Vista - Sid Meier's Civ 4 and 2K

I've had several months of back and forth with 2k about Civ 4 with no results about 2 error messages I received while using my Home Premium Vista. The 1st error message came when I tried to start using Civ 4 again after several weeks of not playing, the message said:
"Cannot locate the CD-Rom"
"Please insert the correct CD-Rom, select ok and restart application."
To myself I said no biggie I will just uninstall and reinstall that should solve the problem and run my registry cleaner and file search programs to clear out the corruption as well as defrag but upon attempting to uninstall I received this message:
Error Code: -5004 : 0x80041f42
Error Information:
*C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Professional\RunTime\12\00\Intel32\iKernel.dll
>inc\CoCreate.cpp (44)
>SetupDLL\SetupDLL.cpp (1390)
PAPP:Sid Meier's Civilization 4
PVENDOR:Firaxis Games (##IDS_PRODUCT_URL##)
PGUID:CFBCE791-2D53-4FCE-B3FB-D6E01F4112E8
$11.0.0.28844
So I contacted 2K and they gave all kinds of excuses as to the problem and how to fix it. None of which worked. I've also reinstalled DX9. The problem redirects me to InstallShield where I find no help cause they refer me back to 2K with the message that 2K has formatted a corrupted InstallShield file into there disc.
Needless to say 2K has not answered back on this nor will they acknowledge that is the problem yet admantly say their game is Windows compatible (bah humbug) definitely not with Vista.

So any help would be appreciated.

I've also found I've a problem with compatibility with my Civ 3 Complete but at least I can play it whereas Civ4 is unplayable now.

Zagnoc wrote:
Just FYI,
For Vista and upcoming Win7, the OS keeps different
locations for files and saved games for different
profiles and permissions when installing and running.
Run game same account as you installed it for
best performance.
ie: Install under Admin account and set game
link icon under 'compatibility' section to 'run
as administrator'..should keep all files together.

'Seek and ye shall find'
NT Canuck

I've done that and much more but still unable to uninstall the game or play it because the Cannot locate disk. What I have found out is that Microsoft has posted on their site that all of Civ3 and Civ4 except for BTS are incompatible with Vista. Due to some failure in the software files DX9 and InstallShield used by 2K. So needless to say since all my favorite games are listed as incompatible with Vista. I've proceeded to reformat all my computers back to Windows Xp. Vista is like ME to me a total waste of money and time to deal with. The only thing I found workable was the picture show and video part all the rest was a major foul up and not made to be compatible with gaming. Check here for compatibility: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/

Civilization IV works fine on Windows Vista.

The error you mention is typical of the copy protection being tripped up,
sometimes as a result of installing a Virtual CD/DVD drive software.

Running a registry cleaner is a bad idea, and defragmenting will have no
effect at all on this.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Desktop Experience.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/


"Zagnoc" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:047e502f4de699b06e85c24468e4f367@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Well no matter because I went to Microsoft and found they've listed Sid Meier's Civ 4 as not compatible with Vista.
Also, I've not installed anything such as Virtual, it just stopped working when I went back to play.
But, again no matter. I've put Vista in the box with all the other bad software I've bought over the years. I've tried to load my Windows XP on to that computer but Vista shut it down literally, so now I'm in the process of letting a pc tech remove Vista from my machine.
Windows Vista Compatibility Center

"Zagnoc" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:086881604c42da09dc27382c9dfdcb41@xxxxxx-gateway.com...Microsoft's job isn't listing compatibility with all the millions of bits of
Windows software out there.

They're simply repeating what the publisher lists as supported, and
supported doesn't mean compatible or not, just if its supported or not. But
I can tell you now I've been playing Civ 4, original version with and
without all expansion packs on Windows Vista with no issues since 2006.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Desktop Experience.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/

My experience with Vista and Civ3, Civ3 complete, Civ4, and numerous other free games online has been totally abysmal. I wish I had never bought Vista. If anyone asks me about Vista I'll tell them to not waste the money. The game computer I had installed with Vista died. So I'm burying it before the stink of it overwhelms me and going back to Xp. So thanks for your wonderful advice but since I am not a tech as you appear to be using Vista is waste of my time.

Zagnoc wrote:
What Microsoft should look into is releasing something
like a nocd patch for those games, sort of a hint.

On other hand there is nothing more ironic
than a Microsoft game that won't play on
a Microsoft Operating System. Sadists?

'Seek and ye shall find'
NT Canuck