Civilization III Fixes (PLEASE READ)

One more thing -- tried using the compatability layer, and the game won't load at all regardless of which compatability layer I chose. Also, when I switched back to not using the compatability layer, the game STILL wiouldn't run. I disabled the compatability layer, uninstalled and reinstalled the game, and it still doesn't run.

Also, I notice now that I can only get Unreal Tournament to run in safe more (no hardware accelerations) -- DOH! Any ideas? I guess it is time to reinstall some drivers...

Hey sc0tie, thanks for your time

My copy won't even startup

I recieve an error message that starts off...

CIVILIZATION3 caused an invalid page fault in module -DF394B at 015f:10025231.

Registers:

...and then it lists a ton of numbers. Anyone know what I should do?

Here's a problem I've seen before with the "reduce the number of fonts" fix, but it didn't work. Civ 3 installs on a machine fine, loads through the video sequence and the initial menu. I click on "New Game" and select the world generator settings. From the world settings, click "Next", and before the select civilization screen would come up it crashes with a windows error; "details" gives "Divide error" and all of the register settings. (EAX, EBX, etc.)

The machine has:
256 MB RAM
GeForce2, latest nVidia drivers (from nVidia website)
SBLive, latest drivers
Win98SE with all windows updates installed

Initially it also had about 380 fonts installed, but reducing it to 240 and rebooting didn't help. I've also tried (although I've no clue why this'd do anything) setting the display to 640x480x8 before loading the game with no success. Nothing but winamp and AIM running in the background.

Fortuanatly for me, I installed it on another box and it works, so I'm not suffering too badly. Oddly enough, this box is almost identical except it has an AMD processor instead of an Intel and has 384 MB RAM; same vid card, sound card, and drivers. Runs fine on the second machine, again with winamp and AIM in the background. But it'd be nicer if it worked on the machine I wanted it to run on and I've seen posts in other forums with the same problem so any fixes you could suggest would be appreciated.

[Edit: Both have the latest version of DirectX as well]

Civ III won't run on my laptop, either.

I get the splash screen, then the message:

"Civilization 3 has caused an error in
~DF394B.TMP
Civilization 3 will now close.

Sounds very similaer to the error Cunobelin Of Hippo reported.


Running a Compaq Armada E500 with Windows ME. All upgrades for Windows ME, video drive and sound are installed.

Ashoka

An update to my update above -- reinstalling my NVidia drivers got Unreal Tournament going again, but still no Civ III...

The error in ~DF394B.TMP is most likely caused by the copy protection, search for an unwrapper for safedisc 2.40.10 in google, or get an already unwrapped game exe.

The error in ~DF394B.TMP is most likely caused by the copy protection, search for an unwrapper for safedisc 2.40.10 in google, or get an already unwrapped game exe.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Meneer - I'll try this. - my copy is 100% legit, so odd that it would do this -

Will let you know how it works.


Ashoka

Good call, Meneer - after runing the 'un-safedisk' program, Civ III is up and running great!

Thanks so much for your help.



Ashoka

I don't know if this will help anyone, but I made my own monitor driver based on my manufacture's newer stuff, as a specific driver for my monitor wasn't available.

Anything that starts with HR-1708 I created, everything else was there already. I used the other entries as models, and actually the only values I had to change were:

maximum resolution = 1280x1024
horizontal scan frequency range = 30-65KHz
veritical scan frequency range = 50-100Hz

You can see where I entered these values below. Everything else I simply copied from their newer 17 inch monitor (HR-70).

I installed the driver and Civ ran for the first time on my 2k system.

Good luck everybody



;Moniotr INF file for Digiview monitors
;Copyright 1995, Digiview Electronics Co., Ltd.

[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
Class=Monitor
Provider=%Digiview%

[Manufacturer]
%Digiview%=Digiview

[Digiview]
%HR-40%=HR-1435, Monitor\HR-1435
%HR-1435%=HR-1435, Monitor\HR-1435
%HR-50%=HR-50, Monitor\HR-50
%HR-1510%=HR-1510, Monitor\HR-1510
%HR-70%=HR-70, Monitor\HR-70
%HR-70P%=HR-70, Monitor\HR-70
%HR-91%=HR-91, Monitor\HR-91
%HR-1708%=HR-1708, Monitor\HR-1708

[HR-40]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-1435.AddReg

[HR-1435]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-1435.AddReg

[HR-50]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-50.AddReg

[HR-1510]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-1510.AddReg

[HR-70]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-70.AddReg

[HR-91]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-91.AddReg

[HR-1708]
DelReg=ClearPrev.DelReg
AddReg=HR-1708.AddReg

[ClearPrev.DelReg]
HKR,MODES
HKR,,MaxResolution
HKR,,DPMS
HKR,,ICMProfile

[HR-91.Addreg]
HKR,"MODES\1600,1200",Mode1,,"30.0-95.0,50.0-160.0,+,+"
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1600,1200"
HKR,,DPMS,,1
HKR,,ICMProfile,1,7

[HR-1435.Addreg]
HKR,"MODES\1024,768",Mode1,,"30.0-50.0,47.0-104.0,+,-"
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1024,768"
HKR,,DPMS,,1
HKR,,ICMProfile,1,7

[HR-50.Addreg]
HKR,"MODES\1024,768",Mode1,,"30.0-56.0,47.0-104.0,+,-"
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1024,768"
HKR,,DPMS,,1
HKR,,ICMProfile,1,7

[HR-1510.Addreg]
HKR,"MODES\1280,1024",Mode1,,"30.0-70.0,47.0-104.0,+,-"
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1280,1024"
HKR,,DPMS,,1
HKR,,ICMProfile,1,7

[HR-70.Addreg]
HKR,"MODES\1280,1024",Mode1,,"30.0-70.0,47.0-104.0,+,-"
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1280,1024"
HKR,,DPMS,,1
HKR,,ICMProfile,1,7

[HR-1708.Addreg]
HKR,"MODES\1280,1024",Mode1,,"30.0-65.0,50.0-100.0,+,-"
HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1280,1024"
HKR,,DPMS,,1
HKR,,ICMProfile,1,7

[Strings]
MonitorClassName="Monitor"
Digiview="Digiview"

HR-40="Digiview HR-40"
HR-1435="Digiview HR-1435"
HR-50="Digiview HR-50"
HR-1510="Digiview HR-1510"
HR-70="Digiview HR-70"
HR-70P="Digiview HR-70+"
HR-91="Digiview HR-91"
HR-1708="Digiview HR-1708"

People, before giving away instructions on how to bypass the cd-protection, ever thought that some of the people asking for them have illegal cds? If they're determined it's not difficult to find out how to do it, but its the casual copying that we're trying to prevent. Good day to you.

Help! After seeing the Civ 3 Splash Screen, the program drops back to windows. I know other people have reported this problem, and have been on the phone with tech support about the issue.

My system specs are:

AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz
512 Mb RAM
ViaTech Motherboard w/latest 4-in-1 driver
80 GB WD Hard Drive
GeForce 3 Video w/ 2183 Detonator driver
Soundblaster Live! Value w/ 4.11.01.0628 Driver
Viewsonic 17GS monitor with appropriate driver
AOpen DVD-1640 Pro
Plextor PX-W1610A CD-RW with latest firmware driver

I've turned off startup programs, adjusted hardware acceleration, toggled DMA on the drives, and deleted the opening movie, all with no result. The best I can do is make the splash screen stay around for ~5 seconds insted of 1.

Any inspiration on how to get my program up and running?

People, before giving away instructions on how to bypass the cd-protection, ever thought that some of the people asking for them have illegal cds? If they're determined it's not difficult to find out how to do it, but its the casual copying that we're trying to prevent. Good day to you.

Click to expand...

While I agree, as one of the people w/ a perfectly legal copy of Civ III that could not get the game to run due to glitchy protection software, I was glad to get the info. My initial calls to tech support did not resolve the problem. (I wonder if tech support will have to tell people how to break the CD-protection as a fix--- what a quandry!!)

This has happened before in the software world - copyright protection that made software unusable for legit owners.

I'm sure it will all work out soon - too many people who buy the software and can't use it will clog the tech support lines, and a fix will be in the works.

Peace -

Ashoka

Originally posted by glory
People, before giving away instructions on how to bypass the cd-protection, ever thought that some of the people asking for them have illegal cds? If they're determined it's not difficult to find out how to do it, but its the casual copying that we're trying to prevent. Good day to you.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this is directed to me, but I bought my copy and my previous post is how I got it to work in 2k...

I'm not sure it's said yet, but if you get the OUT OF SYNC error and you can't find the .INF files for your monitor or you don't want to edit the registry, just use 1024*768@75Hz drivers that are available in windows. They work fine.

no flame intended. It's just that a lot of people with non-legit copies are likely browsing the boards, and they might as well make a <i>little</i> effort in finding out how to crack the game

The funny thing about copy protection is that it never affects pirating - it only gives trouble tro legit users?

Why you ask? Because pirates (ARGH!) know thier stuff a lot more the your everyday legit gamer. Any pirate (ARGH!) knows how how get around SafeDisk 2.0 - I find it funny that so much effor was spent of Safe Disk 2 (and it is one ingenious protection). But it took them what? a week maybe to get around it? So much for that...

Your paying legitimate user on the other hand will likely experience problems because of the reoocurring clusters that arent read properly by some older CD-ROMs and newer firmware.

I really dont understand why they bother. If somone wants to pirate the game - they will - and that is that. They should spent money enforcing piracy fines OR (heres an idea!) make the games NOT ridiculously expensive to begin with so more kids dont bother with gamecopyworld. Just a thought!

Originally posted by glory
People, before giving away instructions on how to bypass the cd-protection, ever thought that some of the people asking for them have illegal cds?

Click to expand...

Illegal cds don't have safedisk on them, only legal users will ever be troubled by buggy (and still expensive) copyprotection. And both people said they had an error in ~DF394B.TMP, safedisc will not give such an error when using an non-cracked illegal copy, it will just ask for the cd.

Originally posted by glory
People, before giving away instructions on how to bypass the cd-protection, ever thought that some of the people asking for them have illegal cds? If they're determined it's not difficult to find out how to do it, but its the casual copying that we're trying to prevent. Good day to you.

Click to expand...

But we care not to return the money and lost time to the people that have purchased real copies of the games that just happen to have those few CD-ROM drives or other pieces of hardware that have problems with the copy-right protection devised by game companies.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that the game companies deserve to get their monies worth and be able to sell the game without worrying about people pirating the games but why can't they seem to get the software protection right? Why are we forced to load the software on our hard drives and yet are still required to place the CD-ROM disc in the drive? I paid my 59.99 USD.
Why can't I get a NoCD crack?
I can.

Originally posted by sk0tie
First off, make sure you are running the latest drivers for your sound card and video card that support DirectX 8.0 and DISABLE 3RD PARTY APPLICATIONS! In Win98/ME you click on start, goto run, and type in MSCONFIG, make sure SELECTIVE STARTUP is enabled, and LOAD STARTUP GROUP ITEMS is UNCHECKED, and reboot your computer.

Click to expand...

Let me say first, thanks sk0tie. I didn't have a warm and fuzy before about Infogrames (Maybe it was that horrible song they made? Anyone remember that POS!?!) but knowing that there are real people working their asses off trying to make this and other games work correctly makes me feel a whole lot better.

Second. Do not update your drivers unless you are having problems!!! I cannot warn this strongly enough. I just updated my video driver for jokes and laughs and I am just now starting to have problems with Civ3 and the graphics. I had the default Windows XP Professional *beta* drivers for my Matrox G400 Max video card and then I upgraded to 5.72.021*25oct01*. I started having screen garbage (the screen turns into a mess of thin lines of multiple colors) problems right after I rebooted after the new driver update. This only seems to happen when I have Civ3 running in the back ground and I switch between programs using the Windows key.

Has this been a problem for anyone else?

Civ3 ran just fine on my HP Pavilion Pentium III/Windows ME system until (first game) my Civ made the jump from Ancient to Middle Ages. Then it gave an error message and crashed -- fairly cleanly -- though it did leave the desktop set up for 800 X 600 whilst actually in 1024x768 (16-color).

This doesn't strike me as likely to be a display or driver issue, am I right? (Anything's possible though).

FWIW, in the game as played I had all Ancient techs except for Monarchy.

Regards,

derdriux