# Rome Total War - Crash to desktop



## lbalias (Apr 1, 2012)

Running the CD version (gold edition II) of the game for the last year on my system. Recently it has begun to time out every 30 seconds - during startup, during play. It comes back to the exact spot where I left it, but playing in 15-30 second intervals pretty much ruins the fun. I've tried rebooting, remove/reinstalling, altering preferences - no improvement. Help?

My system - Dell Inspiron 546, AMD Athlon II X2-250 - 3.00 GHz, 4GB RAM, Windows 7 SP1


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

Hello and welcome to TSF

I presume you have the 64 bit windows 7
try to run the game in compatibility mode (right click on the game's shortcut, choose properties -> Compatibility
under compatibility mode tick run this program in compatibility with
choose Windows XP SP3


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## lbalias (Apr 1, 2012)

Hi and thanks for the welcome!

So I tried what you suggested - eventually actually following your instructions. Before I really understood what you were instructing, though, I accidentally did something else....

I right clicked on the shortcut, but (due to my lack of understanding your instructions) selected "run as administrator". This actually worked - the game ran without crashing. It did exhibit some strange behavior, though - cities without governors allowed me to select taxation levels and even build new buildings. When I moved governors into previously ungoverned cities, they still acted as if there was no governor.

However, I then re-read your instructions, and actually did what you had suggested. This time, though, there was no improvement - the "every 30 second" crash to desktop started again. I tried rebooting and ran the game again with the compatibility set as you had suggested - same problem. I re-tried the "run as administrator" trick and that also failed.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help!


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

Have you tried to download an official update?


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## lbalias (Apr 1, 2012)

If by "official updates" you mean the patches (1.3, 1.5) - yes, I did load/install them - actually prior to giving up and asking for help on this forum. There didn't seem to be any impact at all on my CTD problem. I also saw some comments out on the internet that at least suggested that the Gold Edition already incorporated the patches.

If you mean something other than the patches, nevermind all that stuff above. I'd be very interested in knowing more about official updates.

FYI - I don't actually play the game by fighting the battles in detail. I play pretty much always at the strategic level, so auto-resolve all land and sea battles.


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

Update, patches, whatever you want to call them. They're all the same thing.

However sometimes there are unofficial patches from fans, though you'd have to look around for those. 

It does baffle me that your game works as Administrator but doesn't work properly... perhaps if you turned off your Windows Firewall, occasionally that messes with a game.


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

OK try this

you have windows 7 64-bit

so you should have 2 "Program files" Folders

"Program Files x86" and "Program Files"

it could be that the game is installed in these two folders, so the game folder is split

what you need to do is this:
First remove the game using Revo uninstaller (from my sig)
also remove all its remains from the registry and from your HDD when prompted

re-install the game but this time on a custom folder (eg: c:\games\Total War)


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