[*probably* Solved] Failing to get 4 gb patch to mesh with SC4

[Wodong]

With NAM 31.2 out and the mention of the 4 GB patch (and a bit of foreknowledge), I discovered that for some reason I simply cannot get the 4GB patch to work properly.  My copy of Simcity 4 is Deluxe, and is patched up to 1.16380, and if I don't apply the patch, it functions perfectly on my Windows 7x64 machine.  The machine is a 2.5GHz i5 quad core Intel running in an Asus K53SD laptop. 
After I apply the patch, the SC4 .exe fails to launch.  I even downloaded CFF explorer and manually found the flag to "allow >2gb memory usage".  Fails again.  Looking at task manager, it loads as far as about 13,400k and then hangs for a few seconds, and self terminates.

Now, I do use sc4stupmngr and I thought that maybe I needed to patch that too.  That actually made things worse, but I had the foresight to make my own backup copy before futzing with that.  I guess I need explicit instructions with pictures, if such a thing exists. Else I'm really missing something.

I should mention that I keep UAC on most of the time unless I know I need it off (usually first run after re-installing an old game).  I keep my installs of all games including SC4 outside of the "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" folders, and my documents folder is routed to a location away from the Users file path.

Clearly this is a "me" problem, but does anyone have some insights or a way they found to get past this issue?  Or should I just not mess with it since the program actually runs without crashing sans patch?

UPDATE:  I think I've more or less solved the large address awareness issue, by swapping out my simcity.exe for an older version of it (still patched to 1.16380 though) and manually applying via CFF Explorer the recognize >2gb memory option.  BUT, I'm now getting graphical glitches when using the "save and exit to region" option.  It goes away if I re enter the city and save again, or if I save (ctrl+s) then choose the "exit to region without save" option.

At one point while playing my Comodo firewall/nanny progam notified me that simcity.exe was trying to connect to the internet, which I denied it to do.  So it's probably not a "clean" version of the app.  I'll probably have to reinstall and repatch, since even though I can't believe I didn't keep a copy of the clean, patched app I quite apparently did not.  All that said, I really haven't noticed any difference between the 4gb patch and not having it, as far as performance.  Although stability seems better without it, oddly enough.

[Kitsune]

have you tried running sc4 without plugins?

[Wodong]

have you tried running sc4 without plugins?

I just tried it without plugins, but Simcity.exe still hangs at 13,434k and self terminates.

Does successfully applying the 4gb patch actually make the game run smoother if it was functional before, or is it more of a method to prevent crash on startup/CTD issues?  Because it does run with or without my 3+GB of plugins, provided I don't try to fiddle with large address awareness.  I was just hoping to eke a little more performance out of the game, as it's starting to chug a little with a moderate population large city tile (with CAM + NAM 31.2 + terrain and tree controllers).


Ærden tree controller is pretty hard on my CPU, but c'mon, it's gorgeous.  Vortext did a fantastic job.

[Indiana Joe]

The 4GB patch pretty much makes the NAM smoother and more stable.  Where did you get the game?  Do you have it on disc, or did you download it off Steam or Origin or what?

If you have the discs, is your game patched and updated?

[Wodong]

I have intalled from disc, and the game is fully patched.  Although (there's usually at least one, isn't there?) I did to the CAM-Simcity_1.dat merge to fix the demand bug.  But it still seems strange that I'd be the only one to have done that and try to use the 4 gb patch.  I haven't had any problems with NAM at all, once I updated from NAM v31.0 to 31.1 and then 31.2 (current).  My last CTD was actually because I forgot to install a texture pack.

And probably come to think of it, the NoCD patch I'm using to save space and my DVD drive could be a potential culprit.  Can anyone verify that?

I don't want to be a broken record, but I just want to remind all that my game does work and it's not horrifyingly laggy.  So if I end up for whatever reason being unable or unwilling to do something to get 4gb patch to work for me it's not the end of the world.

But I do wonder if maybe I have a computer settings problem, because I've not gotten the 4 gb patch to work properly with any 32-bit apps I've tried it on. (I am extremely glad it's an undoable thing.)  Using it on SUMv3 was a bad idea, for example (it's also completely unnecessary).  The program never fully terminated, but I ended up at one point with three instances of it running: one normally and two processes at 100k that would NEVER terminate even with "end process" or "end process tree" unless I restarted my system.

Out of curiosity, what are others running?  UAC on/off, what AV, MS Security Essentials (which I'm quite sick of and would have NO problem uninstalling with the slightest excuse)?  I suspected Codomo but I turned that off before I tried to do anything--if you want an exercise in frustration try leaving it on when you install a batch of lots/CAM dependencies.   

[tchaos713]

On my machine, with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, I have UAC enabled, running MS Security Essentials, with the Sim City 4 executable set to run as administrator (which triggers a UAC prompt every time I start it). The reason I have it set to run explicitly as administrator (even though my user is a local admin) is that it would not load past the bridge splash screen with out the explicit administrator rights.

I have an i7-920 (3.2Ghz quad core) and 24GB of RAM. I am running my game with the CD in the drive.