Solution for XML problems (German or (EU) version on US Windows)

Bennny2ooo · Oct 29, 2005

the new user account thing worked for me...

I have no clue why, but as long as it works I'm happy

thanx a lot

Shadowlord · Oct 29, 2005

Hmm. This reminds me of a problem with the old Magic: The Gathering computer game. On XP and win2k the deck editor tended to only show one card, and some people discovered that shutting down certain processes fixed it for them, but that didn't work for everyone, and the processes causing the problem were usually different for each person. I had another idea: I made a new account, but didn't switch to it - instead I right clicked the game's EXE, hit 'run as', put in the new account's name, and ran it - It worked.

Sound similar?

duder · Oct 30, 2005

The answer for me was updating my Realtek drivers.

alamo · Oct 30, 2005

There are temp files in your profile - look under \Document and Settings\...\Application Data.

Delete those and you don't need to make a new account.

kkizzee · Oct 30, 2005

WarMonkeY said:
It does, actually, help to update your audio driver..

I've got a realtek c97 or something, and updating its drivers really fixed this problem for me.. I know it doesn't make sense at first, but the the issue wasnt xml-related, but when the exe tries to init audio, it for some reason looks like an xml error, probably because it was the last thing it managed to do..

So, those of you not getting rid of what seems like an xml error, try updating your audio driver.

By the way, I kinda got the idea from a similar thread over at apolyton.

You're not going to like this but here it is. I was one of the many getting the following error:

Civilization IV will not load past the XML check screen

INIT log:

[32526.062] DBG: FILE Cat Init
[32526.734] DBG: NOT Using XML cache, failed to find crc.dat file
[32526.734] DBG: Game Init
[32526.734] DBG: Multiplayer Init

Tech support was useless except to point out that I was running older audio drivers (from '04). I usually blow off comments like that because I don't believe in fixing something that isn't broken. However, I finally updated them as a last resort and now it works.

You see, the problem has NOTHING to do with XML at all, but rather what the application does after checking the XML cache. The app tries to init the audio, and that's where it was quitting back to the desktop.

So, if you are having the above error, the problem is not with your XML but rather your sound card and or it's drivers.

civman4 · Oct 30, 2005

I'd tried everything short of reinstalling windows to fix the 'XML' problem... but then I updated my audio drivers and it worked! Thanks for the idea.

Melissa · Oct 30, 2005

I had almost given up after spending several hours trying to fix this. I was even starting to contemplate a reformat...and then I saw the tip about creating a new user. YAY - it worked!!

I immediately noticed that by default the new user was using the onboard audio, so I couldn't hear anything. After changing the new user to my SB Live 5.1 card via the Control Panel, the game had the same crash. That showed us that it had to do with the sound card, nothing else. By changing one sound device at a time in the Control Panel, we tracked it down to the "Voice recording" device on the Voice tab. By leaving only that one device using the onboard audio, and changing everything else to my SB card, I had sound as normal and the game worked! I went back to the main user and set it up the same way, and the game worked perfectly. IMO though, this issue was ridiculous, and considering all of the time and frustration so many people had because of it...it's just unbelievable.

Isak · Oct 30, 2005

Melissa said:
By changing one sound device at a time in the Control Panel, we tracked it down to the "Voice recording" device on the Voice tab. By leaving only that one device using the onboard audio, and changing everything else to my SB card, I had sound as normal and the game worked!

That's good work, nice job tracking that down :goodjob:

Graun · Oct 31, 2005

Not working for me!

I have the latest audio driver[SoundMAX AUDIO] and still exist the problem!

++++++++++++++++++
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp2.040919-1003)
Language: Chinese (Regional Setting: Chinese)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/07/04 23:07:08 Ver: 08.00.09
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+, ~1.9GHz
Memory: 510MB RAM
Page File: 292MB used, 1724MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0904 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

acidd_uk · Oct 31, 2005

I had this problem too - in my case it was because I was running teamspeak, which was holding the recording device on the soundcard. So if it dies silently on the checking XML bit, then make sure nothing is using your recording device - updating your dirvers as people have said may solve the problem (I suspect newer drivers will let multiple processes use the recoring device at once). In my case, I luckily have 2 soundcards, so I switched Teamspeak to the non-default one and it worked fine. I also installed the updated XML parser as suggested above, but I don't think that had anything to do with my game finally deciding to run.

So my advice is - update sound card drivers & ensure nothing is using your recording device.

Also, thanks to all who posted suggested fixes already - I hope everyone is as lucky as me and can get it working. I mean, how ******ed is it that if you don't even want to use in game vice chat that the game silently dies if it can't hook into your mic?!

Oh and yay, first post

Graun · Oct 31, 2005

"So my advice is - update sound card drivers & ensure nothing is using your recording device."

Yes,but how to ensure 'nothing is using my recording device'?

thx

acidd_uk · Oct 31, 2005

For me, it involved closing teamspeak, but generally, it's not an easy thing to answer. I guess the best answer is "Close any software that has any possibility of using your microphone." - but I'm sorry, I know that's pretty general. One of my friends experienced exactly the same issue, both in Win 2k, wheras none of my friends in WinXP has the problem (with teamspeak at least).

Hopefully, the first patch will stop the silent crash in this situation and replace it with a 'VoIP cannot be initialised' warning. There's really no need to crash if you can't grab the mic...

heartCORE · Oct 31, 2005

omfg, are you kidding me? THAT was the solution to the "xml" problem? ahahahaha.

well, thank you uhh...melissa for specifically telling us civ-folk the fix for this =).

now i can finally play CIV4 on my admin supreme user. w00t

wotan321 · Nov 1, 2005

I had this problem and updating the xml didn't help. Upgrading the audio driver DID though.

What is weird is that the game ran great until I created a new user account because the old one was corrupted.

Game would not play then on new account, until I updated the audio drivers. Now it runs.

Thanks for all the input, btw, from users here. You guys and gals are great.

Kevin Nash · Nov 1, 2005

acidd_uk said:
So my advice is - update sound card drivers & ensure nothing is using your recording device.

Also, thanks to all who posted suggested fixes already - I hope everyone is as lucky as me and can get it working. I mean, how ******ed is it that if you don't even want to use in game vice chat that the game silently dies if it can't hook into your mic?!

Oh and yay, first post

Can we split these issues up into 2 sticky posts? They are two very different issues and it caused a lot of confusion for me why people kept pointing me to a post about updating my XML parser when my sound card was causing the game to crash.

Make 2 posts, one for Sound card issues, and one for the XML parser update.

Graaf Floris · Nov 1, 2005

Melissa said:
I had almost given up after spending several hours trying to fix this. I was even starting to contemplate a reformat...and then I saw the tip about creating a new user. YAY - it worked!! I immediately noticed that by default the new user was using the onboard audio, so I couldn't hear anything. After changing the new user to my SB Live 5.1 card via the Control Panel, the game had the same crash. That showed us that it had to do with the sound card, nothing else. By changing one sound device at a time in the Control Panel, we tracked it down to the "Voice recording" device on the Voice tab. By leaving only that one device using the onboard audio, and changing everything else to my SB card, I had sound as normal and the game worked! I went back to the main user and set it up the same way, and the game worked perfectly. IMO though, this issue was ridiculous, and considering all of the time and frustration so many people had because of it...it's just unbelievable.

Thank you so much and aalso the others who came with this solution. This worked. I can play civ 4! :goodjob:

Edit: If it wasn't for the problems I have with extreme lag and a problematic intro-movie.

acidd_uk · Nov 1, 2005

Kevin Nash said:
Can we split these issues up into 2 sticky posts?

The problem is that the audio issue is characterised only by the fact that the last thing the game says before silently dying is something about checking XML. It makes sense to characterise problems by symptom rather than by solution...

Kevin Nash · Nov 1, 2005

acidd_uk said:
The problem is that the audio issue is characterised only by the fact that the last thing the game says before silently dying is something about checking XML. It makes sense to characterise problems by symptom rather than by solution...

You make a good point, but I was a bit frustrated when I thought I had an XML problem only to discover it was my soundcard.

The steps listed at the top of the thread don't apply to me. I don't have an EU copy of windows, I don't need a new XML parser, I don't need to reset my XML server and neither does anyone else who has an out of date or problematic sound card driver. Downloading and installing things onto my computer that my computer doesn't need is usually very bad. It also creates a red herring effect where I'm trying to fix something on my PC that isn't even broken.

Anyway the problem is now solved for me, but initally, before the recent edit that mentioned the sound card fix, none of the solutions at the top of this thread worked for me because my XML was never the problem.

acidd_uk · Nov 2, 2005

All I can think of is that the original post is edited to make it clear that the soundcard bug is another possibility. But that's down to mods or the original poster...

Selous · Nov 2, 2005

Isak said:
Re-registering the XML version may also work.

To do that on Win2000 or WinXP, go to Start -> Run and type

Regsvr32.exe MSXML3.DLL

Then click ok

i had the EXACT same problems listed in the first post, this fixed it for me .... dude i love you, can i have you babies

... time to play

edit ... i tried new vid card drivers, new sound card drivers, new user, changing my regional settings .... then gave this one a crack

Solution for XML problems (German or (EU) version on US Windows)

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