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SimCity on Surface Pro?

y2jdmbfan

New Member
Guys,

I know some people have gotten this to work, but I am having issues. I have downloaded the latest beta Origin client and installed it, but when I launch the game, I get a flickering black screen with a white arrow and the resolution seems to keep trying to change/flicker. I have the game running fine on my desktop, but want to get it going on the Surface Pro 128GB. I have heard some people say they did a refresh of the system to get it going, but I'd rather not have to re-install everything.

Thanks,

Y2J
 
Which version of SimCity?

Most of those are pretty old games, in fact I think many of the SimCity games were DOS. Windows 8 isn't always friendly to old games.

Cities XL is the same premise, but built for modern hardware.
 

rrk2013

New Member
I'm assuming you downloaded the origin beta, which you mentioned in your post. I installed it, set the graphics to low and everything is running. Since they fixed the server issues, I have absolutely no problems whatsoever. Have you right clicked the .exe file and changed the compatibility settings? I'm also not assuming that you're using an external display. Also, have you downloaded the latest intel HD4000 graphics?

I installed it the day it came out, and after tweaking the settings (resolution, other visual graphics), the game is running very smoothly. I have two cities setup, and it bounces from regional view back to city view. It's not as quick as my desktop, and the graphics aren't as detailed, but let me tell you that playing it on the surface is a better experience. You can use the touchscreen to zoom in and out, move the map. When one of the bubbles comes up with a "quest", you simply touch it. Both my cities have over 200,000 residents plus tourists, and so far, the game isn't even choppy. I'm totally amazed.

Let me know if you get it running.
 

mcrosser

New Member
EA Forum's been talking about this for awhile & there are more of us dealing with it

Guys,

I know some people have gotten this to work, but I am having issues. I have downloaded the latest beta Origin client and installed it, but when I launch the game, I get a flickering black screen with a white arrow and the resolution seems to keep trying to change/flicker. I have the game running fine on my desktop, but want to get it going on the Surface Pro 128GB. I have heard some people say they did a refresh of the system to get it going, but I'd rather not have to re-install everything.

Thanks,

Y2J

I feel your pain. I have been having issues with it as well. There is a much fuller discussion going on at EA about this and it may have finally worked for me. Check out the forum here: EA Forums
 

Mdym

New Member
Played it for an hour last night without it issue on my Surface, although it does run a bit slow, but certainly playable.
 
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y2jdmbfan

New Member
For me to get it to work, I have to roll back to the built-in display drivers and then check "compatibility mode Windows 7" on the SimCity .exe file. I am then able to get in and play the game. I can't run it correctly with the updated drivers and no compatibility mode set. I get the flashing black screen and flickering white arrows...
 
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y2jdmbfan

New Member
For me to get it to work, I have to roll back to the built-in display drivers and then check "compatibility mode Windows 7" on the SimCity .exe file. I am then able to get in and play the game. I can't run it correctly with the updated drivers and no compatibility mode set. I get the flashing black screen and flickering white arrows...

Guys, I did a complete system reinstall and it still isn't working properly. Same crash symptoms as I stated earlier...
 

Jay Slasher

New Member
Alot of issues can be traced back to your drivers for the intel HD 4000 or dpi scaling.

First you might want to attempt installing the latest Intel HD 4000 drivers, and second go into you EA Origin games folder and find the simcity.exe right click on properties go to compatibility and check the box for Disable display scaling on high DPI settings.

This might help.
 
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y2jdmbfan

New Member
Thanks for the response. I have the latest drivers installed from intel.com. I also had the same issue with the default drivers. I tried the Disable display scaling for High DPI device setting and have scaling set to 100% in the Display options, but I still get the same error. Black flashing screen with arrow. It seems like the program is trying to change the display resolution, but it doesn't know what to do.
 
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