Cannot Load Civ4 problem

[ancientk]

Hello, I tried reinstalling civ 4 again and again with updating the patch to 1.61 but nothing works. When I try to reload the game... it takes forever like 2 mins until a windows error screen pops up. It is extremely frustrating.

I'm using an inspiron 6400 duo processor. 256MB ATI Radeon x1400 Hypermemory.

 

[crunch]

OK, just a recap of what I understood of your rant:
- game is installed successfully
- game is patched to 1.61 (no errors / reboots, etc.)

Now I don't understand whether:
- when you run the game, the game crashes at loading screen, or
- when you attempt to reload a save game, the game crashes.

Post a screenshot of the crash. Have you already had civ4 installed and running on this computer before? Do you have DirectX 9.0c installed? Are your graphics drivers up to date? What is the exact type of your CD/DVD drive?

 

[ancientk]

Hi, Thanks for responding. No I'm just trying to load the game. It crashes in the load screen after 2 mins of waiting. I'm not sure how to update my ATI Radeon 256 MB videocard because it is specially made for Dell Notebook. I believe it's called HYPERDRIVE ATI Radeon 256MB. I tried updating with catalyst but it doesn't work.

My CD/DVD drive could be the problem... because when it crashes... the DVD drive flickers (the light on the side). I'm not even sure what my DVD drive it is but give me a second... I'm gonna go look for it. Thanks for your help.

EDIT, forgot to tell u, it's the first time trying to run this game on my notebook.

EDIT, ok here it is, it is an 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability.

 

[ancientk]

EDIT, ignore this... I can't upload the image oh well...

 

[crunch]

Inspiron laptops sometimes come with TSST CD/DVD drive which seems to be causing trouble. I noticed that you already found the other topic where this is discussed. As an alternative, you could try some less legal ways of making the game run (no cd crack, sd4hide, mini-image, ...) - not to be discussed here though.