I'm Back! and having problems with installing...

[bigthing 35]

Hello! It's been a while but with all the recent talk of SimCity 5 i decided to give SimCity 4 another go.

However since i last played the game my computer has been rebuilt (the only remaining piece of my old one is the HDD, and even that is just used as extra storage).

Now it has 6 cores and is running 64bit Win7 Ultimate... sim city 4 doesn't seem to like it very much

Basically, it had installed fine (with the use of a downloaded .iso for CD2) but when i go to run it, it brings up the picture of the bridge, and never gets further...

Is there any known incompatibility between 64 bit operating systems and >2 core processors with Sim City 4?

If so are there any ways around this?

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

BigThing

  Edited June 21, 2012 by bigthing  

[The Avatar 1,089]

This has happened to me before, but I believe it was because of a different problem.

Still, you might want to try running SC4 as administrator. (Right click on the SC4 shortcut and click "run as administrator.") You might also want to try troubleshooting the compatibility and running in compatability mode. (Right click on shortcut and click "Troubleshoot compatability.")

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

You definitely want to set SimCity up so it only uses 1 processor. If you right click on the SimCity 4 process (process, not application) in the Task Manager, and click "Set Affinity", you can deselect all but one processor.

[bigthing 35]

I had already tried running as an administrator and compatibility for XP(SP3) with no luck...

I gave the troubleshooter a go and now the program wouldn't even bring up the picture of the bridge.

Any ideas?

Regards

Bigthing

EDIT: just missed Indiana joe's Post; Good idea!! For some reason it is coming up with the message "The operation could not be completed. Access is denied." when i select set affinity.

  Edited June 21, 2012 by bigthing  

[colco2121 55]

hmm..................do you have any plugins? And could you give some complete specs on your computer? This is a known issue, however the only solution may be to buy the file from Steam. Mine is a disc but i have heard the Steam is more stable. Do not forget to update to EP1. Mine is a bit unstable but I always get past the loading screens.

Best,

colco2121

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Try renaming your Plugins file to Plugins.old and start the game. It should run normally. But if not, then some things to check out.

• What is the update status of your game? To find out use windows explorer to navigate to
  Program Files ... SimCity 4.exe and hover over the file with your mouse. If the version is not at least 1,1,638 you need to update with EP1.
  
• Try using the necessary command line options to force a single core. Open your short-cut (right click) and add the following to the command target after the final quote: one space -CPUCount:1
  
• If you are running a 16 x 9 (HD DVI) monitor you will also need the options to set up for it. This is -CustomResolution:enabled -rhhhhxvvvxcc
  Where
  hhhh is the number of horizontal pixels for your monitor or the window you are using
  vvv is the number of vertical pixels; and
  cc is the colour depth (16 or 32) in bits
  Example:
  -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32
  
• There are tens of options, all listed here. If you don't understand this, ask.
  
• Remember that each option is like a word in a sentence and must have a space before it.
  

For your reference, here is my complete command target:

"C:/Program Files/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software -CPUcount:1

Sorry for the small type, but this goes all on one line.

  Edited June 21, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[bigthing 35]

Thanks for the replies

Currently i have no plugins installed (i always leave them until the game is working properly)

Renamed plugins to plugins.old - no luck

Added the CPU count command - no luck

I am using DVI so i added the resolution - no luck

I thought that it may have been the intro because it was not going past the bridge picture, added the no intro command - no luck..

The target is now : "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -CustomResolution:enabled -r1360x768x32 -intro:off

When i try to install the update it comes up with the message - "Old file not found. However, a file of the same name was found. No update done since file contents do not match."

I am beginning to think that something went wrong in the installation... the disks are not in the best condition so would it be worth downloading the disk images and then using the legit keys during installation?

I extracted the main details from a dxdiag report for you... if you need anything else just ask.

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

BIOS: BIOS Date: 09/21/11 20:22:52 Ver: 06.03

Processor: AMD FX-6100 Six-Core Processor (6 CPUs), ~3.3GHz

Memory: 16384MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 16366MB RAM

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT

2 Screens, 1@ 1440x900x32, 2@1360x768x32

Thanks for the help so far... any new ideas?

Regards,

BigThing

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

For openers your screen ratio does not compute. Should be 1360 x 765 (y = 9x/16). This may be a major problem. And your 1440 x 900 to be 16:9 has to be 1440 x 810. If you are trying to run 4:3 you should carefully check those as well.

You also need DirectX 9.0c which will happily co-exist with Dx 11.

Whose monitors are you using? They just don't sound right.

Here's an image of my spreadsheet. Text only.

16:9 Screen sizes

LibreOffice/3.5$Linux_X86_64 LibreOffice_project/350m1$Build-2

16:9 chart of possibilities

Width in Pixels

Height in Pixels

16x=9y

y=9x/16

x y

2560 1440

1920 1080

1600 900

1280 720

960 540

640 360

320 180

1360 765 *

1440 810 *

  Edited June 23, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

Simcity has problems running at resolutions other than those you can set in Windows {as detailed in this post at SC4D}. I don't know how this affects multi-monitor setups, but try disconnecting one and then running the game at the resolution of the monitor that is left (or at one of SC4's built in resolutions). You might also try explicitly setting fullscreen mode (with the -f switch) and see it that helps.

There was also a thread a while ago with this same issue. The problem was eventually traced to a running anti-virus program (Avira, I think). If you have any anti-virus running (or in fact any sort of program running), turn them off before playing the game.

I also had this same problem way back when I got this game in 2003. I couldn't figure out what the problem with, other than the fact that the computer I was playing on sucked hard and did the same thing to several of my other games. I got a new computer and haven't had much problems since.

  Edited June 23, 2012 by yunxiang  

[bigthing 35]

Apologies for the delay, i work on weekends.

Back to the problem at hand,

I am currently downloading Direct x 9.0c

In the mean time, i am not sure what you mean by "Whose monitors"? I am going to assume you meant what monitors ... one of them is a HP 19" computer monitor, and the other one is (insert random unheard of TV company here) 32@ LCD TV. The graphics card has 2 DVI slots so i use a DVI-VGA converter for the Monitor and a DVI-HDMI for the TV.

Direct x has downloaded now and... unfortunately no luck

I have noticed something though. When i close the launcher, SimCity 4 and its other various processes are still running in the background. A LONG time later, a message saying SimCity 4 has stopped working (or something along those lines, its just the bog standard windows message)pops up, and then you can close the program. Otherwise, it has to be closed by manually stopping its process.

I am not too sure what you mean by this spreadsheet? But i could list the resolutions available to me?

800x600

1024x768

1152x720

1152x864

1176x664

1280x720

1280x768

1280x800

1280x960

1280x1024

1360x760 (recommended for the LCD screen)

1366x768

1440x900 (probably the most common and recommended for the monitor.

1600x900

1600x1024

1680x1050

1768x992

1920x1080

I am using AVG free, and have never had problems with SC4 before, the same problem persists when i disable it. (although i would have been slightly annoyed if that was the only problem all along )

Regards

Bigthing

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

DVI screens should be 16:9 and not 4:3. If I plug my monitor into a VGA port, it simulates 4:3 by stretching the image. With the HDMI plug, it runs DVI. Frankly, with a set of converters in the circuit, you are on your own.

The table I gave you was all DVI ratio. My system quite happily plays HD movies and handles other such stuff with no problem. If you want to use your TV set as a monitor, good luck to you.

[bigthing 35]

I don't mind using just the 19" monitor to play SC4, but it still won't start... do you think that it is a lost cause? because i was going to look into the Virtual XP Machine that you can get with Win7 Ultimate and try to get Rayman to work

Regards

BigThing

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

If you're going to set up Virtual XP mode anyways, you might as well try SimCity with it.

Sometimes when sound drivers are faulty, the game won't work as well.

Maybe try setting it to full screen at a resolution of 1024x768? So the shortcut would be:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1024x768x32 -intro:off

(You should try this with only one monitor first)

  Edited June 26, 2012 by yunxiang  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If your screen dimensions are actually within the range of the game then the only options you should need for a full-screen test are: -intro:off -f -cpucount:1