Cannot locate DVD

[boxfish100]

Hello -
Is anyone else in the UK / rest of Europe getting a 'cannot locate CD-ROM' type message after installing the game? Even though the disc is a DVD not CD-Rom, and even though the disc is sitting in the drive?

I was able to run the game (after fixing other problems with it - a sob story for another day) and had 2 days of blissful Civving - then all of the sudden I am getting this error message.

I've tried:
- uninstall (including cache folder ) and clean re-install

and I've tried creating an image and mounting it (not because I want to use it illegally or anything but because I simply want to use the program I've paid for). Have tried using a certain SafeDisk hiding program and reinstalling from the virtual drive. Same error. Nothing is working.

A user from civfanatics has suggested opening the computer case and checking for RAID card setup, which I will do as a last resort.

If anything, I wanted to see if others are still having these problems and what they have done to fix it.

Hopefully Take2 will treat this as a priority bug to fix. It is pretty frustrating to have a legal copy which will not play due to their overzealous copy protection scheme.

[Raion]

Yes, look for the thread to update your Firmware Bios of your DVD-ROM drive. Right now I do not know where it is at, since new threads for single problems are always started again, and again, and again.

[boxfish100]

Sorry about starting a new thread on an old topic - tried to search for an older thread to bump it but didn't come up with anything.

Problem seems solved for now (crossing fingers and all that) - deleted temp folder in windows, emptied recycled contents, ran %temp% from start menu, selected all, deleted all, emptied recycled contents. This seemed to work. Had help from tech support for this.

Hope this helps someone.

[Dracon II]

Having exactly the same problem

[AoA]

I had that 'Cannot locate DVD' error pop up.......except I am using the USA CD and not the DVD and never had a problem before. Rebooted and it was all fixed. Weird weird weird that Civ4 would suddenly think that I had a DVD version.

[TheHateMale]

I'm currently running it off an image using the SafeDisc 4 hider (Although I do have the DVD in its packaging on my desk). I've not had any problems with it not finding the (virtual) disc. Would this help with your problem at all?

[scitllz]

Is anyone having problems with the characters faces not appearing and the ground being black when your playing the game? I've been looking all over for a solution to the problem and have been unsuccesful...

[Leuenberg]

Originally posted by scitllz
Is anyone having problems with the characters faces not appearing and the ground being black when your playing the game? I've been looking all over for a solution to the problem and have been unsuccesful...

This is 99% probably a problem with your card not supporting hardware T&L (it is btw a requirement to play the game).

Check this thread for the list of supported cards:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141405

[slackerjoe]

Originally posted by TheHateMale
I'm currently running it off an image using the SafeDisc 4 hider (Although I do have the DVD in its packaging on my desk). I've not had any problems with it not finding the (virtual) disc. Would this help with your problem at all?

This is exactly how I overcame the "Cannot find CD" (even though it's a DVD!) problem.

Does anyone know if this will cause an issue when the patch is released? Will I have to create a new image of the patched version? I'd like to upgrade my DVD firmware too to see if it helps the problem. I've got a 4 year old generic DVD-reading drive, so I'm not sure where to go for firmware support.

[Leuenberg]

Originally posted by slackerjoe
This is exactly how I overcame the "Cannot find CD" (even though it's a DVD!) problem.

Does anyone know if this will cause an issue when the patch is released? Will I have to create a new image of the patched version ?

I'm also using Alcohol52 + SD4Hider successfully to run the game without the DVD in the drive.

Regarding the patches, I never had to create a new image with my games and I always play them with an ISO image on the disk (EUII, WCIII and NWN), so CIV will certainly not be an exception.

[FullMetalJack]

Here's another tip for those of you using a 'mini-image' of the DVD, with Windows XP and NTFS partitions only.

After unraring the files, right click on the folder that was created and go to Properties->Advanced.

Now tick the checkbox that says 'Compress contents to save disk space', click 'apply', then say yes to 'apply to subfolders'.

Mount the image that's in the compressed folder, in your virtual drive as normal.

You'll find that instead of using up 1.3 Gb of space, the folder now only uses up 700 kb of disk space! Wish I could say the same for the Civ IV game itself.

[wowmaster23]

I am using alcohol 120 percent as my virt drive, i installed the game with no problems. The problem comes when i try to play the game, i hit play and it thinks for a second and then a standard windows xp error message comes up stating that civ iv has encountered an error and needs to shut down. It's the standard xp error reporting screen. It's very frustrating as i have tried several fixes and nothing seems to be working. If anyone has any suggestions or knows of a solution any help would be greatly appreciated. I exceed all of the minimum requirements for my pc and i have upgraded my ati drivers, as well as my direct x. Stumped....................

[PTL]

So I seem to be having the exact same problem as Wowmaster23. Except I also downloaded Anti-Blaxx and attempted to run the game through that. It didn't work. I get a message "Alcohol 120% File Not Accessible" then the classic Windows Error Message. Ok, so I'll try sd4hide instead and run the game with that program. That doesn't work either. Same classic Windows Error Message. I understand Civ IV was programed to crap-out if you have any virtual drives installed, that's why you need Anti-Blaxx or sd4hide. I have both of those programs now and neither of them work. Does anyone know the solution to this problem?

[wowmaster23]

Update

I also have sd4hide and it hasn't been working for me either, i even tried installing the game in safe mode under the administrator account just as a possibility and no dice, same classic windows error message, i can run the game without sd4hide but then it gives me the no dvd cd error message so it is a lose lose situation.

[Leuenberg]

Some tips for those having issues with Alcohol52 + SD4Hider:
1) Be sure to use Alcohol52/120 latest version (build 3105) to create the image.
2) Follow precisely the sequence of SD4H (launch SD4H, mount ISO, hide, play, then unhide.
3) From time to time you may still have the "No DVD found in drive" Windows error screen before the XML screen, but then select "Ignore" and the game will launch.

Hope this will help you to get rid of your DVD

I'm just wondering when the game vendors will stop follow their stupid lawyers and annoy their users with stupid protection schemes which are anyway circumvented