Brand New computer won\'t play this game

I\'m trying to play simcity 4 on a brand new computer I got at work.  It loads up and starts just fine, but right before the screen comes up to load or start a new city I get kicked out of the game and back into XP like I never even had the game running.

Are there some easy things to try to fix this?


the comp is a dell

P4 3.2Ghz HT
512 MB Ram
nVidia FX5200 128 MB

Help!

Is the game fully patched to the newest version?  Some games were just not developed to run under WinXP, and the developers never bothered to fix them.

I have the same problem with "Black and White" which seems to have been developed to run only on PCs configured during a period of about 14 months, 2 years ago.  Very stupid IMO.

Naturally start with the standard:

Video Card drivers.
Sound Card drivers.
DirectX latest verstion.

If that doesn\'t fix it, try manually setting your desktop to 800x600 and 16 mil colours before you run it.  Run DX diag and see if there are any issues.  Still not working?  Try running it through XP\'s "backwards compatibility" as a 2k or 98 program.

i\'ll try resetting the resolution cause it\'s jacked all the way up now, to like 1280x1245 or something like that.  It\'s my work computer and it\'s an LCD screen, the increased resolution decreases the "ghosting" or whatever it\'s called using AutoCAD.

How do I access the backwards compatibility function in XP?

Try this:

Go to "My Computer" then find the CD, i.e. "Sim City 4 (E:)" or whatever, open it and then find the file that automatically runs the game it might be called like "SETUP" or something like that, right click on it then go to properties then click the compatibility tab, then check the "Run in compatibility mode for:" and choose a mode i.e. "Windows 98" etc

This worked for some older games when I got my new comp

Although if Sim City 4 is a new game and says it runs with XP then its prob ur drivers etc

yeah, I figured out where to change it to compatibility mode but still no go.  I was borrowing the game from a friend, so it\'s not a big loss.  I just picked up a used copy of C&C Generals and that runs flawlessly.