civ III worked with old monitor, but not new one, please help?

[maelefir]

ok i go into civ III... the intro come up, when that finished it i just see a black screen, and i can still hear the music. i cant get out of it either from there, i cant alt + tab or ctrl+alt+del the screen just remains blank. when i do however, the music stops, so it is exiting the program, its just the monitor stays black so i have to restart.

i have tried the solution on this site, changing my refresh rate, and read the tech support at atari and multiple other sites but cant find anything else that works, does anyone here have any ideas?

it worked fine on my old monitor, but as soon as i put my new one in (which is possibly older, but much bigger) it does the abve...

please help me... used to love this game...

 

[T.A JONES]

Its a little hard to fix something in the dark eh Go in to SAFE MODE by clickin F8 when you start the compter. Next change your screen resoloution. 1024x768 is default You might have it to high or to low I don't know your system

If things are still not working go back to the closest date before your monitor started acting up. Its a safemode option you be asked at the start. Thats a good way of doing things also. Now your set

Edit: wait da minute, Sorry It sounded like a cut n dry case of monitor failure but you said it worked in the intro?then it went black? sorry man this all might be irrelevent: its worth a try anyway
take care

 

[Turner]

Have you tried the KeepRes? The monitor switches to 640x480 for the intro movie, and then 1024x786 for the main screen.

Civ3 needs to be at 1024x768 or higher in order to play. Trying to play at a lower res won't work.

 

[T.A JONES]

I was playin with the res option on a friends big 19 inch 4 yearold flat when I raised it way past 1024x768 the moniter coudn't handle it. The screen went black I could hear the sounds just like you. I fixed it by going back to the day before the error on safe mod.(we couldn't find the menu we had played around with) Have you tried anything we've suggested or you just keeping us in the dark like you are your monitor, You asked for help. so help us help you already

 

[maelefir]

haha sorry, iv been doing things... its only been 2 days?:S

thanks heaps fdor the replies, didnt expect this much at all, but in answer to what you have said...

Jones- i have my screen resoultion set to that, i did this by right clicking on my desktop and doign it from there, will it make a difference if i do it from safe mode?:S

it wasnt a date my monitr started playing up, the old one worked, and the new one doesnt work civ III... it never did, so i dont really have a date to go back to...

Turner- what is this keepRes? i know, i never realised why it did that on my old monitor, when id exit my game the monitors res would go all weird... so how do i change this?

Jones 2nd- yeah this is an old monitor, probs about that size too, it was a dads collegue who gave it to us... used to use it for big CAD drawings and stuff... but still, i dont see how the safemode thing will help, there is no date the monitor stopped working, it never worked with civ III.

thanks again for the hits, much appreciated

 

[T.A JONES]

Sorry I was sure your prob was like mine I had raised my re to high for the old moniter. I still think thats your problem When my Screen crashed I had no idea bout safe mode I couldn't see anything but black so was I suppose to set the properties back.

Any tiny thing marked as a date to go back by. I never lost anything I down loaded in the days I went back so it never hurt. and you can see all the things that have transpired that could be suspicious. If the moniter never worked to bedin with It still might help. say the truth it depends what the problem is..Refresh should be at 72 or 75, I know if that you res is right your problems solved.

Mybe try the compatablty menu by right clickin the logo its under properties you probley know.

 

[Turner]

maelefir - I'd like to direct your attention to this post. It has all the .ini switches in there. You can set up the KeepRes=1 from there.

You'll want to make sure your refresh rate is the same in the .ini as the monitor, too. This might be part of the problem. But you've said you've already messed with it...did you try to set it to a common value (i.e. - 60, 72) or did you try and match it to your monitor?

 

[maelefir]

mmm referesh rate is at 72, i put it up from the 60 is was before, and inserted the line into the notepad file. i also did the keepres thing there too, the thing is, i wonder, is if im changing the right file. i have no file with ".ini" on the end, only a "civilization III" notepad file, that has the same sort of equations as im meant to add. this is what it reads now-

[Civilization III]
MainFontSize=16
InterludeFontSize=16
Refresh=72
KeepRes=1

anything else i should try? eeergh, and now im having trouble with civ IV... :S

 

[Turner]

Rename that file Civilizationiii.ini, and give it a try.

Erm, that should be Civilization3.ini....

 

[Padma]

Or try turning on "Show file extensions" in Windows Explorer.

(Personally, turning that off by default was one of the dumbest things MS ever did. )

Edit: make that "uncheck the box to 'Hide file extensions for known file types' in the folder options dialog box under the Tools menu."

 

[maelefir]

is that just clicking the "show hidden files and folders" under 'veiw'? or is it another thing, because i cant find it...:S

what will this change by the way? is this to show me the ini file?

 

[Padma]

On my Win2000 system, it is the line directly beneath the "Show hidden files and folders" option.

And it shows the actual filename extensions, which Windows uses to identify what type of file it is. It helps you more easily identify which "Civilization III" file is the .ini file, which is the executable, etc.

 

[maelefir]

mmm still doesnt work... thanks heaps guys for the effort, i seriously didnt expect this much help!!

but alas... i have found civ IV, so i have moved on... cheers fellas, for all the help