Installed (after much struggling with Stardock's insane design) and ran GalCivII happily for a month. Was using a 19" ViewSonic A90 CRT monitor (on analog cable from my ATI 9600 series card).
Now, I have installed a new ViewSonic VA1912wb wide-format LCD display, using digital D-SUB cable only. This monitor's optimal resolution is 1440x900, but it does support 1280x1024 in an emulation mode.
GalCivII attempts to start, I get a quick black screen, and then the screen is mostly black but with a 2-inch stripe of my normal windows desktop down the right hand side. I am able to move my mouse around and click things in that striped area. GalCivII is no longer active, and I am able to kill the process using Task Manager. There is no sound during this.
Theory 1: GalCivII is still trying to start in a native 1024x768 or 1280x1024 mode (I forget which one I set when I was playing before). It fails to do this and then crashes.
Theory 2: GalCivII is trying to send output via the analog port, even though the only device is attached to digital. It doesn't find a device (or the video card reports there is no such device) and then crashes.
Theory 3: Something else?
I have downloaded the latest patch for GalCivII, and updated my ATI video drivers. Below is the output from debug.err.
I have not yet tried removing the install and then reinstalling: I don't want to do that because I am in the middle of the campaign and have saved games, and also because I installed from online using Stardock, and that process is as painful an installation process as I have ever experienced. I will do it if it is certain to fix the issue and there is no other solution (such as a command-line launch flag that will tell GalCivII how to use the new display?)
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Debug Message: Version v1.2 last updated on: Mon Jun 12 18:04:26 2006
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 7/2/2006, 18:56:48
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: MALICE
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.1GHz
Physical Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 285MB used, 2174MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: RADEON 9600 SERIES
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: ATI RADEON 9600 Series AGP (0x4150)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4150&SUBSYS_7C29174B&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: ViewSonic VA1912w SERIES
Monitor Max Resolution: 1440,900
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6618
Driver Date: 6/7/2006 14:09:10
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes
Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: SB Audigy Audio [C000]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00511102&REV_03
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Provider: Creative
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0244
Driver Date: 3/22/2002 05:09:40
Type: WDM
Other Drivers:
Acceleration Level: 3
Cap Flags: 0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Debug Message: *********END dxdiag info.*********
Debug Message: Entering WinMain
Debug Message: ******* Starting Game Shell *******
Debug Message: Going Fullscreen
Debug Message: Preparing to change display settings.
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_6_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Could not create the render device using default format. Switching to 16bit
Debug Message: Using multilsample setting: D3DMULTISAMPLE_NONE
Debug Message: Could not create the render device.
Debug Message: InitializeDirect3D Failed.
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: WM_CLOSE message received.
Debug Message: GameUninitialize start
