Civ IV won't start

[RingySFC]

Hi everyone, ive just bought Civ IV, i have installed it and when i press to play it the loading screen comes up then a windows error message comes up, the ones saying send error report or dont send. I have downloaded 2 patches: Civ4v109 and Civ4Patch1.52 and neither have had any effect, could someone help me please?

Many thanks

Ringy

 

[Sleepy1981]

I have almost tha same problem. Game worked fine with the 1.09 patch except for some CTD ingame. Now after patching to 1.52 i can't even start the game anymore! FYI I have bought it from direct2drive.com and used their patch.

Anybody else have the same problem?

 

[jst]

yea !
ater patching i can't even run the game anymore !
i get the messege send or don't send.
can anyone please help ?
jst

 

[ori]

Welcome to CFC
with the error message could you click on show report and post the upper part of it here?

 

[jst]

ok, and tnx for the welcome !
posti it when i get to my comp
jst

 

[jst]

that's the report...
i hope u can help me, it just won't start...
and it worked beore, i can't live whitout civ4 !
JST

 

[ori]

you did try patching to 3.13, right? if so that patch failed, do this and yes I know its a pain - but most people here reported that it helped:

If you don't have warlords ignore those steps.


install the most recent version of DirectX 9c from Microsoft

then do the following for a clean reinstall:

Uninstall and Reinstall Civ4 Warlords BtS :

Try to follow this order when doing stuff:
Use Control panel to uninstall Beyond the Sword, then Warlords, then Vanilla
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\my documents\my games\beyond the sword" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\application data\my games\beyond the sword" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\my games\sid meier's civilization 4" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\my games\warlords" manually
Delete "...\documents and settings\<username>\local settings\application data\my games\beyond the sword" manually
(note: application data is a hidden directory so you need to configure windows explorer to show hidden files, also these directories in application data are sometimes removed by the uninstall routine)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8}" (Civ4)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{3E4B349F-10B5-4586-9D99-489A90A8B228}" (Warlords)
Delete "...\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information\{32E4F0D2-C135-475E-A841-1D59A0D22989}" (BtS) (note: InstallShield Installation Information is a hidden directory so you need to configure windows explorer to show hidden files).
Install Vanilla, immediately patch it to 1.61 (download it fresh from here)
Install Warlords, immediately patch it to 2.08 (download it fresh from here)
Install Beyond the Sword, immediately patch to 3.13 (download it fresh from here).

 

[jst]

i tried nothing
i just installed the game and it patchd itself
i have warlords, but i did not instal them
i instal the game and than i can play it the first time, and than agin it doesn't work, and it works and than not...
thats my sotry
and whats with the delete stuf (locationns and so...)
jst

 

[jst]

o yea and whats vanila ?

 

[ori]

Sorry to be unclear.
Vanilla = Civilization 4 the game - not one of the two expansion packs.
So just to be clear: you did install Civ4, then you installed Beyond the Sword and it was probably saying something like "applying patches" during the install. Then you tried starting the game and it would not start? is this correct?
Also did you ever patch Civ4 before installing Beyond the Sword?

 

[mythlady]

I asked a similar question below but got no answer. I downloaded what I assume is the latest version of Civ IV (which works fine), and then tried to add CIV IV Beyond the Sword. When I try to install BTS, it tells me that 1) "there's a newer version of Civ IV available -- installing now." Then it tells me "The patch failed to install. Aborting installation!" I have downloaded both the 161 and 174 patches, but when I try to install those, it tells me that "the setup has detected that no version of Civ IV has been installed. This update requires that a previous version of the application be installed." I understand from what you said above that the version of Civ IV I downloaded should not need to be patched (which is what you would expect), but why then do I get the "there's a newer version of Civ IV available"? Is there a way to work around that?? Thanks.

 

[ori]

Welcome to Civfanatics
Sorry I did not notice your prior post. Where did you download Civ4 from and what version (CD/DVD or download) of BtS are you trying to install?

 

[mythlady]

I downloaded an official copy of Civ IV through the Gamestop.com/EBGames site (I actually have the CD version of the game but lost one of the CD's when we moved, and so purchased the entire thing again to play BTS). I have the CD version of BTS.

I had sent a question to Take2 support, and they sent me a canned response with a variety of possibilities, one of which had to do with Direct X. I successfully downloaded the latest version of Direct X and tried installing BTS again, but got the same messages -- "there's a newer version of Civ IV available -- installing now." Then it tells me "The patch failed to install. Aborting installation!"

Thanks for your help. I'm running XP on an HP Pavilion computer with plenty of juice to play the game (which I played before the move, without issue).

 

[ori]

unfortunately the digital distribution is messed up. You will need to manually patch the game using this patch:
http://d.trymedia.com/d/take2/bnd_d_174/take2/CivilizationIV_patch174.exe

This will take care of the patching, but so far no one has posted a solution for installing BtS from a disc onto a digital version of Civ4 - I assume that in some cases it works, but in others it fails.
You could try running the above patch and then trying to install BtS but I fear that one would probably have to do quite heavy registry edits within windows to get the BtS installer to recognize the digital version of Civ4

 

[mythlady]

Thanks very much -- I'm downloading the patch now. If that doesn't work and my wizard son can't deal with the registry issues, I'm asking Gamestop to replace my digital download with the CD version -- that doesn't sound too unreasonable a request given the circumstances, does it??

I appreciate the information and help available here -- thanks.

Later: FYI, new patch installed, same error messages. Gamestop needs to make good on this.

 

[jst]

yes as you said !
and no i did not try to patch it before:
i actualy had it instald many times before, becouse of the same problem (many reinstals)...
and it always repet
jst

 

[ori]

@jst:
could you start Civ4 (i.e. not one of the expansions)? if yes could you click on advanced and then on about this build and post a screenshot of that screen?

 

[jst]

nope...
both games same problem
and it's not always that it doesn't start: i play it one day and tomorow i can't, than agin on the day afer torow i can and so on...
jst

 

[jst]

maybe you shud make me a tutorial how to do a clean reinstall
i did not undertant the last one
sory to be so rude and anoying, but i can't live whitout civ4 !
o yea and i got Vanilla and BTS
cheers, jst

 

[jst]

o, and i can't instal the DX, validatoin (i suck in english as you may notice) fails !