Crash during "Play Now" load

[taybme]

I agree completely about the driver thing. I was willing to do it a couple of times to see if that was the problem, but now that moment has passed. My drivers are up to date and I need my computer for alot more than Civ IV. I guess I can wait for the patch...whenever that may be.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by taybme
-- installed directx 9c from the microsoft website

Install DirectX from the Civ4 CD when you install the game. It has some features that Microsoft hasn't added to their website.

[taybme]

yeah I've done that several times during the uninstalling of the game and the reinstall. I thought for a second that it might help if I installed from Microsoft... it didnt.

Thanks for the ideas though.

[taybme]

Thursday
TRIUMPH...
- turned off AGP and restarted.

So simple, yet I never thought that a game would not want to use AGP. Now watch, the patch will require me to put it back.

[Bergoren]

Damn... I've been having the same problem so I was letting you do all the work but my card is PCI-Express =(

Now I have to work =)

Congrats on getting it to work, not that you'll ever see this. You'll be playing =)

[Nikolai]

I have the same problem, but I've noticed that it's an easy solution: Don't play too large maps. My PM 1.7 GHz, 512 MB RAM machine can't play any maps larger than the one below Standard(Small isn't it?). If I try to start a game on Standard map size, it's doomed to kill the machine... But I just had my best game so far on a Small map, so while it's sad, it's okay for now.

[taybme]

Yeah I could load the small maps too, but once meeting the other civs the game would crash. However turning AGP off did fix all of that. I played for two hours last night with no problems.

I plan on giving the game a thorough testing this weekend, all weekend.

[reboot]

Taybme, it's great you got it to work. Is agp a setting within the game options, or somewhere in the video card options?

[taybme]

Originally posted by reboot
Taybme, it's great you got it to work. Is agp a setting within the game options, or somewhere in the video card options?

Its for your video card. Its pretty easy to find in the driver settings.

[reboot]

Well, I tried that tonight. The first time I ran the game it let me play all the way through... however, on subsequent tries, it again crashed after the play now. Guess I am waiting for the patch!

[Stageon]

I have had this exact same problem. The weird thing is, I've played several games through and not had the problem, then all of a sudden it stopped letting me get past the "In the beginning..." dialogue. He'll go into his spiel, but the Play button never appears, so I just sit and listen. The mouse cursor will move, but I can't Alt-Tab or Ctl-Alt-Del out of it. So basically I have to reboot.

Oh, and didn't change any drivers at all between the game working and not working.

I've played on a large map before and it's worked, but now large and huge seem to mess it up. I'll try standard and post again with my results. And I'll try the disable AGP setting (although my card is AGP...don't see what this option actually does?)

[Stageon]

Taybme, what *exactly* do you mean by turning off AGP? I use an nVidia card, and in my display settings there's a page with AGP settings. You can turn 'fast writes' and 'sideband addressing' on and off (they're on by default), and set the AGP rate to PCI mode, 1x, 2x, or 4x (it's 4x by default).

I believe there are also some AGP settings in the BIOS when you start the computer up.

Which settings are you changing exactly? Thanks.

[taybme]

The Omega driver I am using has a slider for the AGP rate, that goes from off to 4x. My computer by default was on 4x and I moved it to off. I dont know if that would be the PCI mode on your card, but it might work.

It worked for me but now my graphics for everything else is really slow. Also my "fast writes" had already been turned off and still are off. I dont know if that helped at all, but its going to stay off until they put out a patch for all the graphic problems.

[SuperMario]

I had the same problems as reboot, including black screen, warrior head and freeze up.
I patiently waited for the patch which I thought would solve the problem. After installing the patch and testing it worked, but only for the first time... After that all is back as it was. It is getting really annoying I must say. I am getting tired of starting a game, having to hard reset the computer, loading the game and then play...

Has anyone else still got this problem? Even after the patch? Or does it work for you all now?

[taybme]

I noticed that the patch didnt really fix any graphic problems for me either. I still have to have my AGP rate set to off. Which means that I have to change it back and reboot before I can play any other games.

Kindof annoying, but then again i am sure that Firaxis is probably happier that it is difficult to play other games.