Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I have a dilemma that I hope someone here can help me solve, because I don't know where else to look.

I had been playing AoEII for several years on my two computers. One day, the game no longer loads. The intro screen starts, but then I get an error message something akin to:

Age of Empires failed to start. Windows is checking for a solution....

Then no solution appears. What happened? I already tried reinstalling, using an older configuration (for my Vista computer), and checking for patches. One of my computers is Windows XP and the other is Vista. Both do the same thing.

Did you just update?

Update what? I have "Automatic Updates" set for Windows. Is that what you meant?

Basically, we are looking for anything that has changed that would cause a change.  (cause for an effect)

And I appreciate your efforts. 

I did not make any updates to AoEII prior to the stoppage.

system restore your computer to a point where aoe2 was working properly.

I tried that on the XP computer and it didn't work. I'll try it on the Vista computer, though, just in case.

SBEmail quotes are always win.

I have Zerrubabel's Temple and The Garden Tomb loaded on my computer, so there is no way a virus got through.

I have Zerrubabel's Temple and The Garden Tomb loaded on my computer, so there is no way a virus got through.

Did you read the cards? TGT only stops one if its by itself... not 423,827 viruses.