"Cannot Locate the DVD-ROM"

[Pseudofool]

Make (or download a mini-) image of the Civ4-DVD.

Mount it in your VirtualDrive software. I used Daemon Tools (free for private use) for that.

Use Software that hides this virtual drive from Safedisc4.6 (aka antiblaxx or s4hide). I used s4hide.

Play the game! ...this worked for me.

My DVD Drive won't even recognize that the disc exists in the drive. Ugg.

 

[Mattholz]

My DVD Drive won't even recognize that the disc exists in the drive. Ugg.

Never? You have written, that it has worked sometimes. Could you install the game then?

If yes, you could try a mini-DVD-image.

If not...

 

[Manimal]

Ok, dont know if this has been posted yet, but, I had the same problem
with switching of the cd's.
I went to the Civ4.exe and opened up properties, chose the compatibility
tab, changed to Windows NT (svc pack4)
Restarted the game, and IT WORKED!
I have played a flawless game, no crashes, no bugs, I have
tried 6 different civs with no problems. All the movies and music play without a hitch. I love it.
I played last night from 5pm to midnight, and I will be back at it tonight!
So far, so good!!
I run a 2.5Ghz, 1G ram, ATI Radeon 9200, Soundblaster 5.1

Nice, this worked for me to thanks. Sweet, time to play.

 

[Pseudofool]

Never? You have written, that it has worked sometimes. Could you install the game then?

If yes, you could try a mini-DVD-image.

If not...

Not in the past three days it hasn't recognized it; so I haven't had the oppurtunity to do the image thing. And more than that, when I tried using Daemon tools, some of my other games refused to recognize the disc in the CD rom, so I uninstalled those tools and at least got my other games to work again.

I mean it's fickle...I think it has to do with copy protection etc, but I don't understand why it works for three days then occassional works and then quits altogether. It's so odd.

 

[Mattholz]

And more than that, when I tried using Daemon tools, some of my other games refused to recognize the disc in the CD rom, so I uninstalled those tools and at least got my other games to work again.

OK, let's forget the image from virtual drive solution then.
Have you tried the others mentioned in this thread?

Create a restricted user account (no admin rights) and play from that.

The Microsoft fix for SafeDisc games.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=eae20f0f-c41c-44fe-84ce-1df707d7a2e9&displaylang=en

Update the firmware of your drive.

Set the transfer mode of your drive to PIO.
"also had problems with finding my DVD. I tried the sd4hide tool, but that didn't help. However, I think the problem was associated with some DLA(Drive Letter Access) - software installed on my computer. I updated the software and in addition, I set the transfer mode of my DVD to PIO only (IDE controllers on the device manager). After these steps, the "cannot find DVD" -error vanished.."

Use compatibility mode.
"Ok, dont know if this has been posted yet, but, I had the same problem
with switching of the cd's.
I went to the Civ4.exe and opened up properties, chose the compatibility
tab, changed to Windows NT (svc pack4)
Restarted the game, and IT WORKED!
I have played a flawless game, no crashes, no bugs, I have
tried 6 different civs with no problems. All the movies and music play without a hitch. I love it."

Maybe one of these will work for you.
If not, return the game, get your money back and mail 2K Games and Firaxis your opinion on using this copy protection.

 

[pompeynunn]

My DVD won't even recognise the Civ 4 disk in the drive, let alone install from it. I have no problems with any other DVD's. I have tried the disk in a works PC DVD drive, and the DVD appears to be OK.

I have an older Compaq PC, and it reckons the DVD drive is a Compaq GD-8000 DVD drive (although I suspect this may be a Hitachi drive which also has the same GD-8000 designation). I can't find any newer XP drivers on the web for it. *edit* I've just managed to find an updated piece of firmware for the drive - I'll try that at the weekend.

So it isn't just a problem with LG drives.

 

[Azrael Dragon]

Strangely, although many people claim that daemon tools do not work, it works for me, even (or better: only) without image !

Being close to a nervous breakdown after trying to install the game from the (original) DVD for multiple times, i finally found some infos in various forums.

So, I first created an image,mounted it, but this didn´t work... then i tried again and again... and somehow, one time i was in a wrong folder and started the civ.exe from original DVD (european/german version) instead from the mounted image.. and suddenly it worked !
I de-mounted the image and deleted it, but the game still runs fine.

Therefore : Just starting daemon tools and enable all anti-protection options is sufficient as it seems (version 3.47)

Though, i don`t remember if i installed the game from image or DVD (i reinstalled it at least 10 times i guess), but maybe worth a try for you guys.
Good luck,

P.S.: The game is awesome ;-)

 

[marinosm]

matoz thanks a lot for the walkthrough it worked
however i have a another problem now
''failed to initialized render check directx version and graphics settings

well my directx version is 9c but my graphics card does not support t&l
but it worked the first time i installed it even with black terrain!!
any suggestions...?

agains thanks a lot

 

[marinosm]

i got it
it was something i changet in the config file

 

[KingOlex]

So what did u change in the config file?

 

[marinosm]

i set it to tun the game in fullscreen mode, that is 1 aside fullscreen

 

[Zant]

My LG DVD player wouldn't load the DVD. First DVD I had was slightly scratched... wouldn't load that one at all. Second DVD... I thought it didn't work... but after waiting 5 mins it my DVD player finally recongnized the DVD. Install was a bit on the slow side but it's all working now.

Game runs smoothly untill later in the game... bit laggy then but nothing unplayable.

I'm also lucky that I have one of the few Radeon cards *8500 LE 128 mb* that doesn't seem to have any problems with the game.

Might try updating my DVD Firmware... but since it's working now I probably won't bother

 

[foofaspoon]

Well, I downloaded the Alcohol 120% and the game now works fine - I'll have to swap to the other recommended drive thing when the trial 30 days runs out. However, though I dowloaded the s4hide programme, the game runs fine without me activating it!!! Quite bizzare. Anyway, the game is great, just a shame I wasted an entire weekend because of this copy protection (which is obviously somewhat pointless!)

 

[strada]

I had exactly the same problem guys ! and I've finally fixed it, so I thought I'd share what was happening and how I resolved the issue so that it might hopefully help others that are tearing their hair out with the same problems !!

First my system setup.....

AMD 64 3500+
Galaxy 6600 256Mb
Audigy 2 Platinum Pro
Winfast (Foxconn) Motherboard with RAID card to add two extra IDE slots.
1 Gb Ram
LG DVD Combo Drive
Lite On 52x Cd-Writer.....
550W Power Supply

Think that's all you need to know !!

Right, the issue was that my version (the DVD version) just would not be recognised when trying to run the game. It would show up in My Computer, and you could explore the disc, but if you ran it, you'd get the splash screen, wait for ages and it would tell you that it couldn't find the CD. VERY ANNOYING !!!

What I've done to fix it.....

1- tried updating the firmware for my DVD drive - no change
2- made an image from the DVD, mounted with Alcohol, and used a securerom hiding program (works, but why should I have to do that with a game I've bought !!!)
3- Tried 3 different DVD drives, all different makes.... no change
4- Torn hairs out repeatedly
5- Waited for Firaxis and 2K to release a patch.... or at least tell us when the patch is due, and not lie about it.... ie say next week and then not deliver !!!

And finally......

I did have my CD and DVD drives plugged into the IDE card and my Hard Drives plugged straight into the motherboard...... this is what it didn't like.
I swapped over so that my CD and DVD drives are plugged straight into the motherboard, and the Hard Drives are plugged into the RAID card.......

AND IT FINALLY WORKS !!!! For some reason it didn't like it with the old configuration.... hope I'm now not losing speed in data transfer with my Hard Drives, but nothing seems to be going slower as yet....... fingers crossed.

Hope this has helped a load of people...... Tech support..... I was on the phone for an hour !!! Rubbish.

Barnes

 

[Pseudofool]

""I did have my CD and DVD drives plugged into the IDE card and my Hard Drives plugged straight into the motherboard...... this is what it didn't like.
I swapped over so that my CD and DVD drives are plugged straight into the motherboard, and the Hard Drives are plugged into the RAID card.......""

How would I go about doing this? I'm not an idiot, but I haven't installed anything save for more memory. Anyone willing to break it down for us tech-idiots. I have Dell Dimension 4700 if that helps anyone. Thanks again for all those concerned and helpful. The peeps on this board give me hope for a compassionate humanity, too bad real life isn't as such

 

[Pseudofool]

I just got an idea...tell me what you think.
I have an old CDR drive sitting in an old computer; the drive itself is probably only two years old. And currently I only have the DVD drive in my computer; does any think installing this drive as a Slave in my computer my solve some of the problems?

 

[Boxfish]

Bump

Having the same problem w/ LG DRD8160B drive. Will try calling tech support, if only to bring their attention to this problem. Very very frustrating.

Hope we get a solution to this soon . . . we shouldn't have to be taking our computers apart to run a legally-purchased peice of software.

 

[KingOlex]

I wonder if 2Kgames is reading this forum... I'm one of those "computer-illiterate idiots": I don't know how to creatively mess around hard- or software-wise to get this f#$în' game to work . Moreover, I don't think I should either. I just hope the patch is coming out soon. btw: being an idiot and all; Is it possible to run a patch over an executable file? I heard it is impossible... Shouldn't we just return the game and get a new release? all of us? ...fast?



I'm so frustrated, I installed Civ3 PTW again...

 

[strada]

Hey guys,


First you need to know whether you have a motherboard that does indeed have a RAID card plugged in to it.

1- If you look inside your computer you will see a row of cards sticking up, your graphics card, sound card, possibly a modem etc. If one of these has an IDE cable plugged into it (an IDE Cable is long and wide with three connections that will plug into the back of your cd-rom/dvd drives and also your Hard Drives)

If you do.... then this may well be the problem

2- You now need to follow that cable to it's source. It's either going to be going to the hard drives, or the cd/dvd drives. If it's going to the cd/dvd drives, then you had the same problem as me !

3- Removed the IDE cable from the RAID card end, do not disturb the cable from the back of any drives. They will be configured as Master and Slave, so best not to mess with them !

4- Locate the same type of cable from the back of the Hard Drives, and find where on the motherboard it is plugged into. (The motherboard is the large board that everything sits on or in, including the processor and the memory sticks) Remove the cable from the motherboard end, and plug it into where you removed the CD/DVD drive cable. And Vice Versa.... plug the CD/DVD drive cable straight into the motherboard.

5- Reboot the computer repeatedly pressing 'Delete' on your keyboard (or however you normally enter the BIOS) And obviously all BIOS's are slightly different, but there should be a section for IDE devices, and when in there you can select 'AUTO' and it will search for them and install them itself. Once it's found them all, you're good to go, Save and Exit, Reboot.

6- Run CivIV , Cheer, Shout etc.....!

I really hope that I have written this well enough, please anyone jump in with any further help that I may have missed, or may not be 'laymans terms' enough. I tried !


Good Luck

Barnes

 

[Boxfish]

Thanks all for the advice / ideas. I've tried a few things and so far nothing has worked. . . maybe someone with more expertise can tell me where I am going wrong?

-- uninstalled civ4 and emptied cache folder in :c.../documents and settings
-- downloaded alcohol 120%
-- downloaded sd4hide.exe
-- created image of Civ4 dvd in alcohol
-- mounted image onto virtual drive
-- ran sd4hide.exe
-- pressed 'hide' button
-- installed civ4 from virtual drive - so far so good?
-- ran civ4 from virtual drive
== BOMB. 'cannot locate cd-rom' error type message again.

MADDENING. Really hoping that someone has a fix. Is there something I'm missing / doing wrong?

Thanks again to those who are taking the time to help - I hope I can return the favour some time!