Odd problem: Game not even loading

[Wonderboef]

I installed Civ 4 a while back, and didn't encounter any major problems at all. I used Daemon Tools and sd4hider to play without the DVD and the game ran perfectly.

I then stopped playing for a few weeks, and when I tried again today double-clicking the civilization4.exe file in the civ 4 directory doesnt even bring up a loading screen! no response at all, no error message, nothing...

so i updated to the newest patch but it didnt help. uninstalled everything and reinstalled, this time by the book, no daemon tools or sd4hider. tried again, but didn't work. updated to 1.61 again. same problem, nothing happening. fooled around a little in the directory and discovered that many of the shortcuts there dont lead anywhere. the civ4config.ini shortcut points to a folder/file in my documents/my games/civ 4 that doesnt exist (neither the folder nor the file...).

i didnt get any error messages during installation, and the dvd isnt damaged at all. i have 2 hard-disks, installed the game to the d drive while windows and my documents is on the c drive, but this shouldnt be an issue, since it has worked like this before. i have no idea why it would suddenly stop working, and i'm at a loss for how to correct the problem. my system is above the minimum req's, dxdiag.txt is attached.

it's probably some small, stupid thing that i have completely overlooked but all the same i need some pointers, and i would be grateful for your help. thanks!

 

[Wonderboef]

:: bump ::

anyone got any ideas at all?

 

[crunch]

When you don't use daemon tools, is there any dvd drive activity when you run the game?

When you ctrl+alt+delete to task manager, can you see civ there when you start it? Any other programs not responding or stuff like that?

Try running the game by doubleclicking a save.

Try modifying the ini file, turn on some debugging in there.. Check civ directory for any error logs...

Search forums for similar problems.

Good luck.

 

[Wonderboef]

there is dvd activity. when i insert the dvd the autorun comes up - i click play and nothing happens.

nothing in task manager, everything else working fine.

dont have any saves, so cant open the game that way, doubt it would help though.

can't modify the ini file because i dont have one... this seems to be a big part of the problem. reinstalling doesnt bring back the ini file in my documents/my games/civ 4 (no such directory at all, in fact...)

no error logs... havent found similar problem on forums...

 

[crunch]

I guess the ini file (and the directory) is generated the first time you start the game (successfully). Oh well. I ran out of ideas.

 

[Hasagwan]

This sounds like a problem I encountered a while back and haven't had the time to try to fix it. I was playing one day and then the next it wouldn't load. I would click on the .exe and nothing would come up. I belive this began after a windows update but I cannot verify that.

This morning I made another stab with the new update and still nothing. So I did some digging into my system (it's a japanese computer so it takes time sometimes). I found out that in the main folder under fraxis, there is a long list of shortcuts to other parts of the game, all of these lead to My Documents/My Games. However when I go to My Documents there is no folder named My Games and during installing of the game for some reason, these files are never added. So the game cannot load because only 15 meg of the game is actually on the computer

Any clue as to why or how to solve this?

 

[Wonderboef]

sounds like exactly the same problem, though i have 1,45 gb in my civ 4 directory...

i have also updated windows recently, this could easily have something to do with the problem.

 

[Hasagwan]

yeah, my directory says it has the full game, but it cannot find almost any of the game content and the shortcuts lead to nowhere.

not sure if it is windows. I just remember there being an update around then and that one day it was working great and the next nothing.

 

[crunch]

Try installing to some other directory. Or as a different user. Random ideas.

 

[Hasagwan]

different directory doesn't work, I tried that. I will try the different user sometime today and post back on it

 

[danielcg]

I think you have installed Windows Explorer update (April) and you may have old Nvidia Driver (earlier than Version 61.90?) or you may have HP printing driver installed. You have to wait for Microsoft to release another patch on Tuesday, April 25 via Automatic Update or Microsoft Update to fix Windows Explorer problem.

 

[Wonderboef]

take2 support has been very helpful, they have been emailing almost on a daily basis to help me solve my problem.

turns out that deleting all files in my temp folders (c:\windows\temp and c:\documents and settings\user name\local settings\temp) will solve the problem if anyone else is having similar problems...

 

[afeared]

I'm having this exact same problem. I've done everything this thread suggests and more (reinstalled the game twice, new video drivers, and quite a few other things that turned out to be irrelevant).

I deleted all my temp files like you suggested Wonderboef, and the game still won't start (when it does start, it creates a single file in my temp folder called ~e5.0001 )

The game ran great before.

 

[apparition]

Bookmarking to see if something useful come up

 

[DukeUpdate]

Deleting all of the temp files worked for me.

I called Tech Support and, after two rounds of install/uninstall, updating every driver on the planet, and disabling nearly every active process, they gave up.

I found this thread and tried deleting the temp files.

Worked perfectly.

Thanks.

 

[ThreadAstaire]

I have the exact same problem.
Deleted the Tempfolder, nothing.
Installing to another directory doesnt help either.
Just mailed the Support, let's see if they can help me.

 

[ThreadAstaire]

So the first reply came after only a few minutes.
They had two suggestions.
Turn off/deinstall every virtual cd-stuff.
And turn on compatibility for win98/Me.
Nothing helped for me, although the game behaves different with different compatibilitymodes.