"Signal Out Of Range" Errors

[Master Zen]

Hola,

I've been getting "Signal out of range" errors from my monitor occasionaly when I launch Civ3 or PTW. It doesn't happen always, about 5-10% of the time, and it happens the moment I launch the game. I hate it when it happens becauese sometimes I have a bunch of programs open and I have to reboot...

Anybody know what the problem could be? I have a Dell M770 monitor and a Voodoo3 video card. It seems to happen so randomly I have no clue why...

-MZ

[statusperfect]

You might runt the game with too high Hertz?

Chech out inforgrames support FAQ. It helped me out with a similar question.

[Rasbelin]

1. Do you have the monitor driver installed in Windows?
2. At what resolution are you playing Civ III? 1024x768?
3. Do you have the newest drivers for the accelerator?

[Bongohead]

have yous tryed to uses paints to fix it?

icnt run civ3 once day, then fixes its whith paints and it works!

bit now i wishing ididnt its not worth its

[Cruddy]

Does it happen straight away, or does the intro play first?

If the intro doesn't play, then the problem MIGHT be the monitor not wanting to drop to a lower res to play the intro.

Try holding down the escape key to skip the intro - it MIGHT work, it MIGHT not.

EDIT: I'd also think seriously about replacing that Voodoo3. It's a nice card for the age but it won't do 24 bit graphics.

[Master Zen]

Ok, for the record, it happens the moment I load the game, i.e. before the intro plays.

Rasbelin:
1) yes
2) 1280 x 1024 32-bit color
3) nope. Problem is voodoo3 drivers never came out for XP with Glide support. Still, Civ3 doesn't use glide anyway..

what is really strange is that this happens so randomly. I have not found a pattern, as I said, it probably occurs about 5-10% of the times I load the game. Since I don't change resolutions or refresh rates, I am stumped as to why this happens.

Cruddy:

yes, I'd die for a cheap GeForce 4 right now

[BigFree]

Go into your CIV3PTW folder and find the file "ptw.ini"

Open it with Notepad and add these lines to the bottom of the file:

KeepRes=1
PlayIntro=0

"Save" the file then try loading the game.

The "KeepRes=1" line makes the game run in the resolution that you have your desktop set at.

The "PlayIntro=0" line causes the game to skip the introduction movie.

GoodLuck.

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by Master Zen

2) 1280 x 1024 32-bit color

If that's your desktop resolution, then it should be okay. If not, switch to 1280x1024 on the desktop and change the refresh rate for that screen resolution to something that the display can show.

3) nope. Problem is voodoo3 drivers never came out for XP with Glide support. Still, Civ3 doesn't use glide anyway..

Well, BigFree already had a good suggestion to this, but if it doesn't work, I would seriously think about a system upgrade.

[Alex]

I suppose this isn't the appropriate forum for a DL dance, is it?

[Rasbelin]

A DL for what?

[Master Zen]

I have always set the KeepRes=1, as for the PlayIntro, well, to tell the truth my PTW version is not entirely legal and does not have an intro movie which would rule out that possibility I think, but I'll try anyway... I doubt it though, my Civ3 regular is legit, shows the intro and still sometimes gets the same problem.

I remember getting this problem playing Ultima Underworld I too... but that was an old DOS game with 320x200 resolution.

[CrONoS]

Bongohead: hahahahahhahaa LOL