Please go to C:\Program Files\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2 (or wherever you installed the game at), open the debug.err file you find there in notepad, and copy/paste the contents into a post here. This will give us some technical information that can help troubleshoot your problem.

Debug Message: Version v1.0 last updated on: Mon Feb 6 12:52:05 2006
Debug Message: Could not find a TGN Serial No.
Debug Message: *********DXDiag info follows.*********
System Info
Time: 8/20/2006, 23:47:06
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Machine Name: ENTERPRISE
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Languages: English (Regional Setting: Norwegian (Bokmål))
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/09/04 10:35:09 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Physical Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 764MB used, 1900MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS


Display Info
Display device 1:
Device Name: \\.\DISPLAY1
Card Name: Sapphire RADEON X700 PRO 256MB
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip Type: RADEON X700 PRO (0x5E4B)
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Key Device: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5E4B&SUBSYS_0530174B&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 x 1024 (16 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Resolution: 1600,1200
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6517
Driver Date: 2/22/2005 19:36:24
DirectX Acceleration Enabled: Yes



Sound info
Sound device 1:
Description: Realtek HD Audio rear output
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0880&SUBSYS_08800000&REV_0905
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Driver Name: RtkHDAud.sys
Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Driver Version: 5.10.0000.5024
Driver Date: 5/17/2004 15:39:58
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_4_SAMPLES
Debug Message: Game Resolution: 1024 x 768
Debug Message: Running fullscreen.
Debug Message: HAL (hw vp): Sapphire RADEON X700 PRO 256MB
Debug Message: D3DPRESENT_INTERVAL_DEFAULT
Debug Message: Refresh rate: 60
Debug Message: Bit Depth: 16 bit.
Debug Message: *********Checking D3DDevice Caps***********************
Debug Message: A full-color cursor is supported in hardware at high resolution modes.
Debug Message: RGB in format 5:6:5, Masks reported as f800:7e0:1f
Debug Message: Now Fullscreen
Debug Message: Shell initialization complete
Debug Message: ***** Initializing Game *****
Debug Message: Timer Frequency is 0 b3390ae0
Debug Message: Initializing sound card.
Debug Message: initailizing bink
Debug Message: Create setup screens.
Debug Message: Clear galaxy settings.
Debug Message: Clear influence.
Debug Message: Clear up laws.
Debug Message: Clear first time events.
Debug Message: Clear wonders and trade goods.
Debug Message: Clear sector mapper.
Debug Message: Set mouse.
Debug Message: Set update timer.

You may also try setting GC2 to the same resoultion as your desktop. Go to My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2 (if you cannot find this folder, just do a serach on your machine for this file), open the file prefs.ini and a few lines down from the top you will find:

DisplayWidth=1024
DisplayHeight=768

Change those to:

DisplayWidth=1280
DisplayHeight=1024

Thank you for the information in this post. It was very instrumental in playing my game. My old computer died and I replaced my Windows XP with XP X64. This has been a great source of pain getting everything else up and running again. However your suggestions on this post, changing the display size to match the screen resolution I was actually using, did the trick. I was also following the thread on STICKY: Dual core machines which was also very helpful.