SimCity 4 won't start correctly

[Sam]

I have Vista Ultimate 32 installed. When I start SimCity 4, Rush-Hour it
starts with the opening screen, then after a few seconds it drops back
to the task bar, showing my normal desktop. The icon can be pushed again
(and again) and the game will continue loading for a few more seconds,
then drop back to the task bar again. Hmmmm!

I've tried every compatibility mode I can find... no difference. I tried
changing the screen resolution way down... still no joy. I've tried
running it in "admin" mode with UAC is turned off. Arrrgh!

I figure the problem is probably a video or audio incompatibility. I
have an nVidia 8800gtx and I've tried both their current release drivers
and the newest betas they list on their web site. No dice. My sound card
is a Creative X-Fi Platinum with the current drivers installed. I've
also tried using their ALchemyX-Fi program and that doesn't make a
difference either. <sigh>

So now what? I know that others have played this game in Vista without a
problem. Not sure if there's other hardware incompatibilities or not. My
MB is an Asus Crossfire with an AMD Athlon 64 FX-62. I have 4 gig of
Crucial Ballistix RAM installed. Not much else is loading up... I'm
using a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse (with their Set Point drivers)
and have the ZoneAlarm Security Suite for Vista, release 71.078,
running. (I've tried turning that off too).

This is frustrating... :-(

Sam

 

[Andy]

I have Vista Ultimate 32 installed. When I start SimCity 4, Rush-Hour it
starts with the opening screen, then after a few seconds it drops back
to the task bar, showing my normal desktop. The icon can be pushed again
(and again) and the game will continue loading for a few more seconds,
then drop back to the task bar again. Hmmmm!

I've tried every compatibility mode I can find... no difference. I tried
changing the screen resolution way down... still no joy. I've tried
running it in "admin" mode with UAC is turned off. Arrrgh!

I figure the problem is probably a video or audio incompatibility. I
have an nVidia 8800gtx and I've tried both their current release drivers
and the newest betas they list on their web site. No dice. My sound card
is a Creative X-Fi Platinum with the current drivers installed. I've
also tried using their ALchemyX-Fi program and that doesn't make a
difference either. <sigh>

So now what? I know that others have played this game in Vista without a
problem. Not sure if there's other hardware incompatibilities or not. My
MB is an Asus Crossfire with an AMD Athlon 64 FX-62. I have 4 gig of
Crucial Ballistix RAM installed. Not much else is loading up... I'm
using a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse (with their Set Point drivers)
and have the ZoneAlarm Security Suite for Vista, release 71.078,
running. (I've tried turning that off too).

This is frustrating... :-(

Was your computer even concieved when this game was released?

Disable your X-fi in device manager, and enable your on-board sound card as
your primary sound card. Try the game again.

New Hardware + Old Game = crap shoot, best bet would be to call EA tech
support, chances are the really kind people on the phones would love to help
you get the game running, I know I used too.

Good luck,
A.

 

[Sam]

Was your computer even concieved when this game was released?

Disable your X-fi in device manager, and enable your on-board sound card as
your primary sound card. Try the game again.

New Hardware + Old Game = crap shoot, best bet would be to call EA tech
support, chances are the really kind people on the phones would love to help
you get the game running, I know I used too.

Good luck,
A.

I know that Vista wasn't hardly started when SC4 was developed. However,
I'd read that a number of other people had it running straight out of
the box. I tried disabling the sound card and running the game again
(with no sound at all). However, the game stopped just the same way once
again. Here are two of the logs from the SC4 exception logs The first
one is after disabling the sound card and the second one is before
disabling it (last night):

*****************************************************
Exception time: 06/19/2007, at 16:08:12.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 5648 (0x00001610).
Version information:
Application/module path: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
Application/module version name: SimCity 4
Application/module version: 1.1.638.0
System version: Windows NT 6.0
System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 2020 Megabytes free.

Exception module: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
Exception address: 0x00876d3a. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x0046fd3a.

*****************************************************
Exception time: 06/18/2007, at 23:05:20.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 4816 (0x000012d0).
Version information:
Application/module path: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
Application/module version name: SimCity 4
Application/module version: 1.1.638.0
System version: Windows NT 6.0
System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 1968 Megabytes free.

Exception module: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
Exception address: 0x0098ea26. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00587a26.
*****************************************************

Or, besides disabling the card, do I need to uninstall all the Creative
software too? Creative has been really slow in developing Vista ready
drivers for this card... there's virtually open rebellion on their
forum. I'm seriously considering getting another brand of card.

Sam

 

[Sam]

I have Vista Ultimate 32 installed. When I start SimCity 4, Rush-Hour it
starts with the opening screen, then after a few seconds it drops back
to the task bar, showing my normal desktop. The icon can be pushed again
(and again) and the game will continue loading for a few more seconds,
then drop back to the task bar again. Hmmmm!

I've tried every compatibility mode I can find... no difference. I tried
changing the screen resolution way down... still no joy. I've tried
running it in "admin" mode with UAC is turned off. Arrrgh!

I figure the problem is probably a video or audio incompatibility. I
have an nVidia 8800gtx and I've tried both their current release drivers
and the newest betas they list on their web site. No dice. My sound card
is a Creative X-Fi Platinum with the current drivers installed. I've
also tried using their ALchemyX-Fi program and that doesn't make a
difference either. <sigh>

So now what? I know that others have played this game in Vista without a
problem. Not sure if there's other hardware incompatibilities or not. My
MB is an Asus Crossfire with an AMD Athlon 64 FX-62. I have 4 gig of
Crucial Ballistix RAM installed. Not much else is loading up... I'm
using a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse (with their Set Point drivers)
and have the ZoneAlarm Security Suite for Vista, release 71.078,
running. (I've tried turning that off too).

This is frustrating... :-(

Sam

Well I finally figured it out. It had nothing to do with my sound/video
card or their drivers. The solution was with two other items running in
the background. First was the Logitech Set point program. Second was
"Folding@Home" that I had running as well. The funny thing is that it
must be a combination of things, since just taking one out still left
problems.

I hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.

Sam

 

[Mark]

Sam,

Well done! - who would have thought.

Can you document how you tested? Did you uninstall everything on the
computer, disable every service that didn't sound important, go into each
and every running app and uncheck the "start at bootup", etc. Having a
process to do it may end up helping a lot of people who may have similar
problems.

Mark

 

[Andy]

I know that Vista wasn't hardly started when SC4 was developed. However,
I'd read that a number of other people had it running straight out of
the box. I tried disabling the sound card and running the game again
(with no sound at all). However, the game stopped just the same way once
again. Here are two of the logs from the SC4 exception logs The first
one is after disabling the sound card and the second one is before
disabling it (last night):

*****************************************************
Exception time: 06/19/2007, at 16:08:12.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 5648 (0x00001610).
Version information:
Application/module path: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
Application/module version name: SimCity 4
Application/module version: 1.1.638.0
System version: Windows NT 6.0
System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 2020 Megabytes free.

Exception module: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
Exception address: 0x00876d3a. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x0046fd3a.

*****************************************************
Exception time: 06/18/2007, at 23:05:20.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 4816 (0x000012d0).
Version information:
Application/module path: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
Application/module version name: SimCity 4
Application/module version: 1.1.638.0
System version: Windows NT 6.0
System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 1968 Megabytes free.

Exception module: D:\Games\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
Exception address: 0x0098ea26. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x00587a26.
*****************************************************

Yeah, no idea, but it is a different exception, but still could be something
else.

Or, besides disabling the card, do I need to uninstall all the Creative
software too? Creative has been really slow in developing Vista ready
drivers for this card... there's virtually open rebellion on their
forum. I'm seriously considering getting another brand of card.

No, remove the card, the drivers shouldn't do anything. Yeah, Problem with
Vista I guess is no DirectSound anymore, and I guess CreativeLabs drivers
were built around it, so now they are just having all sorts of problems
coming up with drivers that work. I think the problem is the hardware,
hopefully they can recover or Microsoft can adopt something that helps them
out.

I'm not sure Sam. Might want to check into http://support.ea.com, send em an
email, see if they have a suggestion.

 

[Andy]

Well I finally figured it out. It had nothing to do with my sound/video
card or their drivers. The solution was with two other items running in
the background. First was the Logitech Set point program. Second was
"Folding@Home" that I had running as well. The funny thing is that it
must be a combination of things, since just taking one out still left
problems.

I hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.

Sam

Nice work, I have which version of Setpoint? I don't use Folding, but I do
use the later.

 

[Sam]

Nice work, I have which version of Setpoint? I don't use Folding, but I do
use the later.

I have the latest 4.0 version. I could see the desktop bleeding through
each time I hit the mouse key. Eventually SC4 would just crash.

Sam

 

[Sam]

Sam,

Well done! - who would have thought.

Can you document how you tested? Did you uninstall everything on the
computer, disable every service that didn't sound important, go into each
and every running app and uncheck the "start at bootup", etc. Having a
process to do it may end up helping a lot of people who may have similar
problems.

Mark

After messing with the video drivers and sound card, I decided to start
cutting anything that was in my notification area (tray). When the
program started working, I then tried putting things back, one-at-a-time
until the program started misbehaving again.

Sam

 

[Andy]

I have the latest 4.0 version. I could see the desktop bleeding through
each time I hit the mouse key. Eventually SC4 would just crash.

Sam

Interesting, I have been running 3.11 of setpoint and my Windows Media
Center would exhibit that problem. I just upgraded to 4.0, going to see if
Media Center is still having that problem, if so I might just uninstall and
see if that fixes it. Too bad because I need setpoint do do the mouse DPS on
the fly adjustments (MX518, greatest mouse i've ever owned)

 

[Sam]

Interesting, I have been running 3.11 of setpoint and my Windows Media
Center would exhibit that problem. I just upgraded to 4.0, going to see if
Media Center is still having that problem, if so I might just uninstall and
see if that fixes it. Too bad because I need setpoint do do the mouse DPS on
the fly adjustments (MX518, greatest mouse i've ever owned)

Sounding more like a Vista bug in the SetPoint drivers.

Sam

 

[Chris Weir]

Sounding more like a Vista bug in the SetPoint drivers.

Sam

Hi Andy

I have SC4, never had any problem running it. Crashes out occasionally, but
that isn't anything that didn't happen with any of other versions of windows
I have used.

What is setpoint.


Yours Chris

 

[Andy]

Hi Andy

I have SC4, never had any problem running it. Crashes out occasionally,
but that isn't anything that didn't happen with any of other versions of
windows I have used.

What is setpoint.


Yours Chris

It's the main utility for Logitech Mice, controls things like on the fly DPS
adjustments and other fine tuning.

Also, I wasn't having the problem, Sam was. I haaven't broken out SC4 in
years.

-A.

 

[Chris Weir]

It's the main utility for Logitech Mice, controls things like on the fly
DPS adjustments and other fine tuning.

Also, I wasn't having the problem, Sam was. I haaven't broken out SC4
in years.

-A.

Hi Andy

Thanks for the info.

The post I replied to was a little confusing, I must admit I couldn't tell
if Sam or you, were having the problem.


Yours Chris

 

[Gumby]

well I tried closing down items on my tray. The game still wont start
correctly. It still closes to the desktop after the EA logo. Can anyone
help?

Have you tried running it with admin rights? Right click the shortcut file
and choose run as amdministrator. Did you install Directx9 to Vista? Some
games needs a file that comes with Directx9 but isn't in Directx10 on
Vista. Installing DX9 on Vista will install just that file but not
overwrite DX10.

 

[Clinton]

How you tried reinstalling uninstalling, rebooting, then reinstalling the
game? I haven't had any problems with SimCity4, and after playing SimCity
Societies, I will stick with SimCity 4.

 

[vidicheese]

l tried installing directx9, and had to cancel when it asked me where I
wanted to put it. I have no idea where to install it. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[vidicheese]

Yeah, I tried running it with administer rights, and the same thing, it goes
back to the desktop after the EA logo.

 

[Clinton]

Do a reinstall, and let it install DirectX into the Windows directory. At
that point, the game should run just fine.

 

[Olórin]

i have close to the same problem only i dont even get the ea load screen
just a picture of a bridge and i cant close it and i have to restart my
computer. the taskbar icon is just the genaric window icon.

i am on widows xp


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So, repost in the XP group - this one (and the clue is in the title) is for
people running Vista. You need microsoft.public.windowsxp.games.

You say you have "close to the same problem" but have snipped that
description.

Have you checked the manufacturer's site for patches? Also, check your Event
Logs for any clues. Does your hardware meet the game's requirements? Has
this just started happening, or always been this way?