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Scouring the web, I have come to the conclusion that this is a Windows 7 issue, and there is no link between hardware, or drivers as it occurs on ATI, Intel and Nvidia chips.
Games such as Starcraft may freeze as soon as you hit the first menu screen, or as late as half way through a mission.
Age of Empires * games freeze on a black screen between the last intro video and the main menu (but as tested so far once in a mission will not freeze)
Warcraft 2 BNE is the same as Starcraft.
Worms Armageddon is effected randomly as well.
Heroes of might and magic 1 and 2
Starlancer (between missions or on he main menu)
Blood Omen during during movie sequences
So far i've verified that
Affinity does not fix it.
Process Priority does not fix it.
End tasking or pausing Explorer does not fix it.
Selective startup does not fix it.
Running without drivers will not fix it (don't even bother suggesting it).
This is an issue that doesn't have any correlation to system configuration, The game that gets the most coverage with this issue is Starcraft and though that might get a Patch, its no doubt that the Age of empires games won't.
The freeze is not a hardlock, rather its a freeze of the display and input controls. Processes in the background continue running and if you are in a chat on skype or xfire these continue as well according to some users.
Someone mentioned a Race issue between Ddraw and WDDM, but i've no idea how to verify that.
Specific Starcraft issue is here http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/11659-starcraft-freezes-after-1-5-minutes-playing.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/gaming/10190-starcraft-system-crash.html
but Issues for Age of empires and worms can be found across the internet.
theres even on here
Note: All the fixes known to work on Vista, do not work on Windows 7.
This issue only occurs in games that also have the bad colours issue, so basically any 8bit/256 colour titles. 16bpp appear to be fine.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
I'm having the exact same problem with Starcraft and Windows 7 Professional, my whole computer locks although skype keeps working. My only question right now is, why my friends with Windows 7 are not suffering these crashes? There's gotta be another factor involved? :s
luck is the only factor.
theres a colour fix discovered by some warlord_7 at blizzard forums, but it accelerates the lockup rate for me.
I've resorted to Windows XP in VirtualBox.
luck is the only factor.
theres a colour fix discovered by some warlord_7 at blizzard forums, but it accelerates the lockup rate for me.
I've resorted to Windows XP in VirtualBox.
luck is the only factor.
theres a colour fix discovered by some warlord_7 at blizzard forums, but it accelerates the lockup rate for me.
I've resorted to Windows XP in VirtualBox.
Hi Squall,
I thought I'd mention this solution, VirtualBox tends to window anything that isn't in my native desktop resolution.
Anyhow, search for a program called ChaosLauncher. I initially used CL to launch StarCraft in windowed mode because my LCD would auto-stretch to widescreen, but it can also be used to play SC in fullscreen. It appears to take control of DirectDraw or something, I don't know the details, I've only ever dabbled in programming. The important thing is it prevents StarCraft from freezing on me. Now if only I could figure out how to make Warcraft 2 stop freezing...
