Age of Empires 2 + Vista = freeze

just wondering if anyone has played AOE2 on vista and if they have the same problem as me. My game freezes about twenty seconds into the game. it freezes the whole compuer too, i cant ctrl alt delete or do anything.

 

i play it, no freeze at all.

have you updated windows?

 

i have the SP1 rc if that is what you mean... it is a patched version, B/C i didnt want to bring my games to school, in case i get robbed. so im thinking that might be the problem... but i know other poeple that run it patched and have no problems do idk what the deal is.

 

hmmmmm, dunno then, the "patch" shouldn't have anything to do with it...........

sounds like the admin is locking your computer or something

 

Hey all, I'm new here and only came here because my AOE 2 kept freezing as well, and it seemed hopeless to fix it because no one had a fix. Well i figured it out and it's quite ridiculous to be frank, here goes...

If you have this problem in XP this fix will also work for you as well as VISTA. (I had the problem in both OSes on the same system)
Get a copy of your video drivers first for your video card.


Go to Start and right click on "My Computer" and click on properties. Then the window pops up with all its tabs with the "hardware," tab being one of them; click on it. Then click on the "Device Manager" button and a new window will popup showing a list of your hardware devices under their categories. We need to find the "display adapters" category. Click on that and then it expands to show what device (or sometimes software renderer) you are using. Click on your video device (video card) and right click it. When you right click it, click on uninstall, follow the prompts to uninstall it and then reboot the computer. Now this part sounds a little crazy but just follow what i say : When the computer finishes rebooting, click on age of empires and play it! It will work perfectly and you can play it at any resolution the game lets you (one of the three resolutions lol). So at this point you're playing the game without any technical videocard drivers. And yes their is a difference, try opening up a folder and scrolling or scrolling on a webpage and you'll know your drivers were uninstalled because the scrolling will be very choppy. Another thing you could try back in the device manager is disabling the device driver instead of uninstalling it, it gives you both options, that could also work but i've never tried it. But anyways, it would be nice to have another copy of your video drivers so when you decide to play a 3d game that you would need the drivers for, that you could easily install them again.

I gotta say, i'm gald to be playing AOE2 after a year of getting my new laptop and not being able too. And the funny thing is, not all vista people have the problem, so it became really puzzling to attempt to fix but then i did this and it was so simple but a little annoying but well worth it for our AOE2 lans . Another thing, it froze for me in both vista AND xp! so don't think downgrading will well, i'm dual booting and it did nothing for me changing back to xp, but xp was able to run more older games than vista could so xp might be worth it .

Simplified version:

start>my computer, right click>properties>Hardware (tab)>Device manager>Display adapter>right click your videocard>uninstall (or disable but haven't tried disabling, im sure it would work too and be easier)>follow prompts to uninstall>reboot>play AOE2.

 

that IS pretty ridiculous

aoe2 isnt worth uninstalling your graphics drivers for

 

aoe2 rocks...........its worth selling your soul for..........

but i would say there is a better fix to the problem.

 

Well does anybody know how to fix the freeze problem , except instead of fixing it for vista , fix it for windows 98? Because i have that same problem....and I dont understand because my computer is about 3 years older than my old one and age of empires works perfectly on the old one (his computer is probobly the oldest computer you can find)

 

I had the same problem with XP.. actually I think the problem has to do with the graphics card-- mine is 8600M GT. Also for me it only crashed when im on AC adapter, never on battery

I had to get my computer replaced and it works fine on the new one for some reason

 

Oh and her is some of my computers information :

Virtual Memory:128.0 MB of RAM

System: Windows 98 second edition

Manufactured & Supported by: Hewlett Packard
Pavilion
GenuineIntel
Pentium (r) III processor

File System: 32 bit

Virtual Memory: 32 bit

Space:
43% of free space

 

that is old as hell.

 

Yea i know , Im probobly going to get a new one soon.

 

hey update, you dont need to uninstall your drivers, just disable them. it works like a charm! for me personally compatibility mode is crap, it doesnt run it at all. you click on the game and the game doesnt even start. but disabling them is way better than uninstalling and it only take a second.

 

When I disable the graphic card, it tells me Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with direct draw
What can I do?