Sim City 4 Discs Won't Boot in Vista

Well, today I finally cracked and bought a copy of Sim City 4 for $10. It was one of those jewel case only deals. It says Vista compatible on the disc, but when I got it home and put the disc in... nothing happened. No whir of the drive, no prompt, nothing. I tried the second disc, again, nothing. It just tells me to insert a disc into the drive when I try to explore it.

So I tried another CD, and it ran fine. Looked for help online and there was nothing. I have never had a disc not read like this, I might as well have just put it in upside down. I'm really pissed because I probably could have stolen the thing and gotten it to work just fine, but the second I pay for something it's a huge headache. I'm running 32bit Vista on a laptop.

Any suggestions, or is it a sign from God that I don't need more than Simcity 2000?

check to see if it runs on another computer


and dump windows vista its shit , get win 7

Bootleg disks or your drive can't read DVDs. Sometimes crappy drives first become unable to read DVDs first. I'm thinking a bootleg or crappy drive malfuctioning DVD-ROM is your problem.

At best you got a defective disk, at worst you got a bootleg copy.

It could be a newer print run. Sim City 4 US originally used CD, being long before Vista. That I do know.

However... Budget editions or releases for other countries might be different. Far Cry if you remember was at launch CD only in the US. Yet DVD only in Europe.

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Originally Posted by streetsofrage

check to see if it runs on another computer


and dump windows vista its shit , get win 7

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I don't have another computer, and also I didn't choose Windows Vista, fucking Microsoft 32Xed it on me and now doesn't support it.

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Originally Posted by Chibisteven

Bootleg disks or your drive can't read DVDs. Sometimes crappy drives first become unable to read DVDs first. I'm thinking a bootleg or crappy drive malfuctioning DVD-ROM is your problem.

At best you got a defective disk, at worst you got a bootleg copy.

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Checked my drive, it reads DVDs. The discs are definitely CD-ROMs, says so clear as day on the cover. I can't understand both discs being defective, and it is definitely not a bootleg because I got it from an extremely trusted retailer.

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Originally Posted by lumclaw

It could be a newer print run. Sim City 4 US originally used CD, being long before Vista. That I do know.

However... Budget editions or releases for other countries might be different. Far Cry if you remember was at launch CD only in the US. Yet DVD only in Europe.

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It's a newer print, from 2011. It says it has Vista support, so I'm pretty stumped.

Tried the discs on an external CD ROM drive and... it works. I guess I need to replace my laptop. :/

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Originally Posted by Nunzio

Tried the discs on an external CD ROM drive and... it works. I guess I need to replace my laptop. :/

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It's why I prefar big towers for computers. Laptops can be a pain for replacing hardware. The drive probally can't read CD-ROMs or audio CDs at all or barely anymore and might be close to failing (it happens the otherway around too). In desktop computers they're not too hard to replace and usually go for about around $100 for an internal multi DVD burner/reader (usually IDE or SATA) (SATA is in newer computers and IDE in older computers). Though you can get a drive that swaps left and right channels when ripping music CDs (which is annoying, even more if it flips back and forth between playback). Laptop parts can be bit tougher to replace and in some cases void any warrenty on it.

I probally recommended a new laptop if it came preinstalled with XP or Vista. Though, if you're instersted in Windows 8 you might want to hold it off for a while (I'm not). Though I can't promise that Sim City 4 will work in Windows 7 or 8. Though Windows 7 is closer to Vista in design being built off Vista and streamlined version of Vista.

I'm not interested in Windows 8. Can you still buy new laptops that come with XP? I want something in the budget range, $500, 15" or so, dual core.

I don't even know what the good laptops are today, every brand seems to have expensive, normal and really shitty models and there is no 'go to' for quality.

I tried this too, it was a No Go. Command and Conquer 3 never worked in Vista for me either.

I just avoid EA now.

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Originally Posted by Nunzio

I'm not interested in Windows 8. Can you still buy new laptops that come with XP? I want something in the budget range, $500, 15" or so, dual core.

I don't even know what the good laptops are today, every brand seems to have expensive, normal and really shitty models and there is no 'go to' for quality.

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No. Unless you got from someone who is dumping an old laptop. You can try downgrading a laptop, but it maybe a bigger headache than it's worth (you need an XP install disk to do it, system resore disks from manufactures don't work for this). Windows 7 has XP mode in the Professional and Ultimate editions. There is anytime upgrade for Windows 7 that let you update to a better edition of Windows 7 but I'm not sure how long this offer will last and how well it works for games. Brands aren't always an indictator of laptop quality, though stay away from HP/Compaq laptops.

SimCity 4 runs fine on Windows 7. I have the Steam Version and have no problems running it on Windows 7.

try updating the firmware on your dvd drive

i would reformat the laptop with windows 7 first before buying a new 1

either go buy windows 7 or go download 1