Lord of the Rings, Battle for Middle Earth II doesn't run

[iliketosleep]

Hi, I just recently bought The Lord of the rings, The Battle for Middle Earth 2 and basically it doesn't run on my computer. It installs and I even patched it, but when I try to run it, it first opens a screen, then that screen disappears and a second screen pops up (it looks exactly alike) and the screen just stays there and nothing happens.

My computer's specs are:
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit SP1
My processor is: Intel Core 2Quad
Memory: 4GB of Ram
I don't know what my Video Card is, but i'm assuming it is this thing:
ATI Radeon HD 4670 (I used dxdiag to find it)

And I went on the System Requirements Lab website and the game SHOULD work on my computer, I even passed the recommended requirements.

I even searched other sites for help, but it doesn't work.
I tried changing the compatibility tab things, but the same thing happened under Windows XP compatibility. I searched this forum too, but uhh...those threads are like a year old and they still don't help. Is there any recent help I can receive?

[Indoril Nerevar]

Hi, and welcome to TSF.

First of all, how long have you left it at that second screen? Most games do that on their first run after installation. They can sometimes take several minutes to start working. Start the game up, and then go away and do something else for 10 minutes. If you come back after that and it's still at that screen, then we can rule out a long initialisation time.

Unfortunately, if that isn't the issue, then we're not likely to be able to help you. I've seen so many threads about BFME2 not working on Vista that it's just unbelievable. It works for some people, and just doesn't for others. When it doesn't work, there's no known solution.

Sorry to have to give you that bad news.

[iliketosleep]

I left the screen exactly the way it was, and it stayed there for like 5 minutes and then it closed and a window popped up saying it was not working.

[Tiber Septim]

Hi. there are two possible fixes I know of that you can try.
1)You need to do the following for both the BFME2.exe and Game.dat file.

Right click on this file, and select properties, then select the Security tab

Yes I know I can't draw. Select 'Users' in the 'Groups or user names' pane, and take a look at the permissions in the bottom pane. Chances are only read, and execute are checked. That means the permissions of this file for the user (that being you) prevent you from being able to modify, or write. Vista by default makes user accounts with lower permissions than the system, something XP didn't do unless the account was created as a guest account, and therein lies the problem. Naturally, the game(s) written for XP with all of it's users with admin rights, cannot function properly with these restrictions in place. So we must give the users group (you) full permissions of this file. Click the 'Edit' button under the top pane, and select 'Users' in the 'Groups and user names' pane again, and check 'Full control' under the 'Allow' column in the permissions pane on the bottom.

2)Do a search for AppData. Then from there goto Roaming --> My Battle for Middle Earth 2 Files.
If you find it is empty, then create a folder called Maps.
Also, open up Notepad and copy the following into it:

AllHealthBars = yes
AmbientVolume = 81.000000
AnimationLOD = High
AudioLOD = Low
Brightness = 50
DecalLOD = High
EffectsLOD = Medium
FlashTutorial = 0
GameSpyIPAddress =
HasSeenLogoMovies = yes
IdealStaticGameLOD = Low
ModelLOD = Medium
MovieVolume = 70.000000
MusicVolume = 78.000000
Resolution = 1024 768
SFXVolume = 80.000000
ScrollFactor = 64
SendDelay = no
ShaderLOD = Low
ShadowLOD = Low
StaticGameLOD = Custom
TerrainLOD = Medium
TextureQualityLOD = High
TimesInGame = 59
UseEAX3 = no
VoiceVolume = 69.000000
WaterLOD = Medium

Then go File > Save As and name it Options.ini, save it into the same folder you placed the Maps folder to.

[iliketosleep]

I tried doing both of them, it didn't work.