Basically, no game will run right anymore.

[DavidFulero]

Its a little complicated. At first this rig ran older games fine the first thing I booted up was EU2. Now everytime I try to run certain games (KOTOR, EU2, Civ3, prob more havent checked.) the game boots but it doesnt...
I'll try to explain. The program is running, I can see it in task manager, but nothing happens, except that my processor starts sweating something fierce. It never gets above 42 playing Red Alert 3 at max settings yet little old EU2 makes it go upwards of 45. Why? Because about 10 processes called rundll32.exe are running. When I close the main rundll32 process, all of them and the game stop running.
I've let it sit till it gets to 49 degrees for about 35 min. It simply cant run these games and it used to fine.
Help?

 

[bonedriven]

Since it's all game related,could it be video card problem?

 

[DavidFulero]

Nah, runs COD4 and RA3 and plenty of games just fine

 

[mickey megabyte]

hi DavidFulero, and welcome to seven forums,

have you tried running these old games in compatability modes?

right-click on the shortcut, go to the compatability tab, and try running the games in xp sp3 mode. you can also try disabling visual themes and desktop composition in the shortcut settings.

let us know if it helps.

 

[DavidFulero]

I havent but since it worked before it seems like that wouldnt fix it? But i'll try anyway. I have a suspicion that glary utilities made some kind of registry change or something.

 

[Carl Lawrence]

Have you tried system restore?

 

[DavidFulero]

No, where's that?
It sounds a little concerning though, does it erase stuff?

 

[DavidFulero]

Oh and compatibility mode did not work, it still just sat there hogging system resources, except that there was the compatibility mode window in the foreground lol.
Yeah I've taken to just firing up my Mac Mini in xp if I ever want to play older games. But it would be more convenient to not have to switch computers all the time

 

[Fumz]

It's inexplicable why your relatively strong machine can't run these games like butter? Have you tried updating DirectX, all DX versions with the Feb. 2010 redist? Download details: DirectX Redist (February 2010)

If it were me, I'd also do an av deep scan, followed up by a Malwarebytes scan: Malwarebytes

 

[sygnus21]

Hi David,

See link in my sig. Troubleshooting Game Issues.

 

[DavidFulero]

Def no malware, I've only connected it to the internet once and I had kaspersky and zonealarm running, I did sweeps with both of them and windows security, nothing. And I should have the latest directx, I'm playing Modern Warfare 2 (at ultra settings btw) right now.

 

[Fumz]

DirectX that ships with games isn't all inclusive. The link I posted will update all DirectX version, 9, 10 & 11. You couldn't be up to date, because this was just posted today: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=3b170b25-abab-4bc3-ae91-50ceb6d8fa8d

 

[RST101]

Glary utilities does indeed mess with the registry on some games. It happened to me with Fifa 09 and a couple of other games and a reinstall of the games in question was the only way to go.

You may want to consider not using the reg cleaner of glarys.

 

[squall leonhart]

Its the windows game UX shell, the games aren't loading because the game ux cannot download updated game information.

Unfortunately, you do, need the internet connected while starting games on a fresh reboot.

Windows 7 Game Explorer interfering with Game launching on systems lacking internet connections.

 

[DavidFulero]

@squall, thats not true I played these games all the time on older pc's never needing internet.
@rst, Tried reinstalling eu2 did not work, havent tried with anything else but prob will have same effect
@fumz, I know that but these games all come with directx that was modern at the time so I know thats not it unless windows 7 simply doesnt support them

 

[squall leonhart]

its been verified by myself, on 4 Win7 computers, and a friend in pakistan who went without internet for a few weeks.

Lack of internet IS the problem.

the rundll process is constantly polling the network subsystems trying to pull data.
get sysinternals, and view that proces'es activities if you must, but its a fact.

 

[sygnus21]

@fumz, I know that but these games all come with directx that was modern at the time so I know thats not it unless windows 7 simply doesnt support them

From my games link I suggested you look at

5 - Update your Direct X files - Contrary to popular belief, just because Windows 7 is DX11 capable doesn’t mean it has the latest DX9 files!!! Most game issues can be fixed by simply updating the DX files.

BTW - Windows 7 is fully compatible with games and hardware that use older versions of DirectX

While Windows 7 is fully compatible with games and hardware that use older versions of DirectX, the new DirectX 11 features are available with a DirectX 11 compatible graphics card and games designed to take advantage of this new technology.

 

[squall leonhart]

sygnus, i suggest you look at his first post.

the gameux rundll instance is spawning copies, trying to pull network data. Its not a DirectX issue, because a DirectX issue will tell you when its a DirectX issue

 

[sygnus21]

Thanks. Might I add that you look at my Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues. It's the sticky in the Games section

My point - The guide was written to help troubleshoot game issues. Well... he has game issues.

We see lots posts about problems with games that won’t run, have bad performance, or simply won’t install under Windows 7. The purpose of this post is to provide some simple tips on troubleshooting basic game issues. It is not all inclusive, nor is it meant to be, considering there are hundreds of things to try when troubleshooting PC games. This is simply a reminder of some basics.

BTW - My DirectX quote was in relation to his reply to fumz. Also, earlier, I suggested he look at my thread.

Thanks

 

[squall leonhart]

no, he doesn't have game issues, his games aren't even reaching the Appcompat stage of initialisation (where compatibility fixes, dll's and filters are loaded), they are hanging at the GameUX stage(Windows game browser), he wouldn't even get notified of missing dx files until gameux has finished its updating.

Its a windows bug, through and through.

While Windows 7 is fully compatible with games and hardware that use older versions of DirectX, the new DirectX 11 features are available with a DirectX 11 compatible graphics card and games designed to take advantage of this new technology

Also... not true It only applies to D3D11 hardware techniques. There are aspects of D3D11 which can be used immediately by D3D10 hardware, such as multithreaded D3D and advanced compositing states.