AmericanInfantry

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.

Ah well. The game works now. So THAT was the hidden problem. I'll PM CaptCity to lock this now that it's solved.

Originally posted by: Matches I un-installed Avira and the game now loads properly! Nice find, john_smith_. Guess I have to find some other Antivirus software.quote> That sucks, I like Avira. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Could be that Avira's the issue.

Originally posted by: john_smith_ My problem does not refer to SC4 but another EA game. But since this is the ONLY topic i found witch matches the error message i think i can narrow the problem after some research via google. So my question (and hope): Does anyone of you with that problem use Avira? quote> Avira could be the problem. I'm using it as well. Maybe it's the culprit? By the way, which EA game do you have that isn't working? And welcome to Simtropolis!

You have to make the Plugins folder yourself. On topic, I even went so far as to edit the data in the registry for the game. img718.imageshack.us/img718/364/sc4reg.png It said "data not set" before I put the serial code in. Guess what happened what I booted up the game? Nothing. I might need to poke around in the registry a bit more.

I feel like I'm just being a pest but I absolutely cannot fix this issue. I hit a dead end, a brick wall. I don't understand how this could happen, SC4 not working. I need a drink....

Originally posted by: tungston When you do a uninstall/reinstall, delete all the folders, and files in the Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 folders before you install the game. If you have a wide screen monitor, be sure to use a custom resolution that the monitor is capable of displaying.quote> I did that and it didn't work. I'll try that again. Edit: It did not work. No amount of vulgarity can explain how this all makes me feel. I do not have a widescreen monitor, in case you wanted to know. Tungston, would you have any idea on how to go through this dead end?

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....

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

Seems to be a common, yet new, issue to me. I sent A Nonny Moose a PM, hope he can help us.

LoD, did you fix this problem? If so, how?

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

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.

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?

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.

This is happening with me as well. I even have a thread about it below yours. Except in the case of my game, the disc isn't even running so no game. How does this happen?

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.

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?

I'll try that and see if it works.

Looks nice so far, can't wait to read the rest of it!