I can't get my game to work

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Troubleshooting

So your game doesn't work. But before you run screaming back to the shop with your purchase, swearing never to buy a game from the publisher again, there are some things you can do.

Don't assume the game is faulty

No publisher ever released a game that wouldn't work at all and the failure rate at CD manufacturing plants is below 0.1%. So taking the game back to your retailer will almost certainly be effort misplaced. Faults with PC games are nearly always to do with PC configuration. Here's what you should do.

1. Check that your PC meets the minimum requirements as listed on the box. If you don't know your precise PC spec, see the Dxdiag section below. If your PC doesn't meet the minimum specs then the game may still work - just don't expect any help from the game's publishers, as they print these specs for a reason and will not support out of spec PCs.

2. Read the documentation. Read the readme or help file that comes with the game. If you are getting an error message, check the publishers website for any FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) which may have the solution to your problem. Actually you should do this anyway. You may find the answer to your problem much quicker than waiting in a helpline queue or for a response to an email.

3. Check your hardware drivers. The most common cause of failure in PC games is out of date graphics card drivers. A full guide to updating drivers is found here. Once again, to check your hardware refer to the Dxdiag section below.

DXDIAG

Dxdiag is a diagnostic utility that comes with Microsoft's DirectX API. The vast majority of games now use DirectX to 'talk' to the hardware in your PC, but the utility itself provides useful information for any games running under Windows, whether they use DirectX or not.

DirectX now comes as part of Windows, so you will definitely have it on your PC (unless you're not running Windows - in which case go away)

To run Dxdiag do the following:

1) Click on the Windows Start Button
2) Select 'Run'
3) In the 'Open' box type Dxdiag (just that, nothing else is required)



4) Click on 'OK' 

The DirectX Diagnostic Utility should now be running:

 

You can immediately see that some useful information about your PC is displayed. At the bottom of the screen is displayed the DirectX version. DirectX is updated far more frequently than Windows and so the latest version is always downloadable (free) from www.microsoft.com/directx. There are rarely any issues upgrading to the latest version of DirectX (Windows 95 users should note, though, that Win95 is not supported in DirectX version 8.1 or later). You will not be able to revert to an earlier version, however, without re-installing Windows. Games nearly always include the version of DirectX that they particularly require on the game CD.

To find out the graphics or sound card in your PC and the drivers being used, you simply need to click on the Display or Sound tab. Here is the Display tab:

The name of your graphics card is displayed on the top left (here Voodoo 3 PCI) and the Driver version is 2nd down on the right (here 4.12.01.1223). The memory on your graphics card is shown under Approx Total Memory (here 14.5MB - more likely to be 16MB as it is approximate). A similar layout is found for your sound card on the sound tab.

The central section (DirectX Features) should always have all available features enabled for playing games. Feel free to use the Test functions. There will probably be a problem with your hardware should any of the tests fail.

The warning about files being uncertified can usually be safely ignored.

4. Eliminate the possibility of conflicts. You should close down any background programs that may conflict with the game before running it. The easiest way to check if a background program may be causing problems is to shut down all non-essential tasks before running the game. To do this press ctrl-alt-delete (all at the same time) and 'End Task' for each and every task listed except for 'Systray' and 'Explorer'. These are the only tasks that Windows needs to run any program (and systray is sometimes optional). An easy way to do this is using End It All, which you can download here.

5. Look for any patches. Any game patches (updates for the game) will be found on the publishers website. Download and install them

6. Contact Technical Support. If you've updated all of your drivers, can't find the answer in the help file or FAQ and your PC meets the minimum spec, then it's time to ask the experts. A full list of Publishers is detailed here, but they should obviously have printed contact details in the game manual. Some publishers have better technical support than others. A full guide on how to deal with Technical Support is found here.

7. Read the forums. There is almost certainly a forum somewhere on the internet for your game, no matter how few copies it sold. If Technical Support are unable to help you, you should do a search for fansites and see which ones have forums. You can often get useful advice from fellow users (especially for the strange problems that occur with differing PCs) by posting your problem or searching to see if anyone else has experienced it. Advice can sometimes be offered which doesn't necessarily apply to your configuration of PC, though, so this should not be your first port of call unless you are an experienced PC user.