This is the worst nightmare of my life

[CivFan91]

After a long, unbearable wait, I picked up my copy of . I played it on my mother's laptop, which has the following specs:

1.8 gHz CPU
40 GB hdd
512 MB RAM
128 MB vRAM (onboard video card)

I had to play at Medium graphics, but enjoyed hours of game time. And so did my mom. OK, I'm home today. I install on my eMachine:

2.6 gHz CPU
80 GB hdd
512 MB RAM
256 MB vRAM (nVidia PCI)

and I patch it. 1.09, very spiffy. Oooookaaay. I try to watch the opening movie. I want to enjoy my $40 investment. The darn thing kept freezing for a second and going back to playing, and this sis not happen on the smaller-spec laptop. Frustrated, I give the ol' tower a good slap. Big mistake! The.... thing.... freezes entirely. I smack the button, holding it down. Powering the system down, I reboot. I try again. I skip the movie, now ticked at it. I load the SP game...

Problem numero uno: The eves on the leaderheads are kind of whited out. OK, this is annoying. Then, the thing locks up in the opening movie. Thinking a few words, I reboot. Again. Then, it plays alright for a little while. I found Judaism, and as I see the description, I click the Grid button, being unfamiliar with the tile layout. (It was my third game) It locks up. I reboot. My game is lost, so I start over. The animations are very choppy, and it slows down WAY too fast for my comfort. And my computer is "better" than the laptop. I have fond out what a joy it is to cuss out my computer every $^%#$&! time I reboot. I said the F'word more than Dennis Leary!

So... the question is... WTH can I do, besides shoot my eMachine?

P.S. Never buy an eMachine. My computer is infamous for bizarre happenings like this, with other games. But this is ridiculous.

 

[JasperKlybek]

I was having similiar issues with most current edition of Nvidia drivers installed.

I am now using Version 60.85 drivers and everything is fine except I can't save the games without a fatal error.

Roll back your video drivers to an older version and see if it improves. Was a huge difference for me.

 

[CivFan91]

Wow, you responded fast!

is fine except I can't save the games without a fatal error.

Oh... that... is... bad... rolling back driver as I type. I'll let you know.

 

[Comraddict]

size of memory on vidoe card is insignificant.

 

[CivFan91]

M'kay, I rolled back my drivers. I don't notice a real difference, even though I turned down my graphics to Medium before it crashed for the umpteenth time last night.

size of memory on vidoe card is insignificant.

Maybe not on Civ IV, but my CPU is significantly better than the laptop one. And this is ridiculous. When I founded a city on that laptop, it froze for... about 1/2 second as it was being founded. On my eMachine, in took... 3-4 seconds, a second's delay moving my first Warrior (May I be forgiven for playing on the lower difficulty levels for now?) and it only gets worse. I've tried a couple other things, so I'll try those after school today. In the meantime... I need a Tylenol.

 

[JasperKlybek]

This game has more bugs in it than the Amazon rain forest and should never have made it to market as is.

Good luck!

 

[CivFan91]

Ugh! No good! Ah well, I suppose I get what I pay for. You see...

$400 for my:

Computer
Monitor
Mouse
Keyboard
Speakers
Printer

All in one. I've spent over $700, however, on parts for a new system - and I still require a:

CPU
Box
Speaker set
Video Card
Memory chips
CD drive II (I have one, a DVD burner)

NASA will be proud. But it will take time. Until then... *sigh* I'll stick to Civ III, and play on the laptop whenever I'm allowed.

 

[drachasor]

Did you go to options before the game loaded and switch graphical settings back to medium? The game resets all such settings after the patch.

-Drachasor

 

[CivFan91]

It - it did! Wow. And resetting it to Medium all the way down (except for the multi-unit, I have a ton of mods like that for Civ III and always wanted them.)

For a terrifying moment, the game got real slow at the beginning of the game. But... it sped up. And the only trouble I saw was that my computer experienced a super-slow down for a minute after I left to share the funniest pic I ever saw for Civ IV. Oh, and the whiite-out eyes are gone.

One last problem: Isn't it supposed to save screenshots automatically? I had to paste it manually in Paint. =/