My PCs died

[tiny toad]

I`m a little upset and a tad angry !
The ongoing farce i experienced getting civ4 to play on my PC has now caused ALL 3D Games on my pc to die.
I`ll explain.
When I got Civ4 my issues were reboots and monitor going into standby(i posted on the help forum) after doing everything suggested , it did not help i came to the conclusion it was my motherboard(MSI KM2M series)
I gave up and uninstalled the game, now tonight i decided to play Nexus and guess what! I got my standby issue again, I then ran Half Life2 and AGAIN got a standby.
All i know is these two games ran PERFECTLY before I had to endure the Farce that was civ4 and now neither play.
I`ve got no choice now but to purchase a new PC.
I think civ4 put a strain on that broke the PCs back
I`m not a happy bunny

[Arrian]

Is it possible that your issues are hardware-related, and would have happened without Civ (in other words, a coincidence)?

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. That sucks.

-Arrian

[uberloz]

Re: My PCs died

Originally posted by tiny toad
I`ve got no choice now but to purchase a new PC.

That seems an extreme solution.

Kind of like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Why not just do a clean reinstall of your operating system and of all your old software?

[kseecs16]

It definitely sounds llike a MOBO problem, the same things happened to my PC when I first got it, they replaced a video card at first it worked temporarily then went bad again.

They then sent out a new pc saying that the MOBO was fubar in so many words.

[TheHateMale]

I had the same problem before, but with NeverWinter Nights. After it happened with tht, UT2k4 (which had previously been fine) started getting graphics corruptions, then slowdown, then it died. These problems persisted after reinstalling Windows.

I eventually replaced most of the innards (overkill, but I was planning to anyway). Upon looking, the CPU had a small scorch mark, so it could have been that, but I haven't tried it again yet.

I've had no problems with either program since though.

[tiny toad]

Thanks chaps
Yes it could have been going to happen eventually and maybe civ was just a coincidence.

Ive already done rebuilds and it hasnt fixed it

I belive it is the motherboard as when i was trying to get civ to work i tryed two different graphics cards and got the same issues

I now have the added hassle of trying to convince the wife we need a new pc because its only 3d games affected not 2d and my wife only uses it for the internet anyway, and it works ok with that.

SID MEIER if your reading this could you send an e-mail to my wife saying we need a new box it would really help

[TheHateMale]

Are you able to swap-test the parts? If you can isolate the problem you should only need to spend at worst about £100 for a new processor. Far cheaper than buying a whole new rig.

[tiny toad]

Yes I`m going to my local PC paramedics shop this weekend and going to see if i can get an upgrade, maybe a new motherboard/ faster processor/more ram, and also get them to have a look see and see if there was anything i missed out , I`ll tell them exactly what happened and maybe they might have some other idea, I`ll let you chaps know the outcome.
Its a pity I have to admit, cos i havent been able to play a game on a standard or large map, in the early days i managed to get 5 crash free games by playing on a tiny map and only playing for an hour before saving and closing ( to avoid reboots and standbys) leaving it for 15 minutes then going back in. But as time went by the issues became more frequent and i couldnt even do that. In the civ2/3 days i could play all day if i wanted too( much too the wifes fustration) and i would love to be able to play this game for hours...... oh well....

[Enigma_Nova]

I guess it's a little too late to say this, but...
Have you tried reverting to an older version of DirectX?

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova
I guess it's a little too late to say this, but...
Have you tried reverting to an older version of DirectX?

An older version most likely will not run Civ4 properly. There's a reason why Firaxis is telling everyone to use the one from the CD...

[Urban Ranger]

The first thing to check is the cable. See if you can borrow a known good VGA cable (if not, buy one) and test with that. Although if your monitor has a bulit-in cable, you may wish to borrow a monitor to test instead.

[Qwertqwert]

I had a similar problem with a game I had a while back. I don't remember the game, at that point we just got rid of the PC and got a new one, but that PC was beyond retirement age anyway, it was really time to get a new one.

[tiny toad]

Just having a look at the new PCs and one that has really caught my eye is the ALIENWARE AREA51 3500 DESKTOP, has anyone got this PC and is running civ4 on it???? PLease let me know your opinion

[Dr,ape]

check the 12v connector for burn-marks.

[RodLosAngeles]

Originally posted by tiny toad
Just having a look at the new PCs and one that has really caught my eye is the ALIENWARE AREA51 3500 DESKTOP, has anyone got this PC and is running civ4 on it???? PLease let me know your opinion

I have an Area-51 7500 series. It's sweet. Pretty big though. And fast enough to power a small country. But it runs Civ4 like a dream.

I couldn't tell you if the 3500 is good or not. You would need to say what specs you are looking at.