Invisible Cursor

[KaiyonAlatar]

Hi,
I've been lurking around the forums for a while now, really enjoy them, and just came up with my first good reason to post: my cursor has disappeared on me. That's right, I am currently working without a cursor.

I'm not sure if anyone else has posted reguarding similar problems, if so, just point me to the corresponding thread.

The problem I'm running into: I load up CIV from the desktop, and at some point during the first few minutes or running, the cursor sticks in place on the screen and I get an invisible cursor effect. Moving the mouse around reveals tooltips and such other typical mouse-over events. This lasts even into the desktop environment, although the stuck cursor disappears as well. The only way to get back to normal is rebooting the system (that I've discovered).

The really odd thing about this is that just two days ago, it worked perfect for me with only the exception of a typical slowdown in late game like a lot of people have. The only changes I've made to the system since then is upgrading my video card driver, which I'm assuming is the problem, although I'd like a second oppinion before I revert to an older driver.

System specs:
Dell Dimension 2400 (yes, pity me, please)
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz
256 MB RAM (needs upgrading)
BFG GeForce 5500 FX PCI 256 MB
Windows XP Pro SP2

I upgraded from an Omega driver (nvidia_wxp_omega_16693_7z.exe) to the most recent official driver from nvidia
(81.95_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe)

Edit: (Did I mention I'm going through CIV withdrawl?)

 

[KaiyonAlatar]

Oh, here's my dxdiag output as well

View attachment DxDiag.txt

 

[KaiyonAlatar]

Here's the dxdiag output after the mouse has disappeared.

View attachment dxdiag1.txt

 

[Zydor]

You mention you went to a newer driver - its possible that did it. The game will have been frozen at a defined software base for testing a few months ago, and drivers after that may - and sometimes have - caused issues. Many users also have reported that the Omega drivers worked for them much better. Nothing is absolute of course, one thing will work for one individual, and not another with the same setup.

I did notice your comment re slow late game, sorry to be slightly off topic, but it would be worth your while going to:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=146309

Cant miss it - its got 90,000+hits. It addresses the acknowledged memory management problem with a User Patch. It has been extremely successful, although of course its not a fix-it-all, nor does it claim to be. Worth a read.

Regards
Zy

 

[KaiyonAlatar]

Thanks for the responce. I downgraded my driver to the one that came with my video card and it fixed the cursor problem. This works good for now, although I may go back to the omega one at some point, as it also worked pretty good.

Also, thanks for pointing me to Harkonnen's memory fix, but I've already tried it. His fix is really only good for AGP graphics cards, and I'm stuck with a crappy dell, which didn't come with an AGP slot. Hopefully he'll work out a fix that is compatible with PCI cards in the future, but the slowdown is tolerable at the very least on my computer, in other words, still playable.

 

[Neon Deon]

Thanks for the responce. I downgraded my driver to the one that came with my video card and it fixed the cursor problem. This works good for now, although I may go back to the omega one at some point, as it also worked pretty good.

Also, thanks for pointing me to Harkonnen's memory fix, but I've already tried it. His fix is really only good for AGP graphics cards, and I'm stuck with a crappy dell, which didn't come with an AGP slot. Hopefully he'll work out a fix that is compatible with PCI cards in the future, but the slowdown is tolerable at the very least on my computer, in other words, still playable.

Wow Kai your graphics card has the same amount of memory as your computer and you are able to play CIV IV under minimum spec for ram(512mb with Win XP SP2).

That is good.

Maybe this game relies on graphics memory more than people think.

Anyways, congratz!

 

[KaiyonAlatar]

Wow Kai your graphics card has the same amount of memory as your computer and you are able to play CIV IV under minimum spec for ram(512mb with Win XP SP2).

That is good.

Maybe this game relies on graphics memory more than people think.

Anyways, congratz!

Hmm... I thought the minimum was just 256, didn't realize it's different for XP(SP2). Guess I'm luckier than I thought. ^_^