Can't start up game

[blazenwo]

I have tried installing, uninstalling, along with a combination of trying out retail, 1.09, and 1.52, and all of them give me the same problem. It just refuses to load, and gives me a "Civ IV has encountered a problem" when I double click the exe to start up. When I goto more details, I get this info:

AppName: civilization4.exe AppVer: 1.5.2.1736 ModName: msxml3.dll
ModVer: 8.50.2162.0 Offset: 0000f1ec

My ati driver is up to date, I have tried creating a new user account on windows and still get the same problem. I also have downloaded the latest xml parser from microsoft. I've included my dxdiag.txt

 

[Zydor]

Three long shots ...

1. Obviously done lots to try and fix it. So its worth doing a TOTAL purgeof Civ IV - gets rid of old bits that may be around causing clashes
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=152620

2. Once thats done, reduce the pagefile - its large at 326MB, there could be a background program clashing - need to reduce anyway, that background stuff pinches resource availability

Background Applications & Services
Start Button - Click - select Run - type "msconfig" no quotes - press enter
Click Service tab - tick the box "Hide all Microsoft Services"

tick the box "Hide all Microsoft Services" is very important - you MUST have this ticked to avoid stopping essential operating system services - it MUST be ticked (not empty)

Press disable all
Click the startup tab
Click disable all
Go back to Services Tab - double check the "hide all Microsoft Services" Box is ticked and not empty
Click ok at the bottom of the screen
Reboot
When it settles after boot, run the game.
If it works, bingo, a background appis clashing, restart them one by one to find out which one etc

3. Driver purge. As with system install, you can leave bits of driver around when loading new ones. If you go to the ATI site - then page for latest XP drivers you will see reference to a driver cleaner. Download that, purge the beast, on boot up refuse to allow windows to load drivers, you end up with a horriblelooking screen 640x480 low texture.

Then could try Omega drivers, have a good rep
http://www.omegadrivers.net/
Click ATI Radeon - Click sub menu Archive - Click sub menu Win 2K - try the 5.11

That way you are guaranteed you have an absolutely clean installation, and no bits from previous 3am attempts laying around tocause issues.

Of course, may not work for you ... you may have done it already ... but this 'cleaning' exercise has worked for many who had old bits laying around causing issues.

Regards
Zy

 

[blazenwo]

well I tried all that and still have the same problem

 

[blazenwo]

can anyone help me with this?

 

[Petek]

The following has helped others who had problems with msxml3.dll:

Click on Start button, select Run, then type

Regsvr32.exe MSXML3.DLL

Select OK, then OK again.

Please post again if this doesn't help.

 

[mxeDiT10n]

No help... tried reducing page-file size... still same error.

 

[Tempeler]

Had the same error, all I did was turn off all services (exept MS services), downloaded the newest ATI driver and turn off my virus/firewall (I use Panda).
The game works great so far. Hope this is useful in some way.

 

[R0sered]

I had the same problem - tried everything - then it turned out the disk was faulty. See if you can borrow someone else's disk, or try yours on another computer.