Civ3 will not load past the initial splash screen. Please help.

[Theta Sigma]

I'm hoping that someone has encountered this before or might know what is causing this...

I bought the Firaxis/Infogrames (vanilla) version of Civilization III new months ago and installed it (and latest patch) on a 64mb machine and it worked fine until about a week ago. Recently I install another 256mb of RAM to a total of 320mb. At the same time, I also installed a new 52x CD-RW drive (with the original Compaq CD-ROM still installed). No other changes, either hardware or software, were made at that time. I immediately tried to play Civ3, but since these changes, I can attempt to start Civ3 and the initial "splash" screen will appear and then immediately disappear but at no point in time does the game attempt to start past this splash screen. The file "~ef7194.tmp" is created (as it should) and runs briefly then closes (as viewed in CTRL+ALT+DEL) but nothing after that.

The scenario editor works fine. All of my CD drives (including the new CD-RW) work fine & my other games (both old & new) work fine as well. I have spent hours searching through the CivFanatics forums (and everywhere else on the net). I have found several with the exact same problem as what I am having but they never received a responce. Hopefully someone may have an answer or suggestion by now.

System Specs:
Compaq Presario 5WV232
Windows Millenium Edition
20gb HD
700mhz AMD Duron MMX
320mb DDR RAM (originally 64mb)
8mb NVIDIA TNT2 Video
Compaq MV740 17" Monitor 1024X768 32-bit True Color
SoundMax Digital Audio
52x32x52 Pacific Digital CD-RW
Original factory 40x Compaq CD-ROM



I have...

Nothing running at startup other than the OS.

Modified the refresh rate settings in the Civilization3.ini file multiple times (using different settings) but I had to create the file manually as I haven't gotten the game to run in order to automatically create the file.

Made sure the CD is in the drive.

I have physically checked the game disk and it doesn't have a scratch or mark on it.

Tried to start the game from the desktop shortcut and the CD itself.

Checked to make sure that the CD drives jumpers were set correctly (RW as master/ROM as slave).

Uninstalled the game (and completely removed the game's registry entries) and then reinstalled (trying from 3 different CD drives including the original).

Tried with both the original, unpatched version of the game & then with the latest patch.

Tried with updated & older display drivers.

Tried with updated & older audio drivers.

Checked the CD-RW's DMA (and other) settings

Run diagnostics on DirectX 9.0c everything is fine

and uninstalled both the new RAM & new CD-RW drive (reverting the hardware back to where it was when the game had worked)

I have tried all of the steps above in a number of different combinations but nothing has worked. I am open to suggestions and am hoping for any ideas. I love this game and it's very aggrevating not being able to play it.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Terra Nullius]

sorry, haven't slept in 30 hours, so if this doesn't make sense, feel free to shoot me - i could use the rest.

try to re-install civ from a different optical drive. the whole copy protection thing plays funny games with the windows registry and it has problems sometimes working out which drive it should be looking at.

if that doesn't work, you can edit the registry yourself. but i'm not gonna get into the details of that right now.

try re-installing, let me know if it doesn't fix the prob, and i'll get back to you when i find out where my brain has gone

[Theta Sigma]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have tried installing from all three of my CD drives but no luck. I have also tried modifying the registry key that holds the value for the "installed from" location, modifying it to match each of my CD drives (one at a time) and then trying to play from that particular drive.

Are you aware of any registry entries or modifications that I may be missing or unaware of?

From what I understand, the "~ef7194.tmp" file is created by the game as a part of the Safe Disk2 copy protection. Could some sort of error with the copy protection be causing this?

I have fought with this for another 4 hours tonight. I'm open to any ideas.

Thanks again.

~Theta Sigma

[Kloreep]

If it is the copy protection, I suggest contacting Atari support and trying to get a no-CD patch from them to disable the copy protection. I'm not sure exactly what proof of your civ ownership you'll need to give them (beyond that you'll need to give some), but they can give out exes that don't use the copy protection, and that would hopefully fix any issues you have with it.

[Terra Nullius]

i'm not sure if this is the registry key you used, if not, give this one a go.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\Software \ Infogrames Interactive \ Civilization 3
CD_path
Type in the letter of the CDROM you have the CD in
Click OK

you could also try removing the intro.bik file which plays the start-up movie.

the no-cd exe is also a good bet.

ps. sorry, i only read half your post last night. didn't see the part beginning "I have..."

told you my brain was awol

hope this gets you going again

[Theta Sigma]

I got it working!!!

Finally!!

Thank you Kloreep. It seems that the copy protection was the problem. So I found a no-cd patch for 1.07 & 1.29f and its work great!

Too bad I spent all night reinstalling my OS trying to fix this problem. It needed to be done anyways I suppose.

Makes me wonder why it happened all of a sudden. The reinstall didn't even help. Faulty registry entry maybe?

Thanks Kloreep & Lebensraum for your suggestions....I'm off to conquer the world.

[NickB33]

Hello. I'm having similar problems.

Theta, would you mind telling me where you got the no-cd patch? I think it might help me.

I think it's illegal to post them in the forums though, so maybe it would be a better idea to PM the URL to me.

Thanks.

(p.s. I need this ASAP, so your name doesn't have to be Theta to help me find a patch! Anybody please help!)

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. Feel free to delete this post, i guess.