How do i get it to work???

[razor990]

i bought Medieval 2 total war gold edition yesterday and installed it but when i try to play it goes into an endless black screen with a timer spining, also when i click on the shortcut on the desktop an error message appears saying

"An unhandled exception has occured in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will be shut down immediatly. Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

If anyone could tell me what's wrong and how to fix it in words i can understand that would be a big help

also my systems information is
operating system: Microsoft Windows Xp Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20 GHZ (2 CPUs)
memory: 512MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904

thanks

[irishron]

Unless you did something else besides install the game, something happened when it installed. Uninstall and reinstall it.

[razor990]

I just reinstalled it again and the error message came up again when i clicked details on it it gave me this info which i copied and pasted
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
Error in the application.
-2147220906 (VFW_E_NO_AUDIO_HARDWARE)
at Microsoft.DirectX.AudioVideoPlayback.Audio.Open(String fileName, Boolean autoRun)
at Microsoft.DirectX.AudioVideoPlayback.Audio..ctor(String fileName, Boolean autoRun)
at Launcher.LauncherMainForm.ApplySkins()
at Launcher.LauncherMainForm.LoadSkins()
at Launcher.LauncherMainForm.LoadLauncher()
at Launcher.LauncherMainForm.LauncherMainForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.2407
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/microsoft.net/framework/v1.1.4322/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
Launcher
Assembly Version: 1.0.2669.20298
Win32 Version: 1.0.2669.20298
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/SEGA/Medieval%20II%20Total%20War/Launcher.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.2032
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.2407
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll
----------------------------------------
CoreLib
Assembly Version: 1.0.2669.20298
Win32 Version: 1.0.2669.20298
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/SEGA/Medieval%20II%20Total%20War/CoreLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.2032
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
SkinLib
Assembly Version: 1.0.2669.20298
Win32 Version: 1.0.2669.20298
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/SEGA/Medieval%20II%20Total%20War/SkinLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
AxInterop.SHDocVw
Assembly Version: 1.1.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/SEGA/Medieval%20II%20Total%20War/AxInterop.SHDocVw.DLL
----------------------------------------
Interop.SHDocVw
Assembly Version: 1.1.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/SEGA/Medieval%20II%20Total%20War/Interop.SHDocVw.DLL
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/accessibility/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
UpdateLib
Assembly Version: 1.0.2669.20298
Win32 Version: 1.0.2669.20298
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/SEGA/Medieval%20II%20Total%20War/UpdateLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0
Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.2032
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.xml/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.xml.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.DirectX.AudioVideoPlayback
Assembly Version: 1.0.2902.0
Win32 Version: 5.04.00.2904
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/microsoft.directx.audiovideoplayback/1.0.2902.0__31bf3856ad364e35/microsoft.directx.audiovideoplayback.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.DirectX
Assembly Version: 1.0.2902.0
Win32 Version: 5.04.00.2904
CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/microsoft.directx/1.0.2902.0__31bf3856ad364e35/microsoft.directx.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this
application or machine (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine
rather than being handled by this dialog.

[irishron]

It says you have no sound. If you don't have sound via card or onboard chip it can find the drivers to, directx won't load and game won't load.