Crash before opening sequence

klyre · January 18, 2004, 00:47

I've just bought Civilization 3 and it works on my office computer. Then I brought it home and installed it. This home computer is several steps up from the office one. P4 2.8GHz, 1Gb RAM, ATI Radeon 9800, Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum EX.

Anyways, on to the problem. On running the program, the resolution changes (as I would assume) and goes black and stops doing anything. The program absolutely refuses to respond to anything. All drivers are up-to-date, including DirectX.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

crowatbitemedotcom · January 19, 2004, 21:45

I've had civ3 installed for almost 2 years now and just in the past month have encountered a similar problem, a complete lock up at the b&w 'Infogrames' screen. I've got a P2 400, 224MB RAM, Nvidia GeForce400MX (I know I live in the dark ages...).

I would also appreciate any help.

vmxa1 · January 19, 2004, 23:22

KeepRes=1
Can be 0 or 1. If 1, your screen resolution is used for the game instead of the default 1024x768.

VideoMode=1280
Can be 1024, 1152, 1280, 1600, 1792. Changes the game's resolution to the value specified (instead of the default 1024x768).

Refresh=70
Changes the default refresh rate of your monitor. Do not change/add this line unless you are experiencing problems!

vmxa1 · January 19, 2004, 23:23

One more:

PlayIntro=0
Can be 0 or 1. If 0, the intro movie is not displayed.

klyre · January 20, 2004, 01:18

None of those lines for the ini file made any difference. The resolution still changes (I'm in 1280x1024).

Also, the crash is happening a split second after the wind sound that the game starts with... in case that means anything.

Thanks for the help.

vmxa1 · January 20, 2004, 04:48

I hardly have the speakers on, so I am not familar with that. Sorry it is not working.

crowatbitemedotcom · January 20, 2004, 20:09

vmxa1 -

where do I make these changes?

klyre -

that is when my computer hangs up too.

vmxa1 · January 20, 2004, 21:35

Add to the conquest.ini

crowatbitemedotcom · January 21, 2004, 21:13

vmxa1 -

thanks for the help, could my problem be that I do not have a conquest.ini file? All of the .ini files related to civ3 seem to be art files for the units.

klyre · January 21, 2004, 22:01

I think he meant civilization3.ini.

vmxa1 · January 21, 2004, 23:30

You will only have an ini for which ever game you last played. If you have C3C and used it thenit is conquest.ini. If you only have CivIII, then it is civilization.ini.

crowatbitemedotcom · January 21, 2004, 23:56

okay thanks. I will try that.

crowatbitemedotcom · January 22, 2004, 21:23

Well changing that code didn't help.

I also reinstalled Win98, which didn't do anything either. Would upgrading to Win2k make a difference?

crowatbitemedotcom · January 22, 2004, 21:30

I don't know if this makes any difference, but when Civ3 hangs up & I crtl-alt-del to get out the Close Window shows that in addition to Civ3, Msgsrv32 is also not responding.

vmxa1 · January 22, 2004, 23:09

It should not be a factor. I would contact Firaxis.

crowatbitemedotcom · January 23, 2004, 19:55

vmxa1 - thanks for your help, I think that will be my next step.

klyre - any resolution to your problem?

PLATO · January 25, 2004, 03:01

Make sure that your bink32w.dll file properly installed in your conquests folder and that race.bik is present in your conquests/art/movies folder.

I experienced a similar problem earlier today and these files were the cause. Good Luck!

crowatbitemedotcom · January 25, 2004, 19:58

PLATO -

Should those also be in my Civ3 folder? I don't have conquests. If they did not get properly installed in the regular installation procedure, how do I do it manually?

I sent an email to Firaxis/Atari about this, whatever I hear from them I will post here.

Thanks again.

crowatbitemedotcom · January 25, 2004, 20:04

Well just checked, both those files are there but I've no idea if they're properly installed. The 'race.bik' is 26,654 KB, modified 10/2/01 10:46 am, and the 'bink32.dll' is version 1.0w, 285 KB, modified 10/2/01 10:32 am.

vmxa1 · January 25, 2004, 22:28

MIne is newer, but I have Conquest.

simdolly · January 27, 2004, 18:54

Hello,

I had the same problem, but i am running windows xp, with a 32mb shared graphics card.

I changed my screen res to 1024x768, and also changed my graphics drivers.

Windows thought i had the best drivers for the card, but when i searched online, i found another version of my driver for xp. All my other games worked ok, it just seemed to be civ there was a problem with. I installed the different driver version and it worked fine.

It might be worth checking to see if there is another driver for your operating system.

michelle

crowatbitemedotcom · January 27, 2004, 19:48

simdolly - I have my screen res at 1024x768 but I will see about the graphics drivers. I don't think I've installed any programs that would change that without telling me but you never know.

Hey I just realized I can test that by going back to my old graphics card. Worth a shot I guess.

Still have not heard anything from Firaxis/Atari.

PLATO · January 29, 2004, 23:40

crowatbitemedotcom, You can copy and paste those two files directly from the disc.

How did the old graphics card do?

Also, have you tried a reinstall?

crowatbitemedotcom · January 30, 2004, 21:15

PLATO -

Thank you! Just got this fixed last night. It was the bink32 file. For some reason the one installed on my computer was a different version than the one on the CD. Not sure how that happened unless maybe it was installed in the 1.29 patch and didn't uninstall when I was trying to fix it?

At any rate I got past the opening screen and can start a new game.

Thanks again.

crow

crowatbitemedotcom · February 2, 2004, 22:46

Here is what I just heard from Atari:

First if you don't already have direct x 9 then go to www.microsoft/directx
and download the latest version or reinstall if you have the latest version.
You should download the latest drivers for your sound and video cards. If
you go the specific manufacture's website for these cards you they will have
them there.

Close all background programs for your computer Click on the Start Menu and
select Run. In the Run dialog box, clear any text in the open field and
type MSCONFIG and click OK. In the System Configuration Utility, change the
system to Selective Startup and uncheck Load Startup Items. Apply the
changes and reboot your system.

Run the game now and you should be all set.

vmxa1 · February 3, 2004, 01:10

This will just stop and app that is normally set to auto start. It may help, but I disable nearly all of those anyway.

This is the same cover you butt that all tech support does, even when you have a new system with the latest.

The game comes with the direct x version that is required.

PLATO · February 3, 2004, 15:12

Quote:

Originally posted by crowatbitemedotcom
PLATO -

Thank you!

crow

NP

I think that the problem may be related to updating some of the art files. I quit really digging into it when I found the fix. Blew a whole Saturday afternoon on that one.

TK-421 · February 22, 2004, 11:50

Plato, please help me.
I found the race.bik file and copied it over to the movies folder, but I cant find the bink32w.dll file anywhere on the disk. Could you please tell me what folder it's in or where its hiding? I've switched on the 'view hidden files' option but still can't find it.

eusouazul · February 22, 2004, 18:08

TK-421

should be in "bink" folder from top directory off the CD

bink -> Win2k -> binkw32.dll

TK-421 · February 23, 2004, 00:28

Thanks for the info. I must have a bad CD. the only folders I have in the top directory on my disk are ART, DIRECTX, and MANUAL. Unless someone knows how I can get just the folder, I'll hafve to see if I can get a new CD.

Thanks again.