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
    2010-09-26T08:51:31+00:00

    I'm having an issue just getting the game to run in Windows 7. Every time I do, I see the pregame "loading" window, then an error message pops up that says: "Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with Directdraw."

    Can anyone help? I thought that the point of "compatibility" settings was to avoid these issues. I've tried multiple settings on the compatibility tab, running as administrator and as not administrator, I've downloaded the latest and greatest DirectX, I've reduced resolution to 800x600. This is extremely frustrating.

    Also as a general help, what is Directdraw? From what I can tell it was packaged into the DirectX software, so I thought that should be fixed now that I installed it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-03T21:17:25+00:00

    try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete to open task manager this will minimize the game window, then close the task manager and maximize the game window it should temporally fix the graphics but you will have to this every time you start the game.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-09-03T18:20:54+00:00

    I am running Vista. have tried lots (and more) suggested in this thread and more: changing the compatibility (Although XP sp 3 was not an option for me, so I tried sp 2), disabling visual themes etc., appending -w to the shortcut and running as administrator.

    The graphics go wacky and the screen goes black and then-- nothing. I don't get the "Loading" screen. In task manager I can see the process running but it's using up a lot of processor and not going anywhere.

    Further suggestions?

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-28T22:08:38+00:00

    @sander89,

    1. I've played Age of Empires Gold (I + II + expansions) on Win 7, no problems at all. 2) The color issue you mention can be bypassed if you open the "screen resolution" screen (right-click on the desktop), leaving it open and untouched, then start your game. Works for many similar situations, without guarantee it'll work in yours. 3) Innocent wishes like "i still like to be able to alt tab and use other programs" are just that, innocent. I could say "stupid", too, if I weren't a polite man. There are a lot of games out there which heavily dislike things like alt-tab and very often send you to nirwana (crash-to-desktop) if you're trying it.

    "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” (Thomas J. Watson, Sr.)

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