C3C complete crashes to desktop

[19Delta]

I'm having a problem with Civ 3 complete. I click on the icon to start civ 3, the screen goes black like it's about to start up, and then it goes back to the desktop. At first I though it was becuase my video hardware was insufficient, but I just recently got a new 256 mb video card and it does the exact same thing. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but there is no change. Does anyone know why this is happening, and if so, does anyone know how to fix it?

 

[19Delta]

still nothing? well this sucks. I really have no clue what to do with this situation. I am open to suggestions if anyone wants to try to help me out. Does anyone think that it could be the fact that I skipped registration? Could a patch fix this?

 

[Greyhawk1]

Have you looked to see if the writable files (HighScores.CV3, civ 32 config settings file) are both not read-only?

Sometimes they are and that prevents the game from starting. Right click on the icon, select "properties" and look to the bottom of the page. If "read only" is checked, uncheck and try again.

Might help...

 

[Greyhawk1]

Oh yeah and try disabling the intro movie by putting "PlayIntro=0" at the end of your config file (open with notepad to edit it).

 

[19Delta]

Where are those files located? I can't seem to find them.

 

[Macezek]

I think that the config file for Civ3 Complete is conquests.ini . It should be located in the main Civ3 Complete folder. Like Greyhawk said, open it in Notepad, and in addition to putting in PlayIntro=0 , also place KeepRes=1 . KeepRes makes Civ3 run in the same resolution that you have in Windows so it prevents resolution changes, as well as giving you more visible playing space.

 

[19Delta]

I think that the config file for Civ3 Complete is conquests.ini . It should be located in the main Civ3 Complete folder. Like Greyhawk said, open it in Notepad, and in addition to putting in PlayIntro=0 , also place KeepRes=1 . KeepRes makes Civ3 run in the same resolution that you have in Windows so it prevents resolution changes, as well as giving you more visible playing space.

I tried that, and it didn't work. KeepRes=1 was already there, and there isn't a PlayIntro=anything on the ini file. I'm at a loss. I installed the latest patches for Civ III, Conquests, and Play the World, but I probably didn't need them in the first place. Those didn't help either. I have noticed recently, the some of the file names are in blue instead of black. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. This is driving me crazy. There has to be a reason for this problem, and if not, then there shouldn't be a problem. I suppose that it could be the disc, but it looks fine to me. Maybe the tech support at firaxis can help. I won't hold my breath though.

 

[Macezek]

How about wiping the game from your harddrive and doing a clean install? Uninstall it, delete the folder from your computer. When installing it again, place it somewhere easily accessible like C:\Games\Civilization III . As long as it's not in Program Files, thats where Windows feels like it can do whatever it feels like, especially Vista. You don't need any patches if its Civ3 Complete, since that one comes pre-patched to the latest version. After re-installing it, run it once and exit (or let it crash ). Then go into the .ini file and manually add KeepRes=1 and PlayIntro=0.

Blue files are some kind of designation Windows uses to show what some file property is, it's not really important to the game as far as I know.

Have you updated your graphics/audio drivers recently? Do you keep Windows updated?

 

[19Delta]

that still didn't fix it. I'm at a loss. I opened up the conquests.ini and it was blank. I have never wanted to break an object as bad as I do this cd right now. I guess I'll have to get a new one when time and funds permit. I think that I'll try tech support at Firaxis and then I will try to get a new one. This makes me so freaking mad. I absolutely hate when equipment breaks down for no good reason.

 

[19Delta]

It was never broke to begin with. I just got off the phone with 2k tech support. that guy was awesome. I guess that I had too many programs running in the background. That tells me that I'm going to need either a new computer, or a new processor, but for now, I can play civ III. I am a lot happier person now.

 

[Macezek]

Excellent, happy civving!

 

[CommandoBob]

I was able to play C3C on PIII 500 MHz 256 RAM Win 98SE box. CivAssistII wouldn't work when the game was running, but MapStat did fine. CAII was fine when the game was not running, however.

Vanilla needed 400 MHz. I remember seeing on the forum that the game stats required 500 MHz for some multi-player stuff.

 

[19Delta]

I have a pentium 4 processor, but it's the one that came with the computer when I bought it almost 5 years ago. Since then I've put so many games and mods for those games on it that it's starting to slow down. Over the time that I've been on these forums, I've probably accumalated close to 20 gigs worth of units, scenarios, terrain packs, graphics, etc., and that's just for Civ III. I may go and buy an external hardrive in the future and I will transfer all of the stuff that I have to that. Maybe then my computer will go faster. Thanks for everyone that tried to help me out with this problem.

 

[CommandoBob]

With all that downloading you may have picked up somethings you were not aware of. And that could be slowing the PC down.

I would run SpyBot Search and Destroy (freeware), Spywareblaster (freeware) and AdAware (also freeware) to make sure your machine is clean of non-virus malware. Then I would suggest WinASO, (still freeware), that can cleanup bogus registry entries (mostly where the registry is pointing to files that no longer exist). Then I would defrag the hard drive with the Windows defragger.

All this could take some time, probably most of an afternoon, especially the defrag. Spybot will take about 45 minutes to run; it checks for over 200,000 items. Spywareblaster blocks things from happening; it runs rather quick. AdAware has two modes, Smart Scan or Full Scan; Full Scan will take longer. WinASO runs pretty quick, but the freeware version only fixes 10 errors at a time. The real unknown is the defrag.

But I would try this first before spending dollars on an external drive that might not be needed.

I also use CachemanXP to monitor how much free RAM I have. I've got Windows Task Manager set up to run at startup, with an icon down by the date and time. While not exactly perfect, I do have a good idea of how well my box is running.