ATI Card Problem List

[H0K135]

AMD64 3500+
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro - 256MB
1GB Dual Channel PC3200 RAM
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Nforce3 chipset)
Windows XP Pro, SP2
DirectX 9.0c

I'm running the latest ATI graphics and chipset drivers. I've even switched the latest Omega Drivers, and run Driver Cleaner between each switch. I've reinstalled the game, followed the "ATI problem" troubleshooting section and unpacked the art0.fpk file.

My problem? The game reboots my PC. It's not heat...the CPU stays at 49C, the GPU is at 60C and the mainboard is 15C. This rig runs Doom3, Half-Life 2, 40K: Dawn of War, and others without problems.

I am having the same problem as you are, but with different specs.

HIS ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
P4 3.6GHz with HT
ASUS P4P-800E
1.0GB Dual Channel ram

I've even opened up one side to make sure it wasn't the heat (which I knew it wasn't because I've got an arctic cooling GPU HSF).

This is really starting to eat at me, Civ4 is a great game but insanely buggy. Its almost as if they didn't really Q/A it to meet a launch date.

 

[riksb]

p4 2ghz 1gb ram ati radeon 9600xt (5.10 l8test drivers) frequent "freeze screen crashes" unplayable.

on my other newer machine
p4 3ghz 1gb ram ati radeon x800 (drivers that came with it, not 5.10) works
fine! I note some ppl are having troubles with even the x800?

the whole thing is so frustrating.

 

[gluboy2]

Sony Vaio GRX 500 Series with Intel Mobile 1.5 GHz P4
512 RAM
32 MB Mobility Radeon 7500

After installing the newest Omega driver, doing the UNPAK trick, turning the AGP (is that what it's called?) to OFF... I could see leader heads and land but the game was painfully slow... the land was the weird yellow/white color and I had the 'toast-only' resource display problem...

so I turned the AGP up to 1X, restarted comp. and no noticable difference -- same problems and game still very slow.

next I went up to 2X, and this time no leader heads, and no terrain, except for the weird upper-left corner thing.

Now, after that I turned my AGP back down to 1X, and this time I get no leader heads, but the terrain is there in normal colors and the game seems to run at a 'decent' speed... much faster than the first time at 1X!?! I still have the toast-only problem... but I will probably leave it this way for a while as the game is actually playable despite the minor annoyances!

Good luck to the rest of you!

 

[BillyCuth]

Failed to initialize renderer error

ATI Radeon 9550 AGP 256mb DDR
AMD 64 3200+, MMX, 3dNow, ~2.0GHz
1024mb RAM
XP Home, SP2
DX9.0c

Tried Catalyst 5.9 and 5.10
Tried all the compatability modes
Updated CD-Rom firmware
Restarted with no background programs

try the pak build thing. worked for me and I have the same card in my old PC.

 

[GoldenWheels]

Ati Radeon IGP 320 M

Game runs great, no shutdowns, no sound glitches...just can't see any land tiles, all solid black, with the now infamous chesire cat syndrome also appearing.

I have NOT updated my drivers though, does anyone think this would actually do anything? It doesn't seem to really have helped anyone.

 

[civjunkie]

IBM Thinkpad T40
ATI Radeon 7500 32MB ram
driver version 6.14.10.6525
Pentium M 1.5 ghz, 512 MB ram

black terrain, no leader faces, only mouths and eyes, no hammers and no gold on map.

What I can't figure out is how does being 32MB under the minimum requirement cause this many problems. I went to srtest.com and I passed everything....even the Video HW Transform and Lightning required...I have - yes.

Civ3 Conquests worked fine.

A video card should not be the restriction on a game like Civ. The graphics in C3C seemed just fine for me.....Fireaxis/Take 2/whomever are really ticking off a lot of people with this issue.

 

[armus]

**WORKS***

ATI AIW 9800 Pro
INTEL 2.4
1.25 gigs of ram

Steps:
1) removed all drivers using ATI's driver uninstall tool https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1447
2) install the latest drivers from ATI
3) install game
4) Game plays fine. (one time it reboot during multiplayer.)

i hope that helps,
-armus

 

[Snydeman]

ATI Radeon 9600 XT AGP 128mb DDR
AMD 3100
1024mb RAM
XP Home, SP2
DX9.0c

Omega (Catalyst 5.9 equivalent

I get choppiness towards the midle part of the game (Industrial era) - but of course there are far more cities and computations going on, so I'd expect a little bit more anyways. It's still playable though.

My biggest issue is that movies for wonders as well as graphics for leaders during negotiations do not run...usually. (They do maybe 10% of the time). In addition, when I reload the game, the mini-map is blacked out, except for my areas which show as a big white blob.

Hope that helps.

 

[elfador]

Not getting an error message just that my terrain does not show up and the faces are only eyes and mouths... but
ATI mobility radeon... 7000
Win XP
P4 2.0ghz 512MB ram

I also do not get the rendering error message but the same problem with picklion is my nightmare.. the fully black terrain except my units and rivers; and the leaders with only eyes and mouths animating.. updating the video card driver changed nothing..

ATI RADEON IGP 320M with driver 8.18

 

[Ralendil]

I also have Radeon 9600, I'm affraid I won't be able to run the game properly!

9600 also for the... loose

 

[Daelda]

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB - no problems. (rest of specs in signature)

 

[Chibiabos]

ATi Radeon 9600 AIW (driver is latest)
Athlon64 3200+
ECS 755-A2 mobo (all drivers up to date)
Windows 2000 Professional, SP4+ (all latest updates)

I do NOT get the Renderer error. However, I get very irritating CTDs, occaisional graphics corruption issues others have described and wild polygons, and very very irritating spontaneous reboots.

I have *just* done the art unpack after yet another CTD, I will report back if the situation improves...

 

[bio_hazard]

Same as GoldenWheels:

Ati Radeon IGP 320 M
Compaq Presario 2195
512 mb
Althlon 1.8mhz mobile

game runs fine (but kinda slow), just no terrain or leaderheads.
did the unpak fix and removed the cache.
have drivers that are 6.14.10.somthing. Do i need to revert to an older one?

 

[nitram]

ATI RADEON IGP 345M
Celeron 2.6
766mb (128 shared).

I can't actually check if I have the latest drivers as when I search on the ATI site for this specific card it cannot find it!

 

[kornzzz]

1PC) athlon 64 3000 + 9800pro ok
2pc) athlon xp + 9550 256M render initialization error...

 

[sweKangaroo]

Tried the game on 2 of my pc-s
-----------------------

ATI Radeon X800-XT
P4 3.4GHZ
1GB RAM

>
*render initialization error
Everything works Excellent after trying the unpak-fix

-----------------------

ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
P4 1.7GHZ
512 MB RAM

>
*Black terrain
*Strange water(triangual shapes)
*Strange faces
*Movies hop every few seconds

 

[noshi_noo_noo]

ati mobility radeon x600 on an hp zd8000 with 1 gig of ram and a pentium 4 @ 3.0, 100 gig hard drive and i'll give you my serial number too if someone can show me how to get this game to run.

now, civ is the only game i play but this has got to be one of the larger game release f'ups in recent history, am i right?

Same system practically (zd8225ca). Won't run after initial installation.

 

[GoldenWheels]

Oh this is F'ing ridiculous. Went in, against my better judgement, to play a game in the inky blackness of Firaxis' "fog of morons who can't test their games right" to see if the terrain will reveal itself, and as i get to the leader selection screen...presto! I can see faces and animations just fine whereas i couldn't before.

I have changed NOTHING in my comp settings! NOTHING! WTH?

Map is still black as ever. This game is driving me nuts, it is reminding me of why I got out of computer gaming 15 years ago.