SC4 launch Stopped working

[Parisian 556]

Hello,

 

First happy new simyear to everyone, hope this year will be rich of great new BATing and lot of newcomer on this website.

Well, to explain why I opened this thread is because since mid-november, my SC4 stopped working brutally without being able to find a solution to my problem.

After having check many (many) forums and solutions which doesn't work for me, i decided to explain my situation. Maybe it is easier than what I think. 

The context :

Mid November, after a normal using of the game, it brutally stopped working the day after. I remember the game bugged before I turned it off. Like the iced screen or something like this. I forced the stop by pushing CTRL+ALT+DEL and turn it offin the control window.

I also remember I made a windows security update btw. I already checked many forum which suggest to delete an update "KB3086255". I did it! but many upgrade seems to have occurred that day of 18/11.

I m using a Windows 7 version. 

The symptoms :

Using a cracked version (after my official game got problem), it worked perfectly before that day. 

When i try to launch the game, it seems for a half second that something happen. And then nothing. The installation is complete and goes to 100%. So no installation problem.

A friend gave me his official SC4D to try, and it doesn't work neither. I mean I get the same symptoms. After the installation completion, nothing happen when trying to launch it via the desktop icon. 

I have downloaded the SC4 launcher app too. Nothing.

The result :

A GIGANTIC frustration.

The Question :

Does anyone already faced this. With the system windows 7 i get. I looked at dozens of forums. I cannot solve my problem. It seems link to the windows upgrade but not sure at all... 

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Depending on how you uninstall that nefarious KB update, Windoze may just install it again. Go back and repeat those steps to see if that's what happened.

Also, please tell us that you're no longer using a cracked version. Simtropolis has a strict policy against supporting it.

[Parisian 556]

I now use another official version. The old cracked one was in fact after a time my CD stopped working.

Well, I noticed that the KB update is dated of 2015. By the way my game was playing normally after this.. meaning it's not the main cause!

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

8 hours ago, Parisian said:

I noticed that the KB update is dated of 2015. By the way my game was playing normally after this.. meaning it's not the main cause!

That analysis is flawed. Though the update has some old date, Microshaft continues to push it. I had to remove it three times from my Win7 machine before I figured out how to stop inviting it back in.

Please respect my advice and repeat the steps to detect and remove that sulfurous update. Only then can we look at other possible causes of your misfortune.

[Parisian 556]

Ok. Thank you for your help and trying to find with me a solution to this problem.

I checked my windows update list and didn't notice it anywhere BUT if i just look in the search bar by myself and writing the KBnumber on the top right, i found some lines matching with this security update. 

The problem is I m quiet afraid to delete files by myself, especially files being part of the "System32" area...

Screenshot : 

 

[rsc204 21,817]

1 hour ago, Parisian said:

The problem is I m quiet afraid to delete files by myself, especially files being part of the "System32" area...

I certainly wouldn't recommend it. That said, these packages are simply the downloads of the Windows updates, from there they get installed into the system. So having them there is not the same thing as having them installed.

If the update is no longer listed inside the Windows Update / View Installed Updates screen, you'd think it is not installed... then again, the way updates are delivered for Win7 changed about 2 years back. Now all the updates are rolled together into monthly security updates, with each new update containing all the previous month's updates too. It could well be that this update has been included into the monthly patches instead.

Are you still using one of the disc-based versions of SC4? The digital releases do not suffer from these problems, so something else is the cause if you're using a digital version.

22 hours ago, Parisian said:

After the installation completion, nothing happen when trying to launch it via the desktop icon. 

Have you tried simply launching the game with Software Rendering? Right click your SC4 shortcut, select properties and add the following to the end of the target line:

-d:software

See if this enables you to launch the game.

However, from the symptoms you mention, where it stopped working after SC4 crashed, it seems more likely something is wrong with your install of SC4. Did you remove all old versions of SC4 (using the uninstaller), before you tried to install the new version you are using? If not, I'd try doing that next, because simply installing multiple copies can lead to all sorts of conflicts/problems that make diagnosing issues much harder to do.

[Parisian 556]

Thanks a lot for your reply...

The extension you mentioned, i have some difficulties add it to the existing line. Do i have to copy it after the target line :

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe-d:software" ? 

Or do I have to add a new line? I tried few options but it failed to work...

 

if this doesn't work with the software option, I admit I don't know how to solve my problem... that's disturbing

[rsc204 21,817]

The "Target" line is where this needs to be added, it would look like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -d:software

Just add the last part, the main path is specific to your install, do make sure there is a space before the hyphen.

[Parisian 556]

On 06/01/2019 at 3:17 PM, rsc204 said:

The "Target" line is where this needs to be added, it would look like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -d:software

Just add the last part, the main path is specific to your install, do make sure there is a space before the hyphen.

Oh well  

I tried... nothing... still unable to launch... I m going to resigned ... so sad

I don't know what else to try... 

[Parisian 556]

On 03/01/2019 at 1:28 PM, rsc204 said:

I certainly wouldn't recommend it. That said, these packages are simply the downloads of the Windows updates, from there they get installed into the system. So having them there is not the same thing as having them installed.

If the update is no longer listed inside the Windows Update / View Installed Updates screen, you'd think it is not installed... then again, the way updates are delivered for Win7 changed about 2 years back. Now all the updates are rolled together into monthly security updates, with each new update containing all the previous month's updates too. It could well be that this update has been included into the monthly patches instead.

Are you still using one of the disc-based versions of SC4? The digital releases do not suffer from these problems, so something else is the cause if you're using a digital version.

Have you tried simply launching the game with Software Rendering? Right click your SC4 shortcut, select properties and add the following to the end of the target line:

-d:software

See if this enables you to launch the game.

However, from the symptoms you mention, where it stopped working after SC4 crashed, it seems more likely something is wrong with your install of SC4. Did you remove all old versions of SC4 (using the uninstaller), before you tried to install the new version you are using? If not, I'd try doing that next, because simply installing multiple copies can lead to all sorts of conflicts/problems that make diagnosing issues much harder to do.

Yes still using a disc-based game. 

Well i think I m gonna try to delete everything and re-install the whole thing. If it's not working, going to download the numeric version to try. And if it fails, I will stop

Thank you very much for having try to help me anyway.

[rsc204 21,817]

If altering the rendering mode did not help, it simply means that's unlikely to be the cause of your problems. But it was worth checking before looking at other possibilities.

It's worth also looking into whether the Windows update that removes SafeDisc support from Windows is behind the problem. All disc-based versions need SafeDisc to validate the on-disk DRM (copy protection) to run the game. If you see a brief black screen, then the game simply returns to the desktop without any error or seeing the Intro Screen. That probably means this validation failed. This happens because, the driver needed by Windows to handle this validation, was removed by the Windows update.

Re-installing SC4 won't fix this problem, but you can if you are using an older version of Windows (i.e. not Windows 10), resolve the problem. See the instructions here on how to restore the driver temporarily when running SC4:

There is no need to completely remove the update, see "5)  Enable secdrv.sys on demand", which is the method I'd recommend.

[Cyclone Boom 16,965]

1 hour ago, Parisian said:

Well i think I m gonna try to delete everything and re-install the whole thing.

Before attempting reinstalling your CD based game or looking into a digital version like GOG, I've got a suggestion...

Edit while typing:
I see @rsc204 got there first with the same idea, but I'll post this anyway just in case it helps as a complementary explanation.

Firstly in the event there are leftovers of KB3086255 remaining or it's been bundled into one of those monthly rollup patches, something you may wish to try is enabling the secdrv driver via the command line. This technically poses a potential security risk since the driver has known vulnerabilities. So it's probably not the recommended thing, but might be the issue preventing the game from running. It does sound like the symptoms you've described are from the driver being blocked upon startup. What the security update did was disable the driver from running, but it still can be started and stopped as needed by instructing it to do so.

If you wish to attempt this, open a Command Prompt dialog (listed in the start menu under "Accessories"), then right click and Run as administrator.

Next type (or paste) in the following command which will start the service required for the SafeDisc validation, as the CD based game uses.

sc start secdrv

Like so:

Then press Enter to run it, from where it should confirm the service is now running, or already is.

As the KB3086255 summary topic documents, section #5 specifies there are also other commands to run it on demand or automatically. Maybe give those a try also and see if they then allow the game to start. The thing is the game uses SafeDisc as the built-in method of copy protection. Even though this is legacy technology, it's what the game was designed with for DRM reasons. So without getting it to run, the game is simply unable to start. Therefore by allowing the SafeDisc driver, it can complete the necessary authentication check with the CD (which only takes a split second) and then SC4 is permitted to load each time.

 

As another idea...

I suspect this won't make any difference, but something random which also came to mind is to try deleting the SimCity 4.cfg file located in:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\SimCity 4

This is a file configuration format which contains settings for the Graphics Options and other preferences, including the last region opened and the area being focussed upon. When starting SC4 again without this file present, it'll create a new one with the default combination of variables set. Maybe your current one has become corrupted for some reason and is getting mixed up as a result. I'd say this is unlikely though, but it can't hurt to try.

Should you wish to try reinstalling the game, just be sure to make a backup of any custom content items in Plugins, and also your Regions. Any content in the Program Files folder will get deleted when uninstalling, so this is important to first copy to a safe place. The correct way to uninstall the game is via the "Programs and Features" list in Windows 7, and then it'll remove the registry entries originally created for the paths and language references, etc.

I really hope you can get the game working again.

[Parisian 556]

On 08/01/2019 at 6:09 PM, Cyclone Boom said:

Before attempting reinstalling your CD based game or looking into a digital version like GOG, I've got a suggestion...

Edit while typing:
I see @rsc204 got there first with the same idea, but I'll post this anyway just in case it helps as a complementary explanation.

Firstly in the event there are leftovers of KB3086255 remaining or it's been bundled into one of those monthly rollup patches, something you may wish to try is enabling the secdrv driver via the command line. This technically poses a potential security risk since the driver has known vulnerabilities. So it's probably not the recommended thing, but might be the issue preventing the game from running. It does sound like the symptoms you've described are from the driver being blocked upon startup. What the security update did was disable the driver from running, but it still can be started and stopped as needed by instructing it to do so.

If you wish to attempt this, open a Command Prompt dialog (listed in the start menu under "Accessories"), then right click and Run as administrator.

Next type (or paste) in the following command which will start the service required for the SafeDisc validation, as the CD based game uses.

sc start secdrv

Like so:

Then press Enter to run it, from where it should confirm the service is now running, or already is.

As the KB3086255 summary topic documents, section #5 specifies there are also other commands to run it on demand or automatically. Maybe give those a try also and see if they then allow the game to start. The thing is the game uses SafeDisc as the built-in method of copy protection. Even though this is legacy technology, it's what the game was designed with for DRM reasons. So without getting it to run, the game is simply unable to start. Therefore by allowing the SafeDisc driver, it can complete the necessary authentication check with the CD (which only takes a split second) and then SC4 is permitted to load each time.

 

As another idea...

I suspect this won't make any difference, but something random which also came to mind is to try deleting the SimCity 4.cfg file located in:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\SimCity 4

This is a file configuration format which contains settings for the Graphics Options and other preferences, including the last region opened and the area being focussed upon. When starting SC4 again without this file present, it'll create a new one with the default combination of variables set. Maybe your current one has become corrupted for some reason and is getting mixed up as a result. I'd say this is unlikely though, but it can't hurt to try.

Should you wish to try reinstalling the game, just be sure to make a backup of any custom content items in Plugins, and also your Regions. Any content in the Program Files folder will get deleted when uninstalling, so this is important to first copy to a safe place. The correct way to uninstall the game is via the "Programs and Features" list in Windows 7, and then it'll remove the registry entries originally created for the paths and language references, etc.

I really hope you can get the game working again.

You cannot imagine how Happy you make me tonight!

I tried the solution you suggest, the one to change the "sc sec secdrv" and turned it on. and now IT WORKS !

THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH for all your explanations. I m so grateful.

I would also add thank you to others who tried to help me too, and for the tips the gave here to get the game working again. Thanks a lot. 

P.