Very Strange Graphics Problems

[joebazda]

Hello. I own a copy of Civilization III: Conquests (v1.22) and have been having problems for quite some time now. I was able ignore these problems for a while, but I really want to experience the full features of the game.

Whenever I select something that brings up a menu, I get a pink screen background instead of the normal color with strange X and O buttons... (Image 1)

Whenever I play a game, the bottom right hand corner is all messed up graphics-wise and its hard to read. The map has odd colored lines through it and the buttons in the top left hand corner of the screen are messed up (the advisers button isn't even there!) (Image 2)

My advisers screens are all smeared with random junk as well and are hard to read, as seen with the image of the domestic adviser screen. Also, when I click the foreign adviser, the game crashes... (Image 3)

Finally, I tried to fix this by uninstalling and reinstalling the game but when I try I get an error message that says "The InstallShield Engine (iKernel.exe) could not be launched. No such interface supported"

Can anyone help with these problems?
ANY help is welcome. Thanks!

--Joe Bazda

 

[CommandoBob]

I think you are on the right path by trying to uninstall and reinstall.

But you may be forced to do a manual unistall, which is sort of messy.

The uninstaller that doesn't work is designed to remove the program from the hard drive and the registery. A manual uninstall, where you right click on the folder and select 'delete' does not change any entry in the registry. If you tried to reinstall now the PC will still think that the game is still installed because the registry still has entries in it that tell it the game is still installed. The registry does not check the hard drive to verify it's data. Information in the registry is assummed to be correct.

There are programs, some free for download, that will clean up your registry of these kinds of entries. The generic term for them is Registry Optimizers. If you don't have one, I recommend WinASO Registry Optimizer. This is demo software and will only fix 10 registry entries at a time. But it can be rerun as often as you need.

This would also be a good time to check for spyware and related ugly things. I recommend SpyBot-Search and Destroy, SpywareBlaster and AdAware. All three are free downloads. I use all three, since they do different things.

I don't really think that spyware is messing up Civ III. But if you are forced to do some maintenance, you might want to do these other checks at the same time.

My pattern is like so:

1. Clean out browser cache
2. Clean out the recycle bin
3. Spybot
4. Spywareblaster
5. Adaware
6. WinASO
7. Windows Defrag
8. Windows Update

 

[apallo333]

my situation seems to be a little similar (or at least it WAS) im pretty sure that the ikernel thing means you need to have admin privileges on your account

 

[apallo333]

actually i have just gotten some problems of my own which are similar to yours

 

[darski]

Another good program is the Piriform CCleaner.

it will do uninstalls (tools) and will clean registry messes (Registry) from uninstalls and such. it also cleans the C too.

 

[joebazda]

Thanks for the tips, but not to worry, guys. I was able to borrow a copy of Civ3Complete from a friend and installed that and presto it works!