Civilization 5 and m17x-r2

Hay Lord_Zath you talking about the drivers in alienware cds. I reinstall tonight .

 

yep those will work. Install those, then install 10.3 on top of them (do not use driver sweeper/uninstall the old drivers)

 

Cool deal guys, I hope to perform the same test tomorrow or Saturday.

 

LOL the only slow down I had was I accently deleted my E drive. . But I only had a few games and about 12,000 songs. Lucky I save it all on a external hard drive. That my slowdown.

Here a trick. If you have a spare hard drive that you can test on. Put it in the Second slot. Pull Out frist hard drive install windows 7 and your good to go. If you dont want to download Steam again. Put in the Frist hard drive Move the Steam folder to your Test drive and drivers. Then go from there.

 

Ouch..sorry to hear that...Good thing you have a good backup...if only all of us could be that lucky

 

New update on New patch December Patch - Full Change List

Just going to edit this one. To Lord_Zath. It work I have directx 10 drivers working on CF mode. Now I am going to do is update the Profile. Then start a New game. on Huge Map marathon.

Now what I thinking of doing is on my SSD drive use CCleaner delete the newer Ati Drivers and anything Ati has and do the same thing. I only done about 15 turns. But before I could only do 1 or two Turns and the game would crash. I wish you luck Greywolf22. But Lord Zath hit it on the mark. Best to save that Ati drivers 10.3 on a CD or another Hard drive.

 

glad to know it seems to be working for you!

 

Hi Atol,

Awesome...great testing...I'll try the same. So the next question is...is the problem something with the changes that ATI made in their driver? and if so, what makes it incompatible with newer drivers. Now Atol if it works with the newer drivers and a fresh install then maybe it has something to do with the upgrade of the ATI drivers.

Interesting...I think it's something that 2K and AMD should try to sort out.

Thanks for all the testing!

Also made an update on the 2K forum link as well....uninstall complete now working on installing 10.3 will update in a bit

 

good luck!

Definitely has to do with the drivers and how they're handling something. hmm...

 

Ok...so that was a bit more difficult then I expected, but none the less the results looks promising. So I'm currently running the 10.3 drivers (although the CCC lists 10.11 still, the driver version shows 10.3 in the windows device manager) I did several different methods to downgrade the driver and the CCC, but this was the closest I got.

However, that being said...with crossfire enabled, I've been able to start and play 2 separate Civ 5 games...have been able to get past roughly 20 turns (which I know doesn't sound like a lot, but it consistently crashed after 1 or 2 before), and have let it sit idle for 30 minutes (again even if I wasn't playing it would crash quickly).

So definitely looks like a driver issue to me. I've tried everything from 10.7 all the way to 10.11 testing each one, and every one has crashed EXCEPT 10.3 (or previous, I haven't tested prior to 10.3 or between 10.3-10.6)

If anything changes, I'll let you all know. But looks promising...now how do we get them to take action on it?

 

wolf, that's awesome.

I'm not sure how to get them to take action - perhaps make a post in the 2k support forums with a dxdiag readout included, explaining how drivers from 6 months prior to game launch work, yet current ones don't. Make sure to detail how it crashed with current ones, and if you have any error reports, be sure to attach those as well.

But first, I suggest you enjoy the game. Please let me know if you're successful into turn 1,300!

 

Thanks Lord_Zath!

I will definitely do that. And I'll let you know about turn 1300 .

Thanks again for all your help!

 

Well little update on my side. Well this is a save game I had issue before. Crashing around 500+ turns. Here the Outlook of what it doing now

Directx 9 Dual Ati 4870 crossfire around 500+ turns. Ati drivers 10.10 10.11
Directx 10 Single Ati 4870 Around 600+ turns. Drivers 10.11
Directx 10 Crossfire Drivers 10.3 around 700+ Turns and Still playing no Crash Yet.

 

Excellent!

 

Well, up to turn 110 no crashes or hangs....temps on my cards look good too...maxing out around 60 degrees C.

 

sweet!

now all 2k needs to do is fix the game lol

 

lol...I know.

For grins I opened a service call with AMD/ATI as well providing the same information as well as a link to this and the 2K forum site. I don't really know if it'll make any difference at all, but thought I'd give it a shot.

I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Until then...I'm just happily playing along with crossfire enabled on older drivers..just wish the older drivers didn't impact World of Warcraft so much.

Sigh

 

just to clarify something, you started from scratch and the game didnt crash till 500-ish trun? or it crashed some times before but you kept progressing by reloading and with 10.3 drivers you went from 500 till 700 without crash?

 

Hey guys,

Well here is the update I received from AMD support this morning:

based on the information you provided in your e-mail, we understand that
you

your system is an Alienware m17x with Dual 4870 cards in a Crossfire
configuration you purchased Civilization 5 a few months back, and whenever you attempt
to launch the game with crossfire enabled it crashes after the 1st or 2nd
turn. This occurs only when crossfire is enabled and only with ATI drivers
10.7 through 10.11.

We apologize for any inconvenience the above problem may have caused.

Please note that we expected the newest driver version Catalyst 10.12 to
come out next week. With each new driver version we are trying to resolve all
issues reported between two driver releases.

If the problem persists, please let us know and we will gladly
investigate further.

So it looks like the response is...try it with 10.12 and see if the problem persists (typical support response).

So I'll give it a go when the driver is released and let everyone know.

 

yeah typical response. Even if it was verified by their own testers, we'd be looking at 2-3 months before it's fixed, assuming it's a game-specific issue. If it's just an issue with a method in which the drivers are being utilized, it may be "accidentally" fixed with driver updates.

Did you try 10.3?

 

Hi Lord_Zath, yeah on 10.3 now and it's working fine...was just hoping that a later release will address it (considering 10.3 kills my frame rate on Wow : Cataclysm). But unfortunately I expected that response. I don't have a lot of confidence that we'll see any difference with 10.12..but hey maybe between the new driver update, a steam update, and the new fix coming from Firaxis/2K we'll actually see it "fixed". I won't hold my breath though

 

Well, 10.12 was just released...so downloading and will attempt Civ 5 in crossfire and see how it goes. If it still crashes, I'll probably wait for the Civ 5 patch to be released, and then re-open my call with AMD/ATI if necessary.

Will let everyone know how it goes.

*Edit* No luck...immediately crashed on turn 2 with crossfire enabled. I'm going to wait and see if the Civ 5 patch fixes this, otherwise it's
back to the drawing board. So 10.7 - 10.12 all fail with crossfire enabled. 10.3 works fine.

 

wow that really sucks.

Sorry to hear about WOW framerate. I'm assuming you adjusted settings for WoW to try and improve it? Can't help you there since I don't play it.

I never upgraded from 10.3 - maybe it's worth trying a slightly later driver (10.4-10.6 perhaps?). This might keep Civ V gameplay stable, yet yield increased FPS in WoW...

 

Hi Lord_Zath, yeah thats something I had considered as well. I think at this point I'm just going to disable crossfire when playing Civ 5 and hope for a fix. I'll also keep on AMD since they've been fairly responsive so far.

 

Irkan I would play the game untel turn 500+ and would crash if I restarted the same game from few turns before the Crash. Then save that on a differnt Hard disk Then use that to Test the Drivers from. So I did not have to play 3 or 4 differnt games. I think when I crash was around 520 turns. So I would start at 519. I would redo the Drivers. Then delete the old Save file Sid Meiers's Civilaztion 5 on /User/NAME*/My Documents/My Games/ Then Move the old Sid Meiers's Civilaztion 5 that I crash at 520. Then play the game again. Then try to do the Same basic Moves I did on the last game to see if I crash.

 

And this time, with the 10.3 drivers, you didn't get a crash, is that correct? I think that's what he's asking.

 

what i wanted to know is ... you started a game with Crossfire enabled and you went till 500 turns without a single crash? using 10.11 drivers?

I have a different problem i guess.

I have crossfire enabled, 10.11, although the game doesnt crash from first / second turn, it crashes somewhere in 70-100 .. if i reloaded it will carry on till 200 or so, and then again.

and my crashes are hard freezes, i cannot kill the process or go back to windows, i have to manually force a restart

other games i play if crashed, they usually go back to windows.

i played many games since i updated the drivers to 10.11, many still crash, but few didnt the ones which did not NFS, StarCraft II, Fallout New Vegas.

can someone do me a favour, just for the sake of comparison, if you have windows 7, after Civilization V crash, go to C:\Windows\LiveKernal\WATCHDOG\ and upload the latest XXXXX.DMP created

this is a small DMP file, it gets created when programs crashes (even though no BSOD, this kind of DMP will get created, not like the "MiniDump" which will only be created on BSOD).

i want to check it and compare it with mine and see wither we actually have the same issue.

preferably if you have 10.11 drivers (like my drivers)

i will upload mine as soon as i go back from work if anyone is interested in comparing other than me

 

Hay irkan this I have no Minidump files or Live Kernal files on my system. But I am not getting Blue screens of Death.

But When I frist got my system. I did have Blue screen of deaths. I talk to Mirocrap . They had me Update my Sound Drivers on Dell Site and I stop having that BSOD. It happen on differnt games or programs. The other idea is Monitor your Temps while Playing Civ 5 and make sure your gpus are not overheating.

Yes I would be able to play 500 turns with no issues directx 9 10.11 in crossfire mode. Then Poof the game would shut off and I would be in Windows.

Right now take a few day Break. A Civ 5 Patch will be out on the 16th. In two days.

 

ahaa directX 9 i played only for 5 mins on directX 9, couldnt continue cuz i couldnt stand the low resolution, and the top resolution of the game in DX9 is not "widescreen". i just couldnt stand keep playing like this. is this only me or its with everybody? what is the resolution you played Civ V in while playing in DX9?

if you have windows 7 and a crash happened there has to be a live kernal dump file, you dont have a folder C:\Windows\LiveKernal\WATCHDOG\ ?

 

I have Max Res. 1920 x 1200 and it dont matter if it high or low Res. It crashes around 500+ turns.

For your other question. Only thing that show close to a kernal dump is C:\Windows/Livekernelreports Opening it up there nothing. But I did some CCleaner when installing the 10.3 drivers. So it could of Been clean out.

 

hmm when i play Civilization V in directX 9 i cant set it to 1920 x 1200 the maximum i can set the in-game resolution to 1280*800 i think

something is wrong here

edit: i reinstalled the latest directX end-user distribution, and its good now

 

Ok guys, the problem of crashing in the first/second turn if you played DirectX 10/11 is DEFINITELY a directX problem. before i update my DirectX installation (check previous post) I was able to go through 50-70 runs atleast (and if crashed than is due to my overheating problem i might have) without a single crash (using DX10/11, 10.11 drivers, max settings).

now with the same settings i cannot go past turn 2 without a crash in DX10/11.

only thing i did was updating my directX to the latest end-user distribution (June2010)

something with the latest Dx10/11 is not compatible with Civilization V. has anyone tried removing directx and installing the one that came with the game?

you have to remove directX first, because when installing new one it just check wither you have the updates or not, it just adds if there is something new, if there isnt than it doesnt replace anything.

 

Have you tried monitoring the temps. In the frist 50+ to 70+ turns. Use Gpuz and cpuid if you want try furmarks and stress the computer and see if you have the computer shut off.

But if other game crash then something wrong with your system.

 

temp doesnt get higher than 84-86 C

some games freeze/crash randomly (two worlds II, Civilization V, Oblivion)

some games dont crash (NFS, Fallout New Vegas, Darksiders, Starcraft II)

Furmark goes up 3-4 minutes, the temps reach around 90 so i close furmark so my GPU doesnt get fried, Lol

the first time i ran furmark it crashed in first minute, but then it never crashed (my laptop never shutdown while furmark however)

honestly i dont know what to think about my GPU, is it Hardware? Drivers? windows 7? games?

 

This sounds more like an issue with your GPUs and their cooling ability than drivers. Your GPUs should NEVER get up that high. Are the fans kicking on? When? Have you tried cleaning them out? You should never have a crash due to GPU overheating. That's a sign that something is wrong and you can have a hardware issue in the near future.

 

Hey folks, latest Civ 5 patch was released a little while ago. Lots of bug fixes and enhancements...

http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?99880-December-Patch-Full-Change-List

Unfortunately 4870 crossfire enabled crash still exists. So currently 10.3 drivers work with crossfire enabled with the 4870 cards, but drivers 10.7 -> 10.12 all crash within a few turns with crossfire enabled.

I have a problem ticket open with AMD to look into this further, and I know we have all brought this to the attention of 2K/Firaxis.

If I get any further details I'll let everyone know...back to disabling Crossfire for me.

 

so in your opinion its an overheating problem? the fans does kick in, and in furmark when it reaches 80 the fans go up to ~3900 RPM, so i guess nothing with the fans.

i dont want to open up my laptop and mess around with it, cuz its still relativly new and under warranty, and i am hesitant to contact dell to replace the GPUs, cuz dell here sucks big time, let alone the fact that they dont sell alienwares here alot, so i expect "less than" monkey skills when it comes to alienware

but if the problem is heating for sure, than i can buy a cooler pad, i found zm nc2500 plus which seems good

sorry for going off-topic, ... Civilization 5 problem is for sure directx related, i have 5870, before it was working but after installing the latest directx it started to crash 1-2 turns, directx 9 is fine

 

Hi Irkan...interesting...I hadn't considered DirectX as being a culprit...but then I wonder why 10.3 drivers work and later 10.x drivers don't. Making some specific call that wasn't done in 10.3?

 

Going to try the game now and see how many turns I get before the Crash.

Hay irkan just a idea. This will help Alienware determan if it the gpus or not becuse they will go oh it could be this or that. Let the computer Max out on temp untel it shuts down. Nothing will wrong with your system. What happens is the computer set a point at 100c to 110c and the computer will shut off. I had this happen on my Last two Alienware Laptops. Do a Video of this.

Alienware M5550 Which the senser would not work on the Motherboard or something and would not turn on the fan. But if you rebooted the Fan would run but would run at a high rate of speed.

Alienware frist m17x released before the r1. Had dual 9800gpus on it. One grapics card would go up to 110c and the game would shut off.

The cpu and Gpus have this Fail safe feature when they hit there Max temp the computer would shut off automatily to save it self from Burning out the chips.

 

probably cuz drivers 10.3 doesnt use some of the features of directX 9.0? dunno mate ... just try it with previous DirectX (the one that came with the game) and let us know

i highly doubt that its temp problem, have logged the temps of both GPUs, they hardly hit 80C when the freeze error happens, last one happened just few minutes ago, temp didnt get till 70C, fans were working fine.

problem only happens in Games.

i will start a new thread on this issue, and see wither there is a solution other than replacing the cards.

cheers

 

10.3 drivers came out in March. Nothing special came out of DX 9.0c - I could see some tweaks in DX11 or something...

 

Well got to turn 728 and the game crashed. the 10.3 Drivers seem to help some 200+ extra turns total of 728 turns. Other drivers 10.10 or 10.12. I could only play directx 9 mode.

 

Are you completely unable to continue after 728? Or are you able to reload once crashed and progress further?

 

Atol, on 10.10 and 10.12 when you say you can only play on DirectX 9 mode...do you mean with crossfire enabled? You should be able to play with crossfire disabled.

 

I could play directx 9 in crossfire Mode Greywolf22. In directx 10 it would crash on the frist mybe second turn This was with Drivers 10.10 and 10.11. Unless I disable crossfire and could play directx 10.

I did not try after the crash Lord_Zath it was late at the time.

 

Well there been a hotfix 12/12 So going to restart on civ 5 and check to see if they fix late day crashes. http://forums.2kgames.com/showthread.php?100692-12-22-Hotfix

 

Hi guys, still no fix for the Crossfire enabled crash with the later drivers and today's hotfix. Not surprisingly AMD closed my ticket with the recommendation to talk to 2K/Firaxis, but stated that they'd "send my info up to their development team". So looks like that didn't get anywhere. But can't blame a guy for tryin'

 

yeah that's too bad.

 

Bumping to see if anyone has tried using the more recent drivers. I just realized I'm using drivers that are nearly a year old, so I'd love to upgrade...

 

Hi Lord_Zath I'm on the latest and greatest and alas...still crashes with crossfire enabled. Always update to the newest drivers and immediately fire of Civ 5 with crossfire enabled (as I do when they release new patches), and still crash a few turns in. Works and plays great without crossfire enabled though, but sure wish they'd fix the crash issue...whomever "they" are at this point :/