Age of Empires 2 Issues

I love Age of Empires 2 (I own the Conquerors Expansion, Gold Edition). Only
problem is that I recently got Windows Vista and have been experiencing these
three problems:

1) The colors sometimes get messed up and the graphics become skewed. The
most noticable example of this is when the grass becomes mixed with red
blotches.

2) I'm having trouble connecting online with other players, regardless of
their operating systems. My friends and I used to quickly and easily connect
together but now the systems (mine and theirs) tend to crash.

3)Regular crashes about an hour or two into playing.

A remedy for all or any of these problems would be greatly appreciated.

I, too, have the same problem with red blothes on the screen. Land looks
more like a toxic waste land. Plus the color teal shows up as yellow in
the small scale map on the bottom right corner. Gets confusing when
playing a game not knowing if its the real yellow or the teal showing up
as yellow. Any help out there for this issue? AOE 2 works flawlessly on
my XP desktop but sucks on my brand new laptop with vista ultimate.

OK i tryed all these things im still having aoc problems is there anything i
can do? please !!! the toxic waste grass is killing me i play this game often
works great on my XP comp but my new dell XPS rated [4.8] havin issues i dled
all GFX updates + dx9 latest oh and whats UAC? maybe that may help

Update all drivers (GFX and DX9), also allow the game in the firewall, try
turning of UAC.

Just the update of dx9 will do the job as it's a fanastic game you dont want
to stop playing it WELL DONE TO VRG Scotty 10/10 for your answer.

I found DXport but have no idea how to use it. Call me a computer noob, but I
have no idea what an NAT device is or even how to forward the ports.

I have a Belkin Wireless N Router (Model F5D8233-4v3).

I had the same graphics problem. I downloaded DirectX9c and I have no
graphics issues anymore.

If you are having problems connecting to players over the
internet your problem is likely a port forwarding problem. Go to the
International Gaming Zone ('www.IGZones.com' )
and get live help through their client. Or you can read up about it some
more at 'Problems with Hosting and Joining games. | International Gaming
Zones; Matchmaking for Gaming!'
. Those 2
links should pretty much solve any hosting or joining problems.

If you have any other issues, describe them in _detail_.

I know this has something to do with router ports. Look up something
called DXport. All I know is that this program or a program like it
splits up the ports needed for the games between the 2 computers on your
router, or something like that.

I appear to have solved most of my problems, and I appreciate all of your
help. All of my graphics issues are pretty much over and I play single player
games with ease. But a simple vista-to-vista game (between two computers on
the same router, one wired and one wireless) doesn't seem to be possible.

I am fully able to host a game, but when my brother tries to join he can't
seem to get past the "Press ESC if not connected in 15 seconds" screen. I am
able to see his name in the room, with a ping of 30 (always). I've already
turned off UAC and added the game to thee list of Windows Firewall execptions.

What can be done to fix this?

Those having "toxic grass" problems - I experience it too when running
vista and have found a workaround:

Start the game, and then once it loads pause the game. If the colours
look weird, press ALT+TAB to get back to windows. Right click on the
desktop and click personalize, then display settings. Set your colour
depth to 16 bit. Press ok.

Then go back into the game and the colour issues will be resolved.

However if you start a new game, the problems will reoccur so the next
time, repeat the process. (it its currently in 16 bit, changing to 32
again will fix it).

Those with networking issues - if you're on the same lan (ie both in
your house using the same router) switching the vista firewall off will
solve your problems.

If you're behind a router and playing online then you'll either need to
forward the ports or use hamachi as AOE2 predates UPnP.

When you get the colour problems and minimize, try changing the colour
depth to 16bit. Does that help?

If they keep reverting the chances are you have something running at
the same time that is showing notification (skype, msn or something)
that is messing up the colour mode. Try exiting all non system essential
programs before running the game. This includes pointless motherboard
system tray icons.

[GVANB392]

Vista Users: Try right clicking either the shortcut to aoe2 or going straight to the .exe itself.

After right clicking choose properties.

Select the "compatibility" tab.

Check the box which reads, "Run this program in compatibility mode for:"

Be sure that Windows XP (Service Pack 2) is the selection in the drop down just below the box you just checked.

Click "Apply", then "OK"

It should work after that. I was experiencing the same problems, and tried this.
It has worked fine since, and does not require one to do something every time he wants to play the game.

all you have to do to fix the color display is press the little windows flag button on your keyboard it will minimize to the windows desktop then just click back on the game and the colors should be fixed also I recommend playing on highest graphic settings too. My problem is I can't seem to get the single player mode to work tho. I have the actual game but I used a cracked version so I could play my bro. using lan on comp. upstairs idk what he did now the single player just stops working now any ideas

[jellybean]

I have a similar problem as the OP in regards to the "toxic waste".

What happens to me, and this has only happened to me last night for the first time, is that within five minutes of gameplay, the computer screens pixels will change color to what is known as 'toxic waste'.

Whenever I minimize the screen, the colors change back to what they were, but the pixels usually revert within a matter of minutes. I have never had this happen to me before.

I read this thread and any other thread I could find on google, but none of the suggestions have actually helped me.

Could anyone think of a reason why this is happening? I think this is the strangest thing - that colors change for no reason, no matter how many times I start a new game or turn off my computer and start again.

Anyways, thanks. Hopefully I can get some help.

I think the problem was that I "had" YOOG installed as my default browswer.

As soon as I deleted it (although it's back on and now I don't have internet access), the problem went away.

i also have the same problem(i own age of empires 2 the conqurers)......i have two operating systems on my computer,
1.Windows XP
2.Windows vista

i had only 95 mb of space left in my comp....i opened my XP and it crashed
(blue screen)saying that the errors could be-
1.less disk space etc...

so,i opened vista n cleared all my useless data....then around 2 gb was left but then too blue screen comes....

help would be really appreciated..

Please help. I just want to play the game I purchased. Have Vista Ultimate, plenty of memory and speed. ATI Radeon Xpress 1150. All my drivers are up to date. The Direct X is up to date. Alt/Tab-ing used to work but no longer does. Its all "toxic waste grass" all the time now.

I have Alt Tabbed
I have switched from 16 to 32 bit
I have run as Admin
I have run in compatibility mode for XP
I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice.
Basically I have tried everything I have read here and any other forum I could find, and nothing as worked. Obviously this is what I get for buying a game that wasn't designed for *edit* Vista. After I bought it, I read this was a common problem and MS was not going to release a patch for it, but has anyone ever come up with anything? Any help would be appreciated.

I have a toshiba satellite A505, with 4 gig of sdram, intel core duo 2 gigahert processor, intel graphics media accelerator drivers, mobile intel 4 series express chipset family (?monitor?), it's all brand new. I am running windows vista home premium. I can install ages II, with expansion pack, no problem, but can not get the game to start. says it encountered a problem... unspecified at that. i have tried windows xp compatibility mode, and uninstalling and reinstalling, have tried just about everything, here and all that i can think of... can a powerful laptop run this game? any help out there?? i love ages 2 conqeruers... :-(

I just bought a new computer with Vista Home Premium, and I'm trying to
get it to run AoEII, but after I installed it, the program would open,
run for like 5 seconds, and then quit. It wouldn't let me start a
single-player game or even create my own scenario. When it gets back to
the Windows screen, it suggests a "solution" for why it wouldn't run,
which was to try the Compatibility Pack. Tried it. Still didn't run.
Tried disabling the INVIDIA display adapter. Still didn't run. Tried
installing DirectX9. Still didn't run. Am I doing something wrong??
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't think it's an issue with
the display driver, but I could be wrong.

Can anyone help me? I am running AOE II on windows vista ultimate. In
multiplayer, I can create or join a game but as soon as we start, my
game crashes. Runs fine on single player. No issues with the
Firewall....Suggestions anyone?

For those of you who are having problems with the game no starting, try this.

If you can make it to the menu screen, go into the options.

Change the screen size to the one in the middle,
I believe it is 1024 x 768.

This will probably work.

I believe the problems cames from the newer monitor sizes.

Let me know if this works, took me 2 months to figure this out.

[RedSkywalker]

The problem is with Explorer.exe - it conflicts with the colour settings in AOE so to cure the prob bring up taskmanager and stop Explorer.exe running in processes then use taskmanager to browse to AOE and start it - it will then run perfectly.

When you finish playing enter Explorer.exe in taskmanager and start it to get your destop back. You will only have to enter the details once because taskmanager will remember them for next time.

[garfent]

I don't think the problem is with Vista. I'm running XP Pro and I'm having the same problem with the toxic colors.

Funny thing is, that about 8 - 9 months ago I played the game and it ran just fine. So whatever has happened, has happened since I last played the game.
I have changed nothing on my computer for 5 years or so, so it's not that.

I suspect that it's a Windows Update that's caused some kind of problem.
But also, yesterday I minimized the game to place a Skype call, and when I brought the game back up the graphics and color were fine. It lasted good for about 15 minutes, and then the toxic came back.

The game is playing fine, it just has crappy graphics and color.
It's aggravating!!

[RedSkywalker]

My last post on the cause was correct but I've worked out an even easier fix - before you start AOE right click on the desktop and select change resolution BUT then do nothing more - that's it. Start the game and the colours will be fine - enjoy!

[kimathor]

So i have been playing age of empires 2 for awhile now and i got a new graphics card so i decided to redownload the game. Now when i start the game it starts but then it stops and says it cant run. I have no idea how to fix this if someone could give some imput it would be great. thanks.

[specialkp]

Well absoloutley none of this worked...........the grass and water textures are still messed

[j70141]

Actually, I had the same issue with Windows 7 and another laptop using XP.

I haven't found the perma-fix, but I found the temp-workaround.

1. Go into the Task Manager and find Explorer. End Task it.

This will cause your taskbar and icons to disappear. Don't panic.

2. On the applications tab, click New Task and browse to your Age of Empires start program.

You will find your problem fixed for that game.

3. To restart explorer after your game, click New Task and type "Explorer"



There have also been reports of people going into the Screen Resolution Screen and leaving it open and running the game. I tried it, and it didn't work for me, but it is worth a try.

To automate the whole process, you can use a cmd file and paste the following into it:

taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
age2_x1.exe
Start explorer.exe


You run the cmd file in the folder with the executable program.