Non-ATI Video card problems, many self-inflicted

[Vagabond ZOD]

OK, I tried to run Civ IV yesterday, and it wouldn't let me. I tired several trouble shooting steps, got nowhere. I'l detail my steps in a moment, but the big problem is I uninstalled my drivers to try a reinstall and see if that would work, and my system won't recognize the drivers for my video card.

Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 256 MB

When I went to add/remove programs, there were two NVidia drivers listed there. Unfortunately, I did not write down their names, because I thought I could just go to the NVidia website, do a search, and download the correct drivers. I did uninstall the drivers, went to the NVidia website, and downloaded some drivers that seemed to be correct. Driver I got was: 81.85_forceware_winxp2k_english_whql.exe. But when I tried to run it, said it didn't recognize my hardware. Did a google search for any location with the correct driver, got another driver listed as a beta driver. I was desperate, so tried that too, but it also wouldn't recognize my hardware. Filename: 81.85_winxp2k_32bit_english.exe.

Is that the right driver? Am I doing something wrong? Is there another location I should go for the driver for that video card? Is the fact I uninstalled two nvidia apps instead of one the problem? Please help, now not only can I not run Civ, but I can't run much of anything else, either.

 

[Vagabond ZOD]

OK, onto the problems I experienced yesterday trying to get civ running.

My first problem: when I tried to install Direct X 9.0c from the CD, I got an error message "A Cabinet file cannot be trusted." When I finished installing Civ, I got a DLL error message trying to run it. (Don't have the dll error message since, well, I can't even get to it now with my driver issue.) I figured this was due to an issue with DirectX. So I went to Microsoft's website, downloaded and tried to install, same error message. Did some web searching, found this site: http://ask-leo.com/a_cabinet_file_cannot_be_trusted_why.html. Nice step by step stuff to check, so I did, but still not working.

I have two accounts on this machine (You may gather at this point I'm not very technically savy, 2 accounts was due to a mistake on my part on installation.) Thinking that only the "owner" account might have some needed access rights, I switched over. And lo and behold the DirectX ran without issue. This caused me to reboot and I happily logged in on my normal account. Same dll error trying to run civ. Rebooted to owner, same dll error message. Reran DirectX installation, and then rebooted to owner. Now Civ runs! Wohoo!

Except no menus were on screen, and the opening videos were just a blue screen. AUGH! Hit enter a few times, got to a screen with a settler and a warrior, but no menus, making the game pretty unplayable.

That's when I got the sage idea of redoing my drivers, which put me in my current fix.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

Vagabond, I'm not sure if you have tried this but I have just read in another topic that you need to install the DirectX9 found on the game CD. I don't understand the technicalities but gather there is a problem/bug with the Microsoft DLL. Use the Civ one and you should get round this "cannot be trusted" error.

Hope this helps.

 

[Vagabond ZOD]

Oh, thanks for the reminder, I forgot one of the steps I followed. I uninstalled Civ IV, then reinstalled on the "Owner" account, which successfully installed Direct X without the error. THAT was the point I could finally open Civ IV. Of course, I didn't have any menus so it didn't do me any good, but the terrain sure looked pretty.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong on reinstalling my drivers?

Before I forget, for the drivers I tried installing off the DVD provided at purchase, and from nvidia's website.

 

[Vagabond ZOD]

Wohoo, drivers work! Now it's back to wrestling with Civ.