AoE2 Problems

[Lord of Ages]

I've had Age of Empires 2 and the Conquerors expansion installed for a while and have been able to play it for a long time without problems. Recently however, the game has stopped working at all, and nothing I do works. The only thing that it does is when I run the disk the start-up menu appears, but if I try to play it, it crashes giving me the "Has stopped working" message.
Annoyed, I re-installed both parts of the game a few times to no avail. When I tried to completely uninstall the game, I noticed that there were still some program files left on my hard drive. I tried to delete them, but the computer would not let me, saying I didn't have permission (and I'm the administer).
I have also scanned all of these files, the disks, and the entire computer for viruses, but haven't found anything. I'd appreciate any help, as I'm at a lost what to do...

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Hello Lord of Ages,
The game is compatible with both x32 and x64 versions of Vista, being a Microsoft game it should be.

Something must have changed on your PC, because this was working fine.
Have you updated any drivers, software/hardware, added anything like a USB device ?.
Or, un-installed any hardware/software, or devices of any sort ?.

The first thing you need to do is to get rid of any and all parts of this game.
Run a search, include hidden files, when you find anything delete it.

To take control of a file, right click, open the security tab, in the top box there will be three or four entry's, highlight them one at a time and edit, from there you can take full control of that file.

Give this a go and post your results. good luck.

 

[Lord of Ages]

Alright, I tried what you said and immediately ran into problems. When I attempted to reassign permission with one of the files, it told me my access was denied. No amount of tinkering got any other results.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Try the Revo un-installer, it's as good as any, and it's free.


Download Revo Uninstaller Freeware - Free and Full Download

 

[Lord of Ages]

Ok, tried that, but Revo seems incapable of deleting individual files.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Have you tried getting rid of these files in safe mode ?.
Theres no guarantee this will cure the problem, but you need to start with a fresh install.
Also, can you check to see if any part of these files are running, i had this a while ago and kept getting access denied when i tried to delete a file from a previously un-installed program, it had left part of the installer behind.

 

[Lord of Ages]

Thank you, I'll try that.

 

[Lord of Ages]

When I ran it in Safe Mode I couldn't even access the folder contents, let alone edit them. I also checked to see if any of the files were running and while I don't think so, I'm not quite sure what to look for.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Try this app, it will delete most file types.

MoveOnBoot Download - Softpedia

 

[Lord of Ages]

*sigh* Once again, I was denied access to the folder contents.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Two last things to try, if this doesn't do it then I'm just about out of ideas.
Two bits of software, both coming at this from different angles, hopefully one of these will work.

The first one will allow you to take ownership of the file by right clicking on it and "taking ownership" directly at the file itself.

Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista :: the How-To Geek

The second one will kill any and all processes regarding this file and completely unlock it so you can delete the file.

Unlocker - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Good luck with these two, and post your results.

 

[Lord of Ages]

Of course, neither worked. They were both denied permission. For the heck of it, I tried to re-install the game, and found something interesting. These screen shots explain it all.

This is what popped up when I tried to re-install the game. Apparently the files wouldn't let even their own program rewrite them.

After aborting the installation process, this came up.

Both of these happened every other time without fail.

 

[Lord of Ages]

And uh...sorry for the size; didn't realize they were quite this big.

 

[stoneys-nutz]

Try turning your anti-virus program off and see if that affects the installation.

 

[Lord of Ages]

Nope, only difference is that warning didn't come up.(2nd one)

Oh, BTW, on the property menu the Read-Only box is checked. If I try to change it, my permission is denied.

 

[d3aths3rver]

as stonys-nuts was saying right click on the file, go to the security tab, click on advanced, remove whoever is there (make sure system is there and administrator) and add yourself as well check the boxes with security permissions on inheritable objects or something and click apply, go back and give yourself full permissions including special permissions try deleting again

 

[Lord of Ages]

Alright, I think I finally got rid of it. I just used the unlock-er on it again and when it asked if I wanted to delete it, I hit 'Yes'. Miraculously, it seemed to work.

I'm checking to make sure it deleted it permanently...

 

[d3aths3rver]

sorry guys, I didnt know that you were on the second page of this thread, I posted a bit late