Civilization V crashing? Getting errors? Cannot save? Well do not worry, we have a huge list of fixes. See below for them all.

DEAL ALERT: Civilization is on sale for $29.99 at Amazon.com. You can find Civilization V on Amazon here.

Note: We have included the system requirements of the game at the bottom of this page.

Civilization Won’t Save
Step 1. Navigate to your Sid Meier’s Civilization V folder, and open the “Config.ini” file with notepad. (You can usually right click the file and hit edit)
Step 2. About 3/4 of the way down you will see the following

; Save Path – relative to working (Civ5) folder
FileName=

After FileName = add the location you would like to save your game. For example:

Windows Vista and 7

FileName = C:\\Users\\(Your username here without parenthesis)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5\\Saves\\

Windows XP

FileName = C:\\Documents and Settings\\(Your username here without parenthesis)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5\\Saves\\

Step 3. Hit save and try relaunching Civilization V. You should be able to save now.
Location of Civilization V Bonus Content/Sound Tracks

You can find the location of the bonus content and music in your steam folder. It should be located here.

Windows x86 / 32Bit Users:

C:\\Program Files\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\sid meier’s civilization v\\Assets\\DLC\\DLC_Deluxe\\Soundtrack

OR

Windows 64Bit Users:

C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\steamapps\\common\\sid meier’s civilization v\\Assets\\DLC\\DLC_Deluxe\\Soundtrack

Sponsored:

Civilization V crashes, has graphical glitches and performs poorly while using ATI/AMD video cards
1. Try updating your ATI Catalyst drivers to the latest version.

2. Run the game in windowed mode. You can see directions how to do so below.

3. Update your game to the latest patch. At the time of this article, two patches have already come out.

4. Make sure to turn your fan settings up for your video card. This game makes your computer run hot. High temperatures can give you graphical glitches, and bad performance.

5. Look at the other fixes below.

Civilization V crashes, has graphical glitches and performs poorly while using nVidia video cards
1. Try updating your nVidia drivers to the latest version.

2. Run the game in windowed mode. You can see directions how to do so below.

3. Update your game to the latest patch. At the time of this article, two patches have already come out.

4. Make sure to turn your fan settings up for your video card. This game makes your computer run hot. High temperatures can give you graphical glitches, and bad performance.

5. Look at the other fixes below.

How to force Civilization V into “windowed mode”.

Navigate to your game installation folder. This is normally located:

Windows x86 / 32Bit Users:

C:\\Users\\(USERNAME)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

OR

Windows 64Bit Users:

C:\\Documents and Settings\\(USERNAME)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

Step 2. Look for GraphicSettingsDX9.ini , GraphicSettingsDX10.ini, or GraphicSettingsDX11.ini depending on which version of DirectX you are using. Right click the respective file and click edit. If no edit option is there, just open the file in notepad.

Step 3. Scroll down to the bottom of the document and find where it says “FullScreen = 1“. Change it to “FullScreen = 0” (no quotes.) Save and exit. If you want to force Anti Aliasing than keep this file open and scroll down below for the anti-aliasing fix.

Step 4. Delete all the .db files located in the cache folder.

Step 5. Relaunch Civilization V, you are now out of full screen.

Anti-Aliasing does not work with DirectX 10 or DirectX 11
Navigate to your game installation folder. This is normally located:

Windows Vista/7

C:\\Users\\(USERNAME)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

OR

Windows XP

C:\\Documents and Settings\\(USERNAME)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

Step 2. Open GraphicsSettingDX11.ini or GraphicsSettingDX10 (whatever one is there).
Step 3. Scroll down to the bottom and change “AllowLeaderAA” to “0”. This should take care of it for you.

Civilization V Crashes When Users Open the Civlopedia in DirectX 10 or DirectX11
Currently the only working fix is to run the game in DrectX 9. When other fixes come out I will let you know. Make sure to look for game patches as well.

Civilization V System Requirements
This game is very intensive on your computer. Because of how much calculation that goes into it and the size of the maps, you really do need to meet the minimum requirements as close as possible.

Civilization won’t Connect in Multi-player
Try to disable your firewall. You can also visit steam’s forums and open the necessary ports.

Civilization V failed to launch when clicked
Step 1. Restart your computer.
Step 2. Navigate to your Civ V folder and try launching the game from there by right clicking the exe and choosing “Run as Administrator”.
Step 3. Try changing the property of the game by right clicking the game exe, choosing the compatibility tab, and choosing Windows XP SP2/SP3.
–If that still does not work–
Step 4. Go to steam index/common/civilization v and delete all the files with the extension type “srcds_run“.
Step 5. Open Steam and validate the integrity of the game cache.

Civilization V crashes when playing on large, and huge maps.
First check to see if you meet the game requirements. The larger the map, the more RAM, CPU and GPU usage you have to worry about. The more players (and computers) you have, the worse it will get too.

Civilization V has run “Out of Memory” Error Solution
Step 0. First make sure you meet the game requirements below.
Step 1. Before launching the game, press control+alt+delete and see how many processes you are running and how much memory you have left.
Step 2. End unnecessary tasks.
Step 3. Close out of all unnecessary programs.
Step 4. Lower your game settings (anti aliasing, resolution, etc.)

Civilization V has run “Out of Memory” Error Solution Part 2
Still not working after you did the above?
Step 1. Navigate to your Sid Meier’s Civilization V folder, and open the “Config.ini” file with notepad. (You can usually right click the file and hit edit)
Step 2. Scroll down till you see the following

HideOutOfVRamWarning = 0

and change it to

“HideOutOfVRamWarning = 1

Step 3. You can now continue playing and won’t get that message.

Civilization V Error Code: -5009 : 0x8000ffff
Step 1. Clean out your temporary folder. You can find this by press windows+R -> CMD (or start-> run-> CMD) and type “set temp” to get the location. Now delete all the files located in that folder.
Step 2. Navigate to

Windows x86 / 32Bit Users:

C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime

OR

Windows 64 Bit Users:

C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\InstallShield\\Professional\\RunTime

and rename IsProBE.tlb to IsProBE.bak.
Note: You can delete this file if you want, but I would just rename it to be safe.
Step 3. Re-run the installer as an administrator by right clicking -> run as admin. If you cannot do this, just try re-running the installer anyway.

Game is not located on the Civilization V install disc?
Some versions of the game require users to actually download the game through steam. If you want to install the game through the disc follow the directions below.

How to Use Steam to launch the retail version of the game
Step 1. Log into steam and choose Library
Step 2. Right click on Civilization V, select delete local content and confirm.
Step 3. Insert the disc into your computer.
Step 4. Close steam (All the way!)
Step 5. Press Windows+R or navigate to start -> run
Step 6. Type

Windows x86 / 32Bit Users:

“C:\\Program Files\\Steam\\Steam.exe” -install E:

or

Windows 64 Bit Users:

C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\Steam.exe” -install E:

Steam will now open and you should be able to continue installing the game through the disc.

Unable to Load .dll file
Verify the integrity of your files via steam.

Civilization V crashes while loading intro movie
Step 0. Check to see if you meet the game requirements listed below. If you do, update your video card drivers to see if that fixes it.
Step 1. If you are still receiving errors, navigate to the following location:

Windows Vista/7

C:\\Users\\(USERNAME)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

OR

Windows XP

C:\\Documents and Settings\\(USERNAME)\\Documents\\My Games\\Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

Step 2. Open usersettings.ini by right clicking it and hitting edit (or opening with notepad.)
Step 3. Scroll down till you see “SkipIntroVideo = 0”. Change this value to 1. Now save and exit.
Step 4. Navigate to

Steam/SteamApps/common/Sid Meier’s Civilization V/DirectX

and run Dxsetup.exe.

Still having problems? Try running the DrectX9 version if you aren’t. You can also try updating your directx drivers.

Fix DirectX9, DirectX10, and DirectX11
Step 1. Navigate to

steamapps\\common\\sid meier’s civilization v\\directx

Launch “DXSetup.exe” and install.
Step 2. Reboot

Civilization V Out of Range Error or black screen
Step 1. In Steam, right click Civilization V and click properties -> Set launch options.
Step 2. Add “-w 1024 -h 768 -refresh 59”
Note: You can also set refresh to 60.
Step 3. Save your settings and launch the game. You can now go to the settings in game and set up your proper resolution/refresh rate. Set it and quit out of Civilization V.
Step 4. Remove “-w 1024 -h 768 -refresh 59(or 60)” from the launch command.
Step 5. Enjoy playing.

Civilization V DirectX 10, DirectX 11 Launcher Bug Fix
Step 0. Make sure you meet the requirements for DirectX10 and DirectX11. Also make sure you have steam and Civilization V closed.
Step 1. Navigate to you steam.exe file and right click it -> properties -> compatibility tab -> Uncheck compatibility mode.
Step 2. Now try playing

Recommended Requirements
CPU: Quad-core processor @ 1.8GHz
Memory: 4.0GB
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9800 / ATi 4800
DirectX: DirectX 11