Failed to Initialize Renderer

[ori]

not really - I have seen this happen with some Vista update in the past - though I never figured out which one


actually someone in this or another thread on this issue mentioned a not updated .net version - you might want to check whether .net 1.1 is installed on your machine and whether it gets updated

with complete the above mentioned files might not all be there - but remove as many as you can find of those listed above - the reinstall is fine then except that you only need to patch to 3.19.

 

[Lord Civius]

Tried to reinstall and no luck so I just won't be able to play civ on this computer . I don't want to risk messing up something else as I am not the only one that uses it. Why it only effects civ and no other games has me dumbfounded. Thanks for your help Ori if anyone else knows why and can walk me through what to do I'd appreciate it. I'm just not computer savvy enough to troubleshoot this problem.

 

[Lord Civius]

Just went to try and load it one more time before uninstalling Civ4 Complete for good. To my surprise I got no "failed to initialize renderer" message. Instead it made it through the entire loading process then I got the "This program has stopped working and has to shut down" message. It sent whatever info to microsoft guess I shouldn't cross my fingers on microsoft coming up with the fix but one can always hope. Let me know if this means anything.

 

[ori]

when it offers to send something could you click on show report and post a screenshot?

 

[Lord Civius]

Here are the problem reports for bts and colonization. Funny thing, if I restart my computer they work fine for a couple times (played as long as 3 jours with no problems). Then I'll go to play again later and either get a initializer error or app crash. Hope this is as good as a screenie if not let me know and I'll do it.

Product
Sid Meier's Civilization 4 : Beyond The Sword

Problem
Stopped working

Date
8/18/2009 9:19 AM

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Civ4BeyondSword.exe
Application Version: 3.1.9.0
Application Timestamp: 4a0c27e6
Fault Module Name: StackHash_3164
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 28606759
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 3164
Additional Information 2: f31c530d3d12785f4cca5eb2cbce0d8e
Additional Information 3: 011d
Additional Information 4: 01351879a445e41ad4df3ba5eb395c4d

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 1420269380

Product
Sid Meier's Civilization 4 : Beyond The Sword

Problem
Stopped working

Date
10/18/2009 9:54 PM

Status
Report Sent

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Civ4BeyondSword.exe
Application Version: 3.1.9.0
Application Timestamp: 4a0c27e6
Fault Module Name: Civ4BeyondSword.exe
Fault Module Version: 3.1.9.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4a0c27e6
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00218f46
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 3164
Additional Information 2: f31c530d3d12785f4cca5eb2cbce0d8e
Additional Information 3: 011d
Additional Information 4: 01351879a445e41ad4df3ba5eb395c4d

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 1315557285

Product
Sid Meier's Colonization

Problem
Stopped working

Date
10/19/2009 10:33 AM

Status
Not Reported

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Colonization.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 48908a52
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00043387
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 35e3
Additional Information 2: 37f4ec5d58068873a21f2805e6aa528f
Additional Information 3: 2d93
Additional Information 4: 91df07db244f21072587f284953bfce7

 

[ori]

the last error is covered here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/a/ntdlldll.htm

its quite a large number of potential sources though

 

[Kevdagr8t]

A possible solution, and it's not patches or gaming cards it's actually in your RAM, personally I have a desktop with a gb of ram and the Civ stopped working properly displaying the same errors posted in all of these pages, but like a user on here suggested I add a Gb to it and it worked no problem so my guess is that they have the specs. wrong on the packaging about system requirements...any insight?

 

[509geronimo]

Hey everyone, I too got the same exact error message as you did, and I am using an Nvidia Geforce 7300GT, Have'nt had a problem for weeks, ran great, then poof.
I have downloaded latest drivers, updated directx, all that jazz. Nuttin werks.

 

[Trall]

I know a solution,but is not so good

Go to the my documents > My Games > Sid Meier's Civilization 4 > CivilizationIV.ini


look for ; Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask

put FullScreen = 0


the game will probably run,at least worked for me in the demo version

 

[silkenlightning]

OK, I'm really really angry right now about this stupid issue.

I upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista yesterday, long story. At any rate, BTS worked fine on the old install and I played it daily.

This morning I installed Civ IV Vanilla, and then it gave me this error. I downloaded a graphics driver for my ATI Radeon 3200 and all was fine. I played a Vanilla game for 3-4 hours until I found the 2nd BTS disc to do the BTS install.

Now I can't fix it. I haven't a clue what to do. Literally. I know it will and SHOULD work. The BTS DirectX9 is the only clue I have. it failed in that install, and now the windows built in image viewer for pictures doesn't work either. (I have IrfanView installed and it works so I know the images are fine.) I've done anything at all I can find in any forum listing about it. I haven't rolled back Windows Updates, but I did all the updates BEFORE it WORKED this morning.

I did a system restore, and no matter what I did could not get vanilla to work again although it did this morning.

I know this has got to be able to work, and it looks like this messed up more on my install than just Civ IV not working. I live for this game. I might not post on here much, but it is the only game I play, and I play it religiously. Yet, the only answer I can come to is reinstalling windows AGAIN and not trying Civ IV.

 

[easternodyssey]

Ok took me about a good 2 hours to figure out. However, if you are like me and dont want to fiddle with the drivers or read through 23 pages of a forum, this is a quick but sufficient fix. Open up the CivilizationIV.INI file with word pad just like you are editing a HTML or PHP file.

Change line - ; Specify whether to play in fullscreen mode 0/1/ask
FullScreen = (Change from 1 to ask). This will prompt the program to as if you want to play in full screen or not during start up. If you click no it should go through to the game, you will just have to put up with the fact that the game has the windows menu on it, but still works fine.