I have bought and installed CIV IV....after the installation, I click to launch the game; the loading picture apears and then...nothing....it just crashes. WHat can I do, it has anoyd me so much.

:) Welcome to CFC :)
Try downloading the most recent patch from here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=cat&id=12) and install that, if it still crashes post again :)

When I try to install the patch it tells me that there is no previous version of Beyond the Sword on my PC?

ah ok - now what do you have (I understood Civ4 as in no expansion packs) if that is the case you should obviously download the 1.74 patch linked on the site I linked to and not the Beyond the Sword one which is the newest for the 2nd expansion.

Thanks....I'll tell you if it works.

I've got the same problem, only I've installed the 1.74 patch, and while it loads everything up fine and shifts resolution and goes full-screen...it then totally blanks out, pauses, and then crashes. Windows tells me that Civ 4 has encountered a problem and needed to close. =\ Any alternative solutions?

Ah, here's my DXDIAG info, as well, for reference.

After a bit of fiddling, I noticed that the game seems to load everything just fine, but then crashes when it gets around to loading the fonts. Supremely odd; what can I do to remedy this?

Does the windows report say anything about the cause of the crash? (i.e. click on show report and the upper part of that should tell you a file name).
Edit: I just saw the font thing, I'll probably need to dig a bit for that, maybe I'll find something...
Edit2: please do post your windows error report, also how did you notice that it crashes at loading fonts?

It says the problem is with Civilization4.exe, but it crashes at the font section...

I noticed it crashes when it's loading fonts because...the loading screen at the beginning says it's loading fonts. And then it just crashes. XD

Here's the Windows error report, and thanks for all your help!

I forgot this:
:band: Welcome to CFC :band:
:D
I don't see the error report - but if it says civilization4.exe this is not informative anyway.
You can try some tweaks of the civilizationIV.in (in ...\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\)
open it with a texteditor and change the line that says:

; Set to 1 for no intro movie
NoIntroMovie = 0

to 1
and the one that says:


; Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask
FullScreen = 1

to 0
(these are two common causes of crashes and one can test those...)
Also:
set the following lines as depicted:

; Set to 1 for no python exception popups
HidePythonExceptions = 0


; Enable the logging system
LoggingEnabled = 1

; Enable synchronization logging
SynchLog = 1

; Overwrite old network and message logs
OverwriteLogs = 1

; Enable rand event logging
RandLog = 1

; Enable message logging
MessageLog = 1

then start the game again, if it crashes please zip all files in ...\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Logs and post them here.

Did all the changes, and it still crashed. I got SLIGHTLY farther, but it still crashed at the same point. I've attached the logs; I do hope that they're helpful!

Oh, attached the file, and thanks for the welcome! =D

either you have not patched to 1.74 or the patch did not succeed, this:

[897.484] VERSION: Save Version: 101

would say 103 otherwise, also it does not show the patch number like it would at the start of the init.log, like it does for my system:

[654.218] VERSION: Build: Wed May 16 22:50:52 2007
[654.218] VERSION: 1.7.4.0

unfortunately this means you should try to apply the 1.74 patch again and/or do a clean install if that does not help (this would include removing the stuff from the my games directory). I'd first download the patch from here or the firaxis site and reinstall that one...

yeah i have the same problem. i love civilization, and i haven't been able to play it for EVER. I played civ 4 for like 3 weeks on another computer. but this one, which is fantastic and NOBODY PLEASE SAY ANYTHING ABOUT MY SPECS NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH SAVE YOUR TEXT. I have Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, Nvidia GeForce 7900 GT 256mb. The only thing my be my DVD player, which is old. I will also soon be upgrading my Graphics Card Driver.

But yeah... i have had the error report on Civ 4 and now Beyond the Sword, MAKES NO SENSE. Nobody can give me an answer. Please help...

welcome to cfc
you'll find people here much more helpful if you do not attack them before asking for advice.
Now:
what error report and what problem do you have?