Game Crashes at InitAudio on Startup

[ChromiumL]

Ok, this is a little long, but I think it is necessary to completely explain my problem.

A few months back I bought BTS and tried to install it and the install always crashed when I inserted the 2nd cd. Well, with some research I discovered that a bunch of BTS boxes went out with a corrupted 2nd cd.

Then a few days ago, I had a gift card and decided to go buy another copy to see if it would work. It installed fine, except that when I inserted the 1st cd it seemed to think it had already been installed (from my previous problems—though it wasn’t in add/remove programs). So, I just manually went to the disk and started up setup. Again, no problems at all with install.

Well, I was super excited—went to load the game, and it crashed right on startup (at init Audio). I went and got the most recent updates, but it still crashed right in the same place. So, I thought—maybe this is because of the issue with having tried to install it before. So I uninstall through add/remove programs, then reinstall and reinstall the latest updates. And, it still crashes in the same place.

Here are all of the details that I think are important—

I click on the shortcut to the game and it starts to load up just fine. When it gets to Init Audio, it crashes.

I just reformatted my computer a few months ago, and I know (and have double checked) that all of the drivers are up to date.

DxDiag doesn’t show that anything is wrong (I don’t think)—but I have attached the complete report incase something in there is important. I tried to get a copy of the error report, but it wouldn’t let me copy/paste it.

Time of this report: 1/29/2008, 10:50:23
Machine name: XXXXXXX
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
System Model: Dimension 8200
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 563MB used, 1901MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

Please help! I am desperate to play BTS!!!

 

[ori]

how does the error report look like? also could you just post a screenshot of it?

While I doubt that it is a driver issue:
your sound card driver is of 4/2002 - there is one of 6/2002 available on dell's home page (the turtle beach one). on ATI's homepage it also seems as if there is a 1/2008 driver for the Radeon 9600 pro graphics driver you have - but since it is not shown whether it is for the Gigabyte one I do not link to it - you might want to check whether 11/07 is really the newest one.

Does Civ4 work?

Welcome to Civfanatics

 

[ChromiumL]

Wow, I never even thought of going to look for drivers at the Dell website. Thanks for pointing that out for me...

So, I went and installed the driver for my sound card, and also the one for my video card--rebooted computer--and still same problem.

Then I go to re-run dxdiag--and lo and behold neither my sound card or video card show the new drivers. I rebooted, reinstalled both drivers, and same thing. Both of the drivers seemed to install correctly. The one for my sound card even uninstalled and reinstalled the program, so I know it must have done something.

I don't know what exactly is going on.

Anyways, I double checked and Civ IV and Warlords both load up and play fine.

Thanks for any help I can get!

 

[ori]

regarding the error report:
when it asks you to send a report and you click on show report - does the stuff you posted come up immediately? I think there should be one more screen before which I'd like to see if possible.
Anyway just to recap: it is just BtS that crashes during startup? and it always does it at the same time?
There is at least one common crash related to the intro movie - you might want to try opening
my game\beyond the sword\civilizationIV.ini
and changing the line that says
nointromovies=0 to nointromovies=1

 

[ChromiumL]

OK, I did a print screen of the first thing that comes up and attached it.

I also went in and changed the movie thing, though I don't think it is the problem (and it didn't fix it).

It always crashes on load up when you first see the little screen that says things that are loading up. When it says InitAudio it freezes for maybe 2-3 seconds, then crashes. So, it doesn't even get a chance to get to the intro movie

By the way--Thank you for your prompt and helpful response!

 

[ori]

Edit: Did you try patching to 3.13? If not try that (follow the link in the last line of this post). If you already did:

your 3.13 patch installed incorrectly. You will need to remove BtS completely and reinstall. In this case (which is not uncommon) I recommend removing all instances of the game and reinstalling completely. This usually solves the problem. If you decide to do so, please follow the routine I post below.


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
(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).

 

[ChromiumL]

Doh!

No luck with the uninstalling and reinstalling everything. It still crashes in exactly the same spot. It must be something wrong with my computer.

Well, I guess I will be re-outfitting my computer in a few months and maybe that will fix the problem.

 

[ori]

sorry to hear that - I fear I am out of ideas

 

[ChromiumL]

Well, thanks so much for your help anyways--I really do appreciate it!