Running AoE II on Vista

[ejb626]

So I was elated to find AoE II buried away in a drawer today and I immediately installed it on my laptop along with the expansion. The first time I played it, it ran perfectly I played for about 2 hours then took a break. Now when I try to go back to it I'm booted out with an "Age of Empires II Expansion has stopped working" window there's the whole "Windows is checking for a solution" and then I'm told that a vaguely defined "problem" caused the game to stop working, and that I will be "notified if there is a solution" (which I know is bullshit) everytime I go to set up a game. I can fiddle around in the menus all I want but as soon as I go to start a game it crashes. Fucking Vista!

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Have you tried running it in Compatibility mode? Find where the .exe is installed, right lick on it:

Properties > Compatibility > Click the Compatibility button and select the OS version it's normally supposed to run on (so Windows XP or 98)

 

[ejb626]

Have you tried running it in Compatibility mode? Find where the .exe is installed, right lick on it:

Properties > Compatibility > Click the Compatibility button and select the OS version it's normally supposed to run on (so Windows XP or 98)

Would that be under "My Computer"?

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

@ejb626,
If you have the actual icon on your desktop of AoE, it should be called "Age of Empires II" with its icon, right click that icon and follow said above instructions. (If you're still confused there's plenty of vids on Youtube showing step by step how to do it.)

 

[Fat Hippo]

And as advice for the future: If an old game won't run on Vista, ALWAYS try the compatibility mode thing first. It won't work every time, but when it does, it'll save you loads of time looking for Vista patches and the like. Running a game that won't work in administrator mode is never a bad idea either.

 

[ejb626]

And as advice for the future: If an old game won't run on Vista, ALWAYS try the compatibility mode thing first. It won't work every time, but when it does, it'll save you loads of time looking for Vista patches and the like. Running a game that won't work in administrator mode is never a bad idea either.

I'm afraid compatibility didn't work, I haven't tried turning it off completely though but that will probably work about as well as attempting to stop an accelerating car with a pair of socks. AoK still works it's just the Conquerors that does this so I'm starting to think it might be my disc.

 

[Fat Hippo]

And as advice for the future: If an old game won't run on Vista, ALWAYS try the compatibility mode thing first. It won't work every time, but when it does, it'll save you loads of time looking for Vista patches and the like. Running a game that won't work in administrator mode is never a bad idea either.

I'm afraid compatibility didn't work, I haven't tried turning it off completely though but that will probably work about as well as attempting to stop an accelerating car with a pair of socks. AoK still works it's just the Conquerors that does this so I'm starting to think it might be my disc.

What exactly is the "vaguely defined problem" that windows reports? Can you write it down, word for word? A hassle, I know, but I often find it helps to just google the name of the game, plus the precise words that appear when it crashes. Or is it just the regular "Bla bla has stopped working" message?

If you think it's a disc problem, why did it work for 2 hours the first time? Have some files been corrupted, perhaps? I know this is the standard bullshit answer everyone gets when they have a problem, but have you tried reinstalling?

 

[ejb626]

And as advice for the future: If an old game won't run on Vista, ALWAYS try the compatibility mode thing first. It won't work every time, but when it does, it'll save you loads of time looking for Vista patches and the like. Running a game that won't work in administrator mode is never a bad idea either.

I'm afraid compatibility didn't work, I haven't tried turning it off completely though but that will probably work about as well as attempting to stop an accelerating car with a pair of socks. AoK still works it's just the Conquerors that does this so I'm starting to think it might be my disc.

What exactly is the "vaguely defined problem" that windows reports? Can you write it down, word for word? A hassle, I know, but I often find it helps to just google the name of the game, plus the precise words that appear when it crashes. Or is it just the regular "Bla bla has stopped working" message?

If you think it's a disc problem, why did it work for 2 hours the first time? Have some files been corrupted, perhaps? I know this is the standard bullshit answer everyone gets when they have a problem, but have you tried reinstalling?

I found a way to bring up a menu that showed all the problems all applications installed on the computer had encountered but I forgot where I clicked to bring it up. It started with Problem Name: and then went down a list I wish I could remember how I got it up.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I found something similar online. Did it look like this?

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: empires2.exe
Application Version: 0.14.14.914
Application Timestamp: 37ac3430
Fault Module Name: empires2.exe
Fault Module Version: 0.14.14.914
Fault Module Timestamp: 37ac3430
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0000aaad
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 2069
Additional Information 2: 206962ad316f986b61f1463ef54d6f48
Additional Information 3: f145
Additional Information 4: f14592809321074449afb7a96f99092d

Some recommended solutions I found:

- Turn of your antivirus, after disconnecting from the internet of course, and allow the game in your firewall. It's possible they are interfering with the game.

- Reinstall Direct X9, maybe some older files needed are missing.

I know these solutions are kind of a long shot, but they were the most sensible-sounding I could find.

 

[ejb626]

I found something similar online. Did it look like this?

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: empires2.exe
Application Version: 0.14.14.914
Application Timestamp: 37ac3430
Fault Module Name: empires2.exe
Fault Module Version: 0.14.14.914
Fault Module Timestamp: 37ac3430
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0000aaad
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 2069
Additional Information 2: 206962ad316f986b61f1463ef54d6f48
Additional Information 3: f145
Additional Information 4: f14592809321074449afb7a96f99092d

Some recommended solutions I found:

- Turn of your antivirus, after disconnecting from the internet of course, and allow the game in your firewall. It's possible they are interfering with the game.

- Reinstall Direct X9, maybe some older files needed are missing.

I know these solutions are kind of a long shot, but they were the most sensible-sounding I could find.

That was exactly it, thank you by the way you've been very helpful in giving me stuff to try because I was at a loss for what to do after the compatibility didn't work.