Here are some of the most frequent problems people have been

encountering with Civ2, and the solutions to them. I'll try

to repost this from time to time.
Brian Reynolds
Civ II Designer

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Civilization II -- Frequently Asked Questions (23-Apr-96)
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Q: Where can I get the latest patch for Civ2?
A: The latest patch is now available
for download. If you're having problems and you haven't
downloaded the latest patch yet, DO IT! The patch can be
found on our ftp site (ftp.microprose.com, under "new
versions"), our web site (www.microprose.com, under CivII,
"latest"), or on Compuserve or AOL.

Q1: I can't hear music, even though the CD is in the drive.

Q2: When I select "Pick Music", it tells me this option is not available
unless the CD is in the drive, but it -is- in the drive.
A: The music in the game is straight redbook CD audio. This means that you
can put the Civ2 CD into any CD player, and the music should play just like
any regular music CD (except for track 1). In order to hear the CD audio
music, you must have the following:
1) The Civ2 CD in the CD drive.
2) The proper (and up-to-date) Windows MCI CD audio drivers for your
soundcard loaded.
3) A CD audio cable connecting your CD drive to your soundcard. This last
is part of the standard system configuration and is probably present
unless you installed your sound card or CDROM drive yourself.
If these conditions are satisfied, the music will play. If you do not have
recent soundcard drivers, you should contact your soundcard manufacturer for
an update. Also, there have been reports of other CD programs (e.g.
Microsoft FlexiCD) causing a conflict with the game. In this case,
disabling these other programs should fix the problem.
If you're having problems w/ the music, you may want to check if you can
play a regular audio CD on your CDROM drive. Once you can do that, you
should be able to hear music with Civ2.

Q: I am getting a "Page Fault" error.

A: Make sure you have the latest driver for your video card. Otherwise,
follow the instructions for GPFs, below.

Q1: I am getting a lot of GPFs in the game.

Q2: I am getting "SMEDS Application Errors" or "PORTALLOCFAILED"
messages.
A: There are several possible causes of this problem:
1) The initially shipped version of Civilization II turns out to -require-
a sound card in order to run properly. If you don't have a sound card,
you'll need to download the patched version.
2) The next most likely problem is a lack of global memory space. Even
when you have the required amount of physical memory, it is possible
for other applications, or disk cache programs, to drain these resources.
a) Usually the best solution is to increase the amount of virtual
memory swap space you have available: Go to Control Panel, 386
Enhanced, Virtual Memory and increase your swap memory to 32+megs.
You'll need to make sure you have enough disk space to accomodate
the swap file, of course.
b) If you're running Windows 95, it will usually manage your virtual
memory for you correctly. However, you must have enough disk space
available for Win95 to create and use a swap file.
c) The above will usually eliminate the GPF's, but you may also be
able to improve performance by freeing up physical memory,
particularly by reducing the size of your disk cache if you have
a large one.
3) If your problem is a GPF at 0041:00000343 (or thereabouts), the problem
usually means that WinG installation was somehow skipped when you
installed the game (it is supposed to be installed automatically). To
install manually, run WINGSET.EXE in the WING directory on the CDROM.
You'll also want to install Video for Windows manually by running
VFWSETUP.EXE from the VFW_INST directory.
Occasionally this problem persists-- so far we've encountered this on
Win95 machines w/ Windows installed on some drive other than C:. Win95
seems to have a hard time loading WinG in this case. Patch 1.11 (still
"coming soon" at the time of this FAQ update) will work around this
problem.
4) We are aware of problems with certain models of "Cirrus Logic" and
"Diamond" brand video cards. In most cases, these problems can be solved
by updating the Windows video drivers. If you have a Cirrus Logic card,
new drivers can be found at "ftp.cirrus.com". If you are using any other
brand video card, we recommend checking your drivers to make sure they
are up-to-date. If you are using older (buggy) drivers, they can cause
problems. Generally speaking, most GPFs can be solved by updating your
Windows video, sound, etc drivers!
5) Especially, if you're receiving a GPF in "WING.DLL", it probably means
you are using some kind of "RAM Doubling" software (e.g. RAM Doubler,
SoftRAM), which seems to cause a conflict. To fix the problem,
you must disable these programs before starting the game. We have
also noticed conflicts with some CD-ROM accelerator programs.
6) "Disk Doubler" software has also been found to cause occasional
problems.
7) If you've tried all of the above and you're still having GPF's whenever
you discover a new technology, try renaming/deleting the file
GET_INFO.EXE from your Civ2 directory. You won't get the fancy
civilopedia, but you will get the beta civilopedia. In this case,
the problem is some conflict with the Authorware package we used
to do the hypertext Civilopedia.
 8) We have encountered rare cases in which the Windows configuration
itself is at fault; somehow Windows has been corrupted since it was
installed, possibly by some other application or by a faulty
"uninstall" procedure for another application. Several users with
mysterious problems have cured them by reinstalling Windows (I
know, ugh). Obviously this is a last resort. If you decide to
reinstall Windows, you must then reinstall all of Civ2, including
WinG and Video for Windows.

Q: I am receiving "Error -8 in Module 4, data 0 0" and "File open failed

MODULES.DB"
A: When CIV2.EXE is run, its working directory must be set to your
CIV2 directory (typically C:\MPS\CIV2). Check the properties on your
Civ2 icon to make sure its working directory is set correctly. If you've
been trying to start Civ2 in some unorthodox way (e.g. under File
Manager or Explorer), try starting it w/ the designated icon/shortcut.

Q: The game tells me to run "VFWFIX.BAT" on the CD but I cannot find it!
A: Actually, the file is "VFWFIX.REG" and you can still run the file. If you
double-click on the file in the File Manager (Win3.1) or "My Computer"
(Win95), the information in the file will be added to the Windows registry
and the problem should be fixed. Sorry for the confusion.

Q: The "Civilopedia" causes a black screen.

A: This will happen if you have Win95, and did not install the pedia files to
the hard drive, and are playing with the CD. You'll simply need to download
the latest patched version.

Q: The text in the game is unreadable, or I receive a Truetype font error.

A: Make sure that truetype fonts are enabled on the Control Panel.
Also, Adobe Type Manager has a known incompatibility with the Authorware
tool we used for the hypertext Civilopedia. You'll need to disable
ATM, and *tell it to use resident fonts*.
If you've tried all of this and you're -still- getting text in "Greek",
we've had some success by actually uninstalling the Symbol truetype
font (under Control Panel, Fonts), and then removing the font file
(SYMBOLE.FON) from the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. This is a somewhat
crude and last ditch solution.

Q: I am having problems running the videos in the game.

(Particularly if they always show up as black squares).
A: Try reinstalling the "WinG" and "Video for Windows" programs (these
programs can be found in the appropriate subdirectories on the CD).
When re-installing, make sure that you agree to all the licensing
questions and you should restart windows so that the changes take effect.
To reinstall WinG, run WINGSET.EXE in the WING directory on the CDROM.
 To reinstall VFW, run VFWSETUP.EXE in the VFW_INST directory on the CDROM.

Q: The heralds appear but they aren't animating (Win 95 machines only).
A: You are probably using the 32-bit Indeo driver. You can check this by
looking for a file called IR41_32.DLL in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.
If this is the case, you can either uninstall the 32-bit version and install
the Video for Windows on the Civ 2 CD, or you can wait for a patch which we
hope will be ready soon.

Q: I received a "Can't find WinG" error message.

A: Some computers have their Windows System directory write-protected.
To fix it you need to change this attribute and reinstall both WinG
and Video for Windows.

Q: The game can't find the CD after I have been playing for a while.
A: If you open the CD-ROM drive during the course of gameplay, the game will
stop recognizing the presence of the CD. For now, the only fix is to not
to open the CD-ROM drive during the course of gameplay. We are working on
improving the game's recognition of the CD for the version 1.07 patch.

Q: I get strange shifting colors when the Wonders videos are played.
A: Switch your video display to 256 color mode.