I have had my Sim City 4: Rush Hour game ever since they came out, but recently I've been experiencing a strange problem sometimes when I try to play the game. I will be busy building when suddenly the screen will go dark. The sound continues, but I can see nothing. Very shortly after this there will be a crash to the desktop. Sometimes when I immediately try to estart the game it will start normally. Other times I will restart, and it will be dark from the beginning. I use CTRL-ALT-DEL to get to the task manager, and there is always the file: ~e5d141.tmp at the top. I have read this is a protection method EA Games, and others, used to prevent piracy. My game is valid, and has run without this problem until recently. Does anyone know how to solve this issue? I have Windows 7, 64 bit, Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 video card, AMD Athlon II X2 245 processor running at 2.90 ghz speed. I have 4 GB RAM. Thanks.
The file is actually a SecurROM file for Simcity 4. You can check more about the file here : http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/~e5d141.tmp.html
It is a license verification as suggested. It only will slow or crash SC4 when it fails the CD verification at startup. I'd suggest that you have a CD that is going bad.