SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition not loading.

[AmericanInfantry 0]

After a couple days of not playing SC4 I decided to start it up again. It gets to the splash screen and...nothing. The disc is not being read and there is no error at all.

I restarted the computer, hoping it would work. Nothing. I uninstalled then reinstalled the game, still nothing. I deleted all my plugins. Even still nothing.

This is really annoying me. The game worked before but now it isn't. I need a solution to this.

My computer specs are:

-Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+, ~2.6GHz

-Memory: 1918Mb RAM

-Video Card: ATI Radeon X1150 w/ 128Mb of memory

-Page file: dxdiag.exe says "665Mb used, 3018Mb available"

Help?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[airmale007 3]

I had a similar problem, I fixed it by adding this to the shortcut target:

" -CPUPriority:high -CPUCount:1 -d:DirectX -ExceptionHandling:off"

[AmericanInfantry 0]

I'll try that and see if it works.

[nukeu123 307]

i had this problem ! it means your disk is TOO DAMAGE or your lazier lens pooped. if your disk is dirty try rubbing alcohol with a cotton ball it works temperately with scratches and cleans off the dirt just DO NOT RUB IN IN A CIRCULAR MOTION.

[AmericanInfantry 0]

I tried what airmale007 suggested and it did not work.

Nukeu123, I will try what you suggested but if anything happens to my disc then the blame will be on you. The disc is fine and the disc drive is fine.

I have a picture of the shortcut properties. Should I edit anything here?

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Apologies for the double post, I feel I forgot to add something (it completely left y mind at the time); sorry again.

After I click on the launcher for SC4, the disc drive light is green for when the disc is running but after the splash screen disappears, the light turns off and the dis ceases to run. This is the only disc that has this problem; any other disc will run correctly.

I most likely overlooked this but I feel it to be significant now.

[catty-cb 4,411]

Originally posted by: AmericanInfantry

I have a picture of the shortcut properties. Should I edit anything here?quote>

Had a look, your picture isn't clear whether you have the rest of the shortcut ie:

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUPriority:high -CPUCount:1 -directX -ExceptionHandlingff"

Just copy this shortcut into notepad or similiar as something in the site software is converting some of the shortcut into smiley's, but it looks alright in notepad

[LoD 0]

Maybe i can help a little:

It IS not a Disc problem, because, we could install the game. So... it is readable ... x_x

[Sniper296 83]

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUPriority:high -CPUCount:1 -d:DirectX -ExceptionHandling:off"

@Cathy remember Do not parse emoticons

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Originally posted by: LoD

Maybe i can help a little:

It IS not a Disc problem, because, we could install the game. So... it is readable ... x_xquote>

Huh. Then what is the problem and how can it be fixed?

Pretty odd situation, it seems.

[LoD 0]

Pretty easy...

there is something wrong in our systems...

look at Simcity4/apps

there is an exception report...

my problem seems to be the ntdll.dll but i am not sure if its okay just to replace / restore it.. its in System32 folder...

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Originally posted by: LoD

Pretty easy...

there is something wrong in our systems...

look at Simcity4/apps

there is an exception report...

my problem seems to be the ntdll.dll but i am not sure if its okay just to replace / restore it.. its in System32 folder...quote>

Took a look at the Exception Reports and it turns out that that is the problem with my game as well.

Maybe we need to get a vet of SC4 in here to help us wih this?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Are you running on Windows, O/S X, or Linux?  You've never said. 

I have had this problem with UBUNTU 10.10 X86_64.  If this is the case, you need to do two things:  Make sure you have the very latest ia32.lib, and recompile wine to use this library.  I am running wine 1.3.8 at the moment and everything is working fine.  But I had to recompile it.  You can find out how from here.

The problem is that the wine configuration isn't picking up the drive because of problem with the UBUNTU libraries and some error in the interprocess communications system.  If you have to, try configuring the drive manually as /media/sr0 or lift it out of your fuse panel (Places).

[catty-cb 4,411]

Originally posted by: Sniper296

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUPriority:high -CPUCount:1 -directX -ExceptionHandlingff"

@Cathy remember Do not parse emoticonsquote>

thanks

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

Are you running on Windows, O/S X, or Linux?  You've never said. 

I have had this problem with UBUNTU 10.10 X86_64.  If this is the case, you need to do two things:  Make sure you have the very latest ia32.lib, and recompile wine to use this library.  I am running wine 1.3.8 at the moment and everything is working fine.  But I had to recompile it.  You can find out how from here.

The problem is that the wine configuration isn't picking up the drive because of problem with the UBUNTU libraries and some error in the interprocess communications system.  If you have to, try configuring the drive manually as /media/sr0 or lift it out of your fuse panel (Places).

quote>

I'm pretty sure the dxdiag.exe would give it away. I'm running Windows XP SP3.

[PraetorianGuard 0]

I have the same issue, with the same natdll.dll.

Fustrating as I just bought this game again.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: AmericanInfantry

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

Are you running on Windows, O/S X, or Linux?  You've never said. 

I have had this problem with UBUNTU 10.10 X86_64.  If this is the case, you need to do two things:  Make sure you have the very latest ia32.lib, and recompile wine to use this library.  I am running wine 1.3.8 at the moment and everything is working fine.  But I had to recompile it.  You can find out how from here.

The problem is that the wine configuration isn't picking up the drive because of problem with the UBUNTU libraries and some error in the interprocess communications system.  If you have to, try configuring the drive manually as /media/sr0 or lift it out of your fuse panel (Places).

quote>

I'm pretty sure the dxdiag.exe would give it away. I'm running Windows XP SP3.

quote>

DXDIAG runs on wine with linux.  However, if you are having trouble with a given .dll, see if the windows download page will give you a different version.

My linux problem was definitely a bug in the distribution, and it was fixed by the distribution center, eventually.

All computer operating systems do the same thing.  The way they do it is often more bizarre than you want to know.

[AmericanInfantry 0]

If I can find another ntdll.dll and it fixes the problem I'll let you guys know.

Edit: Just an update.

I attempted a system restore and the game still didn't work. Did yet another reinstall and....nothing.

I have no idea what the problem is. I'm thinking I could try a defrag but I doubt it'd work. I'm on Windows XP SP3, just to clarify.

This is really getting on my last nerve. No reason for it to stop responding.

Edit:

The disc defrag didn't work. Anyone who's reading, do you know of any solution to this?

Seems I hit a dead end. Nothing seems to be working.

Edited to combine multiple posts.

-CaptCity

[Matches 0]

AmericanInfantry, I am having the same problems. Very sad as I was hoping to pick this game up again after a long hiatus.

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Originally posted by: Matches

AmericanInfantry, I am having the same problems. Very sad as I was hoping to pick this game up again after a long hiatus.quote>

Same here except the hiatus was a few days.

I really don't see any reason or cause as to why or how this happened. It's a pretty urgent situation for all of us, it seems, to not be able to play our favorite game.

[Reikhardt 50]

I'm sorry if this a really stupid suggestion, but have you tried reinstalling the lastest version of Direct x? I often find it is a cure for many of xp's ills.

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Originally posted by: Reikhardt

I'm sorry if this a really stupid suggestion, but have you tried reinstalling the lastest version of Direct x? I often find it is a cure for many of xp's ills.quote>

I'll try that, it could work.

[LoD 0]

I have a very unuseful, but playable fix for our problems...

I am very sad to say that, cause I've got two originals of SimCity 4 (SimCity 4 and SimCity 4 Deluxe)

i can not link to you, also not as PM or something. those things are not legal i think, but it's the only thing that helped...

Yes, and not allowed to be discussed as per site rules, so reference removed. -CaptCity

EDIT:

It's a temporary fix... i don't want to live just on daylight ._.

Oh and also, you have a lot of crashes more than with original exe....

[AmericanInfantry 0]

Removed reference to topic not permitted. -CaptCity

This is really angering me; there should be no reason for this. And I cannot email EA Tech Support about this because their website is a mess and I doubt they would help anyways.

[LoD 0]

As i said, it's a temporary solution and it doesn't make sense to me... but it works.. why, i can not tell, but anyway... its better to play halfways than not playing it.

And just to repeat it. Original Copies, too.

So it can't load the CDs, but it can install.

So my text some posts above with: "It can't be the CD-Drive, because we could install the game" is wrong....

[AmericanInfantry 0]

This is a very strange mystery. I dunno if anyone experienced this before us but I'm calling people out if they did: what was your solution?

[Master Solus 0]

I just got this problem also.  I wonder, was there a windows xp update recently, or something that could affect us?

Removed topic not permitted. -CaptCity

[AmericanInfantry 0]

There could have been an update that did something but there's no way to reverse that I think.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I thought even automatic updates did a restore point before proceeding.

[AmericanInfantry 0]

They probably do but it wouldn't help at all. I did a restore to the 6th (when SC4 was working) but it did not work.

Alas, this is a very strange issue. I still wonder if anyone else experienced it before....