Q177010: Age of Empires: Black Screen When You Start the Game

Article: Q177010
Product(s): Microsoft Home Games
Version(s): WINDOWS:1.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbdisplay kbenv aoe kbimu msgamekbfaq
Last Modified: 08-NOV-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Age of Empires, version 1.0 
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SYMPTOMS
========

When you start Microsoft Age of Empires, the screen may turn black and the
computer may seem to stop responding (hang). After a long pause, the game starts
and you see the Age of Empires startup screen.

RESOLUTION
==========

To resolve this issue, reduce the graphics hardware acceleration setting. To do
this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2. Double-click System.

3. On the Performance tab, click Graphics.

4. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider until it is one notch to the right of
  None (the Basic acceleration setting).

5. Click OK, and then click OK again.

6. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.

If the issue continues to occur, quit any other programs that are running. To do
this, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer.

2. If you are using Microsoft Windows 95, press the F8 key when you see the
  "Starting Windows 95" message.

  If you are using Microsoft Windows 98, when your computer finishes the Power
  On Self Test (POST), press and hold down CTRL until you see the Startup menu.

3. On the Startup menu, select Command Prompt Only, and then press ENTER.

4. At the command prompt, type "win" (without the quotation marks), and then
  press ENTER. To prevent any programs from starting automatically, press and
  hold down SHIFT until Windows finishes starting.

5. Quit all unnecessary programs that are running. To do this, press
  CTRL+ALT+DELETE, click any program in the Close Program dialog box except
  Explorer or Systray, and then click End Task. Repeat this step to quit all
  running programs except Explorer and Systray.

6. Disable any anti-virus or disk tool programs installed on the computer. For
  information about how to disable these programs, see the printed
  documentation or online Help file for the program.


Additional query words: 1.00 aoe ror display corrupt blackscreen launch menus intro msgame kbfaq

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Keywords          : kbdisplay kbenv aoe kbimu msgame kbfaq
Technology        : kbHomeProdSearch kbAOE kbGamesSearch kbZNotKeyword kbAOESearch
Version           : WINDOWS:1.0
Issue type        : kbprb

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