Tech Question -- Occasional Blurriness In Civilization IV

Factual Questions
1

I received Civilization IV for Christmas (I like to stay a generation behind on a lot of games – cheaper, usually bug-free, and I don’t need a new computer to run them – and yes, I’ve seen the relevant xkcd). However, the “bug-free” part isn’t holding up this time.

This is how the game is supposed to look. However, every minute or so the game blurs out, lasting 30 second to a minute. This is what it looks like when it happens, and
here is a closeup of the lettering of that second screenshot.

Here are the particulars:
I’m running it on an HP Compaq 6910p laptop with WinXP Pro
128 MB of DDR3 ram

Here’s the info center report:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name SBK611571L1EMG
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Compaq 6910p
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11 GenuineIntel ~2194 Mhz
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11 GenuineIntel ~2194 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Hewlett-Packard 68MCD Ver. F.14, 4/15/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = “5.1.2600.2765 (xpsp.050928-1517)”
Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.15 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 3.82 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
So far, I’ve tried the basics – rebooting, disabling everything that wasn’t system-critical, etc. I’ve updated the graphics driver to the latest version, but no luck.

However, you’ll note that of the above-linked pictures, the first one is an actual screenshot while the second two are photographs of the screen. When I took a screenshot during the blurring and pasted it into Paint, it came up perfectly clear – an indication that this is something on the display itself, correct?

So…any ideas, anyone?

2

The display or the card, yes. In fact, since it only happens while playing a 3D game, I’d think it more likely to be the latter. Does the start menu get blurry? It’s hard to tell from your included pictures.

In fact, would you mind taking a picture of the not blurred version with a camera liike the others, so we are comparing like with like?

3

I’ve played that game for years and never seen that sort of screen. However, I do note that you have very little RAM- you state you have 128 MB with 512 MB being minimum and 1 GB recommended.

I can’t see what size Video card you have.

Possibly the computer you are using isn’t really up to scratch?

4

Your first problem is that by that date you should have at least 3 cities and be well on your way to inventing gunpowder! (only kidding)

Something is amiss in your stats here, you actually have 2GB of RAM, not 128MB (you can’t even get 128MB sticks of DDR3 RAM). Chances are your gfx card has 128MB RAM and you are confusing this with the system RAM.

Your computer is fine to run this game so something else must be causing it to trip up. Is there any reason you are running the game in a window rather than full screen? The first thing I would try is to run fullscreen so the game has complete control of the display (as far as it can) and then try switching in the in-game options between different resolutions and refresh rates. I’m guessing that this effect is never observed outside this game?

5

Yes – it can happen from any screen in the game. And if I immediately exit the game when it starts happening, the blurriness continues at my desktop or any other program until the problem runs its course a minute later (it doesn’t come back once I’ve exited the game, however).

Sure thing.

Quite correct – my mistake. The laptop itself has two gigs of ram – 128 is on the card.

When I first loaded the game, it was in full-screen mode. I switched it while troubleshooting and never changed it back. I’ve tried changing the resolution and turning off various in-game graphics option, but no luck.

Appreciate the suggestions so far!

6

I remember this game had some serious issues with some specific graphics cards when released. Try finding patches for the game and update your video card drivers.

7

Can you hook up an external monitor to your laptop to see if it’s blurry too? That would tell you… well I don’t know what it would tell you. Does it happen immediately even if you start with a cold laptop, or does it need to heat up before the problem appears?

8

Please run DXDIAG, Save All Info, and post dxdiag.txt here (first delete everything after the Sound Devices section so it will fit).

9

Tried it – no luck.

I did try hooking up an external monitor, but for some reason it wouldn’t respond (I just chalked it up to the fact that the monitor I tried is a huge POS (which is why it’s stuck in a closet in the first place). No difference between cold and hot.

Here ya go…thanks much!

System Information

Time of this report: 1/1/2011, 10:26:27
Machine name: SBK611571L1EMG
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_qfe.100216-2016)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP Compaq 6910p
BIOS: EPP runtime BIOS - Version 1.1
Processor: Intel(R) Core™2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2016MB RAM
Page File: 1000MB used, 2906MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

DxDiag Notes

DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.

DirectX Debug Levels

Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

Display Devices

    Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon X2300
 Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
    Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x7188)
     DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
   Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7188&SUBSYS_30C1103C&REV_00

Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Default Monitor
Monitor Max Res:
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6833 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 7/3/2008 23:23:46, 309248 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
Mini VDD Date: 7/4/2008 02:33:34, 3230720 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-32C8-11CF-3D69-CB10A1C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x1002
Device ID: 0x7188
SubSys ID: 0x30C1103C
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D ModeWMV8_B ModeWMV8_A ModeWMV9_B ModeWMV9_A
Deinterlace Caps: {6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{552C0DAD-CCBC-420B-83C8-74943CF9F1A6}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,2) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{6E8329FF-B642-418B-BCF0-BCB6591E255F}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,1) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run

10

If the problem didn’t go away, it would tell you it isn’t the laptop’s screen, but the card. Whether that was caused by bad software or not would still need to be determined.

Go ahead and go to the appropriate Tabs in DXdiag and run those. Those are the 3D parts of the graphics, so that’s what the game is using.

They’ll probably be fine if you’ve had no problems with any other game, but it’s still worth a check.

11

I’ll give that another try tomorrow.

Done, no problems:

12

Did you indeed update your video driver? That one is from 2008, so check with HP (ATI don’t directly supply drivers for OEMs).

Also, any particular reason for not going to SP3 on XP? Not that I think it has anything to do with this issue, just wondered.

13

Just tried that, and for awhile there I thought it did the trick. It took about five minutes before the same problem cropped up. Damn.

This is a work-issued laptop – I have free reign to make a lot of changes, but updating service packs is something that needs “approval”, and has to be done to all the laptops in our group.

14

With the external monitor, you’ll likely have to hit a key (fn7, IIRC) to switch between LCD only, LCD + external, and external only.

What resolution and refresh rate are set in the game? What is your LCD’s native mode?

Try the latest DirectX 9.0c installer from Microsoft (dxwebsetup.exe), save it to a local directory, and then run it.

15

The game should automatically detect resolutions the monitor can handle (there is no way to change the refresh rate in the game). It does so with my laptop monitor, and if I hook up an external monitor, it will only allow the resolutions that monitor can handle*.

I have definitely never seen such blurring in my games, and by seeing that his desktop is also blurred makes me wonder (if I didn’t know better) that he moved the camera when he took the photo (especially since the screen capture is not blurred).

*ETA—however, before I do so I have to use a “neutral” resolution such as 1024x768

16

Do you get the problem in any other 3D games? How about when playing movies?