Will name my children after anyone who can help!

[Monkey76]

I have a very random problem with loading Civ IV. I bought the game when it was released in the UK (Nov) and initially had no problems at all. Certainly none of the reported performance problems that seem to be wide spread. Then very occasionally the game wouldn’t load. The symptom is always the same. The game goes to the initial splash screen, then all the “init” loader for the sound etc…. then it drops back to the desk top. You can hear the audio in the back ground – but its distorted and crunchy. You can maximise the program, but the screen is black and it drops back to the desktop after a few seconds. I have 2 GB of Ram, P4, ATI 9550 video card and a Phillips PSC805 USB soundcard. I don’t have any spyware on the system, and disable virus checker and firewall before running the game. This happens anywhere between 30 and 60% of the time and is completely random. Does anyone have any idea what could be the cause of this? I have dozens of other games and all run ok although Quake 4 and Doom 4 are sluggish due to average video card. I’ll be very grateful to anyone who has any ideas! Thanks

 

[porkdiesel]

Try this:

Unplug your USB sound card
Restart the computer
Attempt to load the game

If it works, you know the USB sound card is the problem. That is a fairly new hardware choice and there could be an issue with it.