Civ 5 doesn't start, at all.

[imperialman]

I installed Civ 5 this morning, everything went fine and Steam installed the updates it had to and such but when I try to launch the game in either DX9 or DX11 things go wrong. Looking at processes on task manager once I try and start the game, civilization5.exe runs for a few seconds (the desktop goes black for less than a second) then just disappears from the list of processes and my screen goes back to desktop without any sort of message or error box, no pop up at all.

DxDiag info is here http://www.heypasteit.com/clip/NB7

Thanks in advance for any support.

Edit: I'm aware my graphics set up is slightly under minimum but surely that wouldn't cause this would it? Actually my graphics set up will probably be far below minimum specs I think.

 

[imperialman]

Anyone?

 

[zafyro]

I have checked my machine and I'm over the minimun requirements to play civ V but it wont run on my computer. I Installed it perfectly but when I'm going to run it, it just stops working. I don't even get to see any screen at all, just an error message telling m that something went wrong and that that civilization V had to stop.

 

[tokala]

Chip type: Intel(R) GMA 3100


No that is not "slightly" below mimum, this is about as bad as it gets

From wiki: "The 3D core is very similar to the older GMA 3000, including the lack of hardware accelerated vertex shaders."

Buy a dedicated video card. Anything will be better than that. The good stuff starts around $60 (HD5550/5570)

 

[Aegis]

It appears that you are using an Integrated video card - Intel(R) G33/G31, which is not supported. It's a very weak GPU for 3D graphics and is the cause of your issue.

Does your computer have a PCI-Express slot? If so, you can get a good dedicated video card.

 

[imperialman]

It appears that you are using an Integrated video card - Intel(R) G33/G31, which is not supported. It's a very weak GPU for 3D graphics and is the cause of your issue.

Does your computer have a PCI-Express slot? If so, you can get a good dedicated video card.

Yeah, I'll go and buy a new card next week I suppose (I'd love more RAM too). Shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Thanks everyone for your help, I appreciate it!

 

[imperialman]

May purchase an NVidia GeForce 9800 GT PCI-E card for £110 (and some extra RAM, can't hurt), if this doesn't do it I'll go on a rampage in various local orphanages.

 

[imperialman]

Actually, would a GeForce GT 240 PCI-E Graphics Card be the best option due to my PSU only being 300w? (more importantly, would it do Civ 5 justice?)

 

[tokala]

Actually, would a GeForce GT 240 PCI-E Graphics Card be the best option due to my PSU only being 300w? (more importantly, would it do Civ 5 justice?)

People seem to have all kinds of trouble with the nVidia 8800 series of cards (which includes the 9800s and the GT240), while very few complaints come from owners of ATI HD 5000s. If you prefer nVidia cards, the GTS450 seems to be decent, too. All of those (excluding the HD 5800s) should be able to run with your current PSU, provided you don't plan to put in an overclocked quadcore, too

 

[imperialman]

People seem to have all kinds of trouble with the nVidia 8800 series of cards (which includes the 9800s and the GT240), while very few complaints come from owners of ATI HD 5000s. If you prefer nVidia cards, the GTS450 seems to be decent, too. All of those (excluding the HD 5800s) should be able to run with your current PSU, provided you don't plan to put in an overclocked quadcore, too

I'll look into your suggestion, thanks for the info. Bteween the 9800 and GT240 though, which would you suggest? I'm thinking 240 due to my PSU.

 

[imperialman]

Just upgraded to a 400w PSU, should get this sorted soon then.

 

[tokala]

I'll look into your suggestion, thanks for the info. Bteween the 9800 and GT240 though, which would you suggest? I'm thinking 240 due to my PSU.

Looked it up again, and found that the GT240 is actually GT200 derived not from the G92b like the 9800GT and the GT250. So betweeen those two, I would give the GT240 the nod, although it's slower than the 9800GT. The 1024MB Version is again slower than the 512 MB version.
And the GT200 based cards are not working entirely flawlessly with Civ5 either.
On my (much more powerful) GTX260 I have the choice between extremely annoying texture draw-in in DX9 mode, and a much better looking, but a tad choppy DX10/11 mode.

I would really recommend a DX 11 card

 

[Buccaneer]

When I build my new PC later this year, I am thinking of a GX450 or GX460 (unless something newer comes out before then). Thoughts on either of those?

 

[tokala]

When I build my new PC later this year, I am thinking of a GX450 or GX460 (unless something newer comes out before then). Thoughts on either of those?

Both GTS 450 and GTX 460 should work fine with Civ.

 

[CalifCiv]

I have the same problem that started this webpage. I called 2K and they said that I needed a graphics card (GMA 3100 G31/33 is an integrated card, and it is pretty weak). Looks like I need $100 or something to buy one, do I?

Question: Do I need to uninstall the integrated graphics card to install a new graphics card, or do I leave it be while installing it?

 

[tokala]

When a dedicated card is installed, the internal video card should get automatically disabled. It might be a good idea to uninstall the drivers before plugging in the new card.
As to recommended cards: See the posts above

 

[hthu]

I had the similar problem, solved.

I bought the game DVD and installed it on my desktop computer. It works fine. Then, I tried to have it installed on my laptop via Steam. Steam installed it and the updates. Everything seemed to be fine, but the game wouldn't start AT ALL no matter dx 9 or 10/11.

Eventually, I uninstalled the game, and reinstalled using the DVD. It worked.