crash when saving

[marcosama]

everytime i save the game will crash usually 50% of the time, it really pisses me off.
is there a patch or something for this? when i save it just freezes and if i go away and come back (i have gone to play a console game B4) and it still shows the screen, not saved yet.
i have everything on low quality and all my processes shut off, 1Gb ram, 2.00Ghz, and it always freezes!!
i can play games like sims2 and spore perfectly without any freezing or crashes. so whats with this game??

[Indisguise]

Whats the size of your plugins folder ?

Personelly I have run into issues like this when I run too many plugins for my game to handle. I had to lower the amount of plugins. Though that only 1 possible issue, but it worked for me.

[z]

Also, how much memory do you have on your system?

[SC4BOY]

, 1Gb ram, 2.00Ghz, and it always freezes!!

[z]

A gigabyte of RAM can be on the low side for this game, especially if it has a lot plugins.  Also, the older the OS you're running, the more likely freezes are.  In that case, they aren't the game's fault.

[jmyers2043]

I've run into this before as well. I found that it happened when I clicked on things too quickly. So now I click the pause button – wait a second – click the options button on the Mayor's panel -  wait a second – then click save. Have not had a crash during save since I put my mouse finger on 'slow'.

I'm working on a 1.5 million city and it takes about 5 minutes to save the game. My plugins is 2gig. I have 1 gig of ram. Running Windows XP.



Good Luck

- Jim

[TiFlo]

I second what jmyers2043 said. Same problem for me before, problem gone since slowing down the clickfest.

[z]

Windows XP was what I had in mind specifically when I mentioned "older OSes."  Are any of you people using multi-core CPUs?  If so, adding -CPUCount:1 at the end of the command line in your SC4 shortcut will improve things considerably; it will even speed up the game.

[HappyDays]

http://www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/index.cfm/Main.SimCity_4.VistaDualCoreSimcity4

Z is correct, and the above links to the same, but more permanent variation of, solution. Don't mind the Vista part; it works on XP and 7 just as well.

SimCity 4 does NOT work well with dual cores, at all. I had crashes, freezes, all sorts of madness before this fix.

[FireCharizard1000]

It's the computer system mostly. What windows do u have? Windows 7 or XP is good.

[SC4BOY]

http://www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/index.cfm/Main.SimCity_4.VistaDualCoreSimcity4

Imagecfg is probably the worst way to correct this issue.. it does work (I have used both) but it actually modifies the .exe file while other methods do not. Many also seem to be confused by the use of comand lines. I'd suggest either tagging the shortcut OR perhaps the StartUp Manager, etc.

[Aaron Graham]

I can believe that I have seen a thread like this, my game crashes a lot and freezes when I save it somtimes, thats why I have stop playing it and did the BATing thing for NYBT and my thread . I have 1 GB RAM but i'm looking forward for a new pc with more ram. We really need to keep theards like this open, because I know a lot more of us is having the same problem.

[Indisguise]

the Datpacker can help with this issue, it will compress some of the files you use in your game, making it more manageable for your computer.

Til you get a computer with better specs some things you can do to help the game along without crashing.

A: be more selective in your use of plugins, don't install ones you may not be using

B: lower your graphic setting when runinng the simulator. Might not be pretty to look at, but less resources you use for graphics the more can be used to run the simulator, You can cheange the setting to higher when you want to take a tour or take screenies for threads and such.

C:  if duo-core, set the priorities of your game to run as a single core while running the game.(think Z listed how to do this above) this will tell the computer not hold back resouces for possible multi-tasking and to use more or all of your computers recources  for the game.

D: Don't multi-task when playing,  shut down any task in your start up your not using, including internet connection and/or unused program, specially if they are running in the background while you are playing. Less the computer has to do, the more resources it can dedicate to running the game.

E: Don't get click happy. If you clicked on a command wait til that command has finished before clicking another command. Specially when zooming ,forgotten how many times my game has crashed when using the mouse wheel to zoom in or out and rotating the city at the same time, or double or triple clicking on the command in the game hoping it will speed things up, it doesn't, it has the opposite effect. If you stretching the recourses of your computer. giving the game too much to do at once it reacts poorly ussually by CTD.  Also when playing the game don't run the simulator while doing new development, or scrolling through or zooming in and out the city. Pause the game while doing these things.

F: Save often. Take the time to pause the game and save, even part way through construction or even when running the simulator. This won't help with the crashing, but it will save lots of time re-doing things over and over again.

[Lowkee33]

Last year I stepped up computers from a 16mb graphics card, 1.6 gig cpu, and 128 mg ram (Which played meduim tiled cities with no trees ) to a 256 mg card, dual 2.4 cpu, and 2 gigs ram.  Sim City crashed constantly on the new machine and I tried new Windows installs and various third party drivers.  The solution was DatPacker.

The reason for this was the amount of files in my plugins folder, not the size (although I would imagine a large folder would cause problems).  SC4 just has issues with many files.

I also noticed that "higher spec" games ran fine.  Sim City 4 is a clunky beast, but at least we can smooth out the bugs.

[FireCharizard1000]

How big is your city? javascript:void(0);

[marcosama]

i have all my graphic functions turned to the minimum, but it still does crash in just one of my big cities in the New York region, i have other new york regions with other cities that are 4-5x bigger cities and it doesnt crash. is there any patch for these crashing?
usually i can tell it crashes because when i save it goes from the hourglass cursor to just the regular pointed one and everything stops

UPDATE: apparently its called a save lockup?

[Lowkee33]

Other cities never crash when saving?  That makes me wonder if there is something wrong with the city, but I have never heard of a CTD because plugins or what-have-you.  At what frequency does it crash?

Perhaps you can make a backup of the city and demolish half the buildings.  If the game does not crash then the problem may be on the half you demolished.  Re-load the backup and keep demolishing smaller and smaller areas that fix the problem until you know what the problem is.

It may be that making the city smaller in general solves the problem, so the above process may not work.  However, if you can demolish everything in the city and it still crashes then there must be something rather wrong with it.  Does it have the same city name as other cities in the region?   

[marcosama]

it doesnt crash to desktop, it just gets stuck in a loop it looks like, for some reason it only happens in this city, but it does happen frequently in its surrounding cities.. but in this city if i load it and try and save right away it will freeze, even if i put the screen in a blank area of the city to minimalize visual effect while saving
it is the only one of its names in the region
my only pluggin in the NAM

[Lowkee33]

Well, then that points to your computer.  First, do you have the official update of Deluxe?

Seems like other people increase the amount of virtual memory.  Perhaps the page-file size could be increased too.  Maybe those are the same thing...

But that is about all I know.  Sorry.