SC4 won't start

[quicksilver991 37]

Today, all of a sudden, my SC4 game decided not to start. When I click on the icon in the taskbar, I get the little picture with the cars going over the bridge, then that disappears, then the highlight goes away from the SC4 icon (which means its closed). I had been running it just minutes before this happened. Plus, when the program was not running, this message popped up.

Oh yes, and I removed all plugins and it still wouldn't start.

Does anyone have an idea of what could be wrong?

[benjames98 7]

Start it and open task manager and find the SimCity4.exe (Or something similar) process and see if the process just disappears or if the memory number doesn't go up.

[quicksilver991 37]

I found the simcity4.exe process and it was still there even though SC4 wasn't open or even running, so I ended it.

[benjames98 7]

Did you do anything at all with the computer between closing the game and opening it again?

[quicksilver991 37]

No what I needed to do was put the CAM back into my plugin folder after I had started a new city without the CAM. I put it in and tried to start the game, but it refused to do anything.

Edit: Never mind, it seems to be working now.

  Edited June 24, 2011 by the00guvna  

[CaptCity 4,670]

I found the simcity4.exe process and it was still there even though SC4 wasn't open or even running, so I ended it.

There have been times when I've noticed that the game "refuses" to close, and have had to end it in Task Manager. No idea why this is so, but as a consequence the game won't start if it's all ready open.

[jacksunny 741]

I also had the problem described in the first post when I switched to Winodws 7. To get Simcity to open, when the cars going over the bridge thing appears, I have to click that and the taskbar icon multiple times. It then seems to load. If I don't do that, the game would either not load, or begin to load and then crash or not respond. Weird.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It seems unlikely, but when I have run Norton in the past, sometimes weird things happened. Norton sometimes runs some funny background tasks. If you didn't ask Norton for that panel, any reason for you to get it?

[bixel 1,221]

Crazy... I got win7 my SC4.exe is running in admin mode, with XP service Pack 3 compatibility and Legacy Windows Colors. And suddenly today It decides not to start. I have removed my plugins .. double checked everything...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, let's see: Was anything updated in your software between runs? Virus signatures? MS updates? If so, try a restore to your last restore point.

I run on Windows 2003 compatibility which seems to be better. Have you tried that?

[z1 566]

It seems unlikely, but when I have run Norton in the past, sometimes weird things happened. Norton sometimes runs some funny background tasks. If you didn't ask Norton for that panel, any reason for you to get it?

Norton routinely pops up that panel for tasks that consume large amounts of CPU. Since SC4 always consumes around 100%, it's not surprising that Norton noticed it. As you can see in the picture, there's a "Don't alert for this file" option. I've always run Norton and SC4 together with no problem.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It seems unlikely, but when I have run Norton in the past, sometimes weird things happened. Norton sometimes runs some funny background tasks. If you didn't ask Norton for that panel, any reason for you to get it?

Norton routinely pops up that panel for tasks that consume large amounts of CPU. Since SC4 always consumes around 100%, it's not surprising that Norton noticed it. As you can see in the picture, there's a "Don't alert for this file" option. I've always run Norton and SC4 together with no problem.

I suppose it is there for loop detection among other things. I can't imaging what a shock it would be to a naive user. Norton wants to mother the clients toooo much.