Stumped

[priestofhekate]

I downloaded Civ IV and loaded patch 1.61. I have installed the latest drivers from ATI (running a Radeon 9800XT). I have 2 gigs of RAM and am running a 1.7g motherboard.

I have installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled Directx 9.0c as well as the ATI drivers. I have even tried the Omega drivers.

This is what I got in the log:

[1630.968] DBG: CIV Init
[1631.031] VERSION: App: C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Civilization4.exe
[1631.031] VERSION: Build: Thu Mar 30 09:49:29 2006
[1631.031] VERSION: 1.6.1.1841 (45604)
[1631.156] VERSION: Mod Loaded: none
[1632.609] DBG: FILE Cat Init

At this point the game stops loading up (blue bar goes up to Init File Catalog). I have to Alt-Tab-Del to close the game. Any ideas where to go from here?

 

[crunch]

I could not find anyone with a similar problem. Hmm. Have you tried the "panacea" - uninstall civ, manually delete all civ folders, reinstall, repatch? BTW do you receive the same error message before patch and after patch?

 

[Velvet-Glove]

I downloaded Civ IV and loaded patch 1.61.

I'm a bit puzzled by your reference to downloading Civ IV (or did you mean to type 'installed'?)

If you do have a version that you bought and downloaded (e.g. from Direct2Drive) just make sure you get the upgrade patch from the same source. The "regular" patch (from the Firaxis site) will only upgrade a CD or DVD version of the game, not the download one.

But perhaps you know this already and have already got the correct file - I'm just mentioning this incompatibility in case this could be the source of your problem. Having said that, however, I don't think you would have got this far with the wrong file.

I'm with Crunch on this one - clear everything out and try a squeaky clean install. If you have ever installed any mods in the past they can leave files hanging about that can cause all sorts of weird things. See if you can get the original game version to install and run correctly before patching up to 1.61. If the latter fails, maybe there is something amiss with the download file, in which case you could try fetching a fresh copy from Firaxis.com (if you have the CD/DVD game version).

Let us know how you get on.

 

[priestofhekate]

"I'm a bit puzzled by your reference to downloading Civ IV (or did you mean to type 'installed'?)"

I purchased Civ IV from Direct2Drive.

"If you do have a version that you bought and downloaded (e.g. from Direct2Drive) just make sure you get the upgrade patch from the same source. The "regular" patch (from the Firaxis site) will only upgrade a CD or DVD version of the game, not the download one."

I've done that, downloaded the 1.61 patch from the Direct2Drive site and it patched fine.

"But perhaps you know this already and have already got the correct file - I'm just mentioning this incompatibility in case this could be the source of your problem. Having said that, however, I don't think you would have got this far with the wrong file.

I'm with Crunch on this one - clear everything out and try a squeaky clean install. If you have ever installed any mods in the past they can leave files hanging about that can cause all sorts of weird things. See if you can get the original game version to install and run correctly before patching up to 1.61. If the latter fails, maybe there is something amiss with the download file, in which case you could try fetching a fresh copy from Firaxis.com (if you have the CD/DVD game version)."

To make myself a bit more clear, I have never played Civ IV before. This is a new purchase so I had never installed mods. I did a complete uninstall of the game and any related files just in case. I did try it without patching first, same problem.

"Let us know how you get on."

Anyway, right now I am trying the 2K support team. So far they had me reinstall my ATI drivers *sigh*. If we get anywhere, I'll be sure to let everyone know in case some other poor fool has my prob in the future.

Edit: I do not get an error message at all. I have let it sit there "hanging" for 1/2 an hour and that's all it does is "hang". No progression, no error message. At this point I wish I WOULD get an error message. Heh.

 

[crunch]

Anyone has a clue what is happening during the "FILE Cat Init" starting phase?

 

[priestofhekate]

Just a small update:

Working with the 2K techs now. They've checked my drivers, etc. Now I'm waiting on an e-mail from them. If anyone has any ideas first though. Throw them my way.

 

[Velvet-Glove]

I was just trying to eliminate certain possibilities with my questions but it seems you have done all the right things so far. Good! I'm glad to hear the techs are helping you out as I don't have any further ideas, sorry. If you find the culprit let us know, it might help someone else in future.

Anyway, I hope you get to the bottom of this problem and can actually start playing soon, it's a great game! Welcome to the CFC forums, by the way!

 

[priestofhekate]

Success!!! Thanks to the support people at 2K and their infinite patience I now join the ranks of Civ IV players. Turns out the culprit was a sound driver that needed updating (I had, but not the newest apparently). Well, anyway just wanted to let you know that I'm in now. Thanks for all of you who replied to my posts.

Anyway, off to conquer the world!!!

 

[Velvet-Glove]

Woohoo, great news! It's butt-kicking time!

I'm glad to hear Take2 helped you through the problem, they deserve a thumbs up for customer support, I think.