Frequency Out O Range!

[1veedo]

I installed Civilization 3 (basic) on my XP computer but when I run it it says "Frequency Out Of Range." Then gives some Frequency is: whatever, safe range (I think) whatever. It's the monitor telling me this.

 

I messed around some in properties and changed a few things like colors, resolution, refresh rate, etc. This didnt fix civ, but under 32 colors, bzflag does not run. (fortunately I dont need to reboot when bzflag does this... F12. I have to reboot every test run on civilization. I've read some about this, and one fix is with drivers. I found *the* driver for it (CM1772PF) but it also asks for another file I cannot find:

 

The file that gives a 404 is indeed the file I need!

http://www.gnrnordic.com/downloads.htm

http://www.gnrintl.com/downloads/driver/PF770.icm

 

I do know that the monitor on my Linux box works with Civilization; I had it installed before Windows started being stupid (ok, it was always stupid but it got dumber).

 

I've done some research but nothing seems to help me. No driver files. Changing settings is tedious (reboot after *every* test). I dont want to swap monitors.

[Comandante]

your problem is not likely to be in the monitor, I'd say more in game options or linux settings.

 

my monitor used to give "out of range" warning when the screen resolution in game was greater than the maximum supported by the monitor. what you can try to do is run civ3 settings without running the game - if that option's available, if it is not then try looking into some config files in the game's directory. the section of a config file from half life looks like this: (the file is .cfg (different in other games...) so you need to open it with notepad)

 

m_side "0.8"

m_forward "1"

m_yaw "0.022"

m_pitch "0.022000"

sensitivity "5.800000"

lookstrafe "0.000000"

lookspring "0.000000"

cl_skyname "2desert"

cl_backspeed "400"

cl_forwardspeed "400"

cl_himodels "0.000000"

rate "2500.000000"

 

... so there should be option named resolution and probably it's value; something like "2048x1536", IF you find this option change it to something you know your monitor will support, try "800x600".

 

I'm not saying this will fix your problem but you can try. If it's not the resolution try looking for freqency in the options... if you can't find anything at all then its up to linux, but the last thing you should look at is your monitor - very unlikely the monitor's causing problems...

[1veedo]

I'm tryign to get civ 3 on Windows.

 

I did read someware that the monitor can be the problem, but to fix it (in windows) I need drivers.

 

I looked in the config file but didnt find anything on screen resolution.(I cant post it because its on the windows computer. I'm using Linux) But in a readme I found requiremnts: 1024X768 which I believe is what its running right now.

[Comandante]

strange, I would never expect monitor to be the problem, but anyway, so it's windows you're trying to run it on.. I see.

 

Well, I presume that's not original copy of civ3 you've got there, otherwise you'd be probably emailing customer support...

 

Do you hear any sounds coming from the speakers? Is the game running while the monitor is not able to display it? If so then try to find the latest driver for your monitor from http://www.driverguide.com/ -I'm sure they'll have something for you. If the game is not running at all then try downloading latest updates for the game from http://www.civ3.com .

 

If you've done both and the monitor still displays frequency out of range then I'm not sure what else you could do. Oh wait, do you have latest directx?

[5614]

there was one game I couldnt play because it just went all jumpy, so I used to play it in safe mode (as in the game was in safe mode not the computer) when you instal new games there's often a safe mode.

 

I'm not sure what caused that game to go jumpy, I've successfully played much higher demanding spec games and they work fine, so I'm not sure, but see if the game has a safe mode option.

 

Also try seeing if you can get into game options, sometimes you can do this before the game loads, if so try turning down the graphics to low.

[Silencer]

I've never heard of a monitor driver. And that's because they don't exst.

 

What you need is an updated driver for your graphics card.

 

Then get the manual for you monitor and look up it's limits for resolution, horizantal sync, vertical sync, refresh rate, etc, and make sure that you don't go above those.

[1veedo]

Well, I presume that's not original copy of civ3 you've got there, otherwise you'd be probably emailing customer support...

No, it's a completely legal copy. I bought it and it worked on this computer. Windows later killed over (look for another thread by me in this forum) and I put Linux here. After a few months I decided I wanted to play civ again so installed it on pretty much my dad and sister's computer.

 

So as far as I'm concerned, it should have worked.

 

I did google for this and found this thread, which is where I heard about the monitor being the problem: http://forums.devhardware.com/archive/t-21267/Frequency-Out-of-Range-

 

The first thing I did to actually try to fix it was searching for a driver. I found *the* driver for it (CM1772PF) but it also asks for another file I cannot find:

 

The file that gives a 404 is indeed the file I need!

http://www.gnrnordic.com/downloads.htm

http://www.gnrintl.com/downloads/driver/PF770.icm

 

I have an inf file from http://www.gnr.co.uk/downloads.jsp but this file, when run with the stupid windows thing tells me I need the icm file.

 

I did try getting the driver off the restore CD (it has a folder /driver/monitor) but the setup as far as I can tell just put a bunch of random files on my hard drive that are currently doing nothing. It did not install the driver.

 

I called emachines but they werent any help. I was like "Your website says that you can download monitor.ini but does not have the file that it says it has. I need a driver for whatever monitor came with T2682. Driverguide.com does not have it." She's like "um..." I hade to go over my monitor problem several tiems before she finally decided that I needed to register. Then told me to get in a chat at their website. The website sucks. Go to it and try to find what you need. I know what civ would say as well. Pretty much everything I've currently dug up about it (I hate customer service)

Also try seeing if you can get into game options, sometimes you can do this before the game loads, if so try turning down the graphics to low.

Nope. Goes strait to a spash screen, or something, then the game. The "opening movie" plays but the game does not. Well, it plays. I can hear it. Just cant see it.

I've never heard of a monitor driver. And that's because they don't exst.

Are you completely sure about that? If so, why does GNR offer drivers (although incomplete) for their monitors? Maybe its what you said with preset variables.

 

At any rate, could you like, explain exactly how I'd go about doing that? Thanks. I know the wizard says "update driver" which is how I was tryign to install the file I found for my monitor.

[Comandante]

of course there are drivers for monitors, I remember my old sony trinitron 15" worked much better with an updated driver, rather than with the one windows offered.

 

you should get also get an updated driver for your graphics card, as proposed above by Silencer... that might help too

 

I just recalled the game I had this problem with and that was the good old Settlers 4; when I run it it just said scan out of range or something similar. I figured that the starting resolution in game was greater than my monitor could support, so all I did was edit the config file...

 

Did you try playing with monitor options under display->advanced settings? Even though I think it really won't help but it doesn't hurt to change a few options and see.

 

What I'd do if I was you is talk to these guys:

 

HELP VIA TELEPHONE/FAX OR MAIL IN THE U.S. & CANADA

For phone assistance, call Infogrames Interactive Tech Support at (425) 951-7108. Our Interactive Voice Response and Faxback system is generally available 24/7, providing automated support and allowing FAQ documents to be faxed to you immediately.

 

If you've already done that then I don't know mate, I resign

[Silencer]

If there are such things as monitor drivers, then they are now obsolete.

 

In the end, all monitors take the same instructions.

[5614]

I think that what Silencer is talking about could be that hardware is hardware and drivers are software.

 

Hardware doesn't need drivers because its just a piece of physical hardware, hence a monitor or any VDU cannot have drivers.

 

HOWEVER, the software used to run that piece of hardware can have drivers... so if your screen had a piece of software running it then you can update drivers for that, similarly when you update your graphics card drivers you go into the program and click update, the hardware is not affected at all, it is the program running it that you update (in the sense that the program uses the drivers).

 

==============

 

This may be something to do with the whole 'not all programs work on linux' problem, I don't know much about resolving this problem, but I do know it exists.

 

Due to the nature of the problem it's possible that you hardware or the software for the hardware is not working properly, I say that because you said the game was working on windows and not now on linux.

[1veedo]

Everybody is misunderstanding me.

 

I ahve two computers. Both came with Windows.

 

On "mine" I had Civ workign just fine. I later installed linux here.

 

So on the other computer (the one that still has xp), a few months later, I decided to install Civ. This is where the frequency problems are.

[5614]

so it worked (past tense) on your XP.... it works (present tense) on your linux... and it doesn't work (present tense) on your XP ?

[1veedo]

it worked (past) on XP. Past XP overwriten with Linux. Does not work on other (XP) computer.

[5614]

OK, this is on windows, so its not OS compatability.

 

I think it's a fair conclusion that it's to do with either the graphics card of the monitor, (some of this has been said but):

1) update drivers (official gfx card manufacture's site should offer them)

2) try changing display settings

3) update graphics card or monitor (expensive option but should almost certainly do the trick.)

what graphics card/monitor do you have at the moment?

[1veedo]

I talked to customer service via chat yesterday and got the files I needed.

 

It was the driver upgrade.

 

I got my driver here:

http://www.proview.net/static/support/driversutils.html