Civ IV Help Needed

[Monarch]

Hey...

I was surprised when I could not run Civilization IV. I installed it, then when I try to run it I get a message 'Error: Check DirectX and Graphics Settings'. Now I do not know how I would alter the graphics settings but with the specifications of the pc and the fact it plays Rome: Total War I would be surprised if it was the graphics. So I tried myself to download the required DirectX 9.0c from the Microsoft website but even with that I still get the error message.

I believe I meet all of the specifications, any support you can offer concerning this is welcome.

[LeftEyeNine]

Sounds like driver problem.. Check your video card's drivers and upgrade/degrade if necessary..(Yes degrading to a previous version of driver sets may solve problem, the new is probably more buggy, that's why)

How to get rid of video cards drivers and install a new one without any malfunctioning :

1- Visit http://www.drivercleaner.net/ and download Driver Cleaner Pro. Install and run it. It will give you a warning message everytime you run it to be careful about what you are doing. I'm here, so forget it ~:P

Now, under Tool menu, click Live Update button and in the new window click next to see if any updates are available. And if any, let the program update itself.

When you are done with updating, close the program. We'll need its use later.

2- Now, remove your video driver from Add/Remove Programs in Your Control Panel.

3- Reboot, but press F8 while booting in order to see the botting options. Choose Safe Mode and press enter (once more if necessary)

4- You'll have a low resolution desktop (640*480) in Safe Mode, now go run Driver Cleaner Pro we had just installed. (Ignore any New Hardware Found notifications in case Windows comes up with 'em. Just click cancel.)

5- We need Driver Cleaner Pro here, execute it. Under Cleaning Selection title there is a drop-down menu where we'll be choosing the drivers we want to be *completely* removed. Say, we had Nvidia drivers at the beginning, and in step 2 we had removed them. Thus we will be selecting "Nvidia" from the dropdown menu.

*Keep in mind that this tool is for all kinds of drivers, so in case you remove any other kind of driver other than video drivers, you may make use of thsi program as well

6- Click Start and let DC Pro do the rest of the job. It will totally clean the remnants of the video drivers left after the uninstallation. When it says Cleaning Finished! at the bottom of the main window, well done. Your system is free of any possible driver conflictions.

7- Reboot, let your OS load normally. When you are logged into Windows, ignore any New Hardware Found notifications again and install the video drivers you'd like yourself.

Hope this helps

[Monarch]

Thanks for that, I am not sure whether to try it though as I really dont want to mess up and thus meaning I cant play Rome or Civ. Uninstalling drivers sounds...scary lol. I have loads of ATI/Asus related stuff in add/remove programs as the guys I got my pc from installed it all for me.

I will bookmark this though so thanks alot for your help. I might contact the guys weho made the pc (it wasnt from a huge company like dell, it was a local computer shop.) and see if they have any ideas.

It probably is the drivers but it's quite a new pc so I dont want to go wrecking it lol. Thanks alot for your suggestions.

[BDC]

It's not as hard as it seems and can be quite fun. I doubt anyone has ever completely broken their machines just with driver updates, especially not with Windows XP.

[Monarch]

I will probably try it when I have time. I suppose I could do a system restore if things get messed up.

edit: Decided to do it now but need some help: What do I remove from add or remove programs on step 2?

https://img273.imageshack.us/img273/5896/helpful3is.gif

Theres my list to choose from.

Edit: oh yeah also skipping ahead what drivers should i download for #7?

[LeftEyeNine]

You'll uninstall ATI Display Driver for sure. However I'm not sure about Asus Enhanced Display Driver since I've never used an Asus product..

In Step 7, you'll install the newer drivers for your video card you just downloaded. But as I said, in some rare cases, degrading the video driver works as well..

Here is the ATI website link for your Windows XP, where you can choose the right kind of driver according to the video card you have :

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...ge&folderID=27

P.S. The best way to getting used to a PC is not feeling scared of anything.. All I had was a DOS book in the beginning. The worst can happen is that you'll end up with a wrecked OS (assuming that you did not deal with Fdisk without being aware of what you're doing ).. Format, build a new OS.. Install the wrong stuff, let your OS get screwed again.. Format, build a new OS..and goes on.. That's the way.. Practice matters..

P.S.S. Golden Rule : Divide your HDD into at least in two (=partitions), and backup frequently.

[Monarch]

Yeah, usually I do just mess around with stuff. If I was on my old pig of a desktop I'd have no trouble diving into stuff. But messing around on a pc thats only three weeks old...makes me a little cautionate. Thing is I've been doing checks and all that jazz and I think I might have the latest drivers. I'm doing all sorta of checks dxdiag and on various websites. Still checking to ensure this is neccessary (probably is, but I'm not in a rush to get Civ IV working so il take my time.)

[BDC]

Remember to make restore points...

Also even if it doesn't seem to work, restart in safe mode, remove drivers and Windows will install some generic ones. Then try again.

[71-hour Ahmed]

JUST TRY INSTALLING THE PATCH FROM THE FIRAXIS OR CIV 4 WEBSITES FIRST BEFORE MUCKING AROUND WITH DRIVERS!!!

Its a noted fault in the boxed game, doesn't usually from what I've heard need new drivers or anything, does download the patch. Worked on my parents PC which had this error message, no faults since then. I believe it may be ATI type graphics cards that have this problem, as theirs was.

[LeftEyeNine]

JUST TRY INSTALLING THE PATCH FROM THE FIRAXIS OR CIV 4 WEBSITES FIRST BEFORE MUCKING AROUND WITH DRIVERS!!!

Its a noted fault in the boxed game, doesn't usually from what I've heard need new drivers or anything, does download the patch. Worked on my parents PC which had this error message, no faults since then. I believe it may be ATI type graphics cards that have this problem, as theirs was.

That's another point. I'm wondering how I missed that one.

The latest patch upgrades the game to v1.52.. Go get it..

[Monarch]

That patch worked brilliantly, thanks alot!

[LeftEyeNine]

Sorry for bothering you with driver issues, hope I did not cause any trouble..

71-hour Ahmed , thanks for the solution..

[Monarch]

Sorry for bothering you with driver issues, hope I did not cause any trouble..

71-hour Ahmed , thanks for the solution..

No problem, hey at least you had an idea what was wrong, I had nothing!

Anyway, quickly played the tutorial. Seems like quite a good game, though because of the depth I didn't really get a chance to even look at civics and the the other advanced stuff.

[71-hour Ahmed]

Happy to help.