Black Screen

[trancer72]

I know this has been posted all around but there seems to be no real answer to it.

Everytime I play after about 15 minutes my monitor shuts off like it is recieving no signal which forces me to reboot. Luckily it auto saves after every turn so I don't really lose anything.

- I have ran the dxdiag and everything is fine there
- I have turned down the graphics to medium only to no resolve

- The sound and graphics work perfectly except for the monitor shutting off

I have been playing Civ for along time (First Civ on 486 LMAO) and I understand there are bound to be errors when a game is released. I've enjoyed playing all of the Civs and hope to enjoy this one just as much. So I'm just waiting patiently for the issue to get fixed or a solution to be posted.

I know my graphics driver is old, so I am going to update it and reply what happens. I just figured I 'd make the post first.

P4 2.0 Ghz
1 Gb RAM
NVidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 (Driver version 6.6.9.3)
Windows XP Home SP2

[Disk Killer]

It sounds almost like a Power Options problem.

Go to Control Panel > Power Options and choose Home/Office Desk and "Never" for all the options, just to make sure your PC is not going into power-saving mode for some reason.

[trancer72]

Well I updated to the current NVidia Driver version 81.85 release date 20 October 2005.

I also went into screen resolutions and refresh rates and hid all modes that my monitor could not support

And I just checked the power options like you just suggested but they we already set to never.

But still I go to play the game and after 15 minutes the screen goes black, I can hear the game music playing but the monitor justs powers off.

I tried to re-seat the VGA connector just incase it was loose, but a no go there

I also tried to recycle the power in the monitor by unplugging for 30 seconds and plugging it back in and turning it back on, and that was a no go as well

[Disk Killer]

I found quite a few people with similar issues... for example, this one: http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=195843

I would try to open your case, clean out the dust, make sure your fans are spinning, re-seat your video card....

If it's not heat, it *might* be a dying monitor or video card, but you'd have to try one other one of each to be sure.

I'm pretty sure it's not Civ IV - it's more the trigger than the cause; else you'd lose the PC and sound as well.

[OutFlanked]

Originally posted by Disk Killer
I found quite a few people with similar issues... for example, this one: http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=195843

I would try to open your case, clean out the dust, make sure your fans are spinning, re-seat your video card....

If it's not heat, it *might* be a dying monitor or video card, but you'd have to try one other one of each to be sure.

I'm pretty sure it's not Civ IV - it's more the trigger than the cause; else you'd lose the PC and sound as well.

BS, it's CIV4. A number of people are losing the video signal from the card. I might try turning off any power saving settings but as of right now, I don't think I have any power saving options on. Pretty sure.

Power saving is a software command that's why it may (may) be a affect.

[trancer72]

I'm gonna reseat my card tonight, but I don't think that's the problem and I'm not saying it's the game neccesarily. What I am saying is there is a driver error or compability issue. Because people have such a vast array of systems there is no way for the designers to account for every little thing that could go wrong.