Cannot Get Past Opening Video on Civ3 or Civ3 PTW

[Canopus]

I have Civ3, the upgrade to Civ3 PTW and the DYP mod all of which used to play on Windows 98 and am now trying to install them on XP. I install the Civ3 disk and it seems to install, then the Register Now comes up and I click Never Register as I've registered the game before to no avail. After clicking on Never Register an error message comes up saying "Error 51", I clear it and everything seems to be OK (this used to happen on W98 as well). I try to play the game, the opening video comes up and displays correctly, it ends and instead of displaying the menu I get nothing...no display, no monitor light, just the menu music. I can't exit so have to reboot.

I have tried this a few times un-installing the game and doing a Systems Restore in case any systems files have been corrupted, cleaning out the oldprogram files and installing again, but, every time the same result. I have borrows a friends disk that I know is OK so as to try his in case mine is damaged, but, same result. I have tried patching it with Civ3 PTW and then applying the latest patch to that...same result. I have tried playing it in W98 compatibility mode, but, nothing happens at all then.

I'm at a loss. Anyone any ideas what could be causing this?

A bit of technical info, I'm using:
XP Pro
AOpen AK77-600GN motherboard
AMD Athlon XP, 1700+ processor
Video Card - GeForce2 MX 100/200
Video Drivers - nv4_disp (6.14.10.7184 - nVIDIA Detonator 71.84) <filename 71.84_win2kxp_english.exe>

Further info:
Display set at 1024 x 768
When opening video starts resolution drops to 800 x 600 (I presume)
At end of opening video I used to see resolution return to 1024 x 768, now there seems to be no resolution change from 800 x 600, but, instead screen goes black and gives every indication that no signal is getting to monitor...music still plays.

Rob

 

[Turner]

It sounds like a refresh problem.

Try adding the line Refresh=xx where xx is your monitors refresh rate to your civilizationiii.ini or ptw.ini file. To find the refresh rate, right click on the desktop and select Properties. Click on the Settings Tab, and then click on Advanced. Then find the Monitor tab on the new window. It should give you a list of your refresh rates in a drop down box.

 

[Canopus]

It sounds like a refresh problem.

Try adding the line Refresh=xx where xx is your monitors refresh rate to your civilizationiii.ini or ptw.ini file.

This is a little difficult from what I remember. The Civ3 ini file isn't created until after the first game and save and as I cannot even get to the Menu I cannot play let alone save a game to create the ini file. I suppose I could write an ini file if someone could point out how to do it, but, I would think I would need to create a separate ini file for Civ3, Civ3 PTW and Civ3 PTW DYP.

Rob

 

[Turner]

Actually, you only need one for Civ3 and one for PTW. DyP will read off the PTW ini. And if it's not there, just create it. It'll add whatever is missing.

If you're not going to play Vanilla civ, then just make the one for PTW. They are seperate, and don't refer to each other.

As to writing it, just open notepad (or any text editor) and add the Refresh=XX line. Save the file as ptw.ini and put it in your PTW directory.