It will never start

[civconquer3000]

I hate this so much.
Whenever i start up civ4, the title box shows up. After about a minute, the box is still there. Then it freezes. This same thing has happened with the sims 2, simcity 4, and the sims 1. I haven't been able to play civ4 once. For the other three games, I've done endless things to get them working. I eventually gave up.
Please help me!

 

[superslug]

System specs?

 

[civconquer3000]

I don't know if you mean to check the game's specs or my computer's specs, but here's both.

Windows XP Professional SP2
1.8 GHz proc.
512 MB RAM
128 MB NVIDIA, DirectX 9.0c
I have tons of space left on my hard drive.
I don't know if this is of much importance but my computer was built from different parts, not bought.

Second, all of these fall in the recommended requirements.
I still don't know the problem though.

 

[superslug]

Well, to be truthful, that RAM is minimal for Civ since XP uses 512 on it's own. But that's not likely the issue, because the game should launch on those specs, and it's odd that it's happening on other games. Must be something specific...

 

[crunch]

Some things to try:
- apply the latest civ patch
- reinstall directx

My impression is that something sucks with your computer, when several games fail to run. Consider reinstalling windows... maybe.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

You don't say what model your graphics card is. If it doesn't have the required capability then this may possibly be a reason why many of your games don't install and/or run.

I suggest you check out the sticky topic on this forum for details of how to find out exactly what's installed and whether Civ will work with it or not:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=133278

You should also look to see if you have any other programs installed that the Civ installer looks for to avoid potential piracy e.g. disk copying software and tools for creating virtual drives, circumventing copyright protection etc. The game will often not install if these are found to be present on your system. Removing them may help with your problem.

Finally, have you checked your virtual memory settings? If this is inadequate it could stop the installer from proceeding.

Just a couple of ideas anyway.

 

[civconquer3000]

Um, velvet-glove, I've already installed it. I'm talking about starting the program.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

OK. But the game not running may still be due to some of the factors suggested above. In order to troubleshoot you really need to look at everything in greater detail in order to discover if there is anything that you can try to correct it. Hence my suggestions about checking the actual model of card you have installed, virtual memory etc.

If you're not sure what you are looking for then a good start would be to post the relevant sections of a dxdiag report for others here to cast a critical eye over and perhaps offer some suggestions.

 

[Zanmato]

Anything in the 'Event Viewer', it usually logs any application errors there and could point you in the right direction in finding the problem.

 

[malclave]

You don't say what model your graphics card is. If it doesn't have the required capability then this may possibly be a reason why many of your games don't install and/or run.

Can an outdated video driver prevent the game from starting?

 

[henryhill]

I have a similar problem now. I just re-installed Windows to fix a seperate issue, and now when I run Civ 4, the title screen shows, it says "Loading XML" - and then when the bar is about a third fo the way across, it just exits....

Specs are similar to above too. Could it be my sound card driver or something like that?

 

[Velvet-Glove]

Can an outdated video driver prevent the game from starting?

It's more likely that old drivers would cause graphical errors than a complete failure to start, I would think, but some of these can make the game more or less unplayable.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

I have a similar problem now. I just re-installed Windows to fix a seperate issue, and now when I run Civ 4, the title screen shows, it says "Loading XML" - and then when the bar is about a third fo the way across, it just exits....

Specs are similar to above too. Could it be my sound card driver or something like that?

Have you read the "Fix-it list" sticky at the top of this forum (see item #8 in the list)?

I'm afraid I don't know much about this problem but my first thoughts are:

1. check audio drivers and update if necessary
2. you've just re-installed Windows... have you gone through all the update procedures to ensure everything is bang up to date?
4. did you do a clean install of Civ after re-installing Windows? By that I mean did you remove all folders & files before re-installing the game - this is particularly important if you have ever installed any mods as old mod files can cause a number of problems with an updated game.
5. have you patched civ to the latest v.1.61?
6. Finally (and possibly best left until last): look into the requirement for an up to date XML parser (see Fix-it list)

 

[CivDav]

maybe your video card's driver. try to install the newest, google'll help you, or if you tell what kinda graph.card you have i'll give a link

 

[jmad]

hey CivDav, I have an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 8500DV. there are no drivers on the ATI website that support it. another other links that might help? i've tried Omega already.