Age of Empires II Graphics Problem

AOE II has always worked fine on my 2000 pro machine, until recently. Now I get an error message that says,

"Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with DirectDraw."

I'm using an NVidia GeForce 6800 card which has always performed well with this game. I've updated the driver and tried reinstalling the game several times, but still having the problem. Any thoughts?

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/242902

 

Thanks. This looked like a really good lead. Unfortunately, none of these things worked for me. I appreciate the help though.

 

reinstall direct x?

do this to test Direct draw:

Click start, run, and type in dxdiag

once it loads up click on the "display" tab and then test direct draw by clicking on the "test" direct draw key.

also you can see if direct draw is enabled.

Direct draw is part of DirectX so that would have been the first thing I looked at followed by a reinstall of DX9C.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks. I had tried this earlier, but checked it again following your suggtestion. Everything checked out OK.

 

Sorry to hear. Hmm I'm at a lost then. Good luck dude.

 

Karlmoll, did you try every option in the original link I posted?

Only other thing I can think of is to update your soundcard/chip drivers.

I'd also give Compatibility Mode a try (Yes, I know the game should work on XP). It's a long shot buy you never know.

(right click the games executable, then Properties, then Compatibilty tab)

 

Insomniac,

To answer your questions - Yes, pretty much.

The hardware is fine since it worked in the past.

The shortcut is correct as described in the knowledgebase article.

The only thing I didn't try was the clean boot. I'm running 2000 pro and don't know how to do that. The knowledge base also doesn't seem to explain how.

Lastly, don't have a compatability tab - I'm running 2000 pro.

I will look into updating the sound card driver.

I was actually able to run the game once yesterday, but not again since. I suspect it may be a conflict of some kind, but don't know how to find it.

 

win2000pro is not eactly the best OS to use for games. Any reason other than spending money that you aren't using winXP? I used to run 2000Pro for quite a long time because I hated win98 but I have to admit 98 was much better for games. I would think it's time to upgrade that OS anyway.

 

It has nothing to do with money! I hear you though, but have just the opposite feelings. I guess its just personal tastes. I loved 98 and I love 2000 pro - I hate XP!

 

LOL gotcha! I think most people hated XP at first. Most hate change but XP has come a long way and is the best OS out there for a normal desktop user. (some prefer linux)

anyway, you can make windows XP look just like classic windows. shutting off all the bells and whistles.

anyway good luck.

 

I don't know how it worked before, but according to Micro$$oft, Age Of Empires II doesn't support Windows 2000. http://www.microsoft.com/games/pc/age2.aspx

There may be tweaks or workarounds, but I don't know of any sorry.

 

Insomniac,
I still have the pacakging and mine copy says it requires 95/98/NT (SP5). No mention of either XP or 2000.

lubetek,
Isn't XP a whole lot slower than 2000 and a lot less stable? What do you mean by "a normal desktop user"? I do a lot of number crunching and CAD.

 

XP is very stable. XP is quite fast with enough memory installed. Also you can set windows XP to "classic mode" which disables all the themes and fancy stuff. It really stream lines the oS and makes it much faster. Once done the OS resembles win98 or 2000.

What I should have said is "typical desktop user" instead of normal desktop user. sorry. If you are running a business PC and server then win2003 would be my choice. My company switched from win2000 to 2003 end of last year and so far we are very happy with it. We also use XP Pro and XP IMO is the best OS out there out of all the windows operating systems. Not to mention windows XP works with just about everything. If you are still using windows 2000pro just because you think its stable and faster then you really need to toss it and get XP. Its so much better in every way.

 

OK - If I were to buy XP, which one should I get?

 

well most people prefer Pro. I own both but use home version on my main pc.

go here and read the first page to give you an idea between the two. http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp

Also you can get an oem copy of win XP home or pro when you buy a mobo or HDD. OEM saves you quite a bit of money.

 

Don't get another operating system just to play one game.

If you want another operating system because you aren't happy with the current one, that's a different story.

Anyway, it's up to you.

As far as XP, the site I linked said it's supported, so the only reason I can think of why the box doesn't state that is it was printed prior.


Before you get another operating system, what are your system specs?

 

I don't doubt that Empires II will run on an XP machine. Empires III will run on XP (And not on 2000)!

Well, I wouldn't change operating systems just to play a game. I'm exploring the possibilities because 2000 seems to have a limited future and I can see that Microsoft has put all their money behind XP. They of course have a history of no longer supporting software that no longer makes big bucks for them.

If I can get XP to run like (and look like?) 2000 pro as suggested in this thread, then a lot of my hatred of XP may evaporate

In any event, I've heard though that XP can be difficult to re-install and that you have to contact Microsoft. Is there some kind of restrictive installation password protection that requires you call microsoft to do this?

Maybe I should consider the 64 bit version of XP. What do you think? I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200 processor with Phoenix BIOS on an ABIT AV8 Motherboard, 512 MB momory. Three hard drives of 100, 120 and 20 GB.

 

yup this is possible. I don't care for the look (win2000) as I like the look and presentation of XP but when XP first released a lot of people were running it on low end machines and would shut off all the bells and whistles of xp (mainly the visual stuff) to make the OS run faster. If you decide to buy XP and want to make it look more like 2000/98 then do this:

start, settings, control panel, select "classic view" then click on the "system" thumb nail.
Now click on the "performance" tab and then click the "settings" button under performance. click the "adjust for best performance" and the apply. WindowsXP now looks much more like win2000 or win98.

Well first off this really isn't that big of a deal. The first handful of times you reformat you will not have to call into microsoft. what happens is towards the very end of the windows installation you will be asked if you want to register now and activate your copy of windows. If you are connected to the internet then select yes and type in your personal info (name addy etc) and then activate windows after putting in your serial key. the OS will contact Microsoft and activate windows in a matter of a few seconds. Its that easy. Now it will remain this easy everytime you reinstall windows for a handful of times. Evenyually the serial will cease to work and you will be instructed to contact Microsoft via a 1-800 number (this works 24/7 365 days a year). Once you call them you will be instructed to read off the id code and then you will be given aother serial to use. It's not that bad really. Because I'm always building new pc's I have to call in every time now but it only takes about 15 minutes of my time to complete. They will ask you a couple questions. "Is this the only computer the OS is used on?" yes. questions like that. no big deal.

I'm not sure. I have never used it. Maybe some one here could fill you in.

You are right in thinking that it might be time for a change. Win2000 is old and not nearly as compatible as XP. Like the other guy said, Don't upgrade for a just one game. Well Thats true I wouldn't either (then again I just might if I wanted to play that one game bad enough.) but everyone knows win2000 is not as compatible with non-business apps as XP is. XP is rock solid and just so much better than windows 2000.

Microsoft is releasing yet another OS called Vista. it will be a 64bit OS and will be heavy in the visual styles and 3d effects. Everything you don't seem to like. I would really look into windows XP 64 and see if thats for you.

 

Your system specs are pretty good, and would suit XP fine.

Only thing to consider is putting in more RAM to give you a total of 1GB. It's not critical, but would benefit performance.

XP is very simple to install. The only hassle is Product Activation, but it's not difficult, more an annoyance.

And stay away from 64 bit. There aren't many drivers available, and there isn't any substantial performance benefit to justify it.

 

I'd like to thank both of you guys. You've been very helpful.

 

You're welcome.

 

Anytime.

 

i see this thread has been left for a while but ive got the same problem as was mentioned at the start of this thread, about aoe not working. i get the same error about the video card.tried all the sugested things, the only difference is im running xp home with intel(r) celeron(r) m processor 1500MHz and my graphics card is intel(r) 82852/55 GM/GME controller. is that enough of a difference to be able to fix it??

 

According to the back of the AOE2 gold edition (sitting in front of me), 2000 is supported, but this maybe only with the Conquerors expansion installed.

 

AOE2 Does indeed work on XP.
I had it on my XP Pro at one time.
But I found that it ran kinda flaky on XP.

What I finally did was to set up a duel boot of Windows 98SE and Windows XP.
Using XP for internet... productivity and virus scan.
98SE for games and DVD viewing.
And being that I have both partitions as FAT32...
It's also real handy to use one operating system to fix and mod the other.

 

ive got conquerours expansion installed and i know it used to work. i think it stopped working since my computer almost crashed i dont know what happened exactly and i'm going through the steps in other threads to restore it but i think i'll try with a new boot of windows i just have to find the disks first.
Thanks guys

 

Actually...
If it were me...
I would make sure the game is officially uninstalled in Add and Remove Programs...
Do Ad-aware... AVG and Spybot scans...
Do a highjack this scan to see if there is a nasty to be disabled...
Reinstall the video driver...
Then do a clean sweep of the registry with a registry fixer and optimizer.
Reboot... then try to install Conquerors Expansion again.

But the fallback reinstall of Windows will always work as well.

 

am no geek, but here's my try at it

after lot of times i decided i want to install windows just to play age of empires coz some of my friends were fond of playing that, i was pissed off to see that it wasn't working, so i had to make it work

Note that i don't use vista, but the problem fix applies to win2k, xp and vista also.

i found a solution to that problem, and it worked
after lots of trial and error and some thinking, the game
itself doesn't have any problem, its merely a problem of drivers
so, i thought why not try to disable the display adapter's driver
and use the windows default driver instead? And it works

Anywayz here's how to proceed,

Right click on your desktop>click on properties (Display properties will launch up)
Click on settings>Advanced
Click on the Adapter tab
Click on properties
in the General Tab, down below there is "Devie usage"
Click on that device usage list, and select"Do not use this device(disable)"

Click on ok to confirm (leave the display properties and all)

It'll ask you to rest, restart your machine

and voila you can play age of empires without that dumb direct draw problem.



Thanks to me


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