demo won't start - does that mean game won't run on my machine?

[Terry]

I have a low to medium system, but have been playing both NTW and Empire. I thought I would dl the shogun 2 demo and see how it looks and if it will play on my rig, but I click the play button and get the preparing to run notice then nothing happens. Does that mean its time for a hardware upgrade? I am using Dx 11, have plenty of hd space and a fast enough processor.. (Dual core). MY video card is very dated, an Nvidia 8600 gts, but it runs the other games...

Terry

[frogbeastegg]

If you can run ETW and NTW I would expect you to be able to run shogun 2, the requirements are very similar.

Make sure you are using up to date nvidea drivers. I have a geforce 8800gts and I couldn't get the demo to run until I swapped to the most recent drivers.

It takes a long time for the game to start up, so unless you are very sure that the game has failed to load try leaving your PC for a few minutes and see what happens. On my ageing dual core machine it takes nearly 2 minutes to get to the opening videos after telling steam to launch it.

Try telling steam to 'verify integrity of game cache'. You can do that my right clicking on the demo's entry in your steam library, choosing properties and then the local files tab. This will check to see if the demo downloaded and installed correctly.

Other than that, I don't know what to suggest. The more knowledgeable patrons should have some ideas.

[Terry]

Thank Frogbeastegg,

I spent a while making sure all of my drivers are uptodate and verified my cache. I was hoping that if the demo ran, I could run the game. That isn't necessarily true though. I have to decide whether to take the leap and just buy the game anyway, since the earlier games do run.
When I bought NTW, I spent the coin and bought a Nvidia 9800gt video card. The game sure looked nice and ran well. Unfortunately, after 4 months the card went south. My older 8600gts worked okay when I put it back in, but at lower settings. I can't afford to upgrade again at the present moment. I think I spent a fortune in the last twenty years upgrading to play new games....<G>
Terry

[frogbeastegg]

The good news is that the game is better optimised than the demo, so it's less demanding on your hardware.

Wouldn't the 9800gt still be in warranty? Worth investigating as you could get a free replacement. Even if it's not it might be worth contacting the maker and creating a bit of a stink; 4 months and broken is terrible.

[HopAlongBunny]

My sys is very similar; dual core; winxp; nvidia 9600; and S2TW runs fine.

I run everything under DX9 however; can't be bothered to upgrade atm.

[Terry]

The good news is that the game is better optimised than the demo, so it's less demanding on your hardware.

Wouldn't the 9800gt still be in warranty? Worth investigating as you could get a free replacement. Even if it's not it might be worth contacting the maker and creating a bit of a stink; 4 months and broken is terrible.

Unfortunately, the Nvidia card was manufactured by BFG Tech. According to their info sheet: "BFG Tech, once a primary partner of NVIDIA, is now denying RMA requests on dead graphics cards that were previously under “lifetime warranty” as the business is being wound down."

Terry