Starting the Game

[Ranger99]

Well I finally upgraded my computer and got a brand new one, real high tech stuff or something... Well simply put I dont know much about computers. I installed everything like it told me to do and I put in the disk and that little screen pops up that says PLAY READ ME EXIT

I click the PLAY one and it just doesnt do anything, that box goes away and my computer doesnt do anything. Any ideas guys?

Thanks

-Ranger99

 

[ori]

what happens when you use the shortcut it creates on the desktop? or the actual .exe?

 

[bm289]

try right clicking on the shortcut and going to the compatibility tab and set it to run as an administrator

 

[Ranger99]

Clicking on the shortcut does nothing, it just sits there... Using the actual .exe it does the thing I was talking about, comes up with the prompt screen, I click PLAY, and then it just stops and doesn't do anything..

I went to the compatibility tab and couldn't find the option to run as an administrator.

I talked to a tech guy that works on our stuff and he thinks it has something to do with drive security on the computer and not letting it go because of some security features built into the game and system. Not sure exactly what that means, but I'm hoping that my 60$ didn't go to waste and that I can figure this out sooner or later.

 

[ori]

usually the safedisk feature that is used as a copyprotection (and which *is* one of the more crappy protections systems out there) will give you a notice that it cannot find the right cd - so it should not just do nothing.

But this gives me an idea: safedisk is known to run into troubles when it sees more than one cd drive - you have two, right? does it not work in both?
bm289's idea is good as well: do you have admin rights on this computer?

@bm289: Welcome to Civfanatics

 

[Ranger99]

Yes, I have two CD drives, so you think that Safedisk is what is keeping it from working right, because it sees two CD drives? That makes sense. So how do I fix that?

I'm not sure if I do or not, I can talk to the tech guy and ask him next time I see him though.

Thanks for the help Ori

 

[ori]

I would blame safedisk in your case - though of course its not 100% sure.
One thing to try would be: remove (i.e. either physically remove it or remove/disable the driver) one of the cd drives and see if that improves things - unfortunately this is not a foolproof method though...

you probably need to run the game on an administrator account - by default most XP users are also administrators, but if you machine has been setup by a company tech department it is more likely than not that you do not have admin rights on your account and that there is a seperate admin user account on your machine, this might also cause these troubles since Civ4 like most games is more comfortable with admin rights than without.

 

[Ranger99]

OK, I'll talk to the tech guy. Do you mind giving me a quick crash course on temporarily disabling a drive though? Thanks again for the help.

 

[ori]

now please bear the following in mind: my windows xp version is in German: I might not always give the exactly correct names for the following shortcuts (though you should be able to find them):
to disable a drive:
double click on
my computer
right click on any drive
chose properties
then click on the tab called hardware
chose the drive you want to disable in the list it provides
click on properties
on the bottom of the window that opens is a pulldown box called something like device usage (I have no clue what it is really called in english XP versions) and it is by default set to use device (activate) - chose do not use device (deactivate) and click on ok - then close all the control panel windows and restart the computer. If you want to reactivate the drive do the same just chose activate

 

[Ranger99]

I disabled the drive, and it still didn't work... Dang, I thought that one would work for sure too... Any other ideas?

 

[Methanus]

I have this same problem... I put in the cd, then click on the icon for Civ IV, or Warlords - I have "Gold Edition" - but only SOMETIMES, and not often, it MIGHT start. Even from the 'all programs' drop down I select the Firaxis games thingy, then Civ IV, but nothing happens.

I thought it might be that I need a patch, so I downloaded the newest one - but when I tried to install it, it said that there was NO Civ IV installed.

You already know that I tried to remove and reinstall it a few dozen times.

I have updated drivers, etc., but nothing gives...

Any advice, help, or comiserating?

 

[Methanus]

SO, I tried the download from the top of the Tech Support section of the forum, the "trouble with Dx9"... or whatever it is, and it fixed everything for me.