You receive a flickering black screen that has music playing in the background when you try to play Age of Mythology (893678)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Age of Mythology
  • Microsoft Age of Mythology: Gold Edition
  • Microsoft Age of Mythology: The Titans

SYMPTOMS

When you try to play Microsoft Age of Mythology, you may receive a flickering black screen that has music playing in the background.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if all the following conditions are true:
  • The flickering black screen appears after the introduction movie, and after you receive the following message:Building game interface
  • You have one of the following video adaptors installed on your computer:
    • Gainward GeForce FX 5900 XP (Chip type: GeForce FX 5900)
    • ATI Radeon All in Wonder 9600 (Chip type: Radeon 9600)
  • Anisotropic Filtering has been enabled in the properties of the video adaptor.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, disable Anisotropic Filtering. To do this, follow these steps.

Note These steps may vary depending on your video adaptor and the specific version of your video driver.

Gainward GeForce FX 5900 XP

  1. Right-click your Microsoft Windows desktop, and then click Properties.
  2. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
  3. In the Properties dialog box, click the GeForce FX 5900 XP tab.
  4. Under Performance and Quality, click Anisotropic Filtering, and then click to clear the Application controlled check box.
  5. Move the slider control to Off, and then click OK.

ATI Radeon All in Wonder 9600

  1. Right-click your Windows desktop, and then click Properties.
  2. On the Settings tab, click Advanced.
  3. Click the Direct3D tab.
  4. Under Custom Settings, click to clear the following check boxes, and then click OK:
    • Antialiasing
    • Anisotropic Filtering

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to troubleshoot video problems with Age of Mythology, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

331147 Age of Mythology: Known video issues

811553 Age of Mythology: You receive the "Initialization Failed" error message after the introductory video clip when you try to start Age of Mythology

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding the performance or reliability of these products.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:2/14/2005
Keywords:kbVideo kbtshoot kberrmsg kbprb KB893678 kbAudEndUser
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