Hi folks,

Summary:
I'm trying to run Civ4/BTS under a normal user account in MS Windows XP Pro SP2, but it won't start. An account with adminstrator privileges on the other hand plays the game just fine. I want to play the game under normal user account. How do I do that?

Long Version:
The hardware in question is a HP Compaq xn6325 Laptop with an ATI Xpress 1250 Chipset with an IGP RV482 (roughly equivalent to a Radeon X800), an AMD Athlon X2 TL60 CPU, 4 GB of RAM and a Philips DVD-Multidrive (i. e. +,- and DVDRAM writer).

Here is a short summary of what I did:

I installed MS Windows XP Pro on a spare partition. I patched it up to SP2 and the current level of MS Updates, then I went through driver hell (all drivers are now the latest available. I installed the latest Firefox, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Avast AVS and everything seems to be working fine now. I'm actually typing this post from within MS Windows XP Pro.

I then installed Civ4 from an Administrator account and selected the "Install for all users" and the "add Civ to the exception list of the built-in FW" options. After a successful install I patched the game to version 1.74.

Then I installed BtS from the same Administrator account. I de-selected the options for Gamebuddy and the Fireaxis newsletter. The installation succeeded and I patched the game to version 3.03.

I logged in as a normal user I newly created. Launching the game from the desktop shortcut results in an error message that I have to insert the game disk. Of course the game disk was inserted. To be sure I ejected and re-inserted the disk. The autoplay dialog popped up and asked me what I wanted to do, I selected "Play the game". The game informed me that the disk was not inserted...

I then tried the original Civ4 disk, but to no avail. Neither BtS nor Civ4 itself would start, instead I got the above described situation.

I logged in as a user with Administrator privileges again and sure enough, the game would start without a problem. So, the game is capable of running.

I then read a lot of threads in this forum and other sites about potential solutions without results. I learned that I'm not alone but nobody had a solution to this problem. Now, those threads were all old, dating back to 2005 or so. This looks an awful lot like an access rights issue but I have no clue whatsoever regarding MS Windows XP's privilege system (or MS Windows XP in general, e. g. are there some kind of log-files to check, etc?) and need some help here.

Any hints?

See this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5759246&postcount=1) for a possible workaround to running BTS as a normal user under Win XP. The issue with seeing the disc is another matter and I'm afraid I can't help with that unless the workaround also manages to cure that.

It's possible that patch 3.03 may fix this but I haven't tested it. However since patch 3.03 causes graphics glitches and the next patch will hopefully be out in the next week I would avoid it.

Hello Sam, thank you very much for your input.

Unfortunatly it is not solving my issue. After I changed the access permissions on the Fireaxis folder and all subfolders (a quite complicated maneuver, I have to say) the situation still prevails.

I insert the Civ4/BtS CD, the autoplay dialog pops up, I click "Play the game" and the game tells me that no CD is inserted. Hmh... I will try a No-CD patch next, maybe that helps.

i am having this problem as well and its getting really annoying that i paid 30 bucks for this buggy trash. I just wanted it for fall of heaven 2 i really don't care about the actual game. Me thinks firaxis needs to do a wee more bug testing before they ship this junk. Any more ideas would help. i have registry keys as fully shared, i believe all my other folders are as well.

Hello again,

applying a No-CD hack works. Unfortunatly the new patch 3.13 requires the DVD again. *sigh*

Saibot, if you have the same issue, you can play the game with administrator privileges. This is, of course, a less than optimal solution and the producer should be working on this. Needing administrator privileges to run should be unacceptable in MS Windows environments since 2000, too.

BTW, is there some official channel that works? The Take2 online support function is not, well, functioning. ;)