.

Maybe it is a sound thing? I suppose it is making sounds when you are dragging transit lines around.

cswiger

COuld be. A blue-screen does suggest a driver-level problem, are your sound card and video card each getting their own IRQ and not sharing with anything else?

Put your hardware info into your .sig, or post a DxDiag.txt report (or Sandra, or whatever) somewhere on the web would help us make better suggestions.

__________________
Do you remember Shalebridge Cradle?
Beware! The Cradle *doesn't* forget....

AMD Opteron 185 @ 2.6GHz/200HTT | 2GB G.Skill DDR3200 @ 2-3-2-5/1T | 512MB eVGA 8800GT @ 600/1800 | SB Audigy 2ZS eX, Outlaw 1050 6.1ch amp, Paradigm speakers | MSI K8N Diamond Plus mainboard | black Lian-Li USB68 case + Foxconn FX600-GLN 600W PSU | 2xWDC3200AAKS (RAID1) | Sony GDM-F500R CRT, BENQ G2400W LCD

xoham

Somewhere I read that turning down the hardware acceleration for Sound in dxdiag would make a difference. So I turned it down to the second to lowest (lowest was off). And the game has not crashed this way. I turned it back up to full and it crashed immediately. For now, I think I will stick with this as my solution, though I could consider a sound card. My test to get it to crash was to be fairly zoomed out, place a road tile then drag it around in circles. Usually I can get it to crash quickly this way.

I have an Nforce motherboard with intergrated sound. I am fairly sure the drivers are up to date.

It looks like video and sound were not sharing an IRQ.

There is a 850 "secondary" out there and I am not sure why it is there. But I am assuming that is normal.

Here's the dxdiag info though I only pasted part of it since it is huge:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/8/2005, 16:38:27
Machine name: SMURFEATER
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: AOPEN_
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 298MB used, 1394MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode
------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.
--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON X850 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter AGP (0x4B4B)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4B&SUBSYS_03121002&REV_00
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (75Hz)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 955DF(T)
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6505 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 12/21/2004 21:33:36, 218112 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 12/21/2004 21:33:13, 909824 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-080B-11CF-DB6A-1823A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x4B4B
SubSys ID: 0x03121002
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run
-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: NFORCE_VAD
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: nvapu.sys
Driver Version: 6.14.0442.0030 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 5/25/2004 16:58:04, 396032 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: NVIDIA Corporation
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 200, 100000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK
Sound Test Result: Not run
---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
Description: NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio
Default Sound Capture: Yes
Default Voice Capture: Yes
Driver Name: nvapu.sys
Driver Version: 6.14.0442.0030 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 5/25/2004 16:58:04, 396032 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x41
Format Flags: 0xCC0
-----------
DirectMusic
-----------
DLS Path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\drivers\GM.DLS
DLS Version: 1.00.0016.0002
Acceleration: n/a
Ports: Microsoft Synthesizer, Software (Not Kernel Mode), Output, DLS, Internal, Default Port
MPU-401, Hardware (Kernel Mode), Input, No DLS, External
MPU-401, Hardware (Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, External
NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) Audio, Software (Kernel Mode), Output, DLS, Internal
Microsoft MIDI Mapper [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, Internal
Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, Internal
MPU-401 [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Output, No DLS, External
MPU-401 [Emulated], Hardware (Not Kernel Mode), Input, No DLS, External
Registry: OK
Test Result: Not run
-------------------
DirectInput Devices
-------------------
Device Name: Mouse
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a
Device Name: Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a
Device Name: USB Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x05A4, 0x9999
FF Driver: n/a
Device Name: USB Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x05A4, 0x9999
FF Driver: n/a
Poll w/ Interrupt: No
Registry: OK
-----------
USB Devices
-----------
+ USB Root Hub
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x10DE, 0x00D7
| Matching Device ID: usb\root_hub
| Service: usbhub
| Driver: usbhub.sys, 8/4/2004 01:08:42, 57600 bytes
| Driver: usbd.sys, 3/31/2003 07:00:00, 4736 bytes
----------------
Gameport Devices
----------------
+ PCI bus
| Matching Device ID: *pnp0a03
| Service: pci
| Driver: pci.sys, 8/4/2004 01:07:46, 68224 bytes
|
+-+ Standard Game Port
| | Matching Device ID: *pnpb02f
| | Service: gameenum
| | Driver: gameenum.sys, 8/4/2004 01:08:21, 10624 bytes
------------
PS/2 Devices
------------
+ HID Keyboard Device
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x05A4, 0x9999
| Matching Device ID: hid_device_system_keyboard
| Service: kbdhid
| Driver: kbdhid.sys, 8/4/2004 00:58:34, 14848 bytes
| Driver: kbdclass.sys, 8/4/2004 00:58:32, 24576 bytes
|
+ Terminal Server Keyboard Driver
| Matching Device ID: root\rdp_kbd
| Upper Filters: kbdclass
| Service: TermDD
| Driver: termdd.sys, 8/4/2004 03:01:07, 40840 bytes
| Driver: kbdclass.sys, 8/4/2004 00:58:32, 24576 bytes
|
+ HID-compliant MX510 Optical Mouse
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x046D, 0xC01D
| Matching Device ID: hid\vid_046d&pid_c01d
| Upper Filters: LMouFlt2
| Lower Filters: LHidFlt2
| Service: mouhid
| Driver: mouhid.sys, 3/31/2003 07:00:00, 12160 bytes
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 8/4/2004 00:58:32, 23040 bytes
| Driver: LHidFlt2.Sys, 12/11/2003 09:50:00, 25630 bytes
| Driver: LMouFlt2.Sys, 12/11/2003 09:50:00, 70894 bytes
| Driver: Logi_MwX.Exe, 12/11/2003 09:50:00, 20992 bytes
|
+ HID-compliant mouse
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x05A4, 0x9999
| Matching Device ID: hid_device_system_mouse
| Service: mouhid
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 8/4/2004 00:58:32, 23040 bytes
| Driver: mouhid.sys, 3/31/2003 07:00:00, 12160 bytes
|
+ Terminal Server Mouse Driver
| Matching Device ID: root\rdp_mou
| Upper Filters: mouclass
| Service: TermDD
| Driver: termdd.sys, 8/4/2004 03:01:07, 40840 bytes
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 8/4/2004 00:58:32, 23040 bytes