# Age of Empires 3 LAN Freezes



## socav (Apr 9, 2009)

My buddy and I have been playing Age of Empires 3 on a LAN for a while now. We have only played 1 on 1 games. Recently we've tried playing with computer players added, and the game almost always freezes about 10 minutes into it. Here's some info about the setup:

Host computer:
Phenom II X4 940
Nvidia 8800GT
4GB ram
Running Windows 7

Other computer:
Athlon 64 3200+
Nvidia 6600GT
1GB ram
Running Windows XP Home SP2

We used to connect through a Linksys WRT54GS router. It worked fine with only us two playing, but when we add computer players, the host computer almost always freezes, even with the graphics settings turned all the way down. We have to do a hard reset.

I switched to using just a Netgear FS605 switch to connect, and we were able to play an entire 40-minute game with 4 additional computer players and the graphics settings maxed. The next day, we tried again with only 2 additional players, and it crashed within 10 minutes. I turned the graphics settings down, and we played with 3 computer players, and it still crashed.

Any ideas of what the heck could be happening here? I can't believe that the host computer would be overloaded, but maybe it is?


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## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

who's hosting the lan games

I've always had problems hosting games because of my stupid Nvidia motherboard


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## Tiber Septim (Feb 9, 2006)

It could be due to Windows 7.
Have you tried hosting with the Athlon system?

Have you tried running a P2P setup using a crossover cable? It's probably not the router or switch but that would rule them out.

Is the system crashing or freezing? You mention both in your post. Also, is it only affecting one PC or both? It may not have anything to do with the game or network, it could be a hardware problem with the affected PC.


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## Hircine (Mar 24, 2009)

Because you are running Win7, i would recommend you run in compatibility mode using XP.
if that does not help, use the other system to do hosting.


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## socav (Apr 9, 2009)

"who's hosting the lan games"
The Phenom PC

"Have you tried hosting with the Athlon system?"
No, not that I am aware of. I will try that. Thanks.

"Have you tried running a P2P setup using a crossover cable?"
No, I haven't. I need to get/make one first. I'll try that. Thanks.

"Is the system crashing or freezing?"
The computer completely freezes. I have to do a hard reset.

"Also, is it only affecting one PC or both?"
It is affecting the Phenom PC. The Athlon PC is unaffected. However, the Athlon PC has frozen once before. I wasn't playing, however, so I'm not sure who was hosting.

"Because you are running Win7, i would recommend you run in compatibility mode using XP."
Good idea. I will try that. Thanks.


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## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

you should try just running Age OF Empires 3 with one CPU core

this might be a little troublesome but start up the game then minimize and go into the task manager
find the process for AOE 3 and right click on it
set affinity and make sure only one core is clicked


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## socav (Apr 9, 2009)

Mcninjaguy said:


> you should try just running Age OF Empires 3 with one CPU core
> 
> this might be a little troublesome but start up the game then minimize and go into the task manager
> find the process for AOE 3 and right click on it
> set affinity and make sure only one core is clicked


Interesting. I never knew that was possible. I'll try that, thanks. Just curious, how might that solve the problem?


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## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

some games were never designed for multi cores and they just get confused when they see more than one core on a CPU


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## socav (Apr 9, 2009)

I tried running the game in compatibility mode for Win XP. Didn't help.

Then we tried hosting with the Athlon computer, and it worked fine. I guess we'll just do that from now on.

I would love to know what causes the lock-ups, though, so maybe I'll play around with it some more.

Thanks for the help, everyone.


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## McNinja (Jun 22, 2008)

I mean why can't windows right program to help run older games after all this is the system where everyone plays games on!


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## Tiber Septim (Feb 9, 2006)

It could just be a networking bug with the Windows 7 machine.
It's not an old game, so it shouldn't be a compatibility problem.
I'd send feedback about it, that's the purpose of Beta's after all.


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## Jason09 (Jan 3, 2009)

Have you tried opening the ports for Age of Empires? Or are they just required to be open for play over the Internet?


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## socav (Apr 9, 2009)

I haven't messed around with opening ports. It seems to work fine as it is now. As long as the XP computer is hosting.


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## darkdemon60 (Jul 5, 2009)

Hi

I am also having the problem of ESO and Lan games freezing after a certain period of time. i tried a deathmatch to see if it was a time problem but the game froze after 5 minutes. it seems to be as soon as there are multiple full armies on the map. i am running vista and a dual core laptop with a 8600 geforce GT. any help would be much appreciated.:4-dontkno


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## Jason09 (Jan 3, 2009)

darkdemon60 said:


> Hi
> 
> I am also having the problem of ESO and Lan games freezing after a certain period of time. i tried a deathmatch to see if it was a time problem but the game froze after 5 minutes. it seems to be as soon as there are multiple full armies on the map. i am running vista and a dual core laptop with a 8600 geforce GT. any help would be much appreciated.:4-dontkno


Please post a speedtest.net result to see if it is your Internet speed or just related to the game.


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