Civ 3 stopped working...

[Keeper of Hell]

Ok, Civ 3 has died for no apparent reason. When I stick the CD in, I get the autorun prompt to install. When I go the directory and try to open the program, it gives me the little image, then nothing. Windows Task Manager refuses to acknowledge that it's running at all. It's not a patch problem- it ran fine for about a month after the patch, then suddenly quit. And because it does go to autorun, I don't think it's a CD problem. Any ideas about what this could be and how to fix it?

Update: Reinstalled, tried to play, got this error:

Civilization3e.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.

An error log is being created.

[zulu9812]

Try reinstalling again, but this time delete the Infogrames Interactive and Installshield Information folders, then go into regedit and delete any keys relating to civ3. That way it will be a fresh install

[Keeper of Hell]

Thanks a ton, that's done it. Back to Civ3 addiction for me.

[Keeper of Hell]

Seems I spoke too soon, more problems already. Downloaded 1.21 patch from both Infogrames and then Apolyton when I had trouble with the first. Both times, when I first try to start up the patch installed, I get the following mesage:

Do you want to completely remove the selected application and all of its components?

When I hit yes, it goes through a deletion process very quickly, though there are no visible effects in the Civ3 folder. Then, when I open the patch installed again, it appears to install the patch after all. However, when I enter the game, I'm running 1.07, as if the patch never installed at all.

Possibly related: The shortcut on my desktop opens the game, but when I try to open the app from the Civ3 folder, I get this:

The dynamic link library binkw32.dll could not be found in the specified path D:\Program Files\Infogrames Interactive\Civilization III;;C:\WINNT\System32;C:\WINNT\system;C:\WINNT\sy stem32;C:\WINNT;C:\WINNT\System32\Wbem;C:\PRGRA~1\ COMMON~1\Obdc\FILEMA~1

[zulu9812]

You need to run the patch twice: once to uninstall some redundant stuff and then a second time to put in new stuff. SO don't worry if it's asking if you want completely remove stuff, that's normal.

That error message usually pops up if windows can't find the correct path file. Not sure why it's happening though

[Willem]

Well if he hasn't run the install a second time, there's bound to be some files missing. He just finished deleting a bunch of things after all, without putting them back in.