Sins of a Solar Empire Constantly Crashing

from Sins Forums

Hello. I recently purchased Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity so as to get the game and its expansions on a disk. The game, unfortunately, keeps crashing on my computer about five minutes into the game, regardless of whether I am in the menus or the game itself. I originally believed that it was an issue with my graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 4850). When the game crashes it creates these odd yellow and green graphical glitches. Once they appear, the game then disappears and the screen goes black. I see the cursor, and the game seems to keep trying to load to no effect. I can't escape back to Windows. My only recourse is a hard reboot by turning off the computer manually. The music, oddly, still plays when the game crashes. I upgraded my drivers to no effect.    

I am beginning to suspect, however, that the issue may be my operating system. I use Windows 7, and have noticed that other games of mine have crashed under similar circumstances. I've tried running the game as an administrator to no effect. I have also read on the forums here of others with issues with Vista. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding what course of action I should take? Do you think its a graphics card issue or an issue with Windows 7? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! 

technical
4,138 views 4 replies
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

My money is on graphics card, though it depends on what those 'glitches' you mentioned actually are.  Depending on the problem, you might be able to snag a screenshot of what they look like, which might help.  I've had multiple cards go bad in my day, and the hotter they got, the worse they got, so a 5 minute timer on failing seems about right for that kind of problem.  Do you have a spare video card you can try?

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

I suspect that the video card heatsink might b the cause of the problem. if you move the computer do you hear something sliding, and can see nothing that could slide in the computer? if so then the copper billet in the videocard heatsink might have detached from the alimimium fins & gpu causeing the problem

harpo

 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Thank you all for your advice and assistance. Ultimately it was the video card. Apparently the fan was set to low levels and the game would crash as a result. I've adjusted it to operate at a higher cooling level and now the game seems to work. Once again, thanks for the help!