So how's the game with Vista?

[MrWhereItsAt]

Hey! Surprise this thread is still alive months after getting my new laptop. Am happy to say that Civ is one of a grand total of TWO games I haven't had a problem with on Vista Home Premium. Runs at native res (1680x1050), all settings maxed very well, even on large maps in the modern era on a C2D T7500, GF 8600 M GT 256 MB DDR3 graphics card with 2 GB RAM.

I love the specs of my laptop.

[Asmodeous]

I only had a problem that was Vista related with one game, Battlefield 2142, and that was easily resolved by a fudging of the executable, because EA didn't bother to make the game understand what LMA is. Which is amusing, because XP64 has the same problem Vista does if you have 2GB+ of ram if a program isn't LMA aware.

Me.

[Zamza]

Vista vs Civ4

I've just found this site. Loving Civ like I do, I'm wondering why the hell I didn't find it (or look for something like this!) sooner?

Anyway, hello. My problem is an annoying and persistent one.

Before I load Civ, Vista (Home Premium) informs me that there is known compatibility issues and that it it might not run properly. No particular surprise there.

Civ4 itself loads fine (lightning fast, I might add!) but I am unable to get more than a minute or two gametime before the classic Bluescreen system error kicks in, guaranteed.

Has anyone else encountered bluescreens with Civ in Vista, and if so - may I ask if/how they resolved this?

There are the compatibility options for Win2k and WinXP and I have used them, with varying combinations of checkboxes checked. But oddly, when I attempt to run Civ in compatibility mode for either, it fails to find the DVD in the drive, asking me to insert it!

This has left me stumped, and having not even tasted more than a minute or two of Civ I am beginning to get the shakes.

System specs:

AMD 6400+ 2x3.2
4GB RAM
nVidia 512 8600GTS
250Gb HDD
Vista Home Premium 64


Any snippet of information from anyone would be very much appreciated.

[Asmodeous]

What blue screen are you getting? Video Driver? Sound driver? Kernel? Need more information to help.

Also if you have BTS the compatibility warning magically disappears. I don't get it on Vista Ultimate.

Also are you using Vista64 or Vista32? Edit: Ok so this question was stupid, you said Vista HP 64. Well, that is likely part of your problem. I would suggest reinstalling it as Vista32 (should be able to). Vista64 has a lot of serious issues right now, Vista32 works fine. And considering how few programs are currently 64bit and how few programs in the very near future are GOING to be 64bit, it's not a real loss in performance.

Me.

[Zamza]

The bluescreen that announces itself so rudely is of the Kernel type, I'm certain.

You say it could be Vista 64 upsetting things? I am unsure how I could resolve this as Vista 64 is the only version I have. Is there an option to make it go into 32 mode or something? (whatever the appropriate term might be, I dont know).

Also, I think I require Vista 64 as a minimum for my system specs. I understand that anything over 2GB RAM needs it?

[Asmodeous]

Vista32 understands 4gigs, some games don't understand 4gigs, but you can hack their executables to make them LMA aware fairly easily (and it oftentimes doesn't even affect anti-cheat programs! It's silly, really, having to add a "large memory address aware 1" flag to an executable to make the game run. . .).

Check the install CD you have for Vista, some versions come with both the 32 and 64 bit version on the disc and you can install either when you install it.

Me.

[Zamza]

I'll check my Vista CD for 32/64 options. But on second thoughts (without having looked at it yet), I can recall specifically paying an extra tenner for the 64 version of Vista HP. Hopefully though I'll have a choice.

Having browsed a little more since my first post, it seems that there are plenty of people who can get Civ4 working fine with 64bit, and then there's others who can't get it to run on a 32bit setup.

I guess I'm just trying to avoid the possiblity it could be a 64bit probem in the hope that it's something else.

!!! I hate vague problems !!!

[snoopy369]

Feels like a video card driver problem to me. Try updating your nvidia drivers; then if that doesn't work, try rolling back to earlier nvidia drivers. They'll often break things in updates that worked fine before. Try several versions, especially if you can get someone else who has the same card to tell you what version they are running