Game just wont work.

[Na-Suke]

I have tried most everything that I have read that applies to me to get Civ III working, but to no avail.

My system specs are:

P3 1 ghz
815E chipset
512 MB PC133 RAM
VooDoo2*

* I do have a VooDoo2, but it doesnt really work. It was an old thing I have had for a while, and after I installed it on this system, it doesnt seem to do anything. The graphics onboard my motherboard seem to takeover.

Anyhting helpful would be appreciated.

[quinalla]

What exactly happens, do you try to run civ 3 and it crashes before it starts? Does it crash on the intro movie? Is your Voodoo 2 card recognized by your computer as its graphics card or is the old motherboard one showing up? Is the Voodoo 2 not compatible with your motherboard? I don't know a lot about computers, but somone who does will be able to better help you if you are more specific about your problem. I hope you can get it fixed

-quinalla

[Jim Frost]

similar problem of just not running . . . much

I've got a similar problem. I can get the game to start ok. I see the movie and get to the menu. Now, on the menu and elsewhere the text is jumbled since text is over other text. If I go to the tutorial it will start ok and I can see the map and can move my settler around. But, once I build a city I get an error saying "unable to locate draw buffer" and the game shuts down. On the other hand, if I go to a new game I get an error saying "Civilization3.exe has caused an error . . ." and then it shuts down before I even see the map.

My system
PII 300 MHz
196 MB RAM
Windows 95 OSR2
nVIDIA 32 MB RAM PCI

I've tried the fixes of reducing the number of fonts, deleting the Lucida font and nothing has worked. Skipping the movie doesn't help. I don't have the OCRAware. I had the copy protection problem but the cracked file fixed that at least and allowed me to get to the (jumbled) menu at least.

Thanks for any info!
Jim

[Na-Suke]

What exactly happens, do you try to run civ 3 and it crashes before it starts? Does it crash on the intro movie? Is your Voodoo 2 card recognized by your computer as its graphics card or is the old motherboard one showing up? Is the Voodoo 2 not compatible with your motherboard? I don't know a lot about computers, but somone who does will be able to better help you if you are more specific about your problem. I hope you can get it fixed


I'll elaborate. It installed just fine. Then I go to play. The Civ3 graphic comes up, and then the screen goes black. A few seconds later, an error message comes up, telling me that "Civilization3 has caused an error in CIVILIZATION3.EXE Civilization3 will now close. If you continue to experience problems, restart your computer." That's about it. Does that help? Oh, and the VooDoo2 is recognized, but my comp never really uses it. Just my MB. The VooDoo must be compatible, because it recognizes it.

[quinalla]

Hmmm... So it crashes before it gets to the intro movie or during the intro movie? If that is the case, have you tried deleting (or moving if you want to keep it) the intro movie? I am sorry I am not much help, the patch will be out friday or saturday, maybe that will fix it. Have you tried contacting firaxis to see if they know what this bug is about? Maybe try contacting the Voodoo people and asking them to help get your card to work with your motherboard.

[benjy]

when i first installed the game kept crashing. sometimes it would crash while i was trying to load a saved game, more often it would just lock up while i was playing.

i then turned off the auto save feature, and its not crashed since.... many hours later. ive no idea why this is, but the problem seemed to be with the autosave. maybe try that?