Widescreen Problem SC4 Rush Hour

[dorothearose 0]

Hi,

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I know it is quite an old game now, but I am having a problem running SimCity 4 & SimCity 4 Rush Hour since I have bought a new widescreen monitor.

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I installed it fine and then tried to play it and the monitor gave me a message that it was adjusting the settings, I get the EA logo and then it goes back to the desktop and the game won’t run.  My PC spec is:

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XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 Build 2600

Processor – AMD Athlon ™ 64 processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow. 2.2 GHz

nVidia Geforce 5700 256 MB driver version 6.14.11. 7519 – 175.19 geforce wnxp 32 bit – latest version

Resolution 1680x1050x60 hertz

Direct x 9.0c

1023.23 MB RAM

Monitor – Hewlett Packard 20” w2007v 1680x1050 resolution

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I thought I had a problem with the monitor so I contacted HP.  They have gone out of their way to help.  I had all the usual suggestions, drivers etc and then they advised to try the monitor on another PC, which I did.  The only other PC I could try was a laptop, spec:

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XP Professionsl Service Pack 3 Build 2600

Acer TravelMate 4230

Intel ® Core ™ 2 CPU 1.66GHz

Resolution 1280x800x60 hertz on board graphics – Calistoga Graphics Card, Mobile, Intel ® 945GM Express Chipset Family driver version 6.14.104436 – 2005 I think

Direct x 9.0c

1014 MB RAM

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The game ran fine and so did SimCity 3000.  I then tried again on my PC.  Interestingly SimCity 3000 will run on both PC’s but I am having the same problem again with 4 on mine.

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I have trawled the net for a solution and found people with widescreen monitors who have edited the command line in the shortcut in various ways and got the game to run.  I have tried loads of the variations with loads of different screen resolutions and nothing will work.  Am I doing it in the wrong place??????

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I have also tried older drivers for my graphics card – don’t know why.  I have even formatted my harddrive! I haven’t done this for 2 years or so.  When reinstalling some drivers I had a problem not being able to open a zip file and a couple of others from a disc so I  thought it was my dvd/cd combi - it is a couple of years old and has had a lot of use.  I bought a new dvd/cd combi.  No luck – no different, 

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I see that one solution is to check the widescreen box in the options in the game apparently but I can’t get that far!!!!

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It worked fine on my PC when I had an Eyama 15 inch flat screen TFT.  I have only had the problem since I have had the new widescreen monitor.

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I can’t understand why SimCity 3000 will work and not 4 and why it will work on the widescreen linked to a laptop and not on my PC.

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I would be soooooo grateful for some help please.

 

[tungston 19]

Right click on the SC4 shortcut and add a custom resolution tag.

"C:\Program Files\Games\simcity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1680x1050x32 -f -intro:off

f = full screen
r = resolution

The target should have the path to the Simcity exe on your computer, add a space after the quotation marks.

You will need to start the game with the shortcut at least once for the change to take effect.

[dorothearose 0]

I have already tried editing the short cut with X amount of resolutions from the X amount of variations on the way you enter the command. The nearest I got was last night on 1440x900, I bypassed the intro - so that worked. I got the Rush Hour logo (picture) then I got the terrain with mayors tutorial and the lovely arrow bouncing up and down. Thought I'd cracked it - then it crashed back to the desktop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tungston 19]

You need to make sure the resolution you enter is one that your moniter is capable of displaying.  If that doesn't work then try installig the AMD Dual Core Optimizer [link]

[dorothearose 0]

I have only used resolutions that my monitor will display. I have checked this by slowly moving the slider in settings and noting which ones come up. I think I have tried them all. It's driving me craaaaazy!. I emailed EA using my initial post on here, which I thought had quite a lot of information for them to think about. They emailed back with this very useful (not) suggestion.

"Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Reducing the number of pixels your computer displays is a great way to make the game window fit on your computer even if you have a relatively large monitor.

To change your display resolution on a PC:

- Click Start, then click Settings.

- Select Control Panel, and double click on the Display icon.

- On the Settings tab you'll find a slider bar. Adjust this bar and then click Apply.

Make sure your display is set to at least 800x600. Before you apply the changes, check with your Monitor and video card documentation to make sure they both support the display size you're trying to change to. If not, you could get some REALLY crazy problems that are difficult to fix. Once you determine it's OK to proceed, apply the changes. You may need to restart your computer at this point, but when it comes back up you'll notice that items on the screen are a bit larger, but you now have less room for small game or application screens.

Please let us know if there is anything else needed"

I have replied with - I hope you don't think I am being rude but I don't think you have read my 'question' properly. See what they say next.

Thanks for the link re dual core but the laptop that the monitor works on is I think a dual core, but I don't think the one on my PC is, so I don't think I should instal it. I don't know what to try next. I have checked that the shortcut leads to the right target when I change the resolution, and that seems to be the only thing that people are doing. Haven't found a post anywhere yet where it hasn't worked.

[tungston 19]

I don't know that much about AMD processors, but what I understand is the "64" means it is a dual core.

[Randomtaskk 1]

the 64 means its a 64 bit cpu rather than 32 bit.

as far as AMD cpu names go if its an X2 its a dual core, X3 triple core, X4 quad core etc.

the person who posted this only has an athlon 64, which is not dual core but is 64 bit, but that makes little differnce as he/she only has a 32 bit os..

EDIT: btw, what happens if you plug in your old monitor and leave everything else the same, does it run ok? I find it hard to believe that just changing the monitor would make it stop working, I have gone through several widescreen monitors and never had to change anything - they just work.

EDIT 2: also, what about trying using your widescreen monitor on a non widescreen setting, ie 1280x1024, just to see if the game still crashes (it will look distorted though but would be useful to know whether its simcity complaining about a widescreen resolution or some other problem)