what could that be........

It is damned frustrating.Have played a lot of different games sofar,but only about to the middle.(Well,I need a little sleep now and then.)When I reload the next day it goes until it says:"finishing".And thats the end of the story.No matter how long I wait,thats it.Hmmm...ahrrrrggg......
Any idea anyone? Please.....

What is your PC spec (processor / RAM / disc size / video card / Pagefile size)

Do you get slow game play? other Crash to Desktops? slow time between turns ?

Do you play Large or Huge map size ?

Have you loaded patch V1.09

Have you checked your card driver etc?

Regards
Zy

Hi Zydor.
Thanks for your reply.Well,first of all I have to say I am a 72 year old pensioner and unfortunately wisdom didn`t follow up,as many believe it does.Hehehe..So,if I explain things not in the professional way,forgive me.
Actually,I thought my machine fairly well set up.It is a P-4 1.7 Gig,512 Mem,256 Radeon 9200 Video,128 Sound,DVD-Rom etc.
Only thing I haven`t changed yet is my Win 98 sec/ed because,I like to play a lot of older games again and again.Hehehe..
Have no crashes sofar and the game speed is not bad.Reloading a saved early game is no problem either.Only, as I reported, an advanced game reloading won`t work.I play usually large games.Tried huge once,but that became too slow.I am patched up as well.The slowtime between turns could be a little faster,but is acceptable.
Hope,I covered as much as possible Zydor.
Thanks again and have a nice day.Rudi

People have been getting mixed results with 98. You could either dual boot, or have a second drive with another OS like 2000 or XP.

I play usually large games.Tried huge once,but that became too slow.I am patched up as well.The slowtime between turns could be a little faster,but is acceptable

Click to expand...

You are describing the memory managment problem in Civ IV, its a big issue. It appears on Large / Huge maps in particular, although it can have other effects.

The main point is you appear to be on Win 98. Officially the game does not support Win 98, although as you show, some people have managed to get it to run.

The hardware specs look great, so dont see a problem there. To go further into any fixes that affect that basic setup would I believe be wrong, as it does run - because the game does not really support Win 98 - I would not want to destabilise it (!)

However the Harkonnen patch has been used by a Win 98 user, and he reported back it worked ok for him. Its possible the slow play / large games / huge games issue you have may be fixed by Harky's patch it has been v successful on win2000/xp machines, but I strongly suggest you ask him first on his Thread as you are running Win 98.

Dont install it 'blind' ask him first.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

Good Luck

Regards
Zy

Thank you Lahdoz.
Although I dont know how to do what u suggest,I will ask my friend about it.He is a lot smarter as I am,but he is not a gamer and thats bad.Will see.
Have a nice day.Rudi

Thanks Zydor.
Would like to have u here in my neighborhood.Heheheee...
Are u far away?I live in Melbourne Australia.
Greetings and a merry chrismas.Rudi

I am in UK

I did go to Australia in 2001 for a 4 week trip out there with the wife - stayed in the NE part along the coast, did the Whales bit - eco-jungle etc (!), the train bit etc. Had a great time, a truely wonderful Country - you are a lucky guy living out there.

The only disappointment as such was Alice, sorry, but that place is a Hole - real Tourist trap. The Rock was great to see, but I felt pretty dumb watching it at dawn waiting for it to change colour (it didnt!)

But the latter comments are only nit-picking, we really had a wonderful, wonderful time, and very much hope to go again some day.

Regards
Zy

Nice to hear that Zydor.
Have been around quite a bit,could never besway my wife going to the Rock.Heheheee...My sister was there,said the same as u.
Btw,found the problem with the reload.When playing smaller worlds,there is no problem.Playing "large", needs at least 20 or more min to reload after it says "finishing".Have tried today afew times.Gave up "large" for the time being and play standard.Can`t convince myself yet changeing to Win-XP.Love a lot of older games and dont know which one I may lose.Sniff,sniff...
What do u think about Lahdoz`s suggestion: dual boot,or second drive with XP? Makes no sense to me.Could u tell me a little more,if u can?
Would a private e-mail be better?
Just in case: rudi70@optusnet.com.au
Have a nice winterday.We are getting 33 c/degree tomorrow.Pfhwww...Rudi.

The large game issue you described is a classic indicator of the memory problem Civ IV has - Firaxis have now acknowledged it. The patch was put togther by Harkonnen, and does not touch game code (except to include it in the game loader - hardly an issue) so its benign easily installed / deinstalled. Its not a fix-it-all nor is it claimed to be. The effect for many however has been v v good. It has resolved a large number of issues for many people. He is working on a "V2" at the moment. It works by sifting through the memory when the game is running, making it far more efficient, resolving many main memory, video memory and hot card issues. Not working for all of course, so keep expectations on an even level, but his thread is getting a v large number of hits as the word spreads - its running towards 71,000 in 7 days as I type. Worth a go with the symptom you described

Dual boot means you get the option of running a different operating system at start up. Its a good way of keeping your options open when having hassles, and also sometimes a different operating system can help with trouble shooting - or even with games that demand's a particular system you dont usually run. So if you have Win XP, you could give it a go (but if you do, I have to say, what you doing on Win 98 ). It is fairly straightforward to do - and once you done it the first time, "the penny drops" and your ok in future.

A slight problem however is that if you are not used to playing with Op Sytems, the first time can produce some nasty problems due to lack of experience, depends on your personal experience and confidence level. If it goes ok, no problem, but, if you get hassles during the loading of dual boot - and you have limited experience - you could get into some nasty dramas. (not terminal, just that in extremis you could end up with a total reload of the whole setup including applications, which can be kind of - interesting - at 3am

Do remember that the game does not support Win 98, so the same must be said of the patch - but some Win 98 Users have reported success, so dont be afraid of at least trying it. The guys on that thread are v helpful, and will I am sure help if you have problemsloading it, and tweeking the fix (scan the thread to see the tweeking involved - its only 2 settings, not complicated)

EDIT : I cant see you loosing much going to Win XP as your main system -its a fair amount of work as you will need to reload all applications, but it really is worth doing as long as your hardware supports it. Can chat on PM re that if you want to try

Regards
Zy

Harkys patch thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3447601#post3447601

You can also try a "PC-inside the-PC" solution with either VMWare or MS's Virtual PC. They are basicly applications that emulate a full working PC on your PC. So you can have your Win98 as a Virtual PC run on your WinXP Desktop. There is a small performance drop of course, but seeing as your intended use is old dos games, you want have a problem.

Most DOS games also run with DosBox which does pretty much what the above do, but only for DOS.