Dear community
My 7 year old daughter is doing a school project on the Ancient Greeks. Wonderful - I get to show her my favourite game - Age of Mythology (AoM). Except it doesn’t work. I’ve gone as far as I can and would be very grateful for any assistance.
I installed AoM on my desktop from a friends CDs in ~2003. I used CCleaner which deleted some vital HKeys in ~2010. A friend then kindly rebuilt and upgraded it, but still retaining Windows XP SP3 OS desktop. Then AoM stopped working after this. I bought the game CDs and installed using my (admin) login, but have had the following blue screen error after 10 minutes of random map / campaign:ATI2DVAG.dll
After years of not getting round to it, I’ve decided have another crack at making AoM work for my daughter’s project - and for my own entertainment. I’ve done all I can and now, dear community, I’d value your help.
Now, it just freezes after 5 minutes. Ctrl alt del doesn’t work. The problem has evolved from blue screen ATI2VAG.dll after 10 mins to freezing after 5 mins seemingly because I took AoE3 off and reinstalling AoM3 without AoT. AoE3 didn’t have an uninstall so I manually deleted the files.
I’ve not updated the drivers; I’m not confident with how to do that; I’ve messed up the HKEYs before, so if I need to do anything to graphics card drivers, I’d appreciate instructions. I’ve read the FAQ sticky (2a) on this, but I’m not confident enough to proceed, although I believe XP Home is 32 bit and doesn’t come as 64bit.
Spec (using Belrac):
OS) Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Processor) 2.70 gigahertz AMD Athlon 7750 Dual-Core, 256 kilobyte primary memory cache, 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache,64-bit ready, Multi-core (2 total), Not hyper-threaded.
Display) CONNECT 3D RADEON X300[Display adapter], CONNECT 3D RADEON X300 Secondary [Display adapter] for monitor: Acer X223W
Connections: monitor, sound,Skynet proof(never been connected to internet).. But can transfer using USB stick.
I’ve read what I can on this forum and google. There are some common issues, but getting into how many cores and fans there are is past my level.
Display properties tells me I’m running “Plug and Play Monitor on CONNECT 3D RADEON X300 on 1024 by 768 x 16bit on a plug in and play Acer X223W monitor that refreshes at 60Hz.
What I’ve tried:
1. Decluttering the machine using Glary Utilities, defragging, driver checking against XP SP3.
2. My computer’s spec is apparently high enough..
3. The graphics card isn’t one of the unsupported ones.
4. I did a messy uninstall of Age of Empires 3 (the uninstaller was missing, so I deleted the files manually)
5. Uninstalling and Reinstalling AoM (my login is an administrator login - does that suffice installing as an admin?). I did have Titans expansion on.
6. It’s running fine otherwise.
7. I’ve never connected my desktop to the internet.
8. There are no other programs running when I install or open AoM.
9. Re ATI2DVAG.dll - see above
10. 29/5/18 - express installed AoM. I press escape for the opening cinematic, then my random map game now lasts 3 mins first time at 1600*1200*32, then goes to black screen. I can ctrl-alt-del out of that, but on reloading, the random map doesn’t even load. This reduction in time leads me to thinking about the reduction in efficiency caused by an increase in temperature by a game that needs more than one fan / core probably trying to run off one core.. Although I’m not sure if that’s what my desktop is doing - how do I check?
12.Lower resolution:
1) AoM freezes after 2.5 minutes when on 1600 x 1200 x 32 and pressing escape as soon as the cinematic starts, therefore
2) after 5 minutes, Changed to 640 x 480 x 16 and “low graphics detail” to skip cinematic. Loads, but freezes after 30 seconds and crashes 10s later, therefore..
3) Retry with #2 but with desktop case off (can supply photo if needed.
4) Retry but with 1024 x 768 x 16, low graphics detail and no hardware sound acceleration. Crashes.
5) Retry of #4, but on campaign, and loaded ‘Omens’ - crashed. The closeups are where AoM shows it’s 15 years old.
Notes: no other programs running before or alongside AoM; took 25 minutes to do #1-5; #1-4 are on random map; 5 is on campaign. By ‘crash,’ I mean that the screen goes black and nothing happens - it doesn’t restart, and ctrl-alt-del does nothing.
I’ve gone as far as I can and would be very grateful for any assistance.
Best wishes, Andy]
My 7 year old daughter is doing a school project on the Ancient Greeks. Wonderful - I get to show her my favourite game - Age of Mythology (AoM). Except it doesn’t work. I’ve gone as far as I can and would be very grateful for any assistance.
I installed AoM on my desktop from a friends CDs in ~2003. I used CCleaner which deleted some vital HKeys in ~2010. A friend then kindly rebuilt and upgraded it, but still retaining Windows XP SP3 OS desktop. Then AoM stopped working after this. I bought the game CDs and installed using my (admin) login, but have had the following blue screen error after 10 minutes of random map / campaign:
After years of not getting round to it, I’ve decided have another crack at making AoM work for my daughter’s project - and for my own entertainment. I’ve done all I can and now, dear community, I’d value your help.
Now, it just freezes after 5 minutes. Ctrl alt del doesn’t work. The problem has evolved from blue screen ATI2VAG.dll after 10 mins to freezing after 5 mins seemingly because I took AoE3 off and reinstalling AoM3 without AoT. AoE3 didn’t have an uninstall so I manually deleted the files.
I’ve not updated the drivers; I’m not confident with how to do that; I’ve messed up the HKEYs before, so if I need to do anything to graphics card drivers, I’d appreciate instructions. I’ve read the FAQ sticky (2a) on this, but I’m not confident enough to proceed, although I believe XP Home is 32 bit and doesn’t come as 64bit.
Spec (using Belrac):
OS) Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Processor) 2.70 gigahertz AMD Athlon 7750 Dual-Core, 256 kilobyte primary memory cache, 512 kilobyte secondary memory cache,
Display) CONNECT 3D RADEON X300
Connections: monitor, sound,
I’ve read what I can on this forum and google. There are some common issues, but getting into how many cores and fans there are is past my level.
Display properties tells me I’m running “Plug and Play Monitor on CONNECT 3D RADEON X300 on 1024 by 768 x 16bit on a plug in and play Acer X223W monitor that refreshes at 60Hz.
1. Decluttering the machine using Glary Utilities, defragging, driver checking against XP SP3.
2. My computer’s spec is apparently high enough..
3. The graphics card isn’t one of the unsupported ones.
4. I did a messy uninstall of Age of Empires 3 (the uninstaller was missing, so I deleted the files manually)
5. Uninstalling and Reinstalling AoM (my login is an administrator login - does that suffice installing as an admin?). I did have Titans expansion on.
6. It’s running fine otherwise.
7. I’ve never connected my desktop to the internet.
8. There are no other programs running when I install or open AoM.
9. Re ATI2DVAG.dll - see above
10. 29/5/18 - express installed AoM. I press escape for the opening cinematic, then my random map game now lasts 3 mins first time at 1600*1200*32, then goes to black screen. I can ctrl-alt-del out of that, but on reloading, the random map doesn’t even load. This reduction in time leads me to thinking about the reduction in efficiency caused by an increase in temperature by a game that needs more than one fan / core probably trying to run off one core.. Although I’m not sure if that’s what my desktop is doing - how do I check?
12.
1) AoM freezes after 2.5 minutes when on 1600 x 1200 x 32 and pressing escape as soon as the cinematic starts, therefore
2) after 5 minutes, Changed to 640 x 480 x 16 and “low graphics detail” to skip cinematic. Loads, but freezes after 30 seconds and crashes 10s later, therefore..
3) Retry with #2 but with desktop case off (can supply photo if needed.
4) Retry but with 1024 x 768 x 16, low graphics detail and no hardware sound acceleration. Crashes.
5) Retry of #4, but on campaign, and loaded ‘Omens’ - crashed. The closeups are where AoM shows it’s 15 years old.
I’ve gone as far as I can and would be very grateful for any assistance.
Best wishes, Andy]
[This message has been edited by wwjd_andy (edited 06-04-2018 @ 11:27 AM).]