Video, sound and text problem

[David Bedlam]

Hey everyone.

I just got Civ4 and Beyond the Sword and loaded them up onto my laptop. But when I tried to play the games, everything went a bit pear shaped.

Firstly the video was very juddery, with it shopping and starting rather than giving a nice smooth flow. This didn't seam to extend the time it took for the videos to play though.

But most shockingly, after the video's had finished and I got onto the menu, all the text was invisible! The menus worked fine (I clicked a few random buttons and managed to get a game), but I had no idea what was going on!

I'm guessing that maybe my computer (A Toshina Satellite A20-S103D) might not be able to quite keep up with the game in it's current state. How should I get the game running? Do I need a software upgrade or what?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ori]

could you post your dxdiag results?

welcome to civfanatics

 

[David Bedlam]

Thanks for the welcome ori. I'll love to post my dxdiag results.

Just as soon as someone tells me what a dxdiag is and how I find it.

I'm not exactly computer savvy, hense my posting here. But explained without too many long words, I should understand it.

 

[ori]

on your desktop
click start
click run
type dxdiag
click save results in the program that starts
remember what you called the saved file

come back here and below the reply box
click go advanced
click manage attachments
upload your dxdiag file


the dxdiag file includes a whole lot of information about your computer - including some file paths that include your username - if that is somehow sensitive information you should probably delete those or edit them. I am most interested in the information regarding your memory and graphics card...

 

[David Bedlam]

Here we go! I'll have to remember that dxdiag for the future.

 

[ori]

your problem is your computer.
the graphics card: It only has 32 MB of memory and most likely no hardware T&L ("transform and lighting") support - 64 MB graphics memory and hardware T&L support are the absolute minimum to run this game.
total RAM: 224 MB (actually its 256 but the graphics card eats 32 of those) - I am surprised Windows XP runs on this - 512 are really required for Civ4

I fear the answer to your problem is: this game was not build for your machine and while the RAM could probably be solved if you would accept long wait times - there is no way to get around the graphics card problem. This being a laptop there is also not much in terms of hardware upgrade possible
Sorry to only give you bad news

 

[David Bedlam]

Well fiddlesticks. That's a bit of a bugger.

At least I didn't waste exessive amounts of money on this, due to getting them second hand.

Guess I'll have to stick to Black & White and Final Fantasy VI.

Thanks for the time and help ori.

 

[rebakan]

Hi, everybody I am also having problems with my graphic card. I have a Toshiba CX/975LS notebook 100gb harddisk, Centrino Duo(Core Duo System) with 504~512mb ram(?)that can become to 1,536mb.
Since I installed Civilization IV my computer is complaining about my graphic and sound card, also I can't play any other map than the Standard size(I like huge much better).With BTS became a little worse.Now I find out that Civilization is not compatible with my Intel Pro Card.
So I'll change it, besides my memory that I intend to make larger.
My question is
1) which Gaphic and sound card is better than Texas Instruments(Graphic card I think) and Realtek High Definition Audio, so I'll buy it.Sorry, I don't know how to give my pc specs.If needed I'll try to send more details.
Thanks a lot, rebakan

 

[rebakan]

PS: I am trying to post my dxdiag.txt for you,ori let me see if I'll get it.
thanks for all your help.

 

[ori]

you card does not support hardware T&L - 128MB memory would be just enough - but without hardware T&L support it won't work. Also since your comp has just 512 MB RAM the card should have at least 128 MB of own memory. I am not too good in what current cards are good. You might want to look for something and maybe post a thread here asking if the couple of cards you are thinking about are good - there are some people here who do answer to those threads

 

[rebakan]

Thanks very much for your answer.So I need to change my Graphic card, is it so? but my sound card is also very low(this is not a surprise, considering that here in Japan, is forbidden by law any kind of audio machine have loud sound,television is much worse!sound is really loooow down!) Doesn't have any software that could help my graphic card and hardware to have T&L support? Sorry to bother you again.I do appreciate your help.Thanks.

 

[ori]

I would not worry about the sound too much (you can do better - but the game works with almost anything that is DirectX 9c compatible).
The graphics card is the real problem. In case of a card that does not have hardware T&L support the bulk of calculations to do the effects is done by your operating system using the system memory. This can work only up to a certain point - and eats up a lot of your system memory - your machine is weak on this part as well so it will break early. In order to use the memory the card come with it needs to be able to do all those calculation itself, which means it needs to have hardware T&L support. There is no way around this I fear. In fact hardware T&L is listed in the minimum requirements for this game - and to be honest you should ideally exceed them.

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System:
Windows® 2000/XP

Processor:
1.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent

Memory:


256 MB RAM (Windows 2000) / 512 MB RAM (Windows XP)

Hard Disk Space:


1.7 GB Free

CD-ROM Drive :
4X Speed

Video:


DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with Hardware T&L support ( GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better)

Sound:


DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card

DirectX®:


DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher

Recommended System Requirements

Operating System:
Windows® 2000/XP

Processor:


1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent

Memory:


512 MB RAM

Hard Disk Space:


1.7 GB Free

CD-ROM Drive :
4X Speed

Video:


128 MB Video Card w/ DirectX 8 support (pixel & vertex shaders)

Sound:


DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card

DirectX®:


DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher

 

[rebakan]

Thanks Ori for your answer.I should prosecute Toshiba for this because when I went to buy this pc I had and showed to salesman the game minimum specs and he said it was ok.Now I'll have to send my pc to Tokyo, where it will stay a whole week to change that besides the extra money I'll have to pay for it.Thanks a lot.I do apologise for bothering you with my pc problems.
Thanks.