I think Civ4 messed up my computer.

[siredgar]

I keep getting an error message on my computer and I can't access the Internet any more. I'm not at home and I don't recall the exact message, but it mentioned something about a network problem. I don't know what to do? I'm going to try to get a technician to take a look at it, but any suggestions?

I can still play the game though.

[Dis]

so exactly how did civ4 do this again?

[siredgar]

It only happened after I started playing Civ4. I haven't even gone on the Internet since I bought the game.

[Raion]

Might be that a phone line went bad inside, or like me the interior modem quit working, but I have an external modem I was using anyway!

I had to bypass that modem to get the external modem to work correctly with the phone line, unless you have a faster connection, but still it could be something similiar.

I have had no problems with civ IV but I have not tried multi-player or anything else, just playing the game!

Check your modem in Device Manager and test it!
It should have a diagnostic program that tells if it is working correctly (but it has to be connected to a phone line also I think or am guessing that also works!)
Or maybe it is the modem icon in Control Panel. Well it is somewhere like that, and one can test the modem with Windows!

[Stone-D]

Can't help out without specifics, especially the error message itself.

How are you connecting? Modem? ADSL? Local LAN?

If Local LAN, can you see other computers?

Have you checked your cables?

HAVE YOU PAID YOUR BILL?

[siredgar]

I haven't tried playing multi-player yet. I have a cable connection. All lines connections appear to be fine. Yes, I have paid my bill. It's direct debit.

Once I get my Internet connection fixed. I think I am going to shelve the game. I'll see how my standard map game with 8 civs goes. But if it starts slowing down, I'm just going to put it away. I can't risk having problems with my computer. I paid a lot of money for it (and have never had any problems before picking up Civ4).

I like the game more than I did when I first installed it, but it's not worth all the hassle. If I can't finish a game without taking more time waiting for turns to pass than playing and it's messing up my computer, I don't need it.

I promise, promise, promise, promise, promise myself that for Civ5, I am going to wait at least one year before picking it up. I want it with all the patches. Hopefully, I can wait until the price goes down and there is an expansion pack and everything is working just right. And please don't tell me about adjusting settings, drivers, etc. I don't want to hear it. I'm a really busy guy and I still haven't bothered to install the new printer I bought almost a year ago.

[Raion]

The patch is coming out, and all one has to do is Alt-Tab out to the desktop, as far as I know.

I don't think the game can mess up your computer. I been running this game and my computer fine ever since a couple of days after the game came out.

I ain't having any problems with Civ IV or my computer, but I am running Windows 2K Professional as the OS.

[siredgar]

When is the patch coming out? Where can I get it? Any news on what's in it?

[Stone-D]

Siredgar: Open up a command prompt window. (Start->Run-> CMD.EXE)

Type IPCONFIG /ALL then press enter.

You should see something like this :

Ethernet adapter Local LAN:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com Gigabit LOM (3C940)
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0E-A6-48-A5-71
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.200
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.1

Note down what you have for Default Gateway and for DNS Servers.

Try PINGing each, starting with the gateway :

PING 10.0.0.1 (in my case, replace with your set of IP addresses)

Pinging 10.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

If PING responds ok like above, something is wrong with IE, check the proxy/connection settings.

If your gateway/dns servers are empty or there's no ping response, contact your provider.


Now, the big map / late game slowdowns are almost entirely because of the textures. Many of them are unnecessarily large.

I resized the majority of the textures last night as a test, and... well... impressive. I can zoom out to planet view now with no pause!

Plus, I can barely notice the difference.

[siredgar]

Cool! I have printed your advice. Thank you very much.

I will have to try that when I get home (whenever that is...)

Is the patch expected to improve technical issues, too?

[notyoueither]

Oh, brother.

[player1]

Can't wait to see thread about blaming Civ4 for blowing up home PC next time...

[Senethro]

Civ4 caused the Holocaust.

[Ecthy]

Since you cannot prove that Civ4 did just that, it obviously never happened at all!

[Stuie]

Civ 4 messed up my television.