Vista - Civilization 4 error

I have a computer running windows vista(probably the problem lol), I spend about an hour loading the three disks for Civilization 4, and then it says to put the first disk in again to play, i do. I click on the shortcut to go to it(i've tried not using the shortcut). It pauses for a second, the colors screw up, and most of the icons become oversized, then it gives me the dreaded blue screen telling me of some error and that windows has been halted to avoid damage. I've reinstalled the program twice, tried running it in compatablity for every available option. I have direct X, and every other hardware requirement, including graphics card.

Sounds like more of a driver error. Do you have the latest video driver for your hardware? I have Civ 4 running perfectly on my laptop (Vista Home Premium 32) and desktop (Vista Ultimate x64). Also, if the blue screen pops up, the more info you can get off there and post up, the better.

My version of Vista is one of the first ones to come out. it is 32 bit home basic. i have auto updates turned on, so i know its up to date, is there a reliable source where i can click a button and all my drivers will be updated? or do i have to hunt them down one by one. (i hope not)

I would advise hunting down the drivers one by one.
There is a page here;Drivers & Hardware
This page list all the common companies that use drivers to make things easy for you.
I would turn off auto update and select to inform you when new drivers are available. Then choose which ones you want to install.

I can tell you for a fact that Civ IV runs fine on my 3 Vista boxes at home (2 x64, and 1 x32).

Blue Screen is almost certainly a driver issue.

You can try disabling onboard sound, as that can sometimes be a real problem (from the BIOS to ensure its really disabled).

disabling onboard sound? i know i can find it in the bios, but does that KILL the sound? or just the built in speaker? If its just the built in speaker, thats cool, because i have speakers on it already (in case it matters, i have configured the sound settings for the correct speakers and installed drivers for them since they're built into the monitor and all), but if it kills all the sound, that kinda defeats the purposs of playing the game.

I don't even know if it will help. I just know that for some games it can make a difference. Yes - it kills the sound entirely.

But it only takes a min. to test it, find out if that's the issue, and then you know if you need to upgrade the sound drivers or buy an add-in sound board, or if your problem is something else.

You've got a bad-driver (or small % a bad bit of hardware). So figuring out which driver: video, sound, disk?! is your best bet to solving your problem.

Sound is the only one you can easily eliminate while still running your game. Start there.

If you have another video card, try that.

All of this assumes you've already done the obvious and actually searched for and loaded the latest & greatest drivers for all of your hardware. If you've not done that, start there, then start eliminating parts of your PC.

G/L!

EDIT: One other thought - could your disk be slightly damaged? do you have access to another one to test out (the start up process checks the disk to ensure you've got a legit copy - maybe that's goofing up). You can d/l a no-cd crack and try that if you don't have access to another disk. [I don't advocate piracy, but eliminating the disk-check seems to me to be completely reasonable for software I've paid for]