video black out

nick32746

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 25, 2005
Messages
3
Location
orlando
hey guys this may have been brought up b4 if so im sorry but i have an ati radeon 9600 and i was able to look through ur forum and find the fix to the "failed to initialize renderer" problem so thx, but i got into the game (about 5 min into the tutorial) and my screen turns blank (music is not playing) the system is completely unaccessable and all i can do is reboot. i got the new radeon drivers today and installed them i did not update my sound card (im sure thats not the problem) can u guys help me please?
im running a pentium4 3GHz,512mb,256mb video, and plenty of free space
thank you
-nick
 
I'm having the same problem here ... with the patch. Quick system stats: Radeon 9800 XT card, 2.8GHz Pentium 4, 1.5G RAM, tons of free space and memory. Ontop of that, the game runs perfectly for about 15 minutes before it blacks out like the fellow above me. HELP!!!!! Ahem ... my apologies. I'm just going to sit in a corner and wash my tears down with massive quantities of alcohol until someone can assist me.
 
Hey guys...just figured out that if you play it in windowed mode and not in full-screen mode, it's a bit more recoverable from when it does this.

Not by any means a fix, but a workaround.
 
Um ... I live in Bizarro world. That's the only explanation for this. I tried seeing if lowering my graphics configuration all the way to "low" would help ... the game actually performs worse on that setting. It will crash when I try doing anything other than founding the city on that setting. I'm beginning to believe that Satan was personally responsible for manufacturing my copy of the game. I'm just waiting for the time that the game runs perfectly for a good length and then abruptly introduces a swarthy face that declares "You can have all this if you bow down and worship me!"
 
Yeah, well everybody scratch my idea of playing in windowed mode...I'm still getting the blank screen crash and having to reboot my machine.

This really sucks.:sad:
 
Well, I went and switched my Windows setup from being arranged for the best appearance to being arranged for the best performance. That, the patch, setting the game's graphics setting on low, and trying smaller maps has bought me 5 more minutes of gameplay. So ... I can now play long enough to get interested in the game and thereby heighten my level of frustration. Hurray for me! Anyone have any idea about what I should set as the maximum and minimum limits on my virtual memory?
 
yea im still having problems myself ive pretty much spent all day looking for a fix. i tried the windowed mode and yea it still crashes like u said it would(plus id rather a permanent fix) and i lowered the graphics and it didnt do anything. have any of u been able to contact fraxis? i tried to find a way to contact them but cant find a way. im incredibly frustrated. i went to a friends house and tried to play it and it just came up with another different error im dissapointed in fraxis i expect better from them.
 
Okay, I'm attaching my dxdiag. Given what I'm seeing here--and the system specs posted above--I really don't see why I can't run the freaking game. Then again, I'm a Philosophy major. (If only I could reason with the computer!) Perhaps a more tech savvy person could help me ...
 

Attachments

Well, I've run all the tests that are offered in the dxdiag and they were all successful. Also, all the recently produced games in my library--other than Civ. IV--seem to work pretty well. I'm really starting to think that I'm onto something with that Satanic theory posted above.
 
Doubtful...in fact, I'm already through Call of Duty 2 with no issues whatsoever and that's gotta be a bit tougher on the graphics card than this game.

I lowered all my graphics levels for the game and got an entire hour of playing time out of the game without finally being dumped to the desktop and sending the crash report to Microsoft.

*sigh*
 
I've had this exact problem in other graphics intense games such as Guild Wars and World of Warcraft. The screen blacks out, apparently going into standby mode, for no apparent reason. The computer is then either locked up, or simply reboots. The solution? (never would have thought...) The graphics card is not getting enough power. I am running a BFG Nvidia 6600 gt. There are two ways to correct this... first, make sure that you have a power cable running straight to the graphics card (and not connected to other peripherals in between). If that doesn't work, upgrade your power supply. I was running a 400 watt ps that came with my aspire case. I upgraded to an Aspire 525 watt and ran a power cable directly to the graphics card and BAM!, problem solved. :D Hope this helps.
 
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