Screen flashes black

[TheBestGamer]

I started playing Civ 4 for the first time in a while today, and when gameplay started, the whole screen kept going black for a split second at a time. As far as I can tell, this is happening at random intervals. My computer specs aren't that great, but I know for a fact that this isn't a hardware problem because this has never happened on this computer before.

I'm on BTS 3.19. Any idea what could be causing this?

 

[StargazingDog]

We would need to know:
Windows version
Video card model
Video drivers version

 

[TheBestGamer]

We would need to know:
Windows version
Video card model
Video drivers version

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, sorry I forgot to mention that.

I am unfortunately using an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100. I know it's not much, but it was running this game without this problem before.

I'm not sure how to check my driver version. I'll see if I can find it, though. If I do, I'll edit this post.

Edit: I just updated my driver to the latest version (8.15.10.1912, 9/11/2009). It didn't seem to help.

 

[ori]

does decreasing the graphics settings help at all?

 

[TheBestGamer]

does decreasing the graphics settings help at all?

No. I used to play with most settings on medium, but I changed everything to low when the screen flashing started. It didn't seem to have any effect.

 

[ori]

sorry for the late reply - lost track of this

is this happening right after you start the game also? or do you need to play for a while?

 

[Furiey]

I have an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 on my vista laptop. I do get some flashing in the advisor screens but nothing I can't live with. It does not flash in game and I have the graphic settings on high.

 

[TheBestGamer]

sorry for the late reply - lost track of this

is this happening right after you start the game also? or do you need to play for a while?

It only happens during the actual game, not in the opening menus. But other than that, it seems to be random. It could start seconds after the game begins, or it could be minutes. Then the flashes keep happening at seemingly random intervals. There must be some pattern here, but I can't find it.