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Okay, so after a bevy of virus issues I decided it was high time for a reformatting. So, I reformatted my hard drive a couple days ago and I'm in the process of getting everything back together.

Everything seems to be fine, but when I tried to run Civs4 it either automatically reboots me or shows blue screen of death with something about a ntoskrnl.exe error.

I'm running windows 2000 pro.

Things I've done to try to remedy this:

- rebooted computer (duh)
- ran windows update, made sure SP4 installed
- Virus/spyware scans
- updated CD/DVD rom firmware&drivers
- updated geforce video card drivers
- patched up Civs
- uninstalled and reinstalled patch
- read through support pages on Civs4 website

I'm out of ideas, since this game worked without any problems at all before the reformatting.. with a clean slate I thought this would be easy!

Any and all help is appreciated, thanks!

- Sandy

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Following 's report of a kernel-level crash when launching a game, here are focused diagnostics and practical steps that help find the real cause instead of guessing. Kernel crashes on 3D apps are most often caused by a kernel-mode driver, bad RAM, disk corruption, or power/thermal faults. Collecting evidence first makes troubleshooting efficient.

Check the system crash dumps and event log before changing drivers. Confirm small memory dumps are being written and copy the files from the dump folder to a safe location. Open a dump in WinDbg (Debugging Tools), run .symfix then .reload, then !analyze -v to locate the module that faulted — that module name is the best lead. Also review the System log in Event Viewer for stop codes or driver names that match the dump output.

Run hardware isolation tests: boot Memtest86 (multiple passes) and test each RAM stick individually; run chkdsk C: /r to rule out disk corruption; swap or test the GPU in another system or use an alternative adapter if available; check PSU health and system temperatures and reset BIOS to defaults (disable any overclock). Reseating RAM and the graphics card can catch intermittent contacts.

Perform a clean driver/OS check: uninstall the suspect kernel-mode driver in Safe Mode and perform a clean reinstall, or try a known-stable older driver if the newest is problematic. Do a clean boot (msconfig) to rule out nonessential drivers/services. Reinstall the game’s redistributables (DirectX/VC++ runtimes) if missing. If dump analysis points to a specific third-party driver, update or remove that driver rather than chasing symptoms. Back up critical data before major changes; the dump analysis usually points directly to the root cause.

Member Avatar for Photonic

Just fixed it.. had to reinstall SP4 for it to work. Thanks anyway!

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