INTRODUCTORY:
How to fix game errors when launching on Windows 10, how to play old games on Windows 11, problems when launching old games on Windows 10, those are obvious questions when we want to play an old game, designed for Windows XP/ 7/ 8 systems but want to run them on new Windows systems like Windows 10/ 11. Therefore, this article will bring you useful information to solve the above questions, information based on my own experience learned after successfully supporting many people, many people come from many countries.
In this article, we will only talk about errors when starting the game, because most of them are caused by the Windows system on which the game is trying to run, errors that occur while playing the game will not mentioned, as most of them are caused by compatibility, issues related to the technology used to build the game, or the problem lies mainly with the game itself.
A little introduction to old games, the question is What kind of game is called old? In fact, it is very difficult to judge whether a game is old, "old" or "new" - mainly considering an item based on time, whether it is old enough or not depends on each person's perspective, but in general, we can consider a game old when it is at least 3 years old (calculated from the time of release), if it is older then we can say that it is “very old”, more then “antique”. Most old games will have problems running on new systems (new software systems, new electronic components), generation differences based on time, the greater the innovation, the higher the risk of problems at launch.
MAIN CONTENT:
Errors when starting the game will be very diverse, sometimes depending on the game, different errors may occur when starting, but basically we have 4 common types of errors are: Black screen, Missing .dll file, DirectX 8.1, Application Error (0xc000007b, vv…).
1, Black screen error
Black screen is the first error that we will learn about, this can also be said to be the most common error, the most difficult to fix, accounting for about 90% of problems when launching games on Windows 10/ 11 systems. If you can solve it, identify the problem, then almost no startup error is difficult enough to trouble you.
Black screen error is understood as an error that occurs when starting the game, a typical sign is a black screen, not displaying any information or images, it is often accompanied by Crash, meaning the end of the black screen image by turning off automatically, the game icon on the taskbar automatically turns off and disappears.
In case the Black screen does not turn off automatically after a few seconds but lasts until the user has to intervene with Task Manager, this case will be related to problems with the game itself, compatibility, system conflicts, system problems occur in the game's script, corrupted files, or something missing, rather than the Windows system.
The causes of Black screen errors are very diverse, there is no specific cause that applies to all cases, so we will not spend time looking for a specific name that caused the Black Screen error, we will learn and identify problems that may occur during game startup, causing the problem.
When starting the game, the game basically queries the data file directory, then uses the command library to operate, then creates the personal file for starting the game. Please note that the above order and concepts do not reflect the correct concept when talking about software engineering, they are mainly based on my own experience, the way I understand it after many times encountering and solving it.
As I shared about the Black screen error above, it can be seen that the Black screen error will be caused by the game startup process, specifically in 3 stages: Querying the file Data > Using script library > Creating personal boot files.
About Data File Query: You can simply understand that when you run the game's startup file (.exe), it will perform queries, review data files, to send information to the computer, for your computer to processed and displayed, if it queries the intro video file, intro sound file... the computer will process and read the files according to the script for which the game is designed, then you will see the intro appear on the screen of the game and accompanying sounds, such as the startup logo, intro video, etc.
Intro video from the game Need for Speed: Underground
If at this stage there is a problem and a black screen occurs, most of the time the phenomenon is a black screen and turns off immediately after 1-3 seconds, even without a black screen, no response after you run the game's startup file (.exe).
Need for Speed: Underground 2 game starts up error (black screen appears but the recording software cannot record)
When querying data, it can be understood that the game will scan its files at the exact location where the game's startup file is located, or at the folders containing the game's startup file. An example can be "D:\ Game\ Offline games\ NFS Series\ Need for Speed: Underground 2"
For older games, even including newly released games, they usually do not support special languages, which can simply be called Unicode. Special languages are languages that use special characters and letters that Latin languages do not support (For example: ế, é, ẹ, ắ, ặ, ớ, ậ, 國, ある, 감, д. و…).
When the address of the game's data files is related to special languages, the game will not be able to read it and cannot find the correct location of the data file to be queried, so the game will encounter problems while trying to start and shuts down on its own. (Fact: Shutting down is not an error, it is a last resort for a game to escape problems/conflicts between commands/code)
For example: If I put the game folder of the game in the following location "D:\ Game\ Trò chơi đua xe\ NFS Underground 2".
When querying, the game processes address information "D:\ Game\ Trò chơi đua xe\ NFS Underground 2" and convert into "D:\ Game\ Tr? Chơi ?ua xe\ NFS Underground 2".
It's clear at this point that the game misinterpreted the data file address, which it should have been "D:\ Game\ Trò chơi đua xe\ NFS Underground 2", but the game sees "D:\ Game\ Tr? Chơi ?ua xe\ NFS Underground 2", so the problem occurs.
With address "D:\ Game\ Trò chơi đua xe\ NFS Underground 2"
If I rename the folder to change the data file address to "D:\ Game\ Tro choi dua xe\ NFS Underground 2", then the game will work, because it has no problem reading the data file address.
With address "D:\ Game\ Tro choi dua xe\ NFS Underground 2"
In addition to containing special languages, some games can only read addresses of a certain length, limited to a certain number of characters. In this regard, you need to pay attention to the length of the directory name and the number of directory levels, these two factors directly affect the length/number of characters of the data file address.
What is the folder name? Folder name is the name, the nominal name placed on a folder, the name of a folder to distinguish it from adjacent folders., typically in the same folder, you cannot see two folders with the same name, they may be somewhat similar, but there are still differences (For example: Folder vs Folder (1); Folder (2)).
What is the number of folder levels? The number of folder levels is the rank of the lowest subfolder, To make it easier to understand, you can imagine that: With a folder, when inside it contains another folder, it will become the parent folder and the other folder will become a subfolder, at this point the folder will become the parent folder. The parent folder is called the 1st level folder, the folder inside is called the 2nd level folder, if inside it there is another folder, the folder inside is called the 3rd level folder. (For example: "D:\ Game\ NFS Series\ NFS Underground 2" then we determine that there are 3 levels of folders, and the game is in the 3rd level folder)
Going back to the character count issue, if I put the game in the following address: "D:\ Game\ NFS series\ aaaa...\...\...ddddddd\ NFS Underground 2", then maybe the game will just read to "D:\ Game\ NFS series\ aaaa...\...\ ddd…" As a result, it cannot find the last position, the exact location where the game is located and the problem occurs.
In fact, I intentionally made the names of the folders too long, causing the game's startup file to even be disabled and unable to be opened.
To summarize, in this stage there will mainly be only the above two issues: Special language characters and data file address length.
About Using command file library: You can understand that games are designed with programming languages, operating scenarios, built on scripts or technology, on a certain template and a certain convention. If your computer does not possess that library of command files/technology, it cannot read, understand and process the script files and command files of the game. It can be understood that you need a book to teach encode to be able to understand the encoding language and decode it.
For example: I send you a txt file containing the message content inside and comes with reading software, when you directly open that txt file you will see:: “He**o gu$, Hoự &re $ou @o d&$?”, you won't understand anything, it's meaningless because it can't be read, but when you use the reading software that I give with the principle of decoding ( * = l, $ = y, ư = w, & = a, @ = t), then the text will display as “Hello guy, How are you to day?”, now you understand the content of the message, after they have been decoded).
It can be seen that the game will be built on a certain type of command and convention, the computer will need a library large enough to understand them and process them, operating properly according to the scenario required by the game.
Command file library mainly related to Visual C++, If your computer needs it to understand what the game wants, but your computer doesn't have the necessary command file library, then the computer won't be able to handle the game's requests and problems will occur.
If your computer has the Visual C++ 2005 script library, then games released before 2005 will not have problems starting (unless they require special software) , but for games released after 2005, most will have problems when starting (unless these games still use the old script library, Visual C++ 2005).
Regarding the signs of a problem, it is almost no different from the 'Data file query' stage, because that process does not require the computer to process, calculate and display graphics, so you won't see anything appear on the screen yet, so they are almost similar in terms of recognition ability.
In addition, you should also pay attention to DirectX, mainly DirectX 9. For new devices, they are not available and must be additionally installed. Although this is not much related to this stage, mainly in the game's graphics processing process, but you should also pay attention to it.
To summarize, during this period, you need to pay attention to Visual C++. You should find and install Visual C++ according to the release years, as complete as possible, excess is better than deficiency.
About Creating Personal Boot Files: You can understand that when each game starts, it will download configuration information related to your device, then save them for the next startup, because it was saved the first boot, so subsequent boots will be faster and take less time than the first time.
The problem at this stage is easier to recognize, because some games will run the intro video first, then save the boot file, so if you start the game and see on the screen The logo of the publishing company, the development team or an introductory video appears, and after they finish the game suddenly turns off and disappears, then it is very likely that your problem is in this stage (for example: Titan Quest: Anniversary Edition, Age of Empires: Definitive Edition).
Typically, games will save their personal boot files in two formats: one in the Documents folder, the other directly in the game folder. Going back to the issue of some games not supporting special languages, at this stage you just need to focus on making sure that the path to the location to save the personal boot file, does not contain special languages .
So how is the path to the location to save the personal boot file determined? This path will depend on each game, if it saves the boot file in the game folder, just make sure that the names of the folders containing the games do not have special language. If it's saved in the Documents folder on your computer, we'll have more to talk about below.
About saving files in the Documents folder:
- If you use Windows 10, it will be saved in C: Users\ Yourname\ Documents
- If you use Windows 11, it will be saved in C: Users\ Yourname\ OneDrive\ Documents
Going back to the issue of some games not supporting special languages, you need to make sure that the address above to save the personal boot file does not contain the special language. Pay attention to “Yourname” and “Documents” because those are things that can change depending on the language which you use on your computer.
Some people leave their username as “Việt”, Of course the game can crash if it can't read special languages, some people use Vietnamese as the system language, make “Documents” change into “Tài liệu” and of course the game will crash if it doesn't support the special language, for Windows 11 users, please pay attention to the language set on OneDrive, “Documents” may have been changed to another language.
The most effective solution to this problem is to proactively intervene and change the default path of the folder location where your personal files are saved. You will need to pay attention to following the steps below.
Step 1: Open Registry Editor (by pressing Windows key + typing “Registry Editor” and open it
Step 2: Open according to the link "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders"
Step 3: Open the "Personal" line, you will see the address bar in the "Value data" section, in the form "%USERPROFILE%\Documents" or "C:\Users\Yourname\Documents"
Step 4: Check to see if the address bar contains special language, when the game saves the personal boot file to the Documents folder, it will read this address to determine the location, if the address If this file contains a special language and the game does not support that language, a problem will occur.
Step 5: After you have finished checking, or changed it if necessary, you just need to press "OK" to save and can turn it off.
To make sure, check the same with the path "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders"
To summarize, during this stage, pay attention to the address where the game's personal boot file is saved, it is usually located in the Documents folder or in the game folder itself, if it saves the file in the game folder then you Just make sure the name of the folder containing the game doesn't have special language, if it saves files in the Documents folder, check with Registry Editor, as I instructed.
Also, for 32bit games, remember to add them to the list in Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in case you enable it, this is also a common cause of “Black screen” error, don't ignore it , see instructions below.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type “View advanced system settings”, open it
Step 2: In the Advanced column, open "Settings" of "Perfomance"
Step 3: Switch to the “Data Execution Prevention” column, add games by clicking “Add…” if you are checking the second line
Step 4: Click “OK” to save. Finished
Finally, above is all that I think is necessary to solve the Black screen error when starting/running an old/new game on Windows 10/11 system, remember to read it all, don't miss anything.
2, Missing .dll file error
Missing .dll file error is the error of missing a file necessary for a game to start. The obvious phenomenon is that a notification bar pops up and says "The program can't start because abc.dll is missing from your computer" or “This application failed to start because abc.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem", this is a common error that can be said to be on par with the Black screen error but is often easier to solve, the important thing is that you can identify that .dll file, where does it come from and what software package is it in?
So how to identify a .dll file? The simplest way is to google to find information about it. If you try, you can see information related to that .dll file, about its origin, about the software package that contains it or whether it was created by Who/which software company?
Common .dll file types:
- D3dx9_*, * usually the numbers tens, it can even have other forms, the important thing is to pay attention to “dx”, it is a sign that there is a software package involved DirectX Runtime, a package for DirectX 9, which is no longer included with the computer but must be additionally installed, it is not included because it is outdated and is no longer used much, most new games have been No longer use DirectX 9 but have upgraded to DirectX 11, 12, these packages are already included in your computer's graphics card (VGA), but some people like us and me want to play old games running on DirectX 9 must be additionally installed on the computer.
- VCRUNTIME*.dll, this is a file included in the Visual C++ package, in contrast to DirectX it is more common when starting software than games, it is more related to the software, for some games it will give an error and Specifies the name of the missing .dll file, but most of the time there will be no pop-up message, nothing will be said, and it will shut down suddenly, quite similar to the 'Black screen' error, sometimes the game will still run but performance will be significantly affected, the game experience will become terrible, you will easily be confused that the computer's configuration is not enough, but if you have installed additional Visual C++ then the game can become smooth again, the lag and stuttering phenomena will disappear.
- OpenAL32.dll, this is a file included in the OpenAL package, it is usually related to audio capture technology, when a game requires it then the game is using it as technology, you just need to install the software package OpenAL is the problem solved.
- Rapture3d_oal.dll, this is a file included in the Rapture3D package, a software package related to 3D sound technology, environmental sounds, like when you play a shooting game, through headphones you can know the noise. comes from the left or right, in front of you or behind you, some games use it as a technology so will ask for it at startup. To fix it, you just need to install the package Rapture3D.
- Physxloader.dll, this is a file included in the PhysX package, it is usually exclusive to Nvidia graphics cards, some games that use this technology often have an intro logo that appears with the words 'Nvidia PhysX', this technology is related to performance. Physical effects in the game, increasing realism with crashing effects, or floating, flying movements, etc. Games that use this technology are: Mafia II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, 7554… To fix it, you just need to install the package PhysX.
- Msxml.dll, this is a file included in the MSXML package, commonly encountered when starting Microsoft games, popularly such as: Age of Mythology, Age of Empires III, Rise of Nations… The fix is to install the package MSXML.
- Xlive.dll, this is a file included in the Games for Windows Live package, which was an online service package for games that supported it, but it is now discontinued, but some games support it. It will still be required at startup, so to fix it you just need to install the package Games for Windows Live.
Above are common .dll files, often encountered when a startup error message appears. There are still many other files that have not been mentioned, but most of them are files created by developers/publishing companies. game, the file missing error message is due to the fact that the .dll file may have been deleted, replaced with an inappropriate .dll file, or there is a problem retrieving data (read in the “Black screen” section above).
Note that going online and downloading the .dll file and inserting it into the game folder usually does not bring any results, only a few of them are really effective, the rest will mostly cause other errors due to not match or are incompatible, especially if you insert them into the System32 system folder, the possibility of serious problems occurring is very high, which can cause your computer to be damaged and have to be repaired.
To summarize, for the error of missing .dll file, you should focus on determining the source and information about that .dll file, then find the appropriate software package to install, for reported .dll files error that in the original game folder is already available, check if the names of the folders containing the games are in special language. Good luck, it's very simple if you take the time to learn, but also very complicated if you try to mess things up.
3, DirectX 8.1 error
This is an error related to old games, usually around 2000s, these games run on DirectX 8.1, so when starting up the game will ask for it, usually with an error message like: “Please make sure you have DirectX 8.1 or higher installed”.
By default DirectX 8.1 is disabled on new Windows systems such as Windows 10 and Windows 11, you will need to enable it through “Windows Features”, see instructions below.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type “Turn Windows features on or off”, open it
Step 2: Find the line “Legacy Components”, open and check the box “DirectPlay”
Step 3: Click “OK” to save and you're done. If it asks to restart the computer, do so
Above is how to fix DirectX 8.1 error, most of this problem is solved by the above method, but it is not an exception that this error comes from the game itself when running on modern Windows systems, there is not too much information. I don't know about it so I can't share anything more with you about this error, please use the problem solving skills you learned to fix it. Good luck, success comes to those who find a way, not to those who stand still.
4, Application Error (0xc000007b, vv…)
This is a quite serious error, usually occurs when there is a problem related to data files or the game's compatibility with the running Windows system. This error can be caused by the game files being deleted, changed, replaced by foreign files, improperly edited, common in downloading .dll files online and inserting them into the game folder, this error often has no specific solution. If possible, the prognosis is bad, you almost have to decide to throw away those game files, you should search and use the original game files, download them from reputable sources or if the problem continues to occur , then it is likely not the game but the Windows system you are running, which may be missing, corrupted, or not supported (some older games do not support very old Windows systems).
To summarize, if you encounter this error, unfortunately your case has a bad prognosis, the possibility of solving it is very low, you should not waste time on it, because most of the time this error occurs, the game is in a mess, may have been tampered with too much causing it to crash, or your Windows system itself has a problem, even if the game is original it still won't start, you should check compatibility, configure your computer, upgrade to the appropriate Windows system if possible. In the worst case, there are no good options, find another game to enjoy, there are many good games you can play, you just don't know. Remember, don't waste time with it, it's very rare, if you encounter it, your case is very bad, there isn't much information about it for you to find a solution, all the information on the internet about it is very general. In general, most of them are not useful, it's very rare to get this error resolved, spend your time on another game if possible.
CONCLUDE:
To summarize this article, above are the common errors that I want to share with you, based on my experience, in overcoming problems when starting an old game on a new Windows system like Windows 10, there will certainly still be other errors that I have not mentioned, maybe because I do not know, but basically the above is enough, the problem when starting the game only revolves around the above errors, if you have other errors, most of them will be related to the game itself, or related to your computer components. Good luck, leave your questions or suggestions in the comments, thanks!