Graphics glitch

[Hiawata]

Hi everyone,

Just so that I don't start my first post ever with a problem - great site! I've used it for a while to get lots of useful info on the civilization series. The community seems great and helpful!

Which leads me to my problem, for which I was hoping I could get some help.

I just bought Civ 4 Complete Edition from Steam (great offer - £3.74 for the base game, both expansions and Colonization!). However, when I install Civ 4, I get the following graphics glitch, which you can see in the pictures I attached.

Namely, the first problem is with the unit control bar (the bottom central and left panels, where unit stats and buttons for controlling your units appear). The fuller blue parts at the bottom and top part of the control bar are there and visible, but the middle part, where the softer, more translucent blue is supposed to be is empty.

Additionally, there is no background to the unit or terrain stats that appear when you mouse over something. Nor is there any background to the event pop-ups that appear at the top of the screen.

On the other hand, the background for the menu for choosing what to build in a city or what to research is fine.

Also, in the main menu when you start a game, the background behind the main menu options (Play a Game, Advanced, etc.) is very faint, and you actually can't see the bottom part of it. Also, the background for the bottom bar (with the Go Back, OK, Exit buttons) is not visible at all.

Th screenshots I attached are from the base Civ 4 game, but the problem is the same for Warlords and BTS.

Any ideas what's wrong and what to do?

I don't know whether the configuration of my laptop is of relevance, but I'm using a Lenovo SL300, with:

Intel GM45/47 Chipset - Integrated Graphics 0 [B3] [Lenovo]
Intel GMA 4500(M)(HD)
Intel GM45 (Cantiga-GM) + ICH9M (Base)

(This is the info that HWInfo32 gives me. Sorry for just putting all the info like this in a pile, but I'm not sure what each thing is, so I decided to put them all here.)

All the drivers are up to date, and my DirectX should also be up to date. (I reinstalled my system a few months ago, and got all the newest drivers then. I doubt that they had anything new, since my computer is quite old.)

Thanks a bunch!

EDIT: OK, it's definitely something with my computer, as I just installed the game on another laptop and there is no glitch there.

 

[jduvall]

Have you updated your graphics driver to latest?

Also since its in steam try verifying your files

 

[Hiawata]

Hi,

Well, as I said, I reinstalled my system some 6 months ago, got all the drivers from Lenovo's website. Since my computer is from 2007, I think, or somewhere there, I doubt they would have updated any drivers for its hardware over the last 6 months. I think the latest drivers on Lenovo's website were at least several years old.

Possibly Intel has newer drivers, which I didn't check, since, as I understand, one should stick as much as possible to the drivers provided by the final maker of the laptops.

What do you mean by verifying files? Sorry, I'm very new to Steam.

 

[Hiawata]

OK, so I reinstalled my graphics drivers. I also checked one more time that my DirectX was up to date, and it was. I found out what verifying files means, and I did that. 11 files were missing, which were downloaded. Still no luck - the glitch with the missing backgrounds is still there.

So, still looking for a solution. I will contact Steam as well, although I'm suspecting that that won't get me far.

Again, if anyone here has any ideas about what I might do, or what may be causing this problem, or how to solve it, I'd be more than grateful for any advice!