Mobility Radeon 9000

[kgish]

I purchased Civ4 in the hopes that I could play it on my laptop during the normally boring one-hour train ride to and from my work.

However, when I start Civ4 all I see is a black screen with the Civ-cursor suspended and waiting, and music playing in the background.

I have a mobility Radeon 9000 which according to the specs should be sufficient, or not?

Do I need some special drivers to get it going?

 

[Flak]

The executable is actually running in the background. I've seen this too (also the same graphics card). Going to wait for the patch. If that doesn't fix this, then I will likely just wait until I get my next laptop. Too bad really. I'm not totally convinced that this has to do with the graphics though. I have read several posts with people using this card and having absolutely no problems whatsoever, or having other problems with work-arounds. Could you post your computer specs? Would be nice to compare.

 

[kgish]

Dell Inspiron 8200
512 MB of RAM
Mobile Intel Pentium 4 - M CPU 2GHz
Mobility Radeon 9000
Cyrstal WDM Audio
Digital Flat Panel 1600x1200
Windows XP Pro / SP2

 

[tracker2]

I have experienced a complete loss of video on my desktop when starting a new game after a custom setup. I have a Radeon 9000 graphics card. I do a control-alt-delete and bring up the task manager. I then click on Civ IV and chose "switch to" Usually (9 out of 10 times) this brings the game up. Not sure if this applies to your situation.

 

[GamaFu]

Hi! I also play Civ4 on my laptop(ASUS M6N),
but it's with the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 though.
Civ4 works good in my case.

However, usually if there's something wrong with the display,
make sure you install the correct DiretX,
(if you didn't cancel anything during the installation, it should be set up well)
and try to find a official video card driver!!
Since you use a Dell laptop, try to find it at Dell.com
Or click the link which I find at Dell.com for the laptop you use,
and just download it and then install it.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_8200&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=3083&typecnt=2&releaseid=R56752&vercnt=4
I don't know whether it helps or not, but you could try it though.
Or of course, we can wait for the patch.

 

[Flak]

@tracker2, Thanks for the suggestion. It did not work for me (it just highlighted the Civ IV window and/or the icon in my taskbar, but never actually switched to the game), but it was a good idea. I also went in and modified the .ini file so that the resolution was the same as my current settings and to ask for permission (as it should) before running in full-screen or windowed mode. So atleast there was no more of that switching my desktop resolution and leaving it. The .exe still just runs in the background however. Thank goodness I'm by nature a patient person. The patch will hopefully resolve most of this.

 

[incapable]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141291

Try this, i had the same problem where you could hear it and see the mouse but not the game. I got it working by following the above.

 

[Flak]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=141291

Try this, i had the same problem where you could hear it and see the mouse but not the game. I got it working by following the above.

It worked! Great find! Just finished my first game.

Windows XP SP1
Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB
512 MB RAM
Fujitsu-Siemans Amilo D 8830 laptop

This game is very pretty, I have to admit.

 

[mobility aids]

awesome! I hope you could post some pictures of the tutorial. Like how you did it? I purchased one before and so far so good there is something missing with it, I just can't tell. I hope that you could post some link to some tutorials too. Thanks for sharing this post.
mobility aids