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

M

MurryVillage

Chieftain
Joined
Aug 13, 2008
Messages
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Hi, i've recently bought Civilization 4 Complete. Took it home, unwrapped it, put it in the DVD drive of my computer and installed it.

So far so good...Clicked the play button...Nothing. The little hourglass cursor comes up and then goes. Nothing else happens.

I've tried re-installing it, several times, and the same thing happens. I've also tried patching it to the newest version but it comes up with the error message that:

"The setup has detected that no version of Sid Meiers Civilization 4 is installed"

My system is running Windows XP to SP2. Video card is an nVidia GeForce 7600 and I have plenty of RAM and HD space. My processor also seems to be up to recommended specs.

Im sure I cant be the first person to have this problem but i've looked everywhere and nobody seems to have it. Please help.

Thanks!
 
Welcome to CFC! Sorry you are having so many troubles.

Do you get the splash/loading screen at all? Sounds like you are running the game via the autoplay feature. Does the same problem occur when you use a desktop shortcut or the Start Menu?

What ultimately happens - do you have to ctrl-alt-del and end the task? Does CIV crash?
 
Hi, thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

No splash screen, no loading, nothing. I start up the game and the little hourglass/egg timer cursor comes up for a few seconds and then goes again. I've tried running it through autoplay, through shortcuts and through Civilization4.exe and still nothing.

I've tried running it while Task Manager is running and no new processes run, the Civ4 application doesn't run (Although there is a spark of life, as it does sometimes show as being a running task for about a second before it goes back to doing nothing).
 
Maybe this is an issue with your anti virus interfering? Try disabling it temporarily to check. Other than that I am stumped.

anyone else have any suggestions?
 
Thanks for replying everybody!

Steve2000: Tried disabling my Anti-Virus software (All of it, including Firewall (You never know :S)) and still the same happens.

Ori: I'm running Windows XP Service Pack 2. Tried installing the patch you recommended and it installed but the game still doesn't start. Same problem as before. Well at least it patched this version!

Luciano's War: Yup, checked that it is installed and it is, indeed, installed, at least in every respect that I know of (Files on HD, Registery Entries).

*sighs*
 
:hmm:
does the windows event manager show anything related to firaxis civ4 etc.?
also do you have any anti-malware program running? try disabling it (while disconnected from the net ;)) - some of those programs might be too aggressive in preventing programs to run...
 
Thanks for the advice Ori. Tried disabling all anti malware, anti spyware, anti adware, anti virus, anti hacker, anti inflammatory you name it and still the same problem :confused:

Event Manager shows nothing related to Firaxis or Civ4. In fact, it shows no tasks and all the active processes are the same as usual, nothing added, nothing taken away.
 
Oh right yes of course, sorry. As far as my knowledge of Event Logs goes, it is not registering that anything happens when I start the game. Nothing on my computer seems to respond except for the little eggtimer cursor flickering for half a second and then everything goes back to normal. It's as if the computer doesn't even recognise that i'm trying to run the game.
 
I have been getting the same trouble lately. It is a problem with BTS for me, d2d version. Reinstallation allowed me to play once.

No clue what the deal is....
 
No idea if it is related, but if you right-click your shortcut, do you get an option called Launch Analysis? What is that?
 
Thanks for the advice

Tried it in Clean Boot Mode (About as clean as physically possible without not actually booting) but still no luck!
At least im not the only one having this sort of problem. No 'Launch Analysis' option for me Yushal, maybe you're running a different OS than me...

Anyone got any other ideas? :confused:
 
Hi everyone

I was about to post regarding exactly the same problem - install Civ4 & Warlords + patch's and then click on shortcut. Hourglass spins for a couple of seconds then nothing.
The difference between me and MurryVillage is that I'm using Vista Home Premium + SP1.

When I got my latest PC (12 months ago) I loaded Civ4 and Warlords and they ran fine, stopped playing for a while and un-installed them (can't remember why I did something so stupid).
Between un-installing and re-installing I loaded SP1 and a lot of other software. After having the problem I un-installed Civ and every other thing that I felt I safely could and then ran a reg cleaner to make sure I cleaned everything regarding Civ out. Then re-installed again only to still have the same issues.

I have since loaded it onto my wife’s XP machine and play it with no problems (except the wife grumbling because she can't use her PC).
I want to order the BtS expansion, but don't want to spend the money if I can't find a solution to playing the game on my machine.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Cebe
 
Hi, I'd like to post a possible solution. I initially purchased the game (Game of the Year Edition) and installed it on my desktop running Windows XP SP2, and after getting through the problems with the installation from the CD, it ran fine. Then I had to reformat that computer, but at the same time, I got a new laptop with Vista Home installed on it, and tried installing it, and as soon as I tried to click on the shortcut, the little icon would appear then disapear without anything happening.

Tried every suggestion that I could find, until I had this random idea to try changing the .exe file from Civilization4.exe to civ4.exe, and it actually ran. Maybe you can try that.
 
Wow that sounds like a stroke of luck haha I wish that would work for me. Unfortunately, it hasn't :( Thanks for the idea though.

Anyone else have an idea? Gah I bet it's something really simple that I haven't done but I just dont know what it is...
 
Seems like me and murry have very similar problems! I feel your pain mate I too am/was looking forward to playing the game. If I find a work around I will let you know.

Look on the bright side when I try to run it my whole system freezes! Atleast you dont have that problem.
 
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