General video issues
The following are general video-related issues that do not apply
to specific video hardware.
Black screen appears when you start the game
When you start M Age of Empires II, the game may open to a black screen. To resolve this issue, start the game by using the
NoStartup parameter.
For more information about the NoStartup parameter, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
242227Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=242227/
)
Age Of Empires II: Command line parameters
268471Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=268471/
)
AOE II Expansion: The Conquerors: Command line parameters
Mouse pointer is not visible
When you play Age of Empires II, the mouse pointer may not be
visible or may not move smoothly. To resolve this issue, contact your video
card hardware manufacturer to obtain and to install the latest version of the
driver for your video card or use the following methods in the order that they
appear. For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video
card, see the "References" section.
Method 1: Start the game by using the NormalMouse parameter
For more information about this
parameter, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
242227Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=242227/
)
Age Of Empires II: Command line
parameters
268471Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=268471/
)
AOE II
Expansion: The Conquerors: Command line parameters
Method 2: Change the mouse settingsNote Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the
following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your
product documentation to complete these steps.
- Click Start, and then click
Control Panel.
- Double-click Mouse.
- On the Pointer Options tab, click to clear
the Display pointer trails check box.
- Click to clear the Show location of pointer when I
press the CTRL key check box, if it is available.
- Click OK.
Method 3: Set hardware acceleration to turn off mouse acceleration- Right-click the Microsoft Windows desktop, and then click
Properties.
- On the Settings tab, click
Advanced.
- On the Troubleshoot tab, set the
Hardware acceleration slider one notch to the left of
Full.
- Click Apply, and then click
OK.
- Click OK.
Game screen scrolls up unexpectedly
When you play Age of Empires II, the map on the game screen may
scroll up unexpectedly. To resolve this issue, contact your video card hardware
manufacturer to obtain and install the latest version of the driver for your
video card. For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video
card, see the "References" section.
Screen colors flicker
When you play Age of Empires II, the screen colors may flicker
briefly when you change from one game screen to another. To resolve this issue,
contact your video card hardware manufacturer to obtain and install the latest
version of the driver for your video card or perform a clean boot of your
computer. For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video
card, see the "References" section.
Restart the computer by using a clean boot procedure
When you start Microsoft Windows, typically there are a number of
programs that start automatically and run in the background that may interfere
with the game. These programs may include antivirus and system utility
programs. When you perform a clean boot, you prevent these programs from
starting automatically.
You must be logged on as an administrator or
a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure. If your
computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent
you from completing this procedure.
To restart your computer by using
a clean boot procedure, follow these steps if you are using Microsoft Windows
XP:
Note You may experience a temporary loss of some services
functionality when you follow these steps. Restoring the settings restores the
functionality, but the original error message or behavior may return as a
result.
- Click Start, and then click
Run.
- In the Open box, type
msconfig, and then click OK.
- On the General tab, click
Selective Startup.
- Under Selective Startup, click to clear
the following check boxes:
- Process SYSTEM.INI File
- Process WIN.INI File
- Load Startup Items
- On the Services tab, click to select the
Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click
Disable All.
- Click OK, and then click
Restart.
To view the "How to clean boot" video, click the
Play button:
To view the "How to return from a clean boot state" video, click the
Play button:
For more information or to view steps for other operating
systems, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
331796Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=331796/
)
Games: How to perform a clean boot
to prevent background programs from interfering with play
Play area or objects are black or discolored
When you play Age of Empires II, the game play area or objects
may be black or discolored. To resolve this issue, contact your video card
hardware manufacturer to obtain and install the latest version of the driver
for your video card or start the game by using the
Mfill parameter. For information about how to contact the manufacturer
of your video card, see the "References" section.
For more information about the "Mfill" parameter, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
242227Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=242227/
)
Age Of Empires II: Command Line Parameters
268471Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=268471/
)
AOE II
Expansion: The Conquerors: Command Line Parameters
Screen is black or white after introductory movie plays
When you play Age of Empires II, the screen may turn black or
white and your computer may stop responding (hang) after the introductory movie
plays. To resolve this issue, contact your video card hardware manufacturer to
obtain and install the latest version of the driver for your video card or
replace the Wsock32.dll file on the computer. For information about how to
contact the manufacturer of your video card, see the "References" section of
this article. If you think that you are using an outdated version of the
Wsock32.dll file, extract a new copy of the Wsock32.dll file from your original
Windows installation media.
For more information about how to extract
files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
129605Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=129605/
)
How to extract original compressed
Windows files
Hardware-specific video issues
3Dfx Voodoo 3
When you try to play Age of Empires II with this hardware, game
performance may be less than expected or the mouse point may flicker. To
resolve this issue, update to the most recent drivers.
Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Exxtreme
When you play Age of Empires II with this hardware and press ALT +
TAB, the computer may stop responding (hang), the mouse pointer may disappear,
or the screen may become distorted. To resolve this issue, update to the most
recent drivers. To do so, visit the following Web site:
Hercules Stingray 128/3D
When you play Age of Empires II with this hardware and press ALT
+ TAB, the computer may stop responding (hang), the mouse pointer may
disappear, or the screen may become distorted. To resolve this issue, update to
the most recent drivers. To do so, visit the following Web site:
Intergraph Intense3D 100
When your try to play Age of Empires II with this hardware, the
game may stop responding (hang) during the introductory movie playback. To
resolve this issue, start the game using the
Nostartup parameter.
For more information about this parameter, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
242227Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=242227/
)
Age Of Empires II: Command line parameters
268471Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=268471/
)
AOE II
Expansion: The Conquerors: Command line parameters
Matrox MGA Millennium
When you play Age of Empires II with this hardware and press ALT
+ TAB, the computer may stop responding (hang), the mouse pointer may
disappear, or the screen may become distorted. To resolve this issue, update to
the most recent drivers. To do so, visit the following Web site:
Matrox Millennium II PowerDesk
When you play Age of Empires II with this hardware and press ALT
+ TAB, the computer may stop responding (hang), the mouse pointer may
disappear, or the screen may become distorted. To resolve this issue, update to
the most recent drivers. To do so, visit the following Web site:
For more information about how to troubleshoot display-related issues, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
263039Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=263039/
)
Games: How to troubleshoot display issues
Nvidia GeForce
After you accept the End User License agreement (EULA) on a Microsoft Windows Millennium-based computer, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen:
File Name: VDD(03) + 00001816 Error: 00 : 0028 : C0231D9E
This issue may occur if you are using outdated drivers. To resolve this issue, download and install the latest video card drivers. To do this, visit the following Nvidia Web site:
If this issue continues to occur after you have the latest drivers installed, try the 56.64 driver. To install the 56.54 driver, visit the following Nvidia Web site:
Contact the manufacturer of your video adapter for
information about how to obtain and install the latest version of the video
driver for your video adapter. To see if applicable driver updates are
available, visit the following Microsoft Windows Update Web site:
For information about how to contact your video hardware manufacturer, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
65416Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=65416/
)
Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K
60781Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=60781/
)
Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P
60782Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=60782/
)
Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z
Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you
find technical support. This contact information may change without notice.
Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact
information.
The third-party products that this
article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of
Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the
performance or reliability of these products.