Windows XP troubleshooting?

[Jackanape]

I just bought myself a new and faster computer--an HP loaded with XP--and I'm excited about playing the game on a much faster system.

Of course, that's not really feasible right now. The game loads fine, and even generates the world fine, but as soon as I click to shut the "you have risen" screen to begin the game, it just plain shuts down. I've even tried loading the autosaves...No system crash, just no CivIII...

I've spent the majority of the week looking through a few forums, this included, trying various fixes, to no avail. It may be that the fix is here somewhere, but I'm tired of a week's worth of digging through old posts...

HELP ME PLEASE!

The game ran fine on Win ME for me, although I remember doing a buncha fixes for that, too!

[Ethelred]

Specs please. HP and XP isn't enough.

CPU
Motherboard if you know it
RAM how much
Is a desktop or laptop
CRT or LCD screen
Video Card
Sound Card
Any programs running in the background. Some companies load up their PCs with all kinds of crap that starts on boot up. Much of it uneeded.

Have you updated XP yet? Do so if you havn't.
Have you installed any Civ Patches. Do so if you haven't.
Make sure you have the newest drivers for the Video and sound card.

Is the CD CLEAN? If it got to the beginning of the game I don't think you could have a SafeDisk II problem but you could still have a scratch.

Do you see the anything other than the text? For instance do you see the tiles? Did you get sound and video for the opening movie?

Please report back if you get it to work so others may benefit from you problem.

[Jackanape]

Well, of course I'd forget to mention that, wouldn't I? Sorry, I was so eager to cry for help, I forgot the stats!

Celeron 1.7 Ghz--not sure about the motherboard.
256 RAM
Desktop with CRT
Video and sound card are onboard, I'm pretty sure--when I opened er up, it looked nothing like my old cobjobbed set! ;-) So, as far as drivers, I'm a little lost as to what to try to download for an upgrade...

Pretty much cleaned out my startup in the registry the moment I bought it. There are some HP programs that run the keybard, etc, that I'm leery of eliminating.
I did, incidentally, try starting CivIII after configuring my startup with msconfig to nothing--same problem.

XP is updated, and I have installed the latest CivIII patch...

Yep. Disk is practically mint...

For more details as to what I get:

I get the Infogrames logo movie, the opening movie--which runs much better on this new system, by the way--the opening menu, complete with background.

I have generated 2 or 3 new worlds, leaders, etc. The whole gamut. Right up to the opening screen which tells you what techs you have, etc. I can see my worker, and the corresponding territory, all the screen looks normal. As soon as I close the intro screen, it shuts down. Same as when trying to reload the autosave. Close the "loaded" screen, and it's gone.

I hope this detail helps to narrow down my problem.
(I actually responded to this pst earlier, but must have hit the wrong button...LOL)

THanks!

[Ethelred]

Are you using a modified game? For some strange reason a fair number of people ask for help without telling that they are using a mod and those can have glitches.

Try HP site to find out what hardware you have for the video and sound. The drivers that come with XP from Microsoft aren't always compatible with games that came out after XP did. They were often preliminary drivers.

What resolution are you running the game at? It works best at 1024 by 768. Some people have had problems with plug and play monitors so it may help to turn of plug and play on the monitor.

Try looking at the paper work that came with the PC to find out what the hardware is. The game does work with XP and the latest patch. I just installed both yesterday. I reinstalled XP a few weeks ago and still hadn't relinstalled Civ III.

It may just have gotten messed up when you installed it. Corruption happens. Especially with FAT32 drives and a lot XP installations don't have NTFS formated drives even though its more reliable.

[Jackanape]

An interesting situation, that. Why nonone would mention they're using a modified game is beyond me. Nope, mine is right outta the box...

I just checked with HP support to nail down what I've got for sound and video--this is what I got:

"Audio
controller: AC97
location: integrated
video
graphics: integrated
DDR memory, or Double Data Rate memory, is an evolutionary new memory technology that doubles data throughput to the processor. This type of memory dramatically improves the memory system's ability to service high multimedia requirements, such as 3-D graphics.

Key features include:

Double the amount of data by using the rising as well as falling edge of the clock signal for data transfers.
Significantly reduced power consumption: 2.5 V instead of 3.3 V.
Memory bus runs at the same frequency as the CPU front side bus.
184 pin connection."

I did check the site for driver updates, to no avail. Nothing new. I am running at 1024 x 768, and just now upped the refresh rate to 75 hz, to see if that would help. The monitor is listed as Hp mx70, not plug and play, so that's not an issue.

I've already tried installing and uninstalling, but I'm giving it one more try after this, with a MINIMAL startup first...we'll see what that does.

If any of the above gives you any ideas, feel free to let me know. Again, thanks for your patient help!

[Jackanape]

OK. Somehow, it works...thankfully!

Here's what:

I didn't upgrade any drivers, there were none available.
I simply changed my refresh rate from 60 to 75 hz...and while it didn't work right away, I think it helped.

I used the selective startup in msconfig, eliminating all items from my startup group FIRST:

Then, uninstalled and reinstalled Civ III, after which it played fine. Then I installed the patch, and it played fine again. It should be noted that I rebooted between each install and uninstall step, and actually played the game in a clean "no startup items" environment, created by msconfig.

Thanks again, Ethelred, for helping me walk through this.

Cheers!