Delayed Startup

[BobbyBuilds 2]

The technical issue I have with Sim City 4 Deluxe is a startup issue.  I click the icon...I get the pic of the cars going over the bridge...then that disappears...then I have to wait about 4-5 minutes (which I usually use to traverse Simtropolis.com)  then the game starts up.  What's goin' on?

-Bob

[opbravo 0]

what are your computer specs?

also, do you have any other problems once the game has started?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

By all means, let us have your computer specifications.

Also, how large is your plugins folder?

This could either be a loading problem because of excessive plugins, or a paging problem du to insufficient machine.

[BobbyBuilds 2]

What are your computer specs?quote>

I'm running Windows XP. 

I have an AMD Athlon processor at 2 GB.

My graphics card is an NVidia GeForce FX 5200 at 128 MB

I have 640 MB RAM.

My plugins folder is on the messy side, and has 286 items.  (But I don't see that being the problem, since I recall this issue first taking place before I even found out about Simtropolis.)

Also, do you have any other problems once the game has started?quote>

No--other than your typical night lighting issues, and missing dependencies, etc.  which I have to fix.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You don't say what your virtual memory (paging file) setting are.  There is a sticky above for setting it to the maximum, and if you have not done that, you should.

All those plugins may be a problem.  Right click on the folder and look at its properties,  It will tell you the size.  All of that, plus the game plus any city you open wind up in memory either real or virtual.

640MB is a strange size.  I assume you have 768MB minus 128MB taken for your graphics accelerator.  This is an OK memory size if you have enough virtual and not too many plugins.  If I were you, though, I would upgrade to 1GB (another 256MB, or swap a 256MB stick for a 512MB one).

Your sitart up can be slow for several reasons.  With that small memory, you will be swapping out enough stuff to make room for the game to load.  This can take a lot of time as your plugin tables start building.  The game .exe is not much, about 90K, but the other stuff has to get table entries built, and as more comes in, get swapped out. 

You should not be running much in the background when you call the game.  In fact, it could be useful for you to disconnect from the Internet and to drop all your defensive software that is executing.  Once you stop playing, you can restart all your defensive stuff and enable the Internet again.

[BobbyBuilds 2]

You don't say what your virtual memory (paging file) setting are.  There is a sticky above for setting it to the maximum, and if you have not done that, you should.quote>

Mine's at 934 MB. 

Before I change this to 2 GB, are there any negative side effects I should be aware of?

All those plugins may be a problem.  Right click on the folder and look at its properties,  It will tell you the size.  All of that, plus the game plus any city you open wind up in memory either real or virtual.quote>

The size is 270 MB.  It contains 620 Files, 131 Folders.

640MB is a strange size.  I assume you have 768MB minus 128MB taken for your graphics accelerator.quote>

Actually, my PC came with 128 MB, and I bought a 512 MB upgrade...hence the 640.  The whole machine usually runs quite fast; every other game I play starts right up.

-Bob

[opbravo 0]

changing virtual memory to 2 GB shouldn't produce any negative side effects. that alone, however, probably won't be enough to drastically improve your start-up problem. but, it's free so you might as well try it.

in my opinion (and i'm nowhere near as technically savvy as N_O_Body), it's a RAM issue. However, there could be some things you could try before resorting to upgrading your RAM. you could try running disk cleanup and disk defragmenter. also, you can try running a spyware scan and a virus scan if you haven't done so already. and definitely shut down any background applications that you aren't using (especially any anti-virus protection programs like norton or mcafee) as these can use up memory as well. i suggest these because these are free.

another thing you can try is to move your plug-ins to an outside folder. plug-ins add to the amount of info that needs to be loaded at start-up, so removing some might help speed things up. however, you've probably invested a lot of time in downloading and using these mods, so this probably won't be too appealing.

it seems as if your game runs fine once loaded, so if you can put up with the loading issue then you can hold off on upgrading your RAM until the waiting gets unbearable.