Strange crash and am running out of options, help

**JP226** · December 02, 2006, 09:24 PM

I got this crash about a week ago where the game was running great then all of a sudden it crashed to a black screen and I had to reboot. So I tried the game again and it happened again. I first updated my direct x and the game ran well for a couple of days and I thought for just a minute that, that fixed it. Then It crashed again and locked up and I had to reboot once more. It did it a few times in a row so then I thought maybe if I disable writ or write or whatever it's called combining that would fix it. It seemingly did and the game ran for another day or 2 no problems, until today. Same issues again, so I updated my video drivers did n't do anything.

What else can I do? What could the probelm be and how can I fix it for good!

**bibbledy** · December 03, 2006, 02:18 AM

if all else fails reinstal;. complicated games like the europa universalis and total war series require periodic reinstalls. it's annoying.

**JP226** · December 03, 2006, 01:49 PM

I tired that, and it didn't help

**bibbledy** · December 03, 2006, 03:20 PM

Ok, some questions.

1) What kind of CPU, video card, and RAM are you running?

2) Have you tried lowering the settings significantly?

3) Are the crashes happening in the same place? I have noticed that certain areas, especially small towns, are sure to cause a black screen / reboot. Some people say certain units also freeze the game. If a battle keeps crashing, try and see if you can fight the enemy army somewhere else.

**JP226** · December 03, 2006, 06:59 PM

1) I have a 3200 amd processor, I have a gig of ram and a ATIx700 video card

2) yes and it did nothing

3) It usually freezes after a certain amount of time

I'm thinking the computer needs cleaning inside, the dust might be causing crashes. I also ran a driver cleaner and used ATI tool to speed up the fan. But as far as I know it's not over heating.

**Aristocrat** · December 03, 2006, 07:01 PM

Sounds like overheating to me in all honesty, get the dust out of the case and try reseating your heat sink with some new thermal paste. (clean it first).

If your not sure download motherboard monitor and prime 95.
Run the Prime95 torture test and use Motherboard monitor to see how hot your cpu gets.

**george kings** · December 03, 2006, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by bibbledy

Ok, some questions.

1) What kind of CPU, video card, and RAM are you running?

2) Have you tried lowering the settings significantly?

3) Are the crashes happening in the same place? I have noticed that certain areas, especially small towns, are sure to cause a black screen / reboot. Some people say certain units also freeze the game. If a battle keeps crashing, try and see if you can fight the enemy army somewhere else.

1) Ok. My specs are:
P4 3.3 ghz; 1 Ghz Ram; Asus eax1600pro 512mb ATI chip. Intel Mother Board, etc. Drivers totally up date.
2) Yeap. Shadows at lowest;building low;vegetation medium;grass lowest;shadows lowest;units high;textures medium. It's looks nice anyway.
3) Haven't noticed it, but it happened to me twice when I faced a battle against Timmurids (I was HRE)
4) Heathing might be a problem, but I've got couple powerfull fans and I play with my comp open on a side.

Now my questions which I hope could be answered smartly are:
1) How come that with my specs game gets laggs (not severe but annoys) and that infamous crash????
Should I get a 1GB graphic card? This would solve the problem? I've read people with worser specs and seem to have no troubles (why me?).
2) Might be a timmurid bug??? I'm not sure but somewhere I read about it.

Thank you in advance.

**Aristocrat** · December 03, 2006, 09:50 PM

The Timurids have a bugged elephant cannon unit that causes crashes.
If thats the ONLY time when the game crashes then that is what is causing it.

If it happens other times there is another issue as well.

**george kings** · December 03, 2006, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by Aristocrat

The Timurids have a bugged elephant cannon unit that causes crashes.
If thats the ONLY time when the game crashes then that is what is causing it.

If it happens other times there is another issue as well.

Thanks God! Yeah,my experience with crashes is related with timmurids armies using their elephants.
The weird stuffs is on custom battles no crash it's being reported, as well as when I hire mercenary elephants. around Bagdad zone.

**JP226** · December 03, 2006, 11:53 PM

It's not an overheating issue, I opened the comp, I have three fricken fans and it wasn't all that dusty. I tried cleaning it anyway and nothing helped. I'm scared it might be a hardware problem. Bastards at ATI... maybe i'll switch to Nvidia.

**JP226** · December 04, 2006, 09:23 PM

I'm bumping this on purpose

it's not an overheating issue just like I stated before. My guesses along the lines of software as of now were correct. I called ATI got transferred to a higher supervisor and fromw hat I understand it's a primary display issue. He seemed quite confident of it. Granted my problem isn't quiote fixed yet but i'm on the verge and going to pursue the issue thatmuch more tomorrow and fix this once and for all.

**flickflame** · July 03, 2008, 02:36 AM

Yes! i have the same problem, when fighting the Timurids and they have elephants my screen goes black during the start of the battle and it crashes to the desktop.
My computer is perfect in everyway so it isn't a hardware or overheating problem, trust me.
How the hell can you fix this?? I'm downloading all the updates to see if they work, also just to waste time i'm fixing up the registry and cleaning disks.
Please ANY SUGGESTIONS!!!??

**sparty** · July 03, 2008, 07:42 AM

A couple things:

1. Open cases don't necessarily improve cooling. Fans should be put in cases to draw air in through the front or side vents and out the back. This ensures a consistent and focused stream of air. Similarly, a lot of computer desks are near walls or force people to put towers into a slot that doesn't necessarily allow for much airflow. Good airflow is essential to cooling with fans!

Even if you don't think it's a heat issue, go ahead and download a mobo monitor. The one suggested is probably fine though I've never used it.

2. CPU cooling and temps. Sometimes, CPU cooling isn't a matter of fans. I had a buddy who had a great ventillation system for his computer, huge 120mm fans, etc. His CPU kept getting way to hot (~70 degrees Celsius!) when he gamed.

The solution was buying an aftermarket heatsink and cleaning the top of the chip to apply new thermal paste between it and the new heatsink. That single change put the system at under 60 degrees Celsius in the heaviest gaming conditions.

3. You can try running memtest86 which will evaluate your RAM for any potential problems. While, unlikely, I have seen bad RAM cause problems for game crashing. What may have been perfectly operating RAM one day can overnight become a problem. Particularly if you're like me and don't buy the super expensive stuff!

4. Have you checked your system logs? Here's how:

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click Performance & Maintenance
4. Click Administrative Tools
5. Click Event Viewer
6. Click Application and scroll through the list looking at errors.
7. Click System and scroll through the list looking at errors.

You might turn up something in there. I'd play a game, encounter the crash and note the time. Then go in and look through the event viewer to see what may have gone on.

If that doesn't turn up anything then the failure is catastrophic and hardware related. Software will report to that file in Application. System will report to it for services that fail or hardware issues that don't outright crash the system before they can be recorded.

I hope that helps and good luck with your issue man!

**Sampy** · January 13, 2009, 06:08 PM

I have same problem with crashing when fighting a seige by Timurids at cordoba. I have posted else where on this forum about this just now, no reply yet but obviously I need to give it time.
I don't think it's a computer problem as others seam to have the same problem on high spec machines (mine is a new quad core). The cannon elephant seams to be the the most logical explanation so far. Does anybody have a fix. There's no point in continuing a game I've been running for 2 weeks now. Any other games are likely to have the same problem as soon as the Turmid elepanhts arrive! I'm pretty despondant with this now. Shouldn't the vendors help?

**irishron** · January 13, 2009, 06:13 PM

Cannon elephants have been bugged. what version of the game are you playing?

**Sampy** · January 14, 2009, 03:22 PM

I don't know what version it is as I'm away from home untill Friday. I bought the game just before Christmas however so it should be reasonably up to date. I've read elsewhere here that the fix is to disable the cannon elepahnts in a system file. I'll try this when I get back. Apparentely the changes only work for new games and I might as well abandon my existing game unless I want to keep getting shafted every time te Timurides turn up.