Machine below specs problem that should not be a problem.

[sulla32]

Hi,

I am new here so I hope I posted this in the right section. I didn't see any other that seemed applicable. If I didn't please accept my apologies, it was not intentional.

I have a strange issue with Civ BTS. I have a HP Vista 64 bit machine which I bought about five years ago. It far exceeded specs for CIV four. I have a G force graphics card 9400 GT which also far exceeds specs.

When I played the game on my machine years ago, it kept crashing. The black screen stuff. I searched all over online and finally found a solution, which I was dumb enough not to write down.

So a few months ago, I got a bad case of malware and or virus. I had to reslick my machine completely with the disks and reload all software. A few days ago, I installed Civ 4, Warlords and BTS, with all patches up to date. I also installed my latest graphics driver for the card.

When I try to play BTS, I get this verbatim message from the game itself when I hit play: Your machine is below recommended specifications. The graphic settings were altered to accomidate this, however you may experience game performance issues.

Lol, that is an understatement since I get the black screen crash and have to hard reboot to get my PC working again.

This is the same thing that happened years ago, BUT, without that warning message. That is something new.

Can anyone help me with this? I called firaxis and Geforce and they have not been of much help. I have updated all drivers for the machine and the card. They are up to snuff for sure. If I can't get help, I can't play this great game anymore. I run Avast anti virus and Commodo firewall. I read that Commodo can kill Civ on some other site and turned it off, but to no avail.

If anyone is nice enough to offer suggestions, please be very exacting in telling me how to do something with my machine. In other words, please be patient enough to lead my step by exact step, I can do it, but Im not a PC guru so you have to tell me exactly how to do something.

Anyway, thanks so much for any help tendered to me by anyone interested in helping a total stranger. I am at wits end and my frustration level is beyond through the roof. It's all I can do to keep from throwing my PC out my window at this point, lol.

 

[Ambidexter]

Perhaps the installation got corrupted. I recommend a complete uninstall and a reinstall from scratch. Make sure you install in the correct order (Vanilla Civ4 -> BTS) and don't install the patch from the link on the BTS start page but instead from the link on the Civfanatics CivIV main page. See if that works.

 

[sulla32]

Ambidextor,

I will try that. First I will remove Commodo. I will also install Civ 5 which I played on the same PC and see if that works. If it does, then I know for sure its something particular to CIV 4. If CIV 5 does not respond, then I know its something in the PC or graphics card.

 

[sulla32]

Ambidexter,

Thanks for your reply. I had a chance to mess around with it it today and this is what happened:

Ok, I uninstalled Commodo and IObit anti Malware. I uninstalled all my CIV 4s. I did the direct x thing. So I installed Civ 4 and patches. Ran it, no warning. Installed Warlords and patches, no warnings. Then installed BTS with all patches, tried to play it and bam! there came that same warning my machine is not up to specs, lol.

I tried to play Warlords and despite the fact I had not warnings, it crashed to black screen after about five moves.

You know, now that I think about it, this is just the same situation I had years ago when I bought CIV 4. Back then I didn't get an error message, just these black screen crashes. Then I found that fix and by the time I played Warlords and BTS, the problem was rectified, so I didn't get crashes or the message by the time I played BTS.

I could kill myself for not writing down that black screen crash fix. I looked for days on all kinds of sites and threads till I found a solution someone wrote that worked. It was with anti aliasing or changing something in the script or code or doing something during install. Ill be damned if I an can remember it. Uggggggghhhh!!!! I was not the only one with the problem. I also remember that fixed worked for some, I was a lucky one, and it didn't for some others.

 

[s.bernbaum]

I don't know about Windows 7 but one has to set anti-aliasing to zero (off) on Mac OSX or you get all kinds of graphics problems. Have you tried that?

 

[sulla32]

Hi s. Bernbaum,

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I did try it. Didn't work. Want to hear something really funny. I was just screwing around out of frustration last night with the BTS shortcut icon. And I hit run, and it brought the game up...without me having to put the disk in, lol. Not even a steam version, but the old CD game. And it didn't give me the below specs message so I started to play a game. After a few moves, it crashed again.

How on earth could the game run without the cd? lol. I am baffled by this whole thing.

I have ordered a whole new Civ 4 and expansion packs from Amazon. All I can hope at this point is that my original CD was flawed in some way and that's why I had those crashes back then and now. I have searched like crazy for that old fix on the net I found years ago but can't find it.

 

[s.bernbaum]

For the Windows version BTS 3.19 patch removed the disc check, so you don't have to have the CD in the drive. Unfortunately, they did not do the same for the Mac version of 3.19.

I have seen discussions of graphics problems in the Windows version on the Forums that were solved by downloading an update to DirectX9c from Microsoft. Apparently, it does not always come with the install package nor the updates. You might look into that. I can't tell you where to find the update beyond somewhere on the Microsoft site, since I don't use Windows.

 

[sulla32]

S. Bernbaum, Ambidextor:

I got it!! I saw on a website yesterday that if you don't disable your old onboard graphics card before installing a new one and putting in the drivers, it can cause a conflict. So I learned how to disable the old one in safe mode, I uninstalled the Geforce and drivers, shut off my PC, put the Geforce back in, restarted, installed the drivers, ran the game and no more message. Wow, what a happy day for me!!

I want to thank both you guys for trying to help me. You both were most kind with your time and suggestions. You guys are the best. Thanks for you time and effort put in for a total stranger. Also want to say thanks to the others who took the time to read my thread.

Anyway, if anyone ever has the same type of problem, do what I did. It may be the answer for you as well.

 

[sulla32]

Oh well, I thought it was my happy day. Played quite a few turns but then the screen went black and my PC rebooted itself to login, lol. Unbelievable.

 

[sulla32]

Turned anti alias off on the game and played for three hours with no crash. Hopefully that did it. So for others who may have that problem on vista or 7, the graphic card thing I mentioned above and anti alias to zero seems to have been a fix. Knock on wood, lol.

 

[sulla32]

Im good to go. Those two fixes did it. For anyone with crashes like mine, try what I did and I hope it works.