# Empire Earth 3 won't start.



## Gazray4699 (Oct 25, 2010)

After finding a gem of a game (At least it seemed so) in a game store, I bought it, enjoying the prospect of playing it. Getting it home, I installed and patched it but was unable to try playing it for the next 3 days. When I finally got around to it, I used the desktop shortcut and after an abominable time of doing nothing, the splash screen came up. Then it sat there before Windows XP suddenly seemed to decide "I don't like this" and came up with the irritating error: "EE3.exe has encountered an error and needs to close.". After visiting the game's website and using their technical support, I was informed I would receive a reply within two working days. I'm not willing to wait another two days when I've already waited 3 days just to get the chance to play it. Any ideas what might be wrong? I've updated my graphics drivers and installed DX9 but still to no avail.

Specs:
AMD Athlon Dual-Core 2.61ghz 5000+ Processor
2GB DDR RAM (High speed)
Windows XP SP2
40GB HD (Full and fragmented, defrag can't do much about it.)
DX9 and NVidia Geforce 8500GT graphics card.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

Clear some space on your hard drive.

Windows needs a minimum of 15% free space on the hard drive to run efficiently. Defrag won't even work if there's less than 15% free.

40gb is tiny by modern standards. I don't think 40gb drives are even available in the shops any more. Have you considered buying a new drive?

Examples:
Seagate Barracuda 80gb SATA - $36 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148231
Western Digital 250gb SATA - $43 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136113


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## Gazray4699 (Oct 25, 2010)

I'm aware of what Windows needs as well as defrag and you're right, the HDD itself is a cast off from the NHS (British Health Service). The only reason I'm using it is because my original 500GB decided to die and tell me it apparently has nothing on it, nor any capacity  I'm also unable to buy a new hard drive due to the lack of small drives in the shops, most HDDs costing about £20-40 at best, the £20 being for about... 160GB. But you believe my issue is with the lack of space?

Edit: I stand corrected. £20 can't even buy any hard drives in most of the shops I know. All are pushing the £50 mark.


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## koala (Mar 27, 2005)

"_EE3.exe has encountered an error and needs to close_" is a vague error message that could be caused by a number of things. A full hard drive that can't be defragged is one of the possible causes. Replacing the drive or adding a secondary drive would be my first step.

There are plenty of small drives available online. High street shops tend not to stock 40-80gb drives as there is no demand for them any more, not since the Windows 98 days.

Considering the price difference, you might as well get a 250gb. 250gb drives are available for just £8 more than an 80gb. This would be big enough to store as many games as you like with enough free space to allow Windows to run properly.

80gb Seagate Barracuda SATA - £24 - http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=HDS-80SAT2&af=50
250gb Samsung Spinpoint SATA - £32 - http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/product.aspx?code=HDS-250HJ

Both of these drives get excellent reviews. The Spinpoint F1 is one of the best in its range.


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## Gazray4699 (Oct 25, 2010)

I understand that but it's all I had to go on. There was nothing else I could offer to explain the problem, though I suspected the full drive was the problem.

Once I had the money together, I intended to aim for either a TB drive or a 500GB, but those drives look pretty good and are fairly cheap.


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