Windows XP + Civilization III = Monitor Shuts Off

[Alphathree33]

I've reinstalled Civ 3 and reinstalled the latest Civ 3 patch. Yet still, when I run Civilization 3, it plays the intro movie, and whether I watch the whole movie or skip it, at the end of the movie my monitor shuts off. (I.e. it goes from green light to blinking yellow light.)

I can still hear the Civ3 music playing like it normally does. And if I press CNTRL-ALT-DEL it stops. Press ESC and it starts again. Therefore the computer is not frozen.

It's not a hardware issue -- it worked just fine yesterday when I ran it on the same system with Windows ME before I installed my XP Home Edition Upgrade.

So I have a feeling it's some kind of driver/compatibility issue.

Can anyone shed some light on the problem?

Thanks.

 

[sandorski]

What's your video card? Civ3 uses OpenGL, so if your vidcard has issues with OpenGL and WinXP, that would be your problem.

 

[ianbergman]

assuming you have an NVidia card, make sure you have the latest Detonator drivers; I was having a number of issues that those drivers solved (also running WinXP).

 

[Alphathree33]

I have a Geforce2 Ultra with the latest Detonator Drivers that I just downloaded yesterday.

 

[zzzz]

It is a well known issue.
The latest patch seems to solve it. Go to www.civ.com.

EDIT:
I see that you tried that already. did you modify the *.ini file ?


<< To use, open the civilization3.ini and add 'Refresh=60' >>



One more fix is to get powerstrip and force the refresh rate to be at 85hz( or whatever your monitor supports) at each resolution.

 

[UberNeuman]

zzzz is correct - it seems like your monitor isn't set for that rez... Get Powerstrip and that should help you...

 

[Alphathree33]

Thanks. I didn't actually read the patch message the first time

That fixed it.