Medieval Total War CTDs and Solutions

[LeftEyeNine]

Since it seems that Medieval Total War 's CTDs seem endless, we need a sticky over here to gather general methods to overcome this problem. Credits go to all those that dealt with this hassle and figured out something to help.

Above all usual routine of checking your all kinds of drivers and DirectX being up-to-date, here are the options you may try to solve your situation with MTW. Please use this thread to ask for help if none of these options work for you, instead of opening a new seperate thread. Here we go:

• MTW is an old buddy, so that sometimes updated video drivers bug him. Therefore, especially if you have a 5xxx series Nvidia graphics card, try reverting your video drivers to v61.76's, credited to be the most compatible graphics driver with MTW. However if you have a newer generation gfx card compared to 5xxx, this set may cause problems all over, may not even be a solution for MTW.

How to revert to an older set of drivers in a clean way:

1- Download Nvidia ForceWare v61.76 (Windows XP/2000 version. Browse to Nvidia.com for other OS versions). Do not install yet.
2- Uninstall your current gfx drivers from Add/Remove Program through your Control Panel which can be accessed through Start button of your Windows.
3- Get Driver Cleaner Professional and install it. The download link is a bit down the page. (Program also has a commercial version called Platinum which promises to have been better optimized, but this free version will do the trick for us)
4- Restart your computer and when your PC is about to load windows press F8 button to bring up loading options of Windows. Choose Safe Mode, hit enter and let it load windows that way.
5- When Safe Mode is loaded, it may give you a warning saying what this Safe Mode is all about. Just click right away to get it fully open.
6- Now run Driver Cleaner Professional. Since this is the Safe Mode where there are no visual supports, hence screen resolution is low, you may not be able to find the shorcut on your desktop. In that case you may try browsing your Program Files folder and find Driver Cleaner there and run its .exe from that location.
7- Now that you have Driver Cleaner Pro run, you must select Nvidia from Cleaning Selection dropdown menu.
8- Click Start and let it do the job. When it is finished you'll see Cleaning Finished! message at the bottom of the program window.
9- It's time to restart your PC after all thorough cleaning, so be it.
10- When you are normally logged into Wndows, it may say New Hardware Found blah blah, just click cancel and install old version drivers which were already downloaded. It will ask for another restart, and when that is done, you're done with downgrading your driver set peacefully.

• Another fix (recommended generally to Nvidia 6xxx/7xxx owners) is forcing Antialiasing 2x. This is done by:

1- Right Click your desktop and Properties > Settings > Advanced.
2- Look for the tab labelled by your graphics card model name.
3- Click "Performance & Quality Settings" from the panel opened leftwards.
4- Under General Driver Settings there should be a box telling the name of the settings and their values, such as "Antialiasing - Application Controlled", "Anisotropic Filtering - Application Controlled" and so on. Now you should left click where it says Antialiasing. You should see that there is a checkbox saying "Application Controlled" ticked. Remove the tick, so that now the slider is controllable. Draw the slider right for once, it should be now under 2x. Click Apply, then OK, another OK to close this window with modified settings. Voila!

• Try playing with Strategy Map and Battle Map resolutions. For example it always used to crush when I set the Strategy Map Resolution any higher than 800*600. It is also said that keeping both Strategy Map and Battle Map resolutions equal helps.

• As we have mentioned by the beginning, MTW does not get on well with newer GPU's. If you have such gear, you may try disabling AGP Texture Acceleration. Here is how:

1- Click Start, Run...
2- Type "dxdiag" without hyphens.
3- If it asks for something related to WHQL, you can say "No" to skip that stuff and get to DirectX Diagnostics window right away.
4- When you're there, click "Display" tab up there. And then find "AGP Texture Acceleration" somewhere in the middle. It is probably already enabled, so click Disable button next to it to get done. Click Exit to close this window now.

So it is all this for now. If you have any other solution, feel free to contact me by PM so I can update the info gathered here.

Thanks again to all contributors who helped solving this issue.

[ULC]

Hi I'm new and having problems loading the campaign map. When it loads, it immediately sends me to the campaign map options menu (I don't see the campaign map). If I try to go back, it just loops endlessly. I have a ATI Rage Fury Pro/xpert2000. I also bought a prophet and should be getting it soon. Will installing the Prophet solve my problem, or can it be solved with the graphics card I have now?

[TancredTheNorman]

I am having that exact same problem.

It is just back and forth I never get to see the campaign map, and my computer is not new at all.

[tekheppicor]

Hi, this may be a little outdated but i recently got a copy of MTW and i have the CTD error. I have STW and it runs fine which is what irks me. I have a Radeon 7000 series whatever that means and I was able to get MTW to run on my junker comp no problem with some nightmare old Nvdia I believe but that comp cant handle more then a few hundred men on screen at a time. Any solution would be great, until then I guess I'll just conquer Japan.... again.....

[Dutch_guy]

Hi, this may be a little outdated but i recently got a copy of MTW and i have the CTD error. I have STW and it runs fine which is what irks me. I have a Radeon 7000 series whatever that means and I was able to get MTW to run on my junker comp no problem with some nightmare old Nvdia I believe but that comp cant handle more then a few hundred men on screen at a time. Any solution would be great, until then I guess I'll just conquer Japan.... again.....

What are your exact specs, RAM, OS, drivers (new, or outdated) and the such.

And where does it crash, after loading a save, or at the start of a campaign.

Lastly, have you tried the AA fix, if yes, does the problem persist even after that ?

[tekheppicor]

Windows xp
2.4 gig cpu
640 mb ram

Radeon 7000 series driver version 6.14.10.6360
Also noticed this under display adapters

Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics controller driver version 6.14.10.3691

looks like the drivers haven't been updated since mid 2003 but the more I read the more it looked like thats where I wanted to be

by AA I believe you mean anti aliasing, I have tried some but I'm a little confused. I have under the display properties/settings/advanced two tabs that have AA filters. The first, OpenGL has it disabled by default and so I tried enabling it at 2x (didnt try 4x yet I'm not computer literate enough to feel comfortable tinkering with too much with out guidance) and the game seemed to run for about 2 minutes longer then normal (3 min) total with out crash. The other tab is Direct3D which has the checkbox application preference marked and AA set by default to 4x and greyed out, I have to uncheck the app. pref. box to manually move the aa and once again, not literate enough to just go in on a whim.

The game crashes once the campaign has been loaded, normally within the first turn, most often when I right click on anything to read the description but a fair amount of crashes doing anything else. Single battle is fine. Tuturiol crashed. STW runs like a dream. I've tried looking for info on the Radeon Drivers but everyone seems to be talking about Ndvia, personally I'm not even sure if a radeon is even able to hold up with the game, I don't use this comp for much gaming, just a nice breather inbetween work. Thanks for quick response and any help you can give.

Chris

[hosta]

hi quy:) i have same problem - i can´t play new campaign because mtw crashed before strategic map is revealed....do you know any solution?? thanks..

[Shay O'Phalen]

Hiya same problem as every one else,

can play custom battles and stuff but after trying to start a campain it crashed to the pause menu and then in the strategy map is set at 800-640 or whatever it is it CTD if it is higher it stays on menu.

Im not reyt sure bout all my specs cos i dont really know owt bout computers but it says i have an ATi Rage 128 pro ultra GL AGP is that my problem?

I have tried every thing except the changing drivers cos im not sure how to do and Im worried bout braking my computer

Ive done skip creds, disabled AGP, used every different screen setting i can, changed compatability etc just wondering if anyone can help cos im bored of my other games now and loved this game a couple of years ago when i used to play it.

thanks in advance

[Dutch_guy]

Hello,

Press start --> run --> type: 'dxdiag'.

A list of your computer specs will show up, let us know exactly what those are.

Further more, have you also tried the Anti-Aliasing fix as described in the first post of this thread ?

[Shay O'Phalen]

operating system: windows xp proffesional
system manufacturer: GBT
System model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Award modular bios v6.00pg
Processor: Intel pentium 4 cpu 1.60 ghz
memory: 576MB ram
Page file: 296 used, 1110mb available
Direct x version 9

is that what you need?

as for the anti aliasing, i dont know how to do it,

it says that you should see the name of your driver when you go to settings on display or something like that but i dont

thanks for the help

[Dutch_guy]

So basically you can't find something, a tab, which says ATi Rage 128 pro once you've completed step 1 ?

If it helps, after completing step one, for me the tab meant is on the utmost right of the screen.

1- Right Click your desktop and Properties > Settings > Advanced.
2- Look for the tab labelled by your graphics card model name.
3- Click "Performance & Quality Settings" from the panel opened leftwards.
4- Under General Driver Settings there should be a box telling the name of the settings and their values, such as "Antialiasing - Application Controlled", "Anisotropic Filtering - Application Controlled" and so on. Now you should left click where it says Antialiasing. You should see that there is a checkbox saying "Application Controlled" ticked. Remove the tick, so that now the slider is controllable. Draw the slider right for once, it should be now under 2x. Click Apply, then OK, another OK to close this window with modified settings. Voila!

Are you sure this really doesn't work for you ?

[Shay O'Phalen]

there isnt one,

it says it at the very top of the box, along with the name of my monitor though, but no tab

[GamblerTuba]

OS Win Vista Home basic (6.0 build6000)
Dell Inspiron (not sure if that matters)
AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual core 4000+
1022MB RAM
Direct X 10

NVidia GEForce 8300 GS 128MB Ram
Integrated RAMDAC
Approx total mem 368MB

Driver nvd3dum.dll,nvwdgf2um.dll
version 7.15.0011.5828

Ok folks, new to the board because i have a new computer and this ol' game and the two do not get along. (kinda like quantum theory and general relativity) And i am hoping to get them to coexist. (kinda like perfecting superstring theory)

Anyway, my CTD occurs whenever the campaign map should open regardless of computer or program resolution. Custom battles work ok but no campaign map EVER.

I have tried forcing AA to 2X and got nowhere. I tried turning off vertical synch (saw that somewhere) and no luck. When i run dxdiag i can see where AGP texture acceleration is enabled but it is not selectable. Possibly a change with Vista? I cannot disable the AGP text acc in that window, is there another way?

So far as drivers, seems like i have a newer grafix card than a lot of the ones discussed here but if i need to fiddle with the drivers i guess i will have to.

Any suggestions at all? Or should i go out and buy MTW2 and forget it? (is this comp beefy enough to handle MTW2?)

Thanks in advance all!
The Gambler

[caravel]

I have tried forcing AA to 2X and got nowhere. I tried turning off vertical synch (saw that somewhere) and no luck. When i run dxdiag i can see where AGP texture acceleration is enabled but it is not selectable. Possibly a change with Vista? I cannot disable the AGP text acc in that window, is there another way?

So far as drivers, seems like i have a newer grafix card than a lot of the ones discussed here but if i need to fiddle with the drivers i guess i will have to.

Try forcing even higher levels of AA, and see if that makes any difference. AGP doesn't really apply to you as the card is probably not an AGP card. I expect it's a PCI-E one.

Older drivers might fix it but there is only so far back that you can go with an 8xxx series card.

Try testing with different settings and try to lower your desktop resolution and colour depth to 1024*768*16 bit and set MTW to a 1024*768 campaign map resolution.

[GamblerTuba]

Thanks so much Cambyses! ?I think the culprit was actually the colors needed to be toned down to 16bit. Will let you know the long-term stability.

Here's the new problem (gggrrrrrr) when i enter the battle screen, i can select units group etc. but i cannot give the units any orders on the map itself. The move/attack cursor never appears. So now i can play on the campaign map but cannot play any battles. I can send them to another point using the minimap. (I even won a very simple siege that way) but in the main battle map the cursor never changes.

BTW i just ran out and bought Rome TW so we'll see if that works any better.

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

So...a problem I have!

Medieval CTDs as soon as I finish loading the strategy map. I just installed it, so this is on starting a new campaign.

If I Disable the AGP Texture Acceleration, then it works again. Yay!

But, then I install BKB Supermod. Now it no longer works. Same problem as before: CTD on loading the strategy map on both Super Eras and the vanilla Eras.

Any idea why this is? What's Supermod change that could revert any dxdiag changes?

[ThePainkiller]

I have spent the last four days trying to get my MTW 1.01 to work on my laptop. Finally, I got it. If anyone has Intell chipsets...try going back and installing the older drivers. I installed the one I had from the first day I recieved my laptop, it finally worked. Intel Chipsets = Old Drivers

[caravel]

So...a problem I have!

Medieval CTDs as soon as I finish loading the strategy map. I just installed it, so this is on starting a new campaign.

If I Disable the AGP Texture Acceleration, then it works again. Yay!

That does seem to work for some systems. What graphics card do you have?

But, then I install BKB Supermod. Now it no longer works. Same problem as before: CTD on loading the strategy map on both Super Eras and the vanilla Eras.

Any idea why this is? What's Supermod change that could revert any dxdiag changes?

It's a CTD but not the same CTD, something has probably gotten corrupted. Try redownloading the mod and reinstalling it. First uninstall MTW and do a clean install of it. If you did install BKBSM over an already modded game then that's why it's crashing.

I have spent the last four days trying to get my MTW 1.01 to work on my laptop. Finally, I got it. If anyone has Intell chipsets...try going back and installing the older drivers. I installed the one I had from the first day I recieved my laptop, it finally worked. Intel Chipsets = Old Drivers

You would have saved yourself four days if you'd read this sticky thread in it's entirety, where using older drivers for Intel Integrated graphics is already covered.

[Revenant]

Hello!

I just bought a new computer and MTW suddenly stops working for me...

The problem is the same as with others here: CTD just after campaign map is loaded and before it appears.

I have:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @2.66GHz

4Gb RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with latest drivers


I tried probably all proposed solutions:

changed resolution to 800 x 600 / 16 (changed desktop resolution too)
switched AA to 2x
disabled AGP texture acceleration

but the problem remained:(

[caravel]

You've tried pretty much everything suggested in the thread. The only thing I can suggest is that you try 1024*786 resolution for desktop/campaigns/battles and see if that makes any difference. Also try 32 bit colour on the desktop. Keep the 2x AA forced also.

[wladimirowicz]

Hello!
I'm trying to get Medieval Total War to work on Toshiba Satellite l300-129 with Windows XP Professional SP2. I'm unable to start campaign but on the other hand I can play quick, custom and historical battles.I supose that the main problem is my video card - Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family which is as I presume terrible, surprisingly though Rome Total War works fine and without problems.
Is there a solution?
Any help appreciated!

[caravel]

Hello!
I'm trying to get Medieval Total War to work on Toshiba Satellite l300-129 with Windows XP Professional SP2. I'm unable to start campaign but on the other hand I can play quick, custom and historical battles.I supose that the main problem is my video card - Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family which is as I presume terrible, surprisingly though Rome Total War works fine and without problems.
Is there a solution?
Any help appreciated!

RTW will run on most hardware setups. MTW being an older piece of software runs better on older hardware. Intel integrated graphics have always been an issue. I don't think older drivers are available for that graphics chip so there may be no known solution to get MTW running.

[Daniel_Beren]

Hello, it's my first post over here, so please forgive any mistakes.

I own a toshiba sattelite A135-S2286, with a ATI RADEOM XPRESS 200M, and a dual core pentium 1.6ghz. I'm using directX 10 and latest catalist driver for my video card, but unfortunatly windows vista.
I have MTW and VI instaled on it, and pach 2.01.
It runs ok trougth quick, custom and historic battles, but when I try loading the strategical map, on any campain stance (like tutorial, new campain etc...) the loading bar appears but bofore it start loading I seen to get a CDT.
Does any one know a way to get ir runing?

[caravel]

If you're only problem is the campaign map, then I think the "button fix" might solve your problem:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=79500

Good luck and welcome to the .org

[Daniel_Beren]

Thank you Caraveloto, but I think it does not solve my problem, I've tried everything posted in that topic, exept the drivers thing, and the agp thing, cause the directX 10 does not allow me to disable it.
Any thougths?

Thanks in advance

[Onion1]

Hello!
I'm trying to get Medieval Total War to work on Toshiba Satellite l300-129 with Windows XP Professional SP2. I'm unable to start campaign but on the other hand I can play quick, custom and historical battles.I supose that the main problem is my video card - Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family which is as I presume terrible, surprisingly though Rome Total War works fine and without problems.
Is there a solution?
Any help appreciated!

I had the same problem with my Mobile Intel 4500 MHD on Vista. I fixed it by increasing the Strategy map resolution to 1024x768. In main menu of the game go to Options->Video. Hopefully it will solve your problem, too.

[Rex Solomon]

Very well...after hours of looking through the official MTW forums and these here...I am desperate and hope I can get an answer that I have overlooked.

I am running vista 32 bit version with an ati radeon x1270 integrated video card. I got MTW out of some dusty corner, installed and applied the 1.1 patch.

Installing goes fine, intro screens go fine, battle tutorial goes fine...then, when I try to do a campaign tutorial or start a campaign, it goes to the loading bar...the red bar does NOT start to move, instead I crash back to my desktop...alas

I've tried changing the compatibility mode (98/me, 2000 AND xp sp2), I've tried all combinations of resolutions in the game, I've tried changing my own desktop resolution...all with the same result.

I tried to do the button thingie (should this work for MWT? I thought that was only for MTW VI, am I right?) but didn't work either...

I'm running out of options but would love to play again. Just finished up Shogun a couple of times and would love to continue in my "time travel" of total war games...

Hope you have a solution I overlooked!


Solomon

[caravel]

The button fix is your answer here. You will need to install that. It's the same file and in the same place for all version of MTW from 1.0 through 2.01

If that still doesn't work try lessening the amount of memory you have allocated to the onboard graphics in the BIOS setup. I reduced mine (integrated Radeon X1200) to 32MB and it speeded up the loading bar significantly. Also ensure that you're running the game at 1024*768 resolution or under.

[Rex Solomon]

Thanks for your fast reply!

I have tried the button swap for a second time...and it didn't work :(

I can't change anything that has to do with video setup in my bios...might have to do with gateway's restrictions on it. Setting my desktop to 1024x800 did not work either...I'm starting to lose hope now...I. Want. To. Play...I'm thinking about spamming the hell out of CA...but that probably won't work either :(

[katsusand]

Guys, I have an "Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile" Graphics Card

Whenever I try to start a campaign, It shows the "Pause menu" and then crashes to desktop

I am using MTW 1.0

Any help is appreciated.