If you have WinXP, the "crashdump file" could be located here :

C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\[a new folder identified as a dump IF one was generated]*

*In my case, no such folder has been created yet, because the 4 freeze-crashes I have experienced not only froze the game-program : they also froze the whole system, requiring a hardware reboot.

You can also e-mail a detailed account (with the attachment of your DirectX Diag, system-specs text-file -- which you must create by running the DX Diag program and by asking it to save your info). E-mail to :

[email protected]

In my case, the 4 system crashes occurred both in windowed mode & full-screen mode. By saving the game on a regular basis, I could resume all my games and enjoy hours of fun gameplay. The crashes did not break my games and did not seem to have any negative effect on anything else : after reboot, WinXP came back on the desktop with no problem or error-ID message.

A spontaneous reboot often means your computer is tossing a Blue Screen of Death but is set to not display it. BSODs are generally caused by hardware or driver problems, and the error message it shows can help pin down exactly what the issue is.

To have your computer display BSODs instead of rebooting immediately, go to Control Panel->System Properties->Advanced Tab->Startup and Recovery Settings and uncheck 'automatically restart'.

The next time it crashes, you may get a BSOD similar to the one below (not all highlighted parts may be present):


Write down the information in the highlighted areas before turning your computer off. The information there can then be researched online to see if others have experienced similar problems, and what the cause was. You may also get a 'windows has recovered from a serious error' message when you turn your computer back on--if you do this, you should agree to send the report to microsoft. You'll then be forwarded to information about that error on Microsoft's knowledgebase, if they have any.