Play Aoeiii On Ibtel Hd 4000

Well, I reckon this is software, because I can't believe this hardware is not up to spec !

I trying to play the Game 'Age of Empires III' under Windows 10 Pro build 15063 (64 bit) from a CD on a Fujitsu S752 laptop with Intel i5-3210 CPU and HD 4000 built in graphics, with 8GB of RAM installed.
It installed OK seemingly.
When I try to play, I get the message I need 64MB graphics, and my graphics is only 32MB ! ( It gives my system specs as 2500Mhz (CPU clock), 8064 MB and 32MB

Is it software, an artifact caused by running an old (2005) game on a newer computer or is the Intel HD 4000 only 32MB ? I don't get this message on W7 system

Dumb_Question
6.August.2019
Fujitsu S752 - windows 10 Pro

 

FYI -- Windows 10 build 15063 = Windows 10 Version 1703 (a.k.a., Creators Update). This version is almost 2.5 years old. Microsoft's support for it ended in October 2018.

What is the version number of your graphics driver? Run "Device Manager" and check the entry under "Display adapters".

The Intel HD 4000 has no dedicated video memory. It uses Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) to automatically allocate up to 1792MB of system memory as graphics memory.

It sounds like your minimum reserved video memory is set to 32MB. Does the BIOS/UEFI on your laptop have the option to set this? If so, what is the currently setting?

Have you tried running Age of Empires III in compatibility mode, set for Windows 7?

 

Thanks very much for your helpful reply, Mister Krinkle.

I don't connect that machine to the internet often. But if I did, and ran windows updater, would it run the update program and load the updates to bring it up to date ? I understood Windows 10 is designed to function in this way.

I know that HD4000 is designed to share RAM memory up to 1792 MB. I didn't know there was a lower limit. Your suggestion that it's been set to 32MB sounds highly likely
Unfortunately, the BIOS settings are quite crude on the Fujitsu S752 and there is no detailed control over the video - it only offers some kind of setting for multiple displays, as interpreted it. I have never even seen a UEFI BIOS !!

I wondered if the Intel control panel offered such a function - I would have thought so - but no. I contacted Intel and they suggested changing the setting in the BIOS, or suggested trying the procedure in youtube vid below, although they were reluctant to do this. Anyway, it had no effect, so I changed the settings back


I thought maybe that although the minimum memory was set to 32MB and the game needs 64MB and I had possibly up to 1792MB in hand the computer would dynamically allocate such video memory that it needed to run, and so I tried continuing, ignoring warning of graphics degradation and artefacts and even system instabilities, and the game seemed to work, at least in the early stages. Similarly with the War Chiefs and Asian Dynasties.

I think I ran both the setup (I don't remember what this actually called, but I did not choose autorun for this) and AoE in compatibility mode set to XP3
Chose autorun to install the War Chiefs and Asian Dynasties, but in compatibility mode set to XP3 I got error 1628 (corrupted install shield). I thought I'd install with compatibility mode turned off, and it worked. I was going to revert to compatibility mode, but I didn't and the games ran seemingly OK except with the memory warning.

Dumb_Question
9.August.2019