DO! play Civ4 under Windows 7 [FIXES INSIDE]

[KJM1978]

After several attempts of loading and reloading Civilization 4 under Windows 7, my computer experienced a total crash and the black screen of death upon installing the program as admin and running as admin. Immediately upon loading the executable file as an administrator it gave me the blue Win7 crash screen and dumped to a restart. From there, I now have the black screen of death with curser, which I have to run a startup repair on tonight. Amazingly, all other versions of Civilization work perfectly, including the original within DOSbox. Civ2 and 3 run great within windows without a hitch. I have none of the add-ons for Civ4 and I've tried the game under varying patches all with no luck. To all those not getting this to work, I advise you to run Civ3 and wait for Civ5 when it drops. You can't blame the developer as they cannot possibly foresee compatibility issues with future operating systems, but a sure fire patch has not been developed. The compatibility stories I've seen are mostly hit and miss. Unless a surefire fix comes out, this game will not see any play here. The Total War series runs flawlessly on Win7 btw.

-k

[Thunda_face]

Hmmmm.... i was playing Beyond the sword with 3.19 patch on windows 7 for several hours at the weekend, didn't have any problems, so maybe it's something with your system. However we did have alot of OutOfSync errors so would definatly not advise playing multiplayer with anyone still on XP.

[KJM1978]

I've tried XP compatibility modes, various v1.6x and v1.7x patches, and running under admin. The least intrusive error I've seen was that the game loading box would come up and then disappear with nothing happening. I uninstalled after that error as well. There just seems to be a major incompatibility of this game and windows 7. A much bigger game to avoid is "The Movies." This one is a system killer as well, and with less successful install stories than Civ4. Some people have said to run it under admin mode without xp compatibility. Some say admin AND xp compatibility. Regardless, I installed and ran with admin priviledges and it crashed hard. Without in XP mode, it just killed the process itself as if I wasn't running the program at all.

-k

[paradigmx]

I've been playing Civ IV under Windows 7 since the beta, it's done nothing but run flawlessly...

[KJM1978]

You lucked out brother. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that I'm not running any add-ons to Civ4. Of course, this last time my wife was rushing me through the install process and I started the game up on version 1.00 without patching, which might have something to do with the hard crash, but it didn't work with the patch on the prior attempt.

-k

[Thunda_face]

Yeah could be a prob with vanilla, have u tried patching to the latest update. I didn't even run any xp compatibility. So maybe try Beyond the sword with the latest 3.19patch as well, if you dont have you can pick all 3 Civ4 for around £7 or $12.

[paradigmx]

You lucked out brother. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that I'm not running any add-ons to Civ4. Of course, this last time my wife was rushing me through the install process and I started the game up on version 1.00 without patching, which might have something to do with the hard crash, but it didn't work with the patch on the prior attempt.

-k

So far I have seen Civ IV running on 6 Windows 7 computers and counting, not one has any issues, in fact some of the computers run it better that when they where Windows Vista or XP computers.

I agree though, it may be because it's unpatched and vanilla, patch it and/or install the expansions to see if that changes it, all the computers I've seen it run on where installed from the Civ IV Complete bundle, which is vailla and both expansions pre-patched to 3.17 i believe

[LordMao]

We playing all on windows 7 solo or via network and all working fine ^^ So Windows7 is fine

[KJM1978]

I had to reboot my system from an earlier save point prior to the installation of Civ4, which is a great feature of windows 7 for those who haven't used it yet. Aside from some minor color issues on some late 90s, early 2000s games, there have been only 2 programs which have caused absolutely critical crashes of my new system, which is a Gateway running an Intel Core i3 with 6gigs of RAM and Intel HD. The first is Civ4, the second is "The Movies."

Granted, it has been ages since I've played Civ4. I'm not sure why, but I've always preferred 2 and 3. I have the original game only with no add-ons. I've tried the patches without success. Patching to the newest version just caused the game to abruptly close. There have been other people on other forums including civfanatics who have had problems with the program as well.

Some have lucked out and it worked right off with their combination of system settings. Perhaps some of these people upgraded to Windows 7 alone and did not purchase a new system and reload all their programs onto it like I did. I am really looking forward to Civilization 5 though, don't get me wrong. It will no doubt be the most anticipated release of the year, and by that time, the designers will be able to optimize its performance for Win7. I never said it was impossible for anyone to run Civ4, it just doesn't work for alot of Windows 7 users, those that do decide to run it need a high degree of windows competence to work around any problems that come up.

-k

[Bantams]

works ok here too

Have you updated your video cards driver to a windows 7 one?

also there is a problem with the mygames folder and civ4 remove any civ4 games from in the mygames folder reload pc and re install civ4 and the latest patch which needs installing externally and not from within the game as that didnt work if i recall

[civosaurus]

We playing all on windows 7 solo or via network and all working fine ^^ So Windows7 is fine

Thank god for this had me worried for a while then as i'm thinking of upgrading to windows 7 next week.

[Uranus Reamerz]

I was totally annoyed when I went to Windows 7. I went to MSFT customer service ... haha 2 - 4 hour sessions with techs from India ... blew my brain they had me installin 4 using XP protocals ... except BtS didnt run at all. My 90 days ended and I looked for alternatives found the people at Civilization fanatics forums. where they said to make sure everything was uninstalled and then install using admin and what patch to use folling each install. In a couple hours I had the whole Civ 4 package installed and operational using windows 7.

[water911]

Well, if the hardware failed the first time, maybe you are having hardware issues.

Check to see if your system is over-clocked, because if it is, your BIOS may have miscalculated timing issues. Also, such problems could also be caused by overheating.

If using a system restore backup did fix it (I think you said it did), then it was just a corrupt data file with a bit messed up because of possibly the same reason.

Anyways, just check your hardware out! (over-clocking can cause power issues too)

[slinkytwf]

Runs fine on mine, except that it cannot detect an audio input device (not using one anyway) and it throws 3 error messages at me on the start menu. But no other issues so far in W7 for me.

[goodbar2k]

I purchased Civ IV for the first time a couple weeks ago, with the expansion packs included (and presumably pre-patched to 3.17? Not sure how to check that.)

I played my first game without incident (although I lost, not understanding a lot of the changes from CivII to CivIV.)

On the second game, I hit a stretch where I experienced crashes to desktop three distinct times, at which point I decided to try changing something (as it was getting pretty annoying.) I turned off Sound Effects, but left Music on, and I have not had a crash since.

This is a little annoying, as I enjoy the sound effects, but less annoying by far than random crashes. The crashes would occur on scene shifts and (I think) when a sound effect was being triggered.

I am running on Windows7, 64-bit, fyi.

[JordanRHughes]

I thought it was my pc with the problem. It may be Windows 7 then. Thanks for the thread.

[Charles_Australia]

3 suggestions

1.Use virtual pc
or
2.Run on compatiblity
or finally
3.Run it on one of its expasions like beyond the sword

[mattlach]

I've played CIV for for over 100 hours (according to Steam) on my Windows 7 installation without any real problems.

I was going to say without any problems at all, but that's not 100% because some of the battle animations get messed up not properly showing the correct unit winning, but I'm not sure if this happens under other OS:es as well.

[mattlach]

The games won't work under Linux at all accept through emulation, and to be honest with applications as large and complicated as games won't have much success. They're written for Windows.

I ran Civ 4 in Linux through Wine for a while without any problems at all. It worked just was well as in Windows...

[Narlus]

right click desktop shortcut for civ4, click properties, click compatibility tab and choose windows xp sp3.

[BammBamm]

For what it's worth, and at the risk of resurrecting an old thread, for those having trouble with Civ4 and Windows 7...

...if memory serves, I had to register the following DLL files in my C:\Windows\System32 folder:

• d3dx9_31.dll
• d3dx9_32.dll

Not that this will solve everyone's problems, but don't give up on Civ4 under Windows 7. It works like a charm... trust me.

Bamm

[Tech Ian]

Simply installing the DirectX9 redist will install those files and clear up any such issues.

Not once since the release of Windows 7 have we had to tell one single person that they will be unable to play Civ 4 on it.

Yes, there is an patch (not needed if you have the Complete) for all versions, and these are not 'compatibility' patches, but they will need some Dx9 components to function.

It is essentially exactly the same set of circumstances we had when Vista came out.

Any message about an 'incompatible sound capture device' can be ignored

[BammBamm]

Simply installing the DirectX9 redist will install those files and clear up any such issues.

Not once since the release of Windows 7 have we had to tell one single person that they will be unable to play Civ 4 on it.

Yes, there is an patch (not needed if you have the Complete) for all versions, and these are not 'compatibility' patches, but they will need some Dx9 components to function.

It is essentially exactly the same set of circumstances we had when Vista came out.

Any message about an 'incompatible sound capture device' can be ignored

Thanks for clarifying this issue, Tech Ian.

Speaking from experience, I can personally vouch for Windows 7's ability to effortlessly run Sid Meier's Civilization IV.


My 2K Forums' handle is 'BammBamm', and I wholeheartedly approve this message.

[joasoze]

I have bought CIV IV complete and that gives three programs to start CIV IV Complete, CIV IV BTS and CIV IV Warlords. Since BTS is the last one, that is the one I want to play. Of the three the two others start fine, but BTS crashes on load.
First I get a message that Windows has to change color scheme (does not get that with the two others), then there is the normal CIV IV load box for a while and then I get "CIV IV is not responding". This in on a Windows 7 64 bit laptop (ASUS G73JW)

I have uninstalled and reinstalled with no luck. I have checked that I have the two dll files mentioned on this thread. I have tried all options under compatibility mode. Could it be related to me running 1920-1080? Is there any ini file where I can change to a CIV IV friendly resolution?

[joasoze]

I have also tried to download the two dll files and put them in CIV IV folder, because of some DirectX backwards incompabilities. Didnt help.

[Bantams]

try running bts as administrator

[joasoze]

I have tried running as administrator, and I have given myself full control over all files and folders.
The crazy thing is the the Warlords expansion runs fine

[Bantams]

Bts runs fine on my win7 pc id suggest going to www.firaxis.com/support and downloading the most recent patch for bts

[Tech Ian]

3.19 is the latest but it is by no means a 'compatibility patch' (Complete Edition BtS is 3.17)

Try it, but it probably won't change anything, although you never know...

The ini file would be in Documents > My Games > Sid Mei... by default, I think, and there will be a method of forcing a resolution in here. It may need changing on the desktop prior to launching. Have a fiddle around, should be all that it needs.

[joasoze]

OK, I did a full reinstall (manually deleted folders inbetween). Didnt help.

It crashed on reading the xml. A bit strange that it said importing xml (cached) as it was the first start.

I still have a suspicion about the "Windows is changing color scheme" that I get everytime I try to launch the game.

[joasoze]

I got the latest patch for BTS, and installed it. Crazy that CIV IV Complete doesnt have all patches. The game starts, but it says that I am below minimum settings to run the game and it might be slow. Infact I have a new and VERY strong laptop from ASUS with a Geforce GTX 460M.
Hopefully this settles my problems.

[BammBamm]

OK, I did a full reinstall (manually deleted folders inbetween). Didnt help.

It crashed on reading the xml. A bit strange that it said importing xml (cached) as it was the first start.

I still have a suspicion about the "Windows is changing color scheme" that I get everytime I try to launch the game.

My advice regarding Windows Aero Glass display mode? Turn it OFF.

Seriously. It makes life much simpler. ~ Bamm

[Tech Ian]

That is indeed some sound advice.

[headkase]

Civilization 4, Warlords, and Beyond the Sword work absolutely fine on my Windows 7 64-bit machine. I installed from the Civilization 4: Complete disc and 4 and Warlords were already up-to-date and I just had to install the 3.19 patch for Beyond the Sword. The bonus of getting that "Complete" edition: no annoying disc checks - install it and put the disc in the closet.

Hardware issues were mentioned earlier so for the benefit of anyone reading this thread months or years from now: REALLY consider that failing hardware may be at the root of seemingly random issues. Previous to last week I was having issues with starting some 3D games. Not all of them, just some of them. They would either launch to a flickering screen or occasionally reboot the machine. And it was only with the latest driver for my graphics card: the previous driver was fine. After thinking about it, and nothing but luck and intuition, last week I replaced the power supply. Instantly fixed every single issue I had. It was obviously not working right and if I had left it it probably would have completely failed sooner rather than later.

[Totham]

Hello,

I recently purchased a new computer (acer aspire am3970) running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I also recently purchased the Civ IV Complete dvd, and despite my very best efforts the game will not install.

I have attempted every suggested fix I can find. I have tried running setup.exe in both normal and admin mode for each available compatibility mode. I have tried the express install in normal and admin mode, I have tried custom install saving to desktop and to a new "Games" folder in Drive:C. Each and every time there is an installation error about 2/3 through the installation process. The game never installs.

I have run through the DirectX installation included with the dvd. In a desperate act, I even purchased the game as a download from amazon hoping that the installation would be easier, but the installation errors were the same.

Below I've pasted some of the error messages that keep popping up. Maybe someone will be able to understand/diagnose this problem. Any help will be very much appreciated!

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Warlords\Assets\Art\Interface\Buttons\War13a90.rra
Error: 5

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Warlords\CVGameCoreDLL\Boost-1.32.0\Include\Boost\MP\Aux_\Preprocessor\Ext_3ed5 .rra
Error: Access is Denied

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Beyond The Sword\Assets\Art\Units\WarElephants_MiddleEast\War Ed432.rra
Error: Access is Denied

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Warlords\CVGameCoreDLL\Boost-1.32.0\Include\Boost\MP\Aux_\Preprocessor\Array\Re pl9c6f.rra
Error: Access is Denied

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Warlords\CVGameCoreDLL\Boost-1.32.0\Include\Boost\MP\Aux_\Preprocessor\Arit2da6 .rra
Error: Access is Denied

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Warlords\Assets\Art\Leaderheads\WinstonChurchill\C hurbd58.rra
Error: Access is Denied

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: BeyondTheSword\Mods\FFH Age of Ice\Assets\Art\Units\FallFromHeaven\GiantSpider\Sp id2899.rra
Error: 5

Feature: Default Feature
Component: Civ4 Component
File: Warlords\CVGameCoreDLL\Boost-1.32.0\Include\Boost\MPL\Multiset\Aux_\Coun1843.rr a
Error: Access is Denied

[golemartin]

Just to close of this thread and the questions rised here. I can tell you the reason that some Windows 7 users get Civ IV working and some dont is the compatibility mode being different. In Win7 Home premium etc. the compatibility mode is not good enough for Civ IV but in the Win7 profesional, Win7 Ultimate etc. the compatibility mode is basically pure Windows XP(with obvious exceptions).

[oldnooob]

why has civ iv not been ported to 64 bit?

Never mind, I found out the EULA restricts and prohibits any changes to the EXE.