ATI Graphics Card Owners: re FAILED TO INITIALIZE RENDERER

[jobu70]

I have the ATI Radeon 9550.
Running XP PRO SP2

I also had a problem with the autorun file. It seems the "Install" button kept pointing to an Intel Chipset Install even after it was verirfied as installed in the registry and regardless of how many times I rebooted.

I finally just used the setup.exe file on the disk. I t was still a***** to get the game to finally load and then BOOM the "Failed to Initialize renderer".

Gosh darn it do I need to plqay this game. Hokk a brother up Firaxis/2k/god anyone?!!

 

[ScythianBeastie]

Again, my system:
System: Windows XP Pro SP1 (Version 2002)
Card: ATI Sapphire Radeon 9600 Atlantis
Catalyst version 5.10
2D version: 6.14.10.6575
DirectX: 9.0C
... status: No luck -- same ol' thing. "Failed to initialize renderer", etc...

My screen resolution is 1280x1024 by default. I heard that some folks had some luck getting it to work by changing their screen resolution to 1024x768. I tried that, just for funsies, but I got the "blank splash screen with a hidden ERROR dialog box" problem.

 

[Kazper]

My system:

Card: ATI Excalibur IceQ 9800 XT
Catalyst version: 5.8
DirectX: 9.0c
Screen Resolution: 1600x1200

Status: Worked with no problems at all on first try, without installing DrectX.

 

[goonie61]

Dont have the game yet,

ATI Mobility Radeon x300
6.14.0010.6549
Dell xp laptop
^does this fit the description of ones not worky?

 

[cabber69]

Got the same thing,
ATI 9600
Catalyst 5.10
Pentium 4 2.4 ghz
250 gig hard drive
DRIVING ME NUTS!!! I want to play too!
Called take 2, they sent me an email with instructions to type in "dxdiag" into the run programs screen and create a .txt report and email it back to them. I did this about ten hours ago. Still no response. Meanwhile I wonder what fun I would be having.... at least I'll sleep tonight.

 

[SmCaudata]

Dont have the game yet,

ATI Mobility Radeon x300
6.14.0010.6549
Dell xp laptop
^does this fit the description of ones not worky?

The ones that have issues are hit or miss. It seems to be on a computer by computer basis. Reminds me of the old AMD/VIA chipset nightmare that caused issues in many games (I think it was that interraction anyway...it was about 4 years ago so I could be off). There doesn't seem to be a way to tell ahead of time if a system will work or not..other than my 9800 series speculation...that seems to work.

I was also reading through posts and I found someone who said they had an Nvidia card that got the error..then after driver upgrade they get the Cheshire Cat and black terrain. I wonder if the errors are probably the same root and that for some reason the Nvidia cards are just more apt to make it into the game.

 

[darkhorse16]

*sigh*

No luck here, either...running a brand-new ATI Radeon 700X.

I tried the customer service line and was briefly amused by the either British or Aussie accent and killer hold music before being hung up on. What a night!

 

[Niramas]

OK I got it to work. It took some time and patience, but if you follow these steps you'll be playing in no time:

1) Copy all CIV IV files to floppy disk
2) Reformat your hard drive
3) Install OS/2, Ver 1.12.34.39.044
4) Download version 2.11.05b Radeon drivers from 4/1/98 on another computer with internet access to a zip drive.
5) Copy your Radeon drivers from the Zip drive to the appropriate OS/2 directory
6) Prop up your monitor 45 degrees clockwise for proper EMF cancellation
7) Load CIV IV from floppy to a custom directory
8) Manually modify all system startup files to use 1GB expanded memory and custom game directory.
9) Enjoy.

 

[clipset]

OK I got it to work. It took some time and patience, but if you follow these steps you'll be playing in no time:

1) Copy all CIV IV files to floppy disk
2) Reformat your hard drive
3) Install OS/2, Ver 1.12.34.39.044
4) Download version 2.11.05b Radeon drivers from 4/1/98 on another computer with internet access to a zip drive.
5) Copy your Radeon drivers from the Zip drive to the appropriate OS/2 directory
6) Prop up your monitor 45 degrees clockwise to allow for proper EMF cancellation
7) Load CIV IV from floppy to a custom directory
8) Manually modify all system startup files to use 1GB expanded memory and game directory.
9) Enjoy.

hilarious and very true

 

[darkhorse16]

hilarious and very true

I agree. We owe that guy a beer for providing the laugh.

I'll try the suggestions that were posted elsewhere (i.e. re-downloading the drivers, etc) and see if that works.

 

[Niramas]

I agree. We owe that guy a beer for providing the laugh.

Thanks for the thought but you're about 4 beers too late

 

[Black_death]

Good night fellow ATI users, hopefully our problems will all be answered soon. Where is the best place to look for a patch when/if it comes out tomorrow? (please please please *crosses fingers*)

 

[4204tarbal]

Hi all,

I worked on getting this installed for 5 hours -- not unlike many of the rest of you. FORTUNATELY, I was able to get it working **finally**. I wanted to just play it, but I HAD to come back and let yous guys know what I did to get it working.

refresher:

WinXPpro
DUAL AMD1800's ~ 1.5GHz each
512 MB RAM
Radeon ATLantis 9200SE

tried:
updating and reinstalling everything -- ATI drivers (both Omega & OEM 5.1) and DirectX9.0c (both from Civ CD and from Winblowsupdate.com) -- also completely wiped/reinstalled Civ IV (just to try it). I had also done a lot of praying, cussing, and toking during this time.

Then I read the post about DirectX9.0 removal tool on MajorGeeks.com.

I remembered that the brandest-newest version of DirectX took a dump on me when installed bundled w/ other games, so I tried it. YOU NEED YOUR WINXP CD HANDY!

Go to www.majorgeeks.com and find the directx removal tool and then extract it to THIS FOLDER C:\DXTEMP

that folder. THAT one. Then reboot in Safe Mode. According to the readme, you MUST do this in Safe Mode.

Once in Safe Mode run the file called DX9UN.BAT in the DXTEMP dir. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS WHEN PROMPTED.

I went through it and rebooted to normal desktop. I went to Control Panel and the DirectX util now said I was running DirectX 8.1 I then went and tried it.........

.....the opening movie was a sight for (really red) sore eyes!! I can't garauntee this is going to work, but it is definately worth the effort once you get it working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I'm off to conquer the world! Good luck!

 

[Crusis]

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have to go to any site, download ANY other software, or do ANYTHING except put the disks in the drive and hit install. Once that is done, I should be able to play the game.

I haven't seen a game piss off this many people since the release of WWII Online back years ago now.

I expect better from Firaxis. This isn't a small time developer. THIS IS CIVILIZATION. No excuses, no slack, I can no longer trust Firaxis to give me a good product. I will have to check it out first, make sure it works for others, and then after time, get it if no problems of this magnitude exist. Shame on you Firaxis. There isn't any excuse for this. Shame Shame.

The only game developer I have left to trust is Blizzard. They're still hitting 100% in my opinion.

 

[ATI_flailer]

This is a real lump of coal in my stocking......

does NOT work "Failed to Initialize Renderer....."

ATI Radeon X800 8.18 driver
Catalyst 5.10

XP Pro, SP2, all patched and current.

UPDATE:

Grabbed the Majorgeeks.com tool described above ( directx-dx9uninstaller ), followed the instructions which required finding my XP cd and booting into safe mode, popping a few tums and crossing my fingers.

No dice....same error.

UPDATE #2:

Uninstalled all ATI drivers and software via control panel --> add/remove software

Reinstalled latest ATI drivers and software, rebooted.

No joy, same error.

UPDATE #3:

Ran DXsetup.exe from the Civ IV install disc. DXsetup appeared to do it's thing a little too quickly.

Launch Civ IV, same error.

CYNICAL COMMENT:

This is the first game I've had problems with on my current PC configuration in 2 years. I buy and play a lot of games. This hurts my feelings. No Xmas card for Firaxis or Take 2 from me this year.

 

[Hachima]

x850 XT PE with ATI's 5.10 drivers. Game works fine for me.

 

[Giga watt]

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have to go to any site, download ANY other software, or do ANYTHING except put the disks in the drive and hit install. Once that is done, I should be able to play the game.

I haven't seen a game piss off this many people since the release of WWII Online back years ago now.

I expect better from Firaxis. This isn't a small time developer. THIS IS CIVILIZATION. No excuses, no slack, I can no longer trust Firaxis to give me a good product. I will have to check it out first, make sure it works for others, and then after time, get it if no problems of this magnitude exist. Shame on you Firaxis. There isn't any excuse for this. Shame Shame.

The only game developer I have left to trust is Blizzard. They're still hitting 100% in my opinion.

Im sorry, but this was just funny.

Your right, even though there are an ungodly ammount of computer types,drivers, and hardware combos, everything should work right when you press a button.

Im not saying I dont feal for people whos civ doesnt work, but this is just sad

 

[Jayseki]

you know giga, you would have a point except for the sheer # of people having this problem-obviously this is a design flaw, not a matter of a few people having incompatible systems. also, that is the whole purpose of directx, to make games run on widely varying types of systems. although i agree, his comments were a little to extreme

 

[ATI_flailer]

you know giga, you would have a point except for the sheer # of people having this problem-obviously this is a design flaw, not a matter of a few people having incompatible systems. also, that is the whole purpose of directx, to make games run on widely varying types of systems. although i agree, his comments were a little to extreme

I share Jayseki's take on this. While we all know that nobody is perfect (even Firaxis), we expect more than a retail beta as dedicated, loyal and marginally obsessive fans. In the little world I inhabit, the distributor gets the credit for likely pushing the game to release to hit it's sales forecasts.

Is it just me being blind or is there no support link on the official Civ IV page....they send people here.

 

[balearicrazy]

There are several known issues with the latest version of DirectX. I discovered recently while trying to install another high 3D game that the new version of DirectX 9.2 and I think also 9.0c has the same problems (how come they went back to 9.0c? as the latest version?). The install does not work properly on all machines.

I was having problems with rendering before because of this new, buggy, version of DirectX, so I went to download.com and found a utility to remove the current version and revert it back to version 8.0 (contained on the Windows XP disc) in safe mode. Once I did this, I used Google to search the internet for a version of 9.1 DirectX, downloaded it and installed it and hey-presto the rendering problems disappeared. Just thought that might help here.

By the way, one thing is for sure, installing a directx version over another directx version often seems to be what causes video card problems and crashes.