The game won't start - At all. Please help!

[pectopah]

A little help needed, I'm going insane...

BTS starts loading but just stops at "init engine" or something along those lines. It just goes back to desktop and that's it. I downloaded bts from gamesplanet.com and it installed fine (on the second download, the first was corrupted ). It says on the gamesplanet website that the download includes the latest patch, so I don't think that is the problem.

I use vista and graphics drivers should be up to date. I've been going at this for two days now and nothing seems to work.

 

[ori]

could you open event manager and see if there is an error report for the crash?

 

[pectopah]

Here's what it says on event viewer:

Failed to create restore point on volume (Process = C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\DirectX\dxsetup.exe Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\DirectX\dxsetup.exe" /silent; Descripton = ôYw; Hr = 0x80070057).

This event is not displayed correctly because the underlying XML is not well formed. Below is the raw text of the event.

8193200x800000000000001771ApplicationUC-PCC:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\DirectX\dxsetup.exe Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization IV\DirectX\dxsetup.exe" /silentôYw0x800700575700078002020000D60100000000000032CA19E58CAF4DCB010000000000000000000000


And this is what it says after I've tried to start the game:

Faulting application Civ4BeyondSword.exe, version 3.1.3.1, time stamp 0x48317e8a, faulting module Civ4BeyondSword.exe, version 3.1.3.1, time stamp 0x48317e8a, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0008830a, process id 0x798, application start time 0x01c909c141cc3d60.

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Application Error

- EventID 1000

[ Qualifiers] 0

Level 2

Task 100

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2008-08-29T10:23:46.000Z

EventRecordID 1775

Channel Application

Computer UC-PC

Security


- EventData

Civ4BeyondSword.exe
3.1.3.1
48317e8a
Civ4BeyondSword.exe
3.1.3.1
48317e8a
c0000005
0008830a
798
01c909c141cc3d60


I'm not so good with computers so I don't really understand that at all. Hopefully some of you will...

 

[ori]

this is an access violation error (basically the game tries to use some part of your computer's memory that is unavailable).
Unfortunately this has any number of potential reasons from faulty graphics card or RAM to faulty graphics drivers to faulty in the game (this is not wide spread enough to be solely caused by the game) to random programs interfering like malware or anti-malware...
are your graphics card drivers uptodate? did you recently add hardware to your computer? are you running anti-malware software?

 

[pectopah]

I only recently (about a month ago) installed vista and a load of programs. I'll try uninstalling all the alti-malware software. Drivers should be up to date, but I'll check again.

 

[ori]

don't uninstall your anti-vir/firewall programs. Disconnect from the internet, then disable those programs and try starting the game. If this does not work - the antivir stuff is most likely not the culprit.
then update your antivir programs and carry out a thorough search for malware on your computer.
Also post your dxdiag results (click start, click search, type dxdiag, hit enter, click on the dxdiag program it offers (if it does not start automatically) - in that program click on save results. Come back here and attach the dxdiag results file by clicking on go advanced and then on manage attachments below the reply box).
Is this just BtS or also Civ4 that does not start?

 

[Eragon0605]

Uhh... Guys? You still haven't awnsered MurryVillage's question. I have the exact same problem as he does (save for the fact I have XP SP3 unstead of SP2). I am eagerly awaiting the awnser. IM GONNA DIE IF I DON'T GET THE PROBLEM FIXED!!!

 

[pectopah]

don't uninstall your anti-vir/firewall programs. Disconnect from the internet, then disable those programs and try starting the game. If this does not work - the antivir stuff is most likely not the culprit.
then update your antivir programs and carry out a thorough search for malware on your computer.
Also post your dxdiag results (click start, click search, type dxdiag, hit enter, click on the dxdiag program it offers (if it does not start automatically) - in that program click on save results. Come back here and attach the dxdiag results file by clicking on go advanced and then on manage attachments below the reply box).
Is this just BtS or also Civ4 that does not start?

Too late, I already reinstalled vista but it didn't help. I get the same results. CIV4 works fine on its own, BtS is the problem.

 

[MurryVillage]

No one else have any ideas? It appears that this game is being problematic for a lot of people which is a shame because I love the series and was really looking forward to playing this.

Off to the Civ3 section until somebody has a eureka moment :S

 

[Eragon0605]

Well, if you are REALLY desperate (like I was), format your computer's C: drive and re-install windows. Now Civ4 should work great as ever! Just make sure to back up all your old Civ4 savegames and mods.

 

[rhbgames]

I went through this problem and wrote up my solution. YMMV, but I didn't need to reinstall the operating system. Note this was on Vista.

1. I downloaded BTS from Direct2Drive, but the install failed after "Setup is searching for updated DirectX Runtime Components and updating as necessary. This may take a few minutes..." - with a message like "The patch failed to install. Aborting".

I looked in the Windows event log and saw:
Failed to create restore point on volume (Process = C:\Users\Richard\Downloads\Civilization4BeyondTheSword_317_ddsetup\directx9\DXSETUP.exe /silent; Descripton = ôw; Hr = 0x80070057).

2. So, I disabled Restore Points (using the Control Panel) - remember to reenable these when your install is done (and you will lose existing restore points, which kinda sucks). Also note that you might be able to skip this step.

3. I re-ran the BTS install and got a little further. In particular I got to the message: "There is a new version of Sid Maier's Civilization 4 available the latest patch will now be installed." But then it failed again with the same: "The patch failed to install. Aborting" message.

4. I figured I would try installing the Civ4 patch myself - downloaded Civ4Patch1.74_Final.exe. Tried to install this. Got the error: "The setup has detected that no version of Sid Meier's Civilization 4 is installed. This update requires that a previous version of the application be installed." Aha, this seems to be the core problem.

5. Install Civ4 from CD.

6. Rerun Civ4Patch1.74_Final.exe. Now I get a message that "The setup has detected that version 1.09.000 of SM Civ 4 inst already installed. This setup is not compatible with this version. You will have to uninstall the previous version before installing this version."

7. OK, perhaps I jumped ahead too quickly. Download the 1.61 patch and install that. No problems.

8. Install the 1.74 patch. No problems.

9. Install BTS. I see a message about installing a patch for Warlords, but apparently my Warlords install was ok. BTS Install works.

10. Turn restore points back on.

11. Start BTS - enter activation code.

12. Game starts

So, what was so hard about this? Civ4 is a great series with a nasty install. But the bottom line was that I had some type of corruption in my base Civ4 install and even though Warlords worked fine (I haven't played the base in a while) the corruption interfered with the BTS install.

Good luck all!
RB