Graphics card error

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Hi, I'm having an error every time I start the game. The error looks like this.

Game initialization failed.

Direct3d initialization failed. Possible causes:

Video card is below the minimum requirement.

Graphics driver is old or corrupted

Direct3D is improperly instaled

Hardware acceleration is disabled

Application was started with the workstation locked

...

I checked all of these things and they seem to be in order. My graphics card meets the requirements to my knowledge. I noticed someone had a similar problem in another thread that was quite old, but it didn't seem to be resolved. I thought maybe someone found a solution in the meantime.

Here's the link to the other thread.

http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PostID=80875&wa=wsignin1.0

|||Can you tell us what graphics chip you have?|||

Sure, I have an ATI Radeon 4225 HD

I found a discussion on the boards where a guy solved the problem I was having, however, I don't have the folder "Project S" nor the file "Launcher.exe" which was how he was able to get around the problem. Maybe it was removed after the beta or something. Here's the link to the discussion.

http://forums.ageofempiresonline.com/forums/thread/68222.aspx

Thank you for responding!

|||

A Radeon 4225 HD should handle it (I have a Radeon HD 4200 and graphics are max). So it's not thevideocard.

Check you have the latest drivers installed.

Try emailing supportcommunity@ageofempiresonline.com

(Also the 'Spartan' folder is now 'Age of Empires Online')

|||This is the second ATI card I've had and I find it so confusing to figure out if I have updated drivers or not. Every time I go to the site, i always end up installing a new version of Catalyst and I cannot tell in there how to check and see if the drivers are actually updated. Does anybody have an easy way to check and see if the drivers are in fact up to date?|||The Catalyst installer from AMD also updates the drivers.|||

Just to see, I decided to dig out my old laptop that I replaced with my new one as I read on here somewhere that if you could play aoe 3, you could play aoeo. Low and behold, I installed it and it's playable, albeit on the lowest possible settings!! This laptop has an integrated ati xpress video card that normally, won't play anything. My new laptop will play SC2, DOW2, Dragon Age 2 on low, and AOE3 with max settings.etc.

One thing I did notice though is that my old laptop is multi-core,. My newer computer is only a single core. I often ignore when it says a dual core is necessary in the requirements because I find my computer almost always will play it anyway.. Could that be the root of the error and not the graphics card? Is anyone playing this game on a single core rig?

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I saw this once before in the beta...

To solve his/her issue...

Open the game by the following:

Find the file AOEOnline.exe and right click on the file and "Run as Administrator"

if you get the error close the game and run Windows Update. There should be some updates. If not try 3 or 4 times before Windows finds a solution to your issue.

If it does find an update, install it and restart your computer to make sure the changes take effect.

After rebooting your computer go straight back into Windows Update to see if there's additional updates. Keep doing this if more updates pop up.

Once there's no more updates run the game again as mentioned above by right clicking on the AOEOnline.exe file and Run as Administrator.

The game should work or it may find additional updates. If it fixes the issue or can't find any updates can you pleaase report back.

Thanks,

Bill

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I really appreciate the effort in helping me out.

Unfortunately, I still am getting the same error. I got excited the first time because it did find an update. But, after a reset, the same thing happened and I keep trying to download more updates but it doesn't work.

Another thought I had is that perhaps there is a problem with the screen size. I am trying to run this on a 1024 by 600 screen size. Maybe the screen size is not supported.

Any other thoughts? Thanks again for all the help I'vereceivedso far!!

|||

Make sure you have all windows updates installed and how fast is your computersprocessor?

You may want to try emailingcommunity@ageofempiresonline.com.

|||I have an Acer 521. It has an Athlon II Neo k125 processor at 1.7GHz with an ATI Radeon 4225 HD and 2 gb of Ram in Windows 7 starter edition. I realize it is below the minimum specs as far as the processor goes, but this computer plays games beyond its specs all the time.|||

While I was just messing around with the game, trying to get it to work, I started going through the game.cfg file. I noticed that the resolution settings by default were set to 1024 by 768. My computer does not support these settings so maybe that's why it wasn't loading. I tried to change them manually through a text editor and save it to 1024 by 600. When I tried to run it, it said the game files were corrupt and to run the full scan. When I did, it changed it back to 1024 by 768. ( I also tried 800 by 600 btw) . Is there something else I need to change in the game.cfg file in order to get it to work?

Thanks again for your help!