I started this thread way back in October and I was shocked to see how many people have read it. I recently looked through the thread and I see there are still a few issues that I did not cover. Here is a complete guide to making sure this game works correctly on all of your systems. This includes some old, and new fixes that we have come across. Thank you for all of your support in our products!
Let's Begin--
First, try disabling any extra background programs. You should just have "Explorer" and "Systray" running in the background. Anything else may cause conflicts. You can do this by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL and using the "End Task" button on all the extra programs one at a time. Alternatively, if you are using Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows XP, you can go to START->RUN, type in "msconfig" (without quotations), and hit "OK". This brings up the System Configuration Utility where you can put the computer into a "Selective Startup" and remove the check mark from the "Load Startup Group Items" check box. Click "OK" and the computer will ask you to restart. Go ahead and restart, and when the computer comes back up, you can tap CTRL+ALT+DEL and verify that just Explorer is running. If not, manually end task on the extra programs and then test out your game.
If that doesn't work, verify that you have the newest drivers for your video card and update as necessary. You can obtain information about your video card by going to START->RUN and typing in "dxdiag" (without the quotations). This will bring up the "DirectX Diagnostic Tool". Go to the display tab and you can find out the "Name" of your video card, the "Main Driver" which it uses, and the "Version" of that driver. Once you have that information, go to START->SETTINGS->CONTROL PANEL, double click the "System" Icon, go over to the "Device Manager" tab, open up the branch called "Display Adaptors", double-click on the entry for your video card listed there, and go to the "Driver" tab on the new window that comes up. Here you can see the "Date" and "Provider" of your video driver.
With all of that information, you should be able to go to your manufacturers website, and download and install the newest video drivers. If you are uncomfortable going through that process on your own, you should call the people who support your computer and have them walk you through the process of updating video drivers.
Beyond that, you should consider checking what monitor drivers your computer has installed. Go back to the "Device Manager", but this time open up the "Monitors" branch. You should just have one monitor listed here. It will probably say "Default Monitor" or "Plug and Play Monitor". It is ideal to have a driver installed for your monitor which actually has the monitors proper name. For example, "Dell 1726" is listed on my computer. You can ask your hardware manufacturer if they have specific drivers for your monitor. If such a driver is not available though, you should try one of Window's standard monitor types. To do this, start by making sure you only have one monitor listed in this section of the Device Manager. If there is more than one, "Remove" the extra monitor (highlight the monitor click remove). You can usually tell which one should be removed by looking at the name. Always remove the "default" or "plug and play monitor" instead of whatever else might be there if there are two monitors listed. If there is just one monitor, we can get started.
Double-Click on the monitor listed there. Go to the "Driver" tab on the window that should pop up. Click on the "Update Driver" Button. This will give a welcome screen, click "Next". You will now be presented with an option to "Search..." or to "Display a list...". Choose to have a list displayed. On the next screen, select the option to "Show All Hardware". Now, on the left side, scroll up and select "Standard Monitor Types". On the right side you will now have several options to choose from. If you are using a laptop computer, select "Laptop Display Panel 1024x768". If you are using a desktop computer select "Super VGA 1024x768@75Hz". Then keep clicking "next" until you can eventually finish the process. When it is finished, restart the computer, and then test the game.
The above process is not known to be dangerous, but you may want to consult your hardware manufacturer before doing any system changes. It may invalidate your warranty and there are some models of hardware which are not compatible with certain settings.
Sound issues are another reason why the game may lockup during the movie. Check your sound card Playback device and make sure it is set correctly. To do this, click on the Start Menu and go to Settings, then Control Panels. Locate and double-click on Multimedia (Sounds and Audio Devices for Windows 2000/XP) and switch to the Audio tab. Under Playback Device, make sure that it says your sound card type, and not "Use Any Available Device", or "Standard Device". For example, I have a SoundBlaster 16, and the PlayBack device is set to "SB16 Wave Out [220]".
Finally, if none of the above steps help, try reducing the number of fonts in your Windows\Fonts folder to something below 256 fonts. The game uses the "Lucida Sans" font. You might consider deleting any Lucida fonts from your fonts folder and replacing it with the Lucida Sans font from the Civilization III folder.
If after trying all of these, and the game still tends to crash, or behave oddly, reinstall the game and make sure that it is installed into the default directory, and not in the root directory of the C drive. Download and install the patch we have available from
http://www.ina-support.com/patches/ and hopefully that will eliminate the problem.
Good Day!
sk0tie
Infogrames, Inc
Tech Support, North America
) in infogrames! foR THOSE with whom the patch does not work (the modified exe) try deleting the movies folder!
