Unnngh... Help?!

[lacessit]

Please, I'll be crying soon...

Just got Civ IV for X-mas, it just won't load. I tried all the fixes, patches and stuff, and the stupid game just crashes to desktop with a 'Civ IV has encoutered a problem and needs to close' message. I am really getting rather annoyed now. Any ideas?

[Enigma_Nova]

Okay sparky, let's just load up my telepath-o-tron and try to decipher exactly what your machine specs are and when you crash.
... Ooops, I forgot I left my telepath-o-tron in the year 3000 when I used my time machine.

Mind telling me some more specifics while I wait for my Omnipresence cube to get my stuff back?

[lacessit]

I'm sorry man, I was tired, and kinda at the end of my tether (hence, I went to sleep after posting, dreaming only frustrated dreams)

RADEON 9600, 1,90 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP, Windows XP SP 2, this is the error signature: AppName: civilization4.exe AppVer: 1.5.2.1736 ModName: civilization4.exe
ModVer: 1.5.2.1736 Offset: 000bbb81, and it does it just after it says: 'audio init'.

If more info is needed please tell me.

[Enigma_Nova]

That's more specific.
Okay, so you're above the minimum reqs, and you get crashes in Audio Initialising.
First, the basics. Tried reinstalling Civ and/or DirectX and not applying any patches the first time around to see if the problem still persists?

There haven't been any notable problems with Firewalls or Antiviruses that I know of with Civ4, so it's probably not another program conflicting. In any case, opening up task manager and killing anything not Civ4-related can clear up memory.

If you crash on Audio, it might be a good idea to reinstall Audio drivers.

[lacessit]

The problem persists without patches. It just doesn't give an error-emssage without the patch. The game completely disappears.

EDIT: sound specs: SoundMAX digital Audio. Don't really know wheer to find thr right updated drivers, the soundmax site doesn't carry them, and after that I get sort of... lost.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by lacessit
EDIT: sound specs: SoundMAX digital Audio. Don't really know wheer to find thr right updated drivers, the soundmax site doesn't carry them, and after that I get sort of... lost.

What's your computer make and model?

Better yet, go to Start > Run and type in "dxdiag", run that, click on "Save All Information" and the post the entire thing here.

[Enigma_Nova]

Drivers:

http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/soundmax-audio.html

2nd result from google when I googled for soundmax digital audio.

[Urban Ranger]

Also check to see if another program has already grabbed audio.

Stop as many as TSR programs (ones you see in the system tray) as you can before you run Civ 4.

[lacessit]

Thank you all for your help, in the meantime, I didn't exactly solve the problem as much as found a way round it. I (with the help of my IT-minded brother in law, I'll readily admit) first updated the bios. Then we made a new account and installed the game on that one. Worked like a charm, which seems to suggest my problem was registry related.

EDIT: which means of course I am now enjoying Civ IV and my new-found fondness for the Arabian Empire.