Civilization 2 Gold Problems

[Tulac]

I have the ripped civ2 gold version, that I downloaded from the web (most probably here when it wasn't ESA'd), and it works perfectly fine... Until it crashes. This always happens after around 10 minutes of playing, here's what I tried: every compatibility mode, running with VDMsound, turning off MSN, firewall, everything else running in the background.
The computer restarts by itself without any error report, so I've made windows show a BSOD so I can see what the problems are, mostly gives IRQL_LESS_NOT_EQUAL, or PAGE_FILE... something. Of course none of the solutions on the internet have helped me. I've also tried to play it in safe mode, where it also crashes after around 10 minutes but without the BSOD, but still I have to manually reset my PC.
My Specs:
Windows XP (SP2, but it didn't work without SP2 either)
AMD XP2000+
256 MB RAM
QDI motherboard (VIAKT400 chipset)
40GB hard disk
GF4mx440
Interesting that I also had exactly the same problem with running Baldur's Gate, so if anyone might know a solution to my problems I'd give them a thousand thanks.

[edemark]

Hi
Just an idea (not garateed that will help). So to play this game in linux via wine you have to disable the sound. You can try that.

hope it helps
(actually this is my favourite game title)
I remember i played it last in winme (you can also try to set up dualboot with win98 if you have it as some games just does not support xp)
pd: actually i was checking up on the wine page of the game there is a link to a fan site that has patches so you might have a look to see if you can find something helpful
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=4849

[Scatty]

I think the error has something to do with sound output. Maybe the game's files are corrupt, though if you say you get the same error with Baldur's Gate that won't be it. What soundcard are you using? If it's an onboard souncard it might help to get a normal soundcard, or maybe it will also help to update the drivers for the card.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Virtual PC 2004 can also help, if you set up Windows 98 on it. It's an alternative to dual boot, though doesn't have _all_ advantages of it.

[Tulac]

Ah, sorry guys for not informing you sooner, but I solved the problem. I took out my RAM memory it was full of dust and so were the connectors, turns out that RAM wasn't inserted correctly either, and it now works fine. The only thing that still boggles my mind is why didn't I have problems with newer games, if I had problems with every game/application then I'd probably check that sooner.
Thanks for trying to help though, appreciate it.