Civ 4 Gold Edition Stuck at Loading screen

[SpyderMan14]

So... i just bought my copy of Civ IV Gold Edition today and the install seemed to go just fine. I had no problems and I meet all of the sys. requirements. I finish the install and the loading screen comes up (the one that has all the different languages on it) and it just sits there. It waits a couple of minutes and then just gives me a windows error message.

I have an ATI card and a gateway laptop, but i have tried all the fixes i could seem to find online that deal with ATI cards and the like. I have uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times. Please help, this is my first CIV game and im not getting a good first impression from the series.

edit: i just downloaded the free demo of CIV 4 and played it with no problems whatsoever...

Here is my DxDiag:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
System Manufacturer: Gateway
System Model: 7510GX
Processor: Mobile AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz
Memory: 1022MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Card name: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600
Chip type: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600 (0x3150)
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Max Res: 640,480
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6614 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Date/Size: 5/3/2006 10:51:00, 258048 bytes

(Sorry for the massive wall of text...)

 

[kkirkland77]

I am having the same problem so i started nosing around the game directory and i found the the ini file along with several folders are listed as shortcuts to a directory in the my documents folder the problem is when i go to my doc to locate them they are not there. Any suggestions or should i try to exchange the disk i have for a diffrent copy.