Etherlords and Etherlords 2

from Stardock Forums
I purchased Etherlords and Etherlords 2, installed them but they won't play properly.

By not playing properly, I mean that Windows Task Manager shows their processes using CPU and memory resources, but nothing ever shows up on my screen or appears in the Applications tab of Windows Task Manager.

This happens without regard to how I start the program up. I have 'Run' it from Stardock Manager, started it from the 'Start' Menu link and started them from the appropriate directory.

Any help would be appreciated.
8,809 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

My best guess would be that something on your system is conflicting with the games. Make sure that nothing else is running on your system and you may want to try setting the Windows XP firewall to Unblock the games. I've found that it'll pop up its dialog about it and cause things to crash straight off. Can really provide more help without detailed system specs.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Thank you for your reply.

I have tried with nothing else running and both Windows firewall and router firewall turned off (not a condition I would want to play games in even if it did work).

I had this problem once before, with Xenoassualt II. Eventually, I ended up getting a download from the company that made the game instead of using Stardock's downloads.

I have 23 games total from Stardock. This is a rare event for me. I'm still hoping someone has a working solution.

Thank you
~Kelly
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm afraid I'm at a loss, as there's nothing on our end that should be causing this. The only thing I could recommend is to try reinstalling the game to see if that fixes things, as maybe a file didn't get copied?  You may also want to install SmartException (via Stardock Central in the Misc. section) and see if that's able to capture any data when the game crashes. If it does, please email the generated exception to bclair@stardock.com.

If we're unable to get the games working, we'll refund your tokens for them.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I found SmartException in the FreeStuff section and have it installed. I uninstalled Etherlords and am redownloading it and we will see how it goes. I would much prefer to fix it than get a refund. I have both games on CD (I bought them when they were new), but I moved and my house hold goods ended up in a different state. I love being able to purchase software through your service and download it wherever I am without the need for a CD.

I will toss you an email and let you know how things go and include and error data that pops up (if it doesn't work).

Thank you
~Kelly
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Kelly,

I know we weren't able to get the games to work, but did they run when you had them on CD originally?

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
They both ran fine from the original CDs and provided many hours of enjoyable play.

The originals were not installed on the computer when I installed them from the Stardock Manager.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Very strange.