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
    2015-12-26T05:19:29+00:00

    exactly my problem... How do i fix this??

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-17T21:14:28+00:00

    The problem is an issue with a security update to a graphics driver, as described here:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3086255

    It can be solved by:

    1) go to the Start menu, and run "cmd." 

    1. Type "sc config secdrv start= demand" as described in the article.
    2. Type "sc start secdrv" also as described in the article.

    4) Run empires2.exe from the directory where you installed it.

    1. Play the game! (although colors will still be off)
    2. After you are finished, don't forget to type "sc stop secdrv", which, after all, Microsoft disabled for security reasons.

    This worked for me, hope it works for you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-24T17:11:54+00:00

    Hi,

    Old thread, but I had the same issue and tried a bunch of things. What worked eventually, was simply reinstalling the game to

    C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games

    That might seem logical, but on default my game was installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games. And every time I tried to boot up the game, it would show a loading symbol and then nothing. I reinstalled it several times but only when I reinstalled it in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games it worked.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-12-06T05:37:18+00:00

    Hi,

    I had similar issues, I have windows 7 and AOE 2 wouldn't even get me to the launch window. I downloaded this: http://www.aoerealm.com/?p=downloads and then I was able to play the game. I just need to fix the grass and water colours but otherwise this was a fix for me. 

    Hope this helps!

    Cheers!

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