Fix-It List

erpcon - Sorry , my apologies, missed that one ...

Its not a gamming laptop. It will not meet the game specs with a Mobility Radeon 7500 32mb - you need a mid range graphics card. (game specs are below).
Civ Hardware spec http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm
Laptop spec http://www.superwarehouse.com/IBM_ThinkPad__T42/2378FZU/ps/408225

The T42 is a lovely laptop, classic solid IBM workhorse - last for years, but short on graphics, not designed as a gamming machine. However its a well balanced, well designed laptop, you may get lucky, but if it does run, the performance will be poor at best, and likely to crash late game. Might get away with Tiny worlds.

I would check it with the Demo first, if you do buy the game, you do so at risk as laptop is below spec. Worth a go with the demo, Pentium M is a very good multi media processor - built for that job - and could well pull the graphics on a bit, keep expectations on the level tho until you tried the demo - do bare in mind it still may crash late game even if demo works.

Regards
Zy
 
herculesromanus: You have the dreaded "Catastrophic Failure" error, along with Dhomeli, Jamesbond587, and myself (among others). You have a bad disc. I have already exchanged the game out once, and still get the same result. Please see my thread, "I want my money back."
 
Zydor said:
erpcon - Sorry , my apologies, missed that one ...

Its not a gamming laptop. It will not meet the game specs with a Mobility Radeon 7500 32mb - you need a mid range graphics card. (game specs are below).
Civ Hardware spec http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm
Laptop spec http://www.superwarehouse.com/IBM_ThinkPad__T42/2378FZU/ps/408225

The T42 is a lovely laptop, classic solid IBM workhorse - last for years, but short on graphics, not designed as a gamming machine. However its a well balanced, well designed laptop, you may get lucky, but if it does run, the performance will be poor at best, and likely to crash late game. Might get away with Tiny worlds.

I would check it with the Demo first, if you do buy the game, you do so at risk as laptop is below spec. Worth a go with the demo, Pentium M is a very good multi media processor - built for that job - and could well pull the graphics on a bit, keep expectations on the level tho until you tried the demo - do bare in mind it still may crash late game even if demo works.

Regards
Zy
Click to expand...

@Zydor: Thanks for checking. I did check my computer against one of the benchmark sites before Civ 4 was released. According to that site at that time, my computer passed all of the minimums. I have played several games using a standard map. I have had the problem where the game will freeze up, but I reboot my computer and reload from the last auto-save file. I guess I'm lucky. At least I can play the game. It's just that some of the graphics do not render properly (cows, pigs, sheep, beaver, etc, and wave motion). I have not played on a map larger than "standard."

Do you believe there might be a fix for this later? Just hoping. I travel quite a bit and use my companies laptop for entertainment when on the plane or waiting for plane. I even went as fas as buying a airplane power adapter. When playing on battery power, the computer must slow down the chip speed, because the game becomes very jerky when moving around on the map.

Again, thanks for checking.
 
No it will not work with that hardware, and there will not be a fix. Its the power required by the game to drive the 3D graphics is not there with your setup. Civ IV is a true 3D game, that means a stepup in the hardware needed as a baseline. It just will not run at that level of graphics hardware.

That rendering problem and the fact that late games are an issue illustrates the problem. The graphics are not coping, and as it moves into the late game it has to keep trackof and manipulate many more objects, bang, falls over. Maybe, just maybe, as they proceed down the road of optimising the code, it might run it at a slow speed low graphics - but frankly thats wishful thinking, "dont bet the Farm on it" ... they will not specifically code for below spec hardware.

I'm ex IBM - used to do the same thing when on site etc - I know exactly what your saying .... but regret that unless a miracle happens and they let you fit a card (which I dont think the T42 will accept anyway) you are stuck ...

Sorry ..

Regards
Zy
 
Zydor said:
No it will not work with that hardware, and there will not be a fix. Its the power required by the game to drive the 3D graphics is not there with your setup. Civ IV is a true 3D game, that means a stepup in the hardware needed as a baseline. It just will not run at that level of graphics hardware.

That rendering problem and the fact that late games are an issue illustrates the problem. The graphics are not coping, and as it moves into the late game it has to keep trackof and manipulate many more objects, bang, falls over. Maybe, just maybe, as they proceed down the road of optimising the code, it might run it at a slow speed low graphics - but frankly thats wishful thinking, "dont bet the Farm on it" ... they will not specifically code for below spec hardware.

I'm ex IBM - used to do the same thing when on site etc - I know exactly what your saying .... but regret that unless a miracle happens and they let you fit a card (which I dont think the T42 will accept anyway) you are stuck ...

Sorry ..

Regards
Zy
Click to expand...

@Zy: That's what I figured. I just wish that companies would realize there is more to life than work and I should be allowed to play my games on their computers!:lol: :lol: :lol: :crazyeye:
 
Tell em its market research aimed at verifying Consumer Preferences, Consumer reaction to maturing internet technologies, and maximising bottom line revenues, by investigating new emerging markets on-line in preparation for the new IBM chip in 2008

... and anyway you'll leave if they dont ... :)

Regards
Zy
 
Hello again. I justed posted something, but I am not sure where it went, as it is not here. If that makes sense.

I got Civ 4 about a month ago, and have recently started playing Civ 3 again. Part of the reason is the memory and other problems that cause the game to slow to a crawl towards the end of games with anything other than a 'duel' or 'tiny' map. I have downloaded the patch (which, ironically, is actually larger than my very first hard drive, which was 42 megs) but it has done nothing obvious. Usually the game just slows to the point of being unplayable. Two or three times it has crashed.

Forgive my ignorance, I'm 60. But I do remember the dosshell and editing files in that, so there!! Any advice on how to improve performance (yes, I have the patch; yes, I went to preferences & cut out most of the animations etc.)?
Here is the machine I am playing on:
Toshiba notebook, six months old
P4 3 ghz chip
half a gig of memory
ati mobility radeon 9000 igp
I can play movies & have a dvd burner and cd burner, for what that's worth
plenty of space for any Windows swap file I need

I run XP, and have all the latest updates.

Is there anything I am missing to tweak performance?

My other issue with Civ 4 (and I enjoy the game so these issues are very frustrating) is that it's been rejigged. Maybe it is more realistic to have much slower game play in the first third of the game, but it sure slows things down. I play accelerated. In Civ 3, your first city usually will crank out a warrior in three or five turns. It is infrequent to find a Civ 4 first city that will produce a warrior in under 12 turns. This is accelerated? It takes much longer to build stuff initially, but then the middle and especially last parts of the game tech tree appear truncated.

All this is a pity because I like the look of Civ 4 a lot. But I used to enjoy "beating" Civ 3 while still in B.C.--not easy, but certainly possible if you start producing cities & military units very early on. I think it is virtually impossible to win Civ 4 in B.C. Also, My average Civ 3 game (I played smaller worlds) was three to five hours. Has anyone played a game as short as five hours on Civ 4?

I paid "good money" and feel the product was released onto the market before it is ready. I think it is a fair comment that if my system more than meets the max requirements on the box, I should be able to take it home and play it. I should not have to worry about buying a new video card. But, that's justme.
 
Go to the main forum - I repled there, attach your dxdiag to that post

Start Button - click - select run - press enter - wait a min - select "save all information" - remember where you saved it - post on the end of the other thread as an attachment using the 'go advanced' button at the bottom ofthe page.

Regards
Zy
 
I'm having the black terrain problem, and I assume it is because of the graphics chip. I have an integrated 64MB VIA/S3G Unichrome IGP. The game seems to be workin otherwise, just the terrains are black (as I've seen many others have had also) I do have the patch 1.52.

My PC is AMD Athlon 1.49G, 512MB, WinXP

The most helpful information for me would be, whether or not it is even possible for my graphics card/chip to work here, and whether or not my problem probably is due to that part of my equipment. Of course, if you could give your estimate on the question, whether or not the solution could be just to invest on a real graphic card, that would also be nice.

Lance.
 
Lance

The game will not run on IGPs its outside the hardware spec

http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm

It needs hardware support - ie a Graphics card to process the instructions its sent from Civ IV, on board graphics will not run it. Some have gotit running on the older Intel 8 Series chips - but very few, most fall over, and those that do run can only usually use tiny maybe small maps at a snails pace.

A mid range card will resolve it - aka 6600gt if your motherboard and your wallet can take it - they are not bad these days aka $99 for 128mb card. You can go to 256 mb if you got the cash, but its far from essential, very few games - at the moment - use the 256 to the full. a good 128 card will be fine for a few years. Dont get one higher than that, with your processor, the card will max out and be waiting for the cpu to catch up.

The processor is on the weak side - but within spec - so dont expect mega performance, should run standard maps ok, and a 6600 card may pull you through large maps. Huge maps maybe a problem.

In short, worth doing but check with supplier / manufacturer it will take the card you propose, and cause no heating issues. You will need to make sure you have an AGP bus - straight PCI will not run it. Doubt the latter will be a problem for you, but worth a quick check, there's probably an AGP slot in there if its a desktop - but check ....

Regards
Zy
 
Thanks for the reply.

So you wouldn't recommend for example Radeon 9250 SE 128MB 64-bit? I thought that would be enough to run the game decently, and it would only cost about a third of the price...

Lance.
 
I hear the cry ... it probably will run in thruth

But, so many 9200s have had problems with it because its right on the edge of the spec. 6600 is not essential, mid to high 5 series GeForce or equivalent (9500?) would do fine, just accept that the performance, whilst being perfectly acceptable will not be fast.

Suggest you have a chat with the maker or supplier, get some ideas and post them in the main forum, lots of good guys on the board who will chip in with ideas - always good to get a second opinion. If your board maker confirms a new card is ok, use the forum here to help you - lots will assist

In short - yes it will - probably - run, and it is within spec for sure - its just I am cautious on that one, so many have had issues with it. Dotry to go one up aka 9500 / Grforce 5500 if you can ...

Regards
Zy
 
I understand, thanks again.

I was wondering if you could help me with one more thing. How do I see whether or not I have the AGP bus? And if I don't, does that mean that all hope is gone? What do the basic PCI:s look like? What about PCI-E?

Lance.
 
We can have a peek if you post Dxdiag

Start Button - click - select run - type dxdiag - press enter - wait a min - select "save all information" - remember where you saved it - then post it as an attachment using the 'go advanced' button below. In there it willtell us

There are 3 types of "Bus" that can be used in a PC

Bus - an internal highway where nearly all information flows for one reason or another. 3 Standards
1. PCI - now anold standard - so called obsolete. Civ IV cant run on a PCI bus alone, notpowerful enough for graphics (although if it has whats known as an "AGP" slot (many later ones did) it can be ok - depending on a few other things
2. AGP - the current technology (as such), the older ones are "AGP 4X", current are "AGP 8X".
3. PCI-e - the new kid on the block, and is what nearly all new PCs have in their motherboard

Its likely yours is a PCI with an AGP slot, hopefully, if so we should be ok.

If its an AGP bus, we're definitely ok

Need to see the dxdiag to know.

Regards
Zy
 
If problems posting the file - open dxdiag in notepad - copy from the top of the file down to the bottom of the "Display Devices" section, and paste it in

Regards
Zy
 
Zydor said:
The game will not run on IGPs its outside the hardware spec
Click to expand...
Not true. More discussion here.

However, S3G Unichrome doesn't have HW T&L support, so it doesn't meet MSR. But this is not true of all IGPs, contrary to what Zydor claims.
 
Lance

Motherboard will take an AGP 8X & 4X card. Check with your supplier / manufacturer that there will be no heating issues with your final selection of card before buying, and its suitablity re the case design.

Probably a GeForce 5500 / Radeon 9500 card would do ok with the cpu you have. GeForce 6600gt would be good, if you have the dosh. Higher than that (aka 6800gt/Ultra etc) would be diminishing returns as the card would be waiting for cpu time at lower resolutions. Above circa 1280 x 1024 resolution the higher cards will be of benefit to you, depends on the use you put the PC to. Have a think, can always post your ideas on the forum, factual second opinions always a good thing

If finance will allow, try to go to 1Gb RAM, not utterly essential, but it will improve the quality of your game play experience. Priority must be to the video card, that on board IGP cannot support the game nor has the power to run it anyway.

Regards
Zy
 
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