I just sent a PM to Ori in hopes that he could help me out. But just in case he is too busy, I figured I would see what the rest of the community thought about my problem........

I have been reading some posts here on CivFanatics about situations similar to mine. I have been playing Civ4 just fine for over a year now. A couple of months ago Civ4 just started becoming very laggy with what seemed to be a very low frame rate. It was working just fine for the longest time but one day decided to go bad. I did not change a thing with the in-game settings or any parameters outside of the game. Now I do have a laptop that is a couple of years old now but it ran vanilla Civ4 just fine for quite some time without any issues. I saw you ask others for some info on their system so you could diagnose the problem or even hadf them send you some info on their system. If you've got the time, could you try to help me out? I would really appreciate it. I have been playing Civ3 in the meantime but would really like to get Civ4 back to the way I had it. Please let me know what info you'd like from me when you get a chance.

Thanks for your time!

- manooly

:salute:
in your pm you also hinted at a complete reinstall - if so :please: follow the post I quote below - if you don't have warlords or Besond the Sword just ignore those lines and just do what is marked Vanilla...
If do not have BtS: patch Vanilla to 1.74 only AFTER patching to 1.61 and Warlords to 2.13 only AFTER patching to 2.08


install the most recent version of DirectX 9c from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en)

then do the following for a clean reinstall:

Uninstall and Reinstall Civ4 Warlords BtS :

Try to follow this order when doing stuff:
Use Control panel to uninstall Beyond the Sword, then Warlords, then Vanilla
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\beyond the sword" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\beyond the sword" manually
(note: application data is a hidden directory so you need to configure windows explorer to show hidden files, also these directories in application data are sometimes removed by the uninstall routine)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8}" (Civ4)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{3E4B349F-10B5-4586-9D99-489A90A8B228}" (Warlords)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{32E4F0D2-C135-475E-A841-1D59A0D22989}" (BtS) (note: InstallShield Installation Information is a hidden directory so you need to configure windows explorer to show hidden files).
Install Vanilla, immediately patch it to 1.61 (download it fresh from here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=3))
Install Warlords, immediately patch it to 2.08 (download it fresh from here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=3344))
Install Beyond the Sword, immediately patch to 3.13 (download it fresh from here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=7412)).

Thanks for your reply Ori. All I have is Vanilla civ4 (No warlords or BtS). I will delete everything you stated and then re-install. Looks like I simply should re-install vanilla Civ4 then patch to 1.61 and then to 1.74 (after installing the direct x update).

Thanks for your reply Ori. All I have is Vanilla civ4 (No warlords or BtS). I will delete everything you stated and then re-install. Looks like I simply should re-install vanilla Civ4 then patch to 1.61 and then to 1.74 (after installing the direct x update).
:yup: :yup:

Ori, here is my dxdiag file.....

I am currently re-installing Civ4 now. Let me know what you think.

Thanks again!

with 2 GB Ram and 2 GHz the game should run fine - though on huge maps and late eras it might take a few minutes between turns, but it should not lag during the turns. Your graphics card is most likely the bottleneck - and with a driver almost 3 years old I'd bet there is a newer one out there that should work better with current games.

Edit: the HP website does list at least one newer driver - though it is only from March 2005 instead of February 2005 you have currently, but it is a different version number, so definitely worth a try. Obviously the 64 MB video memory will still be the bottleneck, so you might need to play with lower then max settings...

Ori,
Thanks for your reply. I did finally get Civ4 re-installed and running again. It does still have a lag, especially when I get to the city screen. I can barely move around in the city screen. I hate to be a pain, but could you send me a link to my latest video driver? I am never able to find it. If not, I understand. Let me know if you have any other suggestions to try after the video driver.

BTW: Is there a setting to make the city screen lower rez or something like that?

Thanks again!!!

- manooly

most of the graphics settings are available in the ingame options - some especially for the videos are accessible only in the civilizationIV.ini but I would only touch them if its really necessary, since they do make the game very ugly.
You might want to install NeverMind's static Leaderheads and Movies packs (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=161083) - since those really put a burden on your card.
regarding the driver:
I could help out - but HP lists two different laptops with the same abridged version number that is listed in the dxdiag results - you'd need to post the complete name of your laptop it starts with
Pavilion zv5200
but has a few more letters :)

Ori, the leaderheads and the in-game movies seem to play fine. The opening movie freezes about 2 seconds into it though (I always loved the opening). Do you know how to fix this?

Are NeverMind's static Leaderheads and Movies packs just still pictures of the leaders and wonders? I think I may skip this especially if my videos seem to be playing ok. Whaddya think? Will I see an overall increase in performance if I install these anyways?

The main problem I seem to be having still is when I get into the city screen. It brings the game to a crawl and becomes very hard to manuever within this screen. I did not see any options to make this set at a lower quality.

My laptop says it is an HP Pavilion zv5000. I downloaded the latest 30132sp.exe driver that says it was from 03/2005. When I install that driver it states that it is still from 02/2005. Strange, but I do think I have the latest one loaded.

Let me know if you might have any other suggestions. Thanks!

I just proposed the static leaderheads - (especially those) since they do cause lags for a lot of people - if they are fine for you, don't use them. They are indeed just still pictures.
Unfortunately there is no good option to reduce the settings just for the city screen - is the problem the same if you set all graphics options to low resolution?

Yep, all graphics options are currently set to lowest resolutions and I still get the lag in the city screen.