So as an administrator(and the only user on this computer) when i try to remove write only on the hof folder(or in fact any folder) everything seems to work fine, however after clicking apply and/or ok the write protection is still there(it even takes several minutes to do it for the entire fraxis folder if i try to do so...). Is there any way to fix this? It sucks that i can't play on this computer like this...

See if any of the info here is helpful ...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6208836&postcount=1

dV

We collected all the various Vista fixes and put them on a tab on the HOF Mod page: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/mod.php?show=vista

Not helping... The problem as i said is that i can't remove the read only...

what problem is the read only causing?

what problem is the read only causing? He mentioned to me he is getting the "locked modified assets" message (or whatever that message says) when the mod tries to open.

This is in the context of trying to play SGOTM 07 in vanilla where the problem is arising.

I note that my Vista computer exhibits the same inability to undo read only in Games and in Program Files x86 that oyzar describes, but I am not having problems with the SGOTM.

He has patched BTS to 3.17 ... any chance that changed vanilla dlls (or shared dlls) like 3.13 did?

dV

I don't have any problems with the administrator functions in Vista. I also don't have problems getting mods or mapfinder (apart from screen shots) to agree with Vista.

My problem is that my Vista laptop crashes somewhat frequently when playing Civ IV. It's not all the time. Some nights I can play for several hours without a crash. Others times I get three or four crashes in one night. Recently I experienced two crashes in the course of a single long game.

The crashes aren't even consistent. Sometimes I get a blue screen with some text, other times I get a blank black screen, and still other times the game simply freezes up followed by the computer rebooting itself after a few minutes.

I am more of a computer hardware guy than an operating system tweeker, but I work with Uncle Thrill who is a Computer Scientist (by both work and education). He has helped me to change the power settings and some of the other Vista features to improve performance. He has also helped me to customize my network settings to play multiplayer over our network (at work...I know it's a tough job). We have not been able to alievate the problem with the crashes though.

Have other people experienced similar problems?

Does anyone have any advice that I might try?

honestly don't get a vista pc, sounds like you are way ahead of me with coping with the half baked joke that microsoft calls an operating system though

any tips for getting vista to use up less of my processing power?

Not really. My laptop has processiong power, graphics generation, and system memory for days. It just crashes occasionally. To be honest, the crashes don't bother me that much because I can spend the 5 minutes or so during reboot and reload to get a drink, use the restroom, or maybe even check some of the equipment that I am babysitting at work.

I have to say that my Vista computer (purchased to SOLVE a repetitive CIV 4 crashing problem about 15 months ago) does not give me crash problems ... I can't remember it ever crashing during CIV (might be one or at most two I have forgotten about).

My previous crashes were due to a low end graphics card were solved by new Vista box having 256 of dedicated video ram.

Vista, for me, has been pretty happy with Civ 4, other than the permissions issue causing the HOF mod options screen to be uncloseable, until Bede showed us how to fix that.

@ Mesix: If you open system folders, do you have read only selected by default? And if you remove that and click apply, then re-examine the properties, is the read only still in effect? Or is that just a problem for me and oyzar? :lol:

Maybe to undo that you have to change it in the ultimate parent folder for that folder? Or maybe that is the mechanism that generates the permission dialogue boxes that pop up?

dV

Vista tends to give the 'Windows Explorer Not Responding' every now and then, but other then that, no major problems.

Vista tends to give the 'Windows Explorer Not Responding' every now and then, but other then that, no major problems.

So how do i get the hof mod to run? I can't remove the read only which the guide say i should do...

Even though it may still show 'Read Only' in your properties, I suggest you try a game out and see if it works. Mine also says 'Read Only', yet it works. I would suggest playing a duel sized map on chieftain with one opponent on marathon speed. Then just sent your warrior over to raze the city. This game won't take more then a few minutes to play. Save it and submit it to the HOF and we can look it over and see if your settings are indeed correct.

Mine did the same thing for the first couple games. If you start a game and then go to the HOF page there is link to test the file to see if the settings are right?

Once I followed all the steps, mine works fine.

And it doesn't crash as much as Mesix's even if my screen is smaller.

So as an administrator(and the only user on this computer) when i try to remove write only on the hof folder(or in fact any folder) everything seems to work fine, however after clicking apply and/or ok the write protection is still there(it even takes several minutes to do it for the entire fraxis folder if i try to do so...).

The removal of the Read Only attribute applies only to the Properties of the objects (that is, the folders, .exe's, .dll's, etc.) you are changing, not to the objects themselves.

The directions are written such that first the properties of the objects are made available to be changed, then full control of all the objects is assigned to the User group.

When the dialogue box is closed, all the security attributes of the objects have been changed; and then the properties of all the objects naturally revert to Read Only. This is as it should be.

One must complete both steps in the procedure for the User group to gain full control of all objects. If the second step is never completed...

...

My problem is that my Vista laptop crashes somewhat frequently when playing Civ IV. It's not all the time. Some nights I can play for several hours without a crash. Others times I get three or four crashes in one night. Recently I experienced two crashes in the course of a single long game.

The crashes aren't even consistent. Sometimes I get a blue screen with some text, other times I get a blank black screen, and still other times the game simply freezes up followed by the computer rebooting itself after a few minutes.

...

Does anyone have any advice that I might try?

There is a hardware issue (http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/07/nvidia-meltdown-blame-game) with current Vista laptops that use nVidia video ASICs. The problem would manifest as you describe, as random crashes during hard usage, followed by the system cooling off while rebooting, then working ok again for awhile. If it is the hardware, the frequency of the crashes should increase over time.

If you have an HP laptop, a possible workaround is here (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c01087277&dlc=en).

There is a hardware issue (http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/07/nvidia-meltdown-blame-game) with current Vista laptops that use nVidia video ASICs. The problem would manifest as you describe, as random crashes during hard usage, followed by the system cooling off while rebooting, then working ok again for awhile. If it is the hardware, the frequency of the crashes should increase over time.

If you have an HP laptop, a possible workaround is here (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c01087277&dlc=en).

Thanks for the info.

I have an ASUS laptop.

My friend at work has a Sony laptop with the same graphics card and does not have the issues with crashing that I do.

Edit: After reading the attached article, it sounds like it may be a thermal problem. My laptop does run extremely hot. I wonder if there is some form of external cooling that I could try.

BTW, Nice Avatar!

Check this out. If heat is the problem, then this should do the trick.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828903&CatId=3486

Couldn't wait until tomorrow to tell me in person?

I ordered one. It probably won't arrive before I go on vacation.

I hope it is big enough for my laptop.

Today Vista had a popup in the systray that told me it wanted to report problems to Microsoft. The majority of the problems were "Unexpected Shutdown" or "nVidia Graphic Card" related. I think that you might be onto something Eqokimpi.

Unfortunately, Microsoft could not do anything but point the finger at other companies. The resolution to by problems was to update my nVidia and Logotech drivers to future updates that don't exist. Thanks Microsoft...what great support!

I perform the first step, altering the "Read-Only" of my BTS directory (which is different because I got it through Steam), it takes several minutes, and then when I look again they are all still "Read-Only" even though supposedly it is changed... I don't get it.

Mine also says read only, yet it still works. Your best bet is to play a short game and submit it to see. I suggest a marathon duel chieftain game with only one opponent. This game shouldn't take long then a couple of minutes to play, if even that.

Methos, thank you for responding. Regrettably, CIV won't even let me play a game with the HOFMod on in Vista... it will let me choose the settings, but when I hit "Play Game" or whatever it is, it just gives me one of those "Civilization IV has stopped working..." messages.

Methos, thank you for responding. Regrettably, CIV won't even let me play a game with the HOFMod on in Vista... it will let me choose the settings, but when I hit "Play Game" or whatever it is, it just gives me one of those "Civilization IV has stopped working..." messages.
That sounds like a problem you might get if the HOF Mod and the Civ4 patch levels don't match. Did you patch Vanilla to 1.74? BTS requires Vanilla 1.74. BTS uses stuff from the Assets folder there as well. You may want to change the read-only flag on the "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" folder too.

Ahh, that could be it... I was so eager to get into BOTM8 on my new machine that I only changed the attributes on the BTS folder. I will try changing the other one and see what happens. Honestly, I am not sure exactly how Steam manages the relationship between Vanilla and BTS during installation... I know it's not like doing it from the disks, since I had to replace the CVGameCore DLL or whatever that is when I managed to get this mod running on my XP machine. I love the mod, though... hope I can make it work in Vista. While I'm at it, is there a way to change the registry so I don't have to make a whole separate account just to play GOTM/BOTM? I am running Vista SP1, and I saw #3 at the bottom of y'all's excellent help page.

EDIT: I bought the games way after they were released, everything came from Steam all patched up.

Ahh, that could be it... I was so eager to get into BOTM8 on my new machine that I only changed the attributes on the BTS folder. I will try changing the other one and see what happens. Honestly, I am not sure exactly how Steam manages the relationship between Vanilla and BTS during installation... I know it's not like doing it from the disks, since I had to replace the CVGameCore DLL or whatever that is when I managed to get this mod running on my XP machine. I love the mod, though... hope I can make it work in Vista. While I'm at it, is there a way to change the registry so I don't have to make a whole separate account just to play GOTM/BOTM? I am running Vista SP1, and I saw #3 at the bottom of y'all's excellent help page.

EDIT: I bought the games way after they were released, everything came from Steam all patched up.Uh oh, Steam? :eek: You may not be able to play the BOTM just yet. I understand that Steam is updating people to 3.17 unless they have automatic updates turned off. The current version of the HOF Mod for BTS only support 3.13. We are working on one for 3.17.

I don't know much about Vista. Most of the fixes come from players that have already go done the same path before you. The problem with SP1, IIRC, was that the registry entry (the one pointing the user's My Documents path) that the mod uses to find the save file folder isn't there for some reason in the first admin account. You could always check and see if it is there. Maybe they patched it. :crazyeye:

Yeah, Steam... It's been great for some things, but it seems like it makes participating in a lot of the CFC stuff (HOF, GOTM, etc) a heck of a lot harder. If I had known this community was here, I would have bought the games on disk, that's for sure!

I think I may be updated to 3.17... my "About BtS" screen says:
Civ Version: 317
Save Version: 301
Build Version: 3.1.3.1
Build Date: Mon May 19 09:20:10 2008

I think you hit the nail on the head, Denniz. I tried the Vanilla mod and it worked fine... I think the BTS problem was the version mismatch. Thanks for your help!

Jack <--- eagerly awaiting HOF-3.17.001 !!!

My brother showed me how to change the compatibility options in Vista.

1. Right Click on your Civ IV shortcut
2. Select "Properties" from the pop up list
3. Select the tab labeled "Compatibility" along the top of the Properties menu
4. Change the compatibility options:

a. Check the box labeled "Run this program in compatibility mode..."
b. In the pull down menu select "Windows XP"

Since changing the compatibility options the game has not crashed nearly as much as it used to. Not sure if this will help anyone else, but I thought I would share it.