New Computer; game won't start

[Groman]

Bought myself a sweet system. AMD dual core 4400, 2 GB RAM, nVidia 7800 GTX. Have had the system since Dec 31, 2005. Loaded Civ 4 the middle of last week. Started the game and it ran fine for the few minutes I was on. Have loaded and played other games with no problem. Friday night I finally had the time to play longer. However, when I tried to load the game exe, nothing happened. Have spent a lot of time troubleshooting this and I am at a loss. Here is what I have done.

- de-installed and reinstalled the game multiple times on three different partitions. Followed instuctions to delete all Civ 4 files not caught by de-install program.

- removed video drivers and loaded the latest nVidia driver v. 81.98

- re-installed DirectX 9.0c two times.

- entered msconfig. Removed all programs from Startup and all non MS programs from Services. Re-booted.

- tried running game without patch; with patch 1.09 and 1.52.

- did the unpack procedure for the file in the Assets file. (forgot name)

In all cases, the game will not start! This is really frustrating, because I can usually troubleshoot this kind of thing. I have added a diag file for the experts to look at. Apparently this game is very buggy which is a shame.

Thanks to all that reply.

 

[Groman]

anyone have any ideas?

 

[Neon Deon]

anyone have any ideas?

Well nothing that just jumps right out there no.

When you attempt to start the game when does it go out.

Does the lil box appear in center and start to load then ctd or does that not come on either?

 

[Groman]

Hi Neon Deon. When starting the game, nothing happens on the screen. When I first attempt it after a re-boot, the DVD/CDROM drives starts to spin as if it is trying to load, then nothing. If I try to open after that, DVD/CDROM doesn't even spin. Nothing happens.

I don't use Alcohol or Dameon tools. Right now the only firewall I'm using is the XP SP2 version. Virus protection Norton from Symantec. Have turned off firewall and Norton; game will not start.

There is an answer here, but something is going on I don't understand...yet.

 

[Petek]

Here are some suggestions, assuming that you haven't already tried them:

* What happens if you eject the Civ 4 CD and then reinsert it? Does the game start via autorun?

* Look in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion\Uninstall

Is there a subkey named

{CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8}

? If yes, look at the values in that subkey for missing or incorrect values. If the subkey is missing, post again.

* Have you tried to install the game from a different CD/DVD drive?

 

[Groman]

Petek

Here are the answers to your question, and thanks for responding:

** What happens if you eject the Civ 4 CD and then reinsert it? Does the game start via autorun?

-- It brings up the screen with the button "Play Game". Same result, just goes back to the desktop like nothing happened.

** Look in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion\Uninstall

Is there a subkey named

{CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8}

If yes, look at the values in that subkey for missing or incorrect values.

-- Yes that registry key is there and complete.

** Have you tried to install the game from a different CD/DVD drive?

-- Yes, have two internal and one external. Loaded on all three with same result. I hope there are more things we can look at. There has to be a solution as to why this game is not loading. Something is preventing it, but what??

 

[Petek]

More suggestions:

* Do you know of anything that changed on your system between the time that the game worked and stopped working?

* Look for a log folder (in the same location as other folders such as Cache, CustomAssets, Saves, etc.) Do you have any log files? If yes, does any of the information help?

* If no log files, or nothing of value, turn on logging: In the Civilization 4.ini file, look for a section named

; Enable the logging system

and change the next line to

LoggingEnabled = 1

Try to start the game again and see if the logs have any new information.

Good Luck!

 

[Groman]

Found out something new. I cannot access the Civilization4.ini folder from _Civ4config file. When I double click on it a reply comes back:"The shortcut has been changed or moved and will not work properly."

The same is true for these folders: _Civ4CustomMods, _Civ4Replays, _Civ4TransferredMaps, _Civ4CustomAssets, _Civ4Logs, _Civ4Saves, _Civ4CustomMaps, _Civ4Patch, _Civ4ScreenShots. All these folders are 3 KB shortcuts with data that cannot be found.

This is probably what is causing the game not to start. So now, what needs to be changed in order for these folders and files be loaded properly? I can't get this problem out of my mind! I want to solve it.

Thanks again.

 

[Petek]

I agree that you have identified the source of your problem.

Right-click on the _Civ4config file and select Properties. The target information will show you where the shortcut is looking for Civilization 4.ini. Now search your hard drive(s) for the actual Civilization4.ini file. That's where the shortcut should actually point. I think the default location is something like

C:\Documents and Settings\(User name)\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4

The same techniques should allow you to correct the pointers of the other shortcuts mentioned in your last post.

It's strange that the shortcut pointers got out-of-synch. Perhaps this happened during the various uninstalls and reinstalls.

 

[Groman]

Petek

Followed what you suggested and the folders/files do not exist. When I right clicked on each folder and hit properties, the shortcut field has: %homedrive%%Homepath%/My Documents\My Games\Sid Meir's Civilization 4/Civilzation IV.ini" However, the General tab says: "Target path is not valid. Make sure the path & filename are correct." All folders I mentioned before give the same result. The folder "My Games" does not contain any Civ 4 data.

I did a search for "Civilization IV.ini" on all partitons and nothing came up. Hmmm...something is preventing these files to be written, but why and how?
That is the question, and I look forward to your next reply. The problem is getting boxed in a corner....I can feel it!

 

[Neon Deon]

Petek

Followed what you suggested and the folders/files do not exist. When I right clicked on each folder and hit properties, the shortcut field has: %homedrive%%Homepath%/My Documents\My Games\Sid Meir's Civilization 4/Civilzation IV.ini" However, the General tab says: "Target path is not valid. Make sure the path & filename are correct." All folders I mentioned before give the same result. The folder "My Games" does not contain any Civ 4 data.

I did a search for "Civilization IV.ini" on all partitons and nothing came up. Hmmm...something is preventing these files to be written, but why and how?
That is the question, and I look forward to your next reply. The problem is getting boxed in a corner....I can feel it!

well shoot.

Try uninstalling it using this windows ute.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

That should zap everything in the registry.

 

[Groman]

Neon Deon - used the utility....same result as my last post; emply folder/files.

Don't give up, I won't. What is the next step. Loaded Call of Duty 2 tonight. Played it without any problems. This game is very strange indeed.

 

[Neon Deon]

Neon Deon - used the utility....same result as my last post; emply folder/files.

Don't give up, I won't. What is the next step. Loaded Call of Duty 2 tonight. Played it without any problems. This game is very strange indeed.

How many user profiles do you have on your computer?

 

[Groman]

Neon Deon - just setup one. Administrator for myself.

 

[Neon Deon]

Do you have any burner software on your computer?

How many dvd drives do you have?

3

or is one virtual

 

[Groman]

Have Nero Utra Edition 6 that was upgraded to v. 7 online. Loaded all of the default files that were one the load disk. Your going to tell me I need to remove this aren't you? If so, and Civ 4 works, does that mean I won't be able to use Nero for burning? I bought Nero mostly to edit home movies from Analog tapes. I read that Nero may be initializing virtual disk software somewhere in their code. Maybe I'm jumping ahead so I will wait your reply.

I have three DVD/CDROM combine drives. Two internal, one external with no virtual drives at all.

 

[VimesUK]

What folder have you installed the game to..? And if you navigate to that folder and double click on Civilization4.exe what happens..?

BTW: I have a full install of Nero 7 and Civ 4 runs with no problem, I can't see how removing that could help you.

 

[Groman]

The game is loaded in the default folder. If I double click on the game exe, nothing happens. Same thing if I right click on exe file and hit open button.

Problem may or may not be Nero 7. I'am determined to figure out why this game loads correctly, but something prevents it from starting at all.

 

[Petek]

Let me see if I can summarize what we know so far:

When you first installed the game, it ran. Sometime later it stopped running and nothing had changed on your system (as far as you know).

The problem appears to be that the files in

C:\Documents and Settings\(User name)\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4

are not being created. The problem isn't resolved by reinstalling the game.

My next suggestion is to create a new user account (with admin rights), log on as that new user and try to start the game. I just tried this on my own system and the proper files were created in the folder listed above (with the appropriate user name). Please let us know whether or not the game then runs.

 

[tgrem1968]

Hi, been following this thread as this is the same thing that is happening to me. I have installed the game numerous times now, can play the game flawlessly one time after installation (for 4 plus hours without degradation in game play). If I close out and try to open the program a second, third, fourth, ..... nothing happens.

I have been able to uninstall the game only after going into my Installshield folder and renaming it.

This is annoying and I am hopefull for a fix.