Age of Mythology refuses to run on my computer even though it installs and runs successfully on two other computers. No error messages appear when installing Age of Mythology but when attempting to run the program (either from the Start menu, the desktop icon, or the disk) the ‘Age of Mythology’ black window appears and I hear my CD drive accessing files. Then the window disappears, the drive stops, and I am back to the desktop! Updating the drivers for the video, sound card, BIOS, and DirectX does not fix the problem. Running the AutoUpdate utility from the Game Menu tells me the game has been successfully updated. Running the game in ‘AOM-No Sound’ and ‘AOM-No Video’ modes doesn’t help. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, and get the same result every time. Oddly enough, I have had no trouble with other modern, graphics intensive games. The computer is an Athlon AMD processor 1.1 GHz, 510 MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX400, Direct X 9.0, Realtek AC’97Audio, 55.9 GB HDD with 34.6 GB free running Windows XP Home Edition. Can you help?

The standard advice I give for any video related problem is firstly to reduce the hardware acceleration. Go to the ‘Display’ control panel > ‘Settings’ tab and click ‘Advanced’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Troubleshoot’ tab. Reduce the slider by one notch, click OK, and see if the problem persists. Continue with this procedure until the problem is resolved or you reach ‘None’ and the problem persists. In this case, reset the slider to its original setting. A second possibility is that Age of Mythology is not compatible with your computer’s current video refresh rate. You could try changing the refresh rate for DirectX. Be aware that setting an incorrect refresh rate could damage your monitor. Make sure that you consult your monitor’s documentation to ensure that the refresh rate you choose is supported. Once you have checked this for instructions on changing the refresh rate in DirectX, have a look at support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/q181/6/65.asp under the heading ‘Change the Default Refresh Rate Setting for Your Video Adapter’. You may also find some of the other suggestions in this article useful. A third possibility is that there is a problem with Direct 3D. Try disabling then re-enabling Direct 3D. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘dxdiag’ (without the quotes) and click OK. In the DirectX Diagnostic Tool which appears, click the ‘Display’ tab. On this tab, click ‘Disable’ next to Direct3D Acceleration. A warning message will appear - click OK. Once this has been disabled, click Enable to re-enable. Once this has happened, click ‘Exit’. Try running Age of Mythology. If this still doesn’t work, in the Game Menu go into the ‘Options’ and set the screen-size, music volume, and graphics detail to the lowest settings. I know that you have already tried running the game without sound and without video but this may work, as it decreases both the sound and graphics detail. Another site which may provide some help is www3.sympatico.ca/nibblesnbits/DX.html which provides a good guide to solving video related problems.