Problem with Civ2-Videos

[Verrucosus]

Hello,

I have trouble getting the videos to run. The problem applies to all *.avi files included in the game (wonders, intro, council, heralds). It occurs both when I leave those files on the CD and when I copy them to the hard drive. The files themselves are intact. I can play all of them with the Windows Media Player.

I have tried out a few things recommended here, but so far I had little success. Since I still don't know where exactly the problem is, I'll give you as much information as possible. It may get a bit long-winded, but please bear with me.

In January, I bought a new computer with Windows XP preinstalled. The first programme I installed was my favourite game, Civ2, Version 1.09 (including WinG and VfW). I was delighted to find out that it basically worked. The moves were a little slower than on my old computer and the computer would not play music from the CD. The videos played perfectly.

When I installed my other games (see below for list), I noticed that the music problem occured with the Imperialism games, as well. Eventually, I posted here for help. Edward The King advised me to use drive d: rather than drive e: and this solved the music problem. (Thanks again!)

However, when I tried to play Civ2 again (first time since my initial tests), I encountered a different problem. The game would not start at all, because the files "commctrl.dll" and "dciman.dll" were missing from the c:\windows\system directory. I reinstalled the game completely, but during the VfW segment of the installation and error message about these two files appeared and the setup programme was ended automatically. The game still refused to start giving the same error message as before, so I copied the two files from the c:\windows\system directory of my old Win95 laptop (which I can still run in protected mode) into the same directory of the new computer.

Now, the game itself would run, but whenever it would have to show a video, it would crash quoting an error in the file "ir41.dll". I learned from postings on this forum that this file is the video driver for the civ2-movies and that renaming it to "ir41._ll" prevents the crash from occuring. This I did. As a result, I don't get the error message anymore and the game continues to run. However, it does not show me the videos. Instead, there is just a black screen when the intro should play. Similarly, the wonder movie box is dark and on the council and diplomacy screens there are black boxes where my advisors and the foreign heralds should be.

Following advice from earlier posts here, I installed both the 2.42 patch and the upgraded 5.11 Indeo Video drivers. This did not solve the problem. Interestingly, the readme-file for the v5.11 Indeo drivers says that the setup programme (iv5setup.exe) will only install the 32-bit drivers, but is obscure as to where to find 16-bit drivers.

I tried changing my display options (800x600, 1024x768), colours (16-bit, 32-bit). I also ran the game in all compatibility modes. None of this solved the video problem. (When running the game in 256 colours, the computer would even re-boot automatically after I quit the game.)

Since the video problems came up only after I had installed my other games, I uninstalled all of them, but this did not help either. Just in case that one of the games makes changes to the system that have to be reverted manually here is a list: Railroad Tycoon I, Civilization I, Colonization, Imperialism I, Age of Empires, Gettysburg, Anno 1602, Wall Street Trader 99, Railroad Tycoon II, Caesar III, SimCity 3000, Alpha Centauri (Planetary Pack), RollerCoaster Tycoon (+AddOn), Imperialism II, Birth of the Federation, Fritz 6, Pharao, Zeus, Diplomacy, Tropico (+AddOn) and Civilization III.

Typing these down makes me really frustrated. Of all the games in all the world, this must happen to Civilization II!

Ahh, sorry for that outbreak. I know it's only a game and that I should be lucky to be able to play it at all on a new computer, but when it comes to games, I'm just a little child that wants to see his wonder movies - and that's probably as it should be.

Thanks to anyone who is still here after all these boring technicalities. If I have failed to give important bits of information, or to present it clearly enough, it is either because I don't know too much about how computers really work or because I'm German (oops - that was perhaps an important bit I failed to give so far: my system itself is German, but all of the games other than Anno 1602, Fritz 6, Pharao and Tropico are in English).

Anyway, if anyone of you has an idea of what else I could try to see those movies again, please share it. I do not have internet access at home, so it may take a while for me to respond, but any help will be appreciated.

Verrucosus

[Scouse Gits]

Thanks for a full and detailed post which prevents me from going off on several interesting, but doomed routes ...
I must admit you have me stumped - my best bet would be to reinstall the ir41.dll (by re-renaming it) now that you have the latest Indeo drivers - my civ2 2.42 plays perfectly on my daughters XP laptop so it can be done.
If that little trick doesn't work - try a full reinstall of Civ2 - as you have discovered this is not a simple matter on a Windows NT machine once you have got the thing up and running - you were quite fortunate to install Civ2 first - you would probably not have succeeded after you had put a few more tings up. the trick here is to stop everything that moves on the machine except Explorer and Systray - use the Task Manager Ctrl-Alt-Del to seek out those other apps and kill them all - once the machine has only the basic two running Civ2 'should' install perfectly -- good luck

[Verrucosus]

Thank you, Scouse Gits. Re-renaming the ir41.dll does not work; I get the same error message I got before installing the new Indeo files. I will shut down all service applications other than those two you mentioned and reinstall Civ2 completely. After the holidays, I will come back here to report what happened.

Thanks again and happy Easter!

Verrucosus

[Verrucosus]

Hello,

I managed to shut down only about half of the processes listed in the task manager. The others were revealed to be "critical" and the system refused to shut them down. Interestingly, there was no "Systray" running, but perhaps some of the other processes have assumed its function under Windows XP.

Nevertheless, the re-installation of Civ2 succeeded without problem. However, when I run the programme, I still get the error message for the ir41.dll or (if it is re-named) the black boxes instead of the videos, so the problem is still unresolved.

I'm puzzled by the fact that those who have reported similar problems before had it resolved by installing the Indeo 5.11 codec. According to the release notes, these drivers support only 32-bit applications. The 4.5 codec is also included in the package, but the release notes say that the setup programme (iv5setup.exe) will not install the 16-bit files. In fact, as far as I can tell (from the file dates), running the iv5setup.exe has made changes only to the windows\system32 directory, not to the windows\system directory where Civ2 seems to be looking for drivers. Is there a way to tell Civ2 to use the 32-bit files? Are there any updates for the 16-bit files? (I had another look at the Ligos site, but the only relevant item seems to be the package I have already installed.)

Although I have no idea what else I could try at the moment, the fact that the game runs perfectly on your daughter's XP laptop allows me to hope that eventually my video problem will be solved as well.

Verrucosus

[planman91]

A complete shot in the dark - could it be one or more of the other games in your list installed upgraded versions of DirectX and the Indeo drivers (32 bit or otherwise) conflict with them?

It seems to me that, if the Civ2 videos worked in the first place, something was added to your system by a later application (probably one of these games) that has created a conflict, or perhaps removed something Civ2 videos need to run.

If this starts you down the route to a solution, let me know.

Regards,

planman91

[Verrucosus]

DirectX 8.1 was installed on the computer when I bought it. None of the games mentioned offered to install a more recent version, so I declined all offers to "update" DirectX.

I agree that something must have been changed by installing my other games (for example removing the "commctrl.dll" and "dciman.dll" files which must have been there originally). However simply uninstalling the other games does not restore the original situation. I posted the list of the games installed after Civ2 hoping that perhaps someone here has an idea which one of them makes a change to the system that (a) could be relevant for the Civ2 videos and (b) is not undone by removing the game that caused it.

That there can be weird interactions between various games is an experience that I have already made in respect to Civ2 on my Win95 laptop where I used the unpatched version 1.02 of the game. I noticed that the heralds would appear, but not move after I installed either "Age of Empires" or "Gettysburg". By accident I found out, that the problem could be solved by uninstalling "Gettysburg". Note that even if "Age of Empires" was the only game installed and causing the problem, uninstalling it would suffice. I would also have to install and then uninstall "Gettysburg" to get the heralds jumping again. I never found out why, but it always worked. This problem was much less serious than the one I'm facing now, but maybe someone will come up with a similarly simple solution.

Regards,
Verrucosus

[planman91]

Originally posted by Verrucosus
DirectX 8.1 was installed on the computer when I bought it. None of the games mentioned offered to install a more recent version, so I declined all offers to "update" DirectX.

I realised after I had written that I had rebuilt the disk on my Win2K machine (I inherited a machine with WinME on it and I wanted to get rid of it. The "upgrade" went wrong and I had to resort to reformatting the hard drive and starting from scratch). Civ2 is the only game I have installed on my machine since the rebuild and the video will not work at all.

So, as you say it's not DirectX that is the problem. In fact, it may not even be the games in your list. Worse, it may be different problems for WinXP and Win2K.

If I find a solution I'll be sure to let you know of it. In the meantime thanks for your interesting comments.

Regards,

planman91

[Verrucosus]

The videos work again!!!

Following the planman91's tip to look into the effect of my other games on my system, I installed and uninstalled several of them, always starting a game of Civilization II after each step, and looking at any changes to the indeo files in the system directories.

The breakthrough came with Age of Empires, a game I never became too fond of, but that I am now happy to own. After I installed it the Civ2 videos worked again. I noticed the following changes to the system directories:
- In c:\windows\system, there was again ir41.dll file. I doubt that it alone is responsible, because it has the same size and date as the (renamed) ir41._ll from the Civ2 disk.
- In c:\windows\system32, there are two files (ir41_qc.dll and ir41_qcx.dll) dating from July 1996. I doubt they originate from the indeov5.exe-programme, because all the other 32-bit Indeo drivers show dates from 2000.

I am rather surprised that the Age of Empires setup programme seems to have overwritten more recent drivers without asking, but in this case I am glad it did. This does not explain why the videos originally worked before I had Age of Empires installed. I will be glad to continue speculating on the cause of this problem and the cause of its disappearance, but for the time being I am just happy that I can play Civilization II in its full glory. (Speaking of which, the city shown in the beginning of the Newton's College movie - isn't that Oxford rather than Cambridge?)

Anyway, I am grateful to both of you for commenting on my post. Without the knowledge that this problem was something that could somehow be solved, I would not have had the patience to test the impact of my other software on the Indeo drivers. Planman91, I'm afraid my problem is different from yours, as you have not installed anything after Civ2, but I will keep reading your thread and see if a solution can be found for you as well. Good luck!

Thanks again,

Verrucosus

[Scouse Gits]

At last!! A use for Age of Empires!! Great news - now you can enjoy the best game in the world on your new computer.


Yep - It's Oxford

[planman91]

Originally posted by Verrucosus
The videos work again!!!

Thanks for letting me know. I may as well try installing AoE, as I have it. I may get lucky.

Regards,

planman91