Game used all of my CPU resources...

Mkinser · May 17, 2002, 11:54

I had this happen last night and it was the first time ever...I have played dozens of games, full games, and never had this happen.

I started a new game and was, maybe, 20 turns into it. I just settled my 2nd city and was doing some exploring. I found my nearest AI civ and entered into their territory to make contact.

My game came to a grinding halt. It was moving so slow I could nearly see the circle outline around my active unit fading in and out as it blinked. So I pressed CTL-ALT-DEL to bring up my task list. I thought perhaps that something was running in the background that was snagging my processor.

After waiting a few more minutes to get the task manager to actually appear, I was able to see that the only real task running was Civ3...and it was using 99% of my CPU. I couldn't do a darn thing with it.

I tried to end it to no avail. I tried to shut it down, again to no avail. I finally ended up popping the battery out and restarting my computer. Started a new game and it went without a hitch.

You got me what happened? Anybody else have any ideas?

By the way, I am using a Compaq EVO laptop (800mhz, with 256 RAM, Windows 2000) and patch 1.21f.

Thanks,

Mike

zulu9812 · May 17, 2002, 12:00

did u have any progs running in the background? firewall, anti-virus auto-detect, anything like that?

Mkinser · May 17, 2002, 12:04

Quote:

Originally posted by zulu9812
did u have any progs running in the background? firewall, anti-virus auto-detect, anything like that?

Nope...nothing. I use multiple user names and such on the computer. When I go into "gaming-mode" I use one that turns everything off. No virus, no internet explorer, no microsoft office shortcut, etc...I have next to nothing in my system tray.

I have used this same user setup for months and never had a problem before.

I said...it was strange.

ALPHA WOLF 64 · May 17, 2002, 13:06

any previous jobs run? they may not have freed resources.

Mkinser · May 17, 2002, 13:38

Quote:

Originally posted by ALPHA WOLF 64
any previous jobs run? they may not have freed resources.

Nope...nothing at all. It was a fresh boot with nothing running as far as I could tell. I thought maybe the machine had a caught a virus or something, so I started VirusScan after I re-booted and ran it through but it found nothing.

BTW, where in Illinois are you? My home state and I am always fascinated by where people actually are while talking on a forum.

ACooper · May 17, 2002, 14:13

If you haven't seen it happen before, my guess it is a fluke and probably happen again. With 14 as a comp. tech and System Engineer I have see such 'flukes' many times, usually never to return.

BTW, maybe we should start a thread in the OT where we could see how many of us are from the Land of Lincoln. It sure seems like a lot us are on this board.

Mkinser · May 17, 2002, 14:18

Quote:

Originally posted by ACooper
If you haven't seen it happen before, my guess it is a fluke and probably happen again. With 14 as a comp. tech and System Engineer I have see such 'flukes' many times, usually never to return.

BTW, maybe we should start a thread in the OT where we could see how many of us are from the Land of Lincoln. It sure seems like a lot us are on this board.

I too am a programmer and have seen the "mystery one-time" bug myself once or twice. I will chalk this up to a fluke of nature and won't worry about it any more.

What part of Illinois are you from? I grew up in the western suburbs until I moved to Wisconsin a few years ago. Still having a hard time adjusting to all of this green and gold.

ACooper · May 17, 2002, 14:33

I'm about 40 min west of Joliet

KrazyHorse · May 18, 2002, 04:02

I've had this happen once or twice. Not sure what sets it off...

ACTD_Ran · May 18, 2002, 05:33

I have no clue as to what set's it off either, but I too have had this happen to me twice. I've noticed that for me, when it does and your able to move a unit, it can take quite a bit of time for the game to 'advance' so you can select another unit to 'operate' with. I've also noticed that during those two times, I can try to select a different unit, or use the icons at the bottom[to like fortify] and it wont do it unless I do it either multiple times[clicking] or through the kb shortcut, but during those times I was able to save and restart without any hitch.

So... With these numbers of players having this happen, it seems to be a 'minor bug' with the game, in that it seemingly doesn't happen very often. I just hope that it doesn't grow with the expansion!

Inverse Icarus · May 18, 2002, 09:51

Quote:

Originally posted by Mkinser

Nope...nothing. I use multiple user names and such on the computer. When I go into "gaming-mode" I use one that turns everything off. No virus, no internet explorer, no microsoft office shortcut, etc...I have next to nothing in my system tray.

I have used this same user setup for months and never had a problem before.

I said...it was strange.

i assume your using winblows, and then my next question is have you rebooted recently? windows itself is one big memory link, and often runs several instances of it's own software (because the first few times fail, and rather then debug m$ft made it open another copy)

Mkinser · May 20, 2002, 15:43

I am using Windows 2000 to be precise. I tried to do a shut down, but couldn't get enough memory resources to actually shut down. I ended up yanking the battery to re-boot.

After that it was fine.

Sabre2th · May 20, 2002, 15:48

He said before that it was a fresh boot, Uber