Civ4 crashes when starting.

[raw_bean]

Okay. So here's what happens: whenever I try to start Civ4, it does the following:

It goes to the normal startup screen with the play / readme / exit buttons on it.

I click play, and it does the loading screen for a few seconds, and then it says

Sid Meier's Civilization 4 has stopped working.

Here's a screenshot:

Before you start asking questions, here's what I have done:

Cleaned it.

Ran it in administrator mode.

Changed my account to an administrator and then ran it.

Allowed it through my firewall.

Installed the latest version of DirectX.

Downgraded to DirectX 9.0c

Tried unintalling and re-installing, but it gives me an error number that is impossible to type, and tells me to contact my "vendor".

I tried to run it in XP Compatability mode. but I have no idea how to do that.

Of course, the computer tells me the problem is that I haven't upgraded to Service Pack 2 the very second it came out, which is obviously not the problem because other games work fine.

Help please?

 

[raw_bean]

Okay, I figured out ho to run in Xp compatability mode, but it still crashes.

 

[raw_bean]

It's been a day and a half, and nobody has posted. I'm going to have to start bumping it just to keep it on the front page.

 

[Furiey]

Welcome to CFC!

I gather this is Vista?

Have you installed the 1.74 patch?

If not download the patch from the Civfanatics download section, save the file to your computer then run it by right clicking on the .exe and choosing run as administrator.

 

[raw_bean]

Ok, i'll try that.

 

[raw_bean]

Ok, I tried installing the patch, but it says I already have the latest version, I installed it anyway, and it Installed succesfully, so i'm going to try to launch Civ4.

 

[raw_bean]

It worked. Thanks so much for your help