Civ4 Unofficial Tech Support FAQs

Unofficial Civ4 Tech Support FAQs

This is, sadly, woefully lacking in detail. I'll try to keep it updated, so if you have any suggestsions for additions or corrections, then please PM myself or one of the other Civ4 Moderators.

The purpose of this thread is to compile a list of fixes for the most common problems. Not all problems have known solutions, but this is a start... There is a good sumarrised list of general fixes here (thanks, Alamo).

Where do I get the latest patch? (Version 1.09)
Where is the "official" tech support page?
Failed to Initialize Renderer: Error on ATI video cards.
When starting, game locks-up at "Checking XML"

How do I play in windowed mode?
How do I turn-off autosaves?
How do I change where the autosave files are stored?
Any suggestions for preventing crashes to desktop (CTDs)?
Loading Error : Caught unhandled exception creating XML parser object?

Official Tech Support Page:
The official Take2 Support page for Civ4 is here.


Failed to Initialize Renderer:
Some users with ATI video cards are getting this error when they try to run the game. Hopefully this will be patched soon, but in the interim, try the following fixes:

1. Make sure that when you installed the game, you installed the version of directX that shipped with the game. This has some extra files over and above the "normal" runtime version of DirectX 9.0c. It is critical that you install this. You can either reinstall Civ4, or you can browse the installation CD for the DirectX folder, and run DXSetup.exe from it.
2. Make sure you have the latest video card drivers installed. You can download the drivers from these links: Laptop drivers. Desktop drivers.
3. If those steps do not resolve the problem, then follow the instructions in the first post of This thread.
4. Some users have noted that the previous step removes the error message - but the game then crashes to desktop on starting. If that is the case, open the Civ4 installation directory, and look for the 'cache' folder. Delete all the files in that directory and try again. There is a great demonstration of how to do that here.

Locks-up when starting at "Checking XML":
This is not necessarily an XML error - its may be caused by a problem with sound card drivers. It is suggested that you install the latest sound card drivers, and that may help.

If that fails, other suggestions are:

1. Create a new user account on your PC, and give it administrator rights. Load-up in that account, and reinstall Civ4 there, then try playing.
2. Create new log in for XP and give full admin rights and password. On your NORMAL log in right click on the shortcut and chose 'Run As'.
   Click 'The following user' which would be the account you just created.
3. Update your XML parser. You can do this by downloading it from This link.
4. Read This Thread, including the threads linked at the top of the first post.

How do I play in Windowed Mode?:

Look in your installation directory for a file called _Civ4Config and open it in notepad.

Scroll-down until you see the following:

If you always want to play in windowed mode, change this value to zero, save and exit. If you want to be asked every time you start, change it to 'ask'.


How do I turn-off autosaves?

Look in your installation directory for a file called _Civ4Config and open it in notepad.

Scroll-down until you see the following:

As suggested, change this value to zero, save and exit.


How do I change where the autosaves are stored?
The following will actually change where all the save files are stored.

Find the Civ4 shortcut (for example, on your desktop). Right-Click on it, and choose "properties". On the form that appears, click on the 'shortcut' tab, and find the box that says 'Target'.

Click in the box, and add the following to the end of it:
For example, to get it to put the saves in the C:\Games\Civ4_Saves directory, change it to:
/ALTROOT=C:\games\Civ4_saves

Note: If you want the saves stored in the base Civ4 directory, change it to:
/ALTROOT=.

If you want to set it to a path that contains spaces, you need to enclose the path using quotation marks:
/ALTROOT="C:\Data\Civ 4 Saves"

Thanks to Petek for the clarification.

What can I do to reduce Crashes to Desktop

Here are some suggestions for Ini file changes to reduce them.

1. AllowScreenShots = 0
2. SyncInput = 1
3. D3D9Query = 1
4. LoggingEnabled = 1

Note that LoggingEnabled=1 helps with diagnosing what is wrong (especially with firaxis). If you're still getting CTDs, then providing these logs can help.

There is another very good thread with suggestions here.

Thanks to Natronomonas for sending me these suggestions, and to The_Kangaroo and for posting them and drachasor for his analysis.

Loading Error : Caught unhandled exception creating XML parser object?

You need to update your Microsoft XML Parser. Download it from here.



Where do I get the latest patch (v1.09)?

You can either update it in-game or download it manually.

Do update it in-game, start Civ4 and choose "advanced" from the main menu, then "check for updates".

To install it manually, download it from here or here.

If you downloaded your game from Direct2Drive, then you need to get the patch from them - go here.