After installing Civ 3 for the first time in ages the game hangs up on me.

It all starts after the intro movie with the big building. After it is complete the monitor switches to standby and then wont go back on even when trying Alt + tab etc. I can also hear the music in the background.

Can anyone help please.

Are you using an NVidia video card (GeForce, or some 3rd party card that uses Nvidia)?

If you are, try *removing* the drivers, and then installing the lates drivers from NVidia. (That seemed to help some people who were having similar problems last summer.)

Check this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10941).

I am using a geforce 2. I have the latest drivers for it.

Hmm. nVidia (a la GeForce) seems to be a common theme in display problems with Civ3 (at least). I don't know what to suggest, myself. :(

I dont understand it myself. The only time the monitor would switch to standby like that is when the comp goes off or the screen res is set to high(beyond the capability of the monitor). It is neither of those. I have tried using different resolutions but that doesnt help.