Monitor suddenly receives no input signal!

[bigadjaye]

I've just installed Civ IV. Once i have chosen my civilization and watched the "in the begining..." intro my monitor switches off and displays a message that the monitor is not receiving a signal. I can still hear the civ music in the background though. After fiddling about with various button combinations involving ctrl+alt+del the monitor turns back on i am on the windows xp desktop with a resolution looking like 640*480 and perhaps 4 bit color depth. There is a message on the screen saying that my some ati2dvag.dll stopped working properly and i should reboot. When I reboot my settings are back to normal. When I try to play the game again I get the same problem! Anyone else getting this problem??

I have patched my civ to v152.
Windows XP Professional SP2
512Mb Ram
plenty hard disk space
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Radeon 9100 64Mb Driver Version: 6.14.10.6462

 

[Glenn11]

I have the same problem as this. My PC is a similar spec to yours although my video card is a 9200SE. I can't get the desktop back though and have to switch off (I can hear the game music still playing though)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this problem?

Thanks

 

[Dave1966]

This seems to be the problem relative to everybody who owns an ATI video card.

I have the same issue with a 9600.

 

[rip-cord]

I have the same issue. I have tried going back to the older ATI driver and have the latest patch for Civ 4 but still same issue. I have made sure I installed the direct X from the CD as well. This is getting very flustrating from what i have seen this could be a good game but for now it is junk to me.

 

[chrisyoung1971]

I have hte same issue, My system passes al lthe checks on the spy master web site but it does this stupid thing with hte graphics! ATI Raedon 9000!

 

[rip-cord]

Here is my dxdiag file for someone to help.

 

[ccsells]

Same thing happens to me. Got very frustrating. You go through the single game load then bam - the black screen comes and the monitor shuts down with no signal. I can get back to windows with CTRL+ALT+DEL though. For me however, prior the the shut-down, the game does an autosave for 4000 BC. If I load that game from the autosave location after restarting CIV, everything works fine. Annoying but temporary fix.

Not running patch yet.

eMachines Minitower - Sempron 3100+, 768MB, Radeon 9200, ME-home

 

[PhillUK]

ok slightly different problem but similar and yes its an ati radeon card. The game actually works but after an indeterminate time (different playing times on different occasions) the screen freezes the mouse pointer moves but nothing else, then the mouse pointer goes and no ctrl alt del works. then the monitor goes black and gives a no input signal message resulting in me having to do a hard reset. Oh btw maybe another factor to consider my pc is a dual core machine

 

[NikNak]

I have an ATI 9200 128MB, AMD 2.0 GHz, 512MB RAM. It works really well. No slowdowns in late game, no crashes (yet) but I do get one bit of graphical weirdness.

 

[Zenia]

I encounter the same problem but only when playing the "real" game. I played the tutorial earlier, and had no problems there, excepts for the "Wonder completion movies" not playing smoothly.

I haven't downloaded any patch so far, but will try this. I just wanted to add this experience with the tutorial working, the rest not. I am using a brand new ATI Radeon 9250, which I bought today in order to being able to play this game. *cry*

:::

Update!!!

I solved the problem after having installed the patch and updated the drivers to the newest version found at https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27.

The driver update in itself may have done the job, as the problem was still present after installing the patch. So if you haven't already installed the patch, you may want to start by updating the drivers. I hope it will help someone else.

 

[Bobbio]

I have the same problem. Once i have chosen my civilization and watched the "in the begining..." intro my monitor switches off and displays a message that the monitor is not receiving a signal. I can still hear the civ music in the background though. When I reboot my settings are back to normal. When I try to play the game again I get the same problem!

I have patched my civ to v152.
Windows XP Professional SP2
512Mb Ram
plenty hard disk space
Intel Pentium4, 3.05 GHz
Radeon ATI 9000 64Mb Driver Version: 6.14.10.6462

Anyone know what to do with this problem??

 

[Zenia]

I have the same problem. Once i have chosen my civilization and watched the "in the begining..." intro my monitor switches off and displays a message that the monitor is not receiving a signal. I can still hear the civ music in the background though. When I reboot my settings are back to normal. When I try to play the game again I get the same problem!

I have patched my civ to v152.
Windows XP Professional SP2
512Mb Ram
plenty hard disk space
Intel Pentium4, 3.05 GHz
Radeon ATI 9000 64Mb Driver Version: 6.14.10.6462

Anyone know what to do with this problem??

Try what I posted above - update your drivers. I updated mine by following the link I posted here, to the version called 8.203.0.0

It worked for me. I hope it worked for you too!

 

[Glenn11]

I updated my drivers from the ATI website and now it works perfectly.

Follow this link for Windows XP

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=640


Glenn

 

[Pellanor]

I'm having the same problem, except I've already tried updating my drivers, and it didn't do anything.

Has anybody found any other fixes for this?

 

[jared798]

I am having the exact same problem. I have updated my drivers and everything! My specs are:
ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128MB
512MB RAM
Intel Pentium IV 3.2 Ghz
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Service Pack 2
220 GB of Free Harddrive space
Anyone know any fixes?

 

[Neon Deon]

Turn off fast writes and drop agp setting from 8x to 4x if you have an agp card.

This will make the system much more stable with no perceivable difference in performance. No signal can occur if the agp hiccups at its limit of performance shutting power off for a brief moment but long enough for the monitor to go to sleep because of it.

 

[Pellanor]

And how does one go about doing that?

 

[Neon Deon]

Depends on the video card and its driver.

If it is an ati card then you can set them in the smartgart section of display settings.

right click on the desk top then

properties/settings/advanced/smartgart

 

[Pellanor]

Thanks, I'll try that.

If it works, rest assured that you will see me in here doing a happy dance.