Age of Empires II does not work with Vista or Windows 7

Anonymous
2009-11-24T16:43:16+00:00

I have been unable to get Age of Empires II to work on my laptop - first with Vista and now with Windows 7.

It installs OK and when you go to launch it the small graphic launch box comes up, then the screen goes phsychedelic before reverting back to normal and nothing more happens.

It is a Compaq Presario with a Mobile Intel R45 chipset.

Any advice?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Gaming

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Anonymous
2009-12-02T14:15:24+00:00

RusFry,

    If you were not able to get the game to run in this same PC with Vista or Windows 7, then it appears that there is a hardware conflict with this game.  I see that this game was for older systems and only supports 800x600 graphics.  You may want to turn your desktop resolution down to 800x600 with 256 colors, then launch the game.  If this doesn't help then you may want to install DirectX 9 and see if that helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-01-03T07:06:04+00:00

    Ever since I upgraded to Windows 7 with my new computer, I have the same problem with my graphics.  The "grass" and water look horrible!

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-12-31T20:47:18+00:00

    I figured out one of the problems.  I used Zone Alarm for my antivirus software and it is incompatible with a ton of games, including the Age of Empires games.  Once I uninstalled Zone Alarm it worked.

    The problem I have now is the graphics are horrible.  When I play the game the map is like 256 colors, but the buildings look perfect.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-12-30T12:54:29+00:00

    I got the same problem on vista everytime I run it this massage appear

    empires2.exe is not a valid win32 application

    and I've tried everything .

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-12-28T04:39:49+00:00

    This didn't work at all.  I've tried so many things from different forums and nothing works.  I installed DirectX9.  I even changed my display driver to the base system driver.  I've tried running AOE2 in all the Vista compatibility modes.  Nothing works.  This is extremely frustrating.

    I believe this is happened because we are running Age Of Empires on Win 7, nothing problem with the hardwares. Because this is works when I am using on XP.

    I guess Win 7 has this issue in all older games..The weird things is that why does Microsoft published a statement in the microsoft.com website that Age Of Empires II works on Win 7

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