-Sigh- When will it end?

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 09:34 PM

Well, so far, from internet research, I've read that Medieval Total War 2 has caused problems for many people. Sometimes the game crashes in random places, other times the text is sluggish, other times the game freezes, etc.

For me, I don't understand what is wrong. The game works fine, the main screen loads up fine, but when I load the tutorial, and it finishes loading, my monitor goes black and nothing happens. I can minimize the game by pressing CTRL + ESC and I see everything on my computer again, but in the game, I don't.

To further test, I play the grand campaign. The world map works, but the battles don't, and the same black-screen problem occurs.

Is this a bug, or my video card? And how can I fix this? I was really excited for this game, but the beefy requirements disappoints me.

Thanks.

**Lord Phoenix** · December 02, 2006, 09:42 PM

What's your system specs? Including DirectX version. Have you downloaded your latest video drivers recently?

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 09:47 PM

My system specifications are -

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4
CPU 2.40 GHz
2.39 GHz
512 MB of RAM*

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For DirectX, I'm sure I have it. Previous games I played needed DirectX and would ask me to upgrade it. I have, so I don't think there is any problem there.

My video card says that there are no updates available.

**Kal Zakath** · December 02, 2006, 09:43 PM

I am guessing an ATI card?

I had the same problem on battles until I downloaded the latest driver from ATI.

Since then, I am black-screen free.

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by Kal Zakath

I am guessing an ATI card?

I had the same problem on battles until I downloaded the latest driver from ATI.

Since then, I am black-screen free.

Cool! How do I do download the latest driver?

Sorry, I'm not well-versed in computers, but did you upgrade your video card, or is ATI different? Because I have something about ATI in my computer.

Or should I turn it off, like XSlingerX?

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Also, your lucky you hardly have any problems!

**Romanos** · December 02, 2006, 09:44 PM

Sent to the technical forum.

**XSlingerX** · December 02, 2006, 09:47 PM

Medieval 2 hasn't caused any problems for me. However, When I turn on ATI's AI, the text gets really distorted. That happened on the menu, I didn't see if it would do anyhting to the campaign map or battles. So I just turned AI off. I've had no CTDs or encountered any bugs really.

**Fondor_Yards** · December 02, 2006, 10:02 PM

You need at least 512MB RAM, not 412 to run it.

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 10:05 PM

Sorry, that was a typo. I do have a 512 MB of RAM.

Thanks for pointing that out ^_^.

**Kal Zakath** · December 02, 2006, 10:09 PM

I'm a computer moron myself.

Here's how I got the driver, though...

Go to your control panel, then system, then to hardware.

Click on 'Device manager'

Click on 'Display adapters'

Click on the card that you are using (I am using a Radeon 9800 XT), clicking (or double clicking) should bring up a 'properties' window. Under the 'Driver' page there, there should be an option to 'update driver'.

Nope, no purchase of any new cards, no money expended.

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 10:12 PM

Ooh, I tried that already

.

I have Radeon 9500 PRO / 9700 Family.

How would I get to 9800 XT?

Also, when I tried to update, it told me there were no updates available.

Sorry for all the trouble

.

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 10:37 PM

Well, no one?

**VaultDweller** · December 02, 2006, 10:59 PM

Going from 9500 Pro to 9800 XT is not related to drivers. That's the name of the physical hardware in your machine.

To get the most up-to-date drivers, go to http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html. You can download either the Display Driver (and only the Display Driver), or you can get the Catalyst Software suite instead. I personally prefer the Catalyst suite (though I no longer have ATI cards in any computers), as it provides a more robust control panel for tweaking graphics settings and creating profiles, but it isn't quite as lightweight as the standalone driver and will chew up a bit more RAM.

Whichever you choose, save it to your desktop (or any other location) and run the file. It'll walk you through installation just like any other software does.

{Edit}

Note that those are the Windows XP drivers I linked to. They won't work with any other version of Windows.

**BastileBreakdown** · December 02, 2006, 11:37 PM

It worked! I downloaded the Display Driver first, so that my RAM is not taken up much. I might download the Catalyst to play on high settings because right now its on low. Otherwise, thank you all for your help!