Game won't start on Vista

[whipsilk]

I just got a new 64-bit Vista Home Premium machine (very reluctantly, I might add). It has SP 1 and a GeForce 100 graphics card with 512k of memory (and the most recent drivers - I checked). I installed Civ4 and BtS (including all the latest patches) with no problem, using the "Run as Administrator" selection. First time out, the programs ran just fine. Then I exited (after a good part of a game); when I returned - the game simply wouldn't start; no error messages, nothing but a short "wait" icon, then just the desktop.

After poring through threads here, I found two possible references. One stating that User Account Control might be a problem. I turned it off and re-installed everything (again using "Run as Administrator"). Same thing. First time up the game ran perfectly, for several hours. After Exit, it wouldn't start again.

Then I found a note that the BtS process was left running after shut-down. Okay, I checked that (with the game off) and sure enough, there it was. I ended the process, and let the computer "rest" overnight. This morning, once again the game won't start. I checked for the process - wasn't running until after the first attempt. I ended the process and tried again. Nothing. I even tried forcing a start from File Manager (or whatever it's called in Vista) using "Run as Administrator". Still nothing.

I checked the initlog. Here's all it says:

[2410.636] ERR: InitWinApp() failed, exiting​

[2410.636] ERR: CIV Init FAILED, exiting​

Yeah, well I knew that!

I'm about out of ideas and references. Does anyone have a possible solution? I love the way the game looks on my brand new bigger screen (although the colors are way too saturated; they aren't that way on my desktop or in other apps, but I'll deal with that later). I hope one of you guys who get it to run regularly on Vista can come up with something. Thanks a heap, in advance!

 

[ori]

vista64 seems to cause a lot of people troubles. did you try running the game in a compatibility mode, e.g. for win xp?

 

[whipsilk]

Thanks for trying, Ori, but it didn't work. I checked all the properties in there -- run as administrator, run in XP compatibility mode, and made sure both the System and I had Full Access. No dice.

Anyone else have any ideas? Suggestions?

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Hey Whipsilk, I had a look online and it seems to be a Direct 3D issue with your Nvidia graphics card. I have Vista 64 and have had (almost) zero problems with it. I did have a small problem initially with my old Nvidia card (8500GT) and the drivers. I mistakenly downloaded the 32 bit driver pack rather than the 64 bit one. I had a similar problem as you are having now. Once I changed that, everything went fine. I think the drivers are now just one version for Vista 32 and 64, but check the Nvidia website to be sure.

Note that for the game, you have to have DirectX 9, which normally installs with the game. Vista uses DirectX 10. The video driver may be forcing DX9 not to install properly because DX10 is already there. I had DX issues with my old Nvidia drivers.

Also, make sure that your CD/DVD drive has the latest drivers. BTS would not do the copy protection disk check in my CD drive, only my DVD, untill I updated the drivers.

One more thing, slightly unrelated, but I'll ask anyway. Are you using any mods? I had a bad problem with the newest version of BetterAI (Rev 0.60) crashing and leaving processes running after exit, and sometimes BTS wouldn't start.

Good luck.

EDIT: I found your 64 bit driver here, if you don't already have it. (I'm betting your install disk didn't come with 64 bit. Mine didn't.)

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winvista_x64_182.50_whql.html

 

[whipsilk]

Hi LM -
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, the first thing I did was install the 180.5 drivers for 64-bit Vista on my computer -- even before installing Civ4 and BtS. I've also reinstalled DirectX 9c, as I ran across a reference to the fact that the ones that came with the game are out of date.

As for mods, yeah, I'm using Fall Further and Fall from Heaven -- and they DO leave processes running, but I've learned to check Task Manager to make sure no BtS stuff is running.

This is incredibly frustrating, especially when others seem to run on 64-bit Vista with no problems. Grrrrr...

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Hmmm. While I was looking around today, I googled the InitWinAPP() function. It seems to be almost certainly a graphics initialization problem with Direct 3D, which makes me think of a driver issue. Are you using Hybrid SLI? Because that was a total mess for 64 bit. It's one of the reasons that I got rid of my Nvidia card. It just would not work right, no matter what I did. The other reason was that my Nvidia motherboard caught fire, and so did its replacement.

Also, the link I gave you is for version 182.50 of the drivers, not 180.50. They were released Aprill 2nd and the release notes state some bug fixes for Direct X. If you're using 180.50, it might be worth updating to see if it fixes your issue. It's a little strange that your card isn't on the support list, but they may have just forgot to put it on.

Not to sound like a commercial for ATI, but my problems went away with my Radeon 3450 512MB. It was less than $50 CDN, and if you're like me and aren't a big gamer, it plays Civ just fine, especially with Hybrid Crossfire enabled. Unless you're using an Nvidia based motherboard of course.

 

[whipsilk]

Hi again LM -
Sorry, I mistyped that; my graphics card is using the 182.5 drivers. I installed them almost immediately after setting the computer up. My processor chips are from Intel, so I don't think I'm using Hybrid SLI - at least I can't find any reference to it in my NVIDIA Control Panel.

I've installed, as I mentioned, the latest DirectX9c software, but in running DXDIAG I did find one puzzling statement: Current Display Mode shows "1600 x 900 (32 bit) 60 Hz". I'm not technical enough to know if that's correct for a 64 bit system or not.

As I mentioned, what's frustrating is that Civ4 HAS run (in fact Fall Further has run; I've run both FF and standard BtS successfully) - for hours - on this system. And I can see it trying to start on my system monitor. Processing spikes, holds for a few seconds, then drops down to its normal low level (leaving the BtS process running in the background).

So, LM or anyone else - any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[ori]

is there any message about the game in the windows event log?

 

[whipsilk]

Hi Ori, LM, and others -
Nothing significant in the Windows Event Log. BUT, the game now appears to be working all right. I made a couple of changes; not sure which is responsible (I suspect the first one below, but can't be sure). Those of you having a similar problem might check these three items:

- I use an external SB X-Fi sound card. I discovered that both that card and the on-board RealTek audio card were enabled. I disabled the RealTek card through control panel.
- I turned off DEP for this program. I discovered this when Vista wouldn't start my Rhapsody software (and notified me of the fact), so I followed the instructions, added Rhapsody to the DEP exclusion list, and while I was in there I also added the Civ4 and BtS executables to the exclusion list. I doubt that this is the situation though, since Vista never notified me that it was not starting the app (as it did with Rhapsody).
- While messing around in the NVIDIA Control Panel, I saw a reference to "native mode", which is the highest resolution setting of 1600 x 900; I had it set to a resolution of 1360x768 (thinking a lower resolution would make older apps more likely to run better). I enabled the 1600x900 "native mode" in the NVIDIA Control Panel.

One more thing. After making the above changes, I had to run Civ4 three times: the first time it hung on "Checking XML", the second time it got through the whole start-up routine but hung on a black screen when it changed to full-screen mode. The third time (and all subsequent tries) it loaded flawlessly. On the first two tries I had to use Task Manager to shut down the program.

One of those things did the trick. As I say, I suspect it was a sound card conflict since two cards were enabled. Those of you who have similar problems with Civ4 running on Vista, keep trying - I can attest that Civ4 does run on 64 bit Vista. You can never tell what will work. I hope this thread proves to be helpful to those frustrated gamers.

And I do have to say that, while I appreciate all of Vista's added security features, I hate the way they've been implemented. You would think, at least, that UAC would provide an option to add a program to a "safe" (or recognized) list the first time an unrecognized app runs, instead of forcing me to approve it every single time it runs. Maybe SP2...

 

[[KC]Bantams]

I had a simular problem not getting game to work after initial set up on Vista Deleting the MyGames folder and re patching the Game fixed it for some reason is a l;ong time ago now though the Patch was always Installing into a Patch Folder in the MyGames Folder in MyDocumants and not C:\ProgramFiles\FiraxisGames\Civ4\BTS where it shoulda Been like everthing else


Oh and always turn user account control off

 

[Skallagrimson]

I'm able to run Vanilla on Vista 64 Premium, BUT... some of the options screens are blanked out.

I'm almost scared to run any patches or it might make the game unplayable altogether, so I'm keeping the default options that I can't go in and change.

Bottom line is, if Firaxis has no plans of releasing a Civ5 soon (which would hopefully be fully Vista compatible), then they at least need to patch Civ4 for Vista. We gamers can't stay on XP forever.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

If you check with Microsoft's Software Compatibility web page, you'll find that BTS is indeed certified to work with Vista 64 bit. Both BTS and Vanilla work flawlessly on my machine.

You have to run the game in Admin mode, and you need SP1 and current drivers for your hardware. You also need to remember that Vista installs the game in a different place than XP. If a mod has an installer that doesn't check the registry for the install location, it won't go in properly (My only complaint.) Other than that, it runs exactly like XP, but much faster.

There are a couple of mods that make it act up though.