Age of Empires II –*DirectDraw issue

[combus]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to play Age of Empires II in my bro's netbook, but I get an odd message "Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video
card and driver are compatible with DirectDraw". Though, I've been searching, and it seems that it's not really an odd problem, looks quite popular. I even read some threads on this forum, but none of them had solutions that were still available.

Could you help me sort this out?

Thanks,
Combus

BTW, Here are some specs from the netbook:

Manufacter : Acer
Model: AO751h
Processor: Intel Atom CPU Z520 1.33 MGz
Ram: 2 GB
Sistem type: 32 bit

 

[osholt]

I just had a look around and couldn't find anything saying that your Intel integrated graphics chipset supports Directdraw.

However, this doesn't mean there's no hope for Age of Empires 2, if you feel up to it why not try using this application called 3D analyze; it claims to be able to run games on unsupported hardware although I have no way of testing to see whether or not it works.
You can download it at 3dfxzone.it - Tools Channel -> 3D-Analyze -> Latest Release (to download click on the title "3D-Analyze 2.36")

I hope this is of some help.

Oli

 

[combus]

Thanks I'll try to install it and will post how things went.

BTW, lol at your sign, kind of my story xD

 

[combus]

Thanks I'll try to install it and will post how things went.

BTW, lol at your sign, kind of my story xD

---

Oh it didn't work =/ But I followed the steps in this MS support article, and found out that the Intel graphic accelerator allows Directdraw, however it doesn't let me change the settings of the acceleration. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[osholt]

The only other thing I can think of at the moment is to try and run AoE2 in compatibility mode. This probably won't do anything but it's worth a try.

If you don't know how to do this ther is a tutorial at Compatibility Mode - Windows 7 Forums

Oli

Edit: I did some googling and found these thread which may be helpful.
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/ageofempires2thece/answers.html?qid=61411
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-games/96269-problem-age-empires-ii.html
It seams you are not alone with this problem, see if any of the solutions in these threads work for you.

 

[YouveHelpedMe]

I am happy to be of some help here, and I hope that my post will help someone. Today I found my old AoE II CD and installed it on 5 home computers to play with family members. Two of those computers used ATI Radeon video cards with Windows 7 x64, and those two computers were the only ones unable to start the game (both got the same message mentioned above). After updating video drivers and installing the lastest version of DirectX on both computers, they still couldn't run the game. Well, I Googled the problem and the first thread I found was a thread on this website that has now been archived, but the first reply solved my problem!

Dustin Harper wrote:
"You might try going to the Microsoft web site and download and install
DX9.1c. Some of the directX components are missing in Vista (not really,
but that's the simple answer!), so reinstalling DX9 does fix a lot of
issues. If that doesn't work, let us know."
Taken from:
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-games...ompatibility-age-empires-i-ii.html#post511144

I downloaded and installed DirectX 9.0c (I didn't see 9.1c) and voila! It's all good in the hood.

PS here's the link to the offical Microsoft download:
Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - DirectX 9.0c Redistributable for Software Developers - with updated DirectX for Managed Code (April 2005)

Edit: I forgot to mention that it only fixed the problem on one of the two computers I don't know why