# Red Alert 2 Issue



## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

[Moved From http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...2-video-problems-on-windows-7-a-561718-2.html ]

I know this thread is old and apologies for necroing, but it seems to be the only solid and active forum discussion on this problem.

I have a new laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and a new GeForce 630M / Intel HD 3000 dual graphics cards with nVidia Optimus.

When I try to run Red Alert 2 or Yuri's Revenge (Playing from Command & Conquer: The First Decade with latest unofficial 1.03 patch), the menu screen doesn't refresh correctly (the game hasn't frozen, I can click where the menu buttons should be and they respond correctly). This also affects cinematic, the in-game ESC menu and multi-player / skirmish screen.

The in-game battle screen seems completely unaffected. Menu dialogue boxes (such as the "Are you sure you want to quit?" confirmation) are also unaffected.I also noticed I could "update" the screen by using ALT+TAB, or using one of the laptop hot keys (which causes a graphical overlay).

The missions work fine, I just need to find out how to get the menus to work again. :sad:

Things already tried:

Compatibility Mode (XP SP3)
Compatibility Mode (98/Me)
Run as administrator.
Enable and disable VideoBackBuffer in RA2MD.ini.
YuriScreenResolution.exe
Setting ownership of the game folder to Everyone.
Download DX8 and 9 redistributables.
Force nVidia Optimus to use the Intel graphics card.
Force nVidia Optimus to use the GeForce discrete graphics card.
Force nVidia Optimus out of "adaptive power save mode".
Force the game into all available resolutions.
Added antivirus exceptions to the entire RA2 folder, and running process exceptions for RA2.exe, RA2MD.exe, game.exe, gamemd.exe and yuri.exe (Microsoft Security Essentials).
Forced single processor affinity for RA2.exe, RA2MD.exe, game.exe, gamemd.exe and yuri.exe.
Running YURI.exe with the -dxlevel 8 parameter.
Adding additional display (as documented here: On going problem with C&C: Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge).

From what I've seen it appears the graphics card doesn't seem to realise it needs to refresh screen while at the main menu, and only when an external event takes place (such as an ALT-Tab or hot-key overlay), does it wake up and redraw the scene.

I'm at my wits end as to how to fix this... loved Yuri's Revenge so much back in the day and would love to be able to play again.

Anyone got any suggestions more that I could try?


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

it could be a Windows 7 64 bit issue with RA2
try to change the game's resolution and see if that helps
also when hitting Alt + Enter twice, does it help?


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

I already tried changing the games resolution (as mentioned by YuriScreenResolution.exe in my list of attempted solutions), and the game doesn't support full screen toggling using Alt + Enter.


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

did you have this problem earlier?


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

I've only just got The First Decade recently, and I've never tried it before on this system. Command & Conquer, Red Alert and Generals all work fine. Tiberium Sun (which uses the same game engine) has a "Failed to initialized, please reinstall." error which I've not tried to troubleshoot yet.

I had it working on my old Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit system without any problems, it had a much older Geforce GT 9800M card though.


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

They don't really use the same engine you know, RA2's version is very heavily modified from Tiberian Sun. Though it is interesting what you say. I can confirm that my copy of the first decade (that is ALL the games) work on my Windows 7 - keep in mind I have not patched the game as you have, which may be the problem (or may not be)


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

Using v1.0 and the two official patches didn't help either.


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

Have you tried changing the refresh rate of your screen? It probably should be 60Hz, but it may help to change it.


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

Only other supported refresh rate my monitor supports is 40Hz and switching to that didn't help.


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

Update:

There also seems to be a scaling issue with the multi-player menus, and the "none-updating screen" issue also persists inside the battle screen during multi-player games, even though it works fine in single player.

I also attempted the "change DPI style" fix that has been mentioned on other forums.

Anyone got any more ideas?


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

It's a pretty confusing problem. I wonder if DXWnd would work in trying to force the game to be windowed


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

if you have Nvidia Video Card, go to the Nvidia Control Panel
see if you can change the scaling settings when in full screen


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

-WOLF- said:


> It's a pretty confusing problem. I wonder if DXWnd would work in trying to force the game to be windowed


I dunno what this was supposed to be, but I just ended up with a crapware "Video Codec" installer.

Edit: Never mind, got tricked by the Adfly spam. First time for everything. :facepalm:

Tried that DXWnd program, when I finally got it to load Yuri's Revenge it still displayed in full screen screen.

Couldn't find any UI Scaling settings in the nVidia control panel.


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

Update:

Tried running the game in windowed mode using the -win switch which didn't fix the scaling issue (I've found that the scaling issue also seems to affect selecting maps in Skirmish mode).


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## -WOLF- (Jan 17, 2009)

Do you by any chance have a widescreen monitor? your computer may be trying to run the game in a resolution the game does not support. Could try making sure everything is 800x600


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

I do have a widescreen monitor, but changing the screen resolution didn't work either


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

Anyone got any more ideas? Went to playing Generals: Zero Hour out of frustration, but it's just not the same.


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## mrgummage (Jul 25, 2009)

Sorry for the repeat posts, can't find the edit button.

Also followed instructions here: Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge in Windows Vista to no avail.


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## flyingcow_g (Sep 11, 2012)

Hi, if it's of any consolation, I am stuck with this exact problem too. Most of the successful fixes on various boards online seem to point to restoring the font DPI to 100%, however, like you, this hasn't worked for me either.

I've also tried updating my drivers and changing a bunch of display settings but with no luck.

Can anyone else help?


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## flyingcow_g (Sep 11, 2012)

Whoops. I think I replied to the wrong thread. Had a bunch of these open and delirium is also setting in. My problem has to do with the "New" button in the Network tab disappearing and turning into a "Join" button, so that I can't create a LAN game (but can join one).


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## Truepeace (Mar 18, 2012)

Hello,
I found a "good" solution that should work 100%.
I tried everything I found on the net, none worked and the alt-tab trick was VERY frustrating so look what I tried:

On my android LG Nitro HD smartphone, I had "Teamviewer" app installed.
I connected to my laptop and launched red alert 2.
SURPRISE: I could see the menu and all the buttons on my smartphone so I could enter any option, any key in the game, which then works normally if you start a match on your PC.
Hope you try my solution.
(Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit)


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