Microsoft KB Archive/812511

Knowledge Base

Age of Mythology: Mouse Pointer Does Not Appear As Expected

Article ID: 812511

Article Last Modified on 11/14/2007

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Age of Mythology
• Microsoft Age of Mythology Gold
• Microsoft Age of Mythology: The Titans

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SYMPTOMS

When play Microsoft Age of Mythology, you may experience graphical corruption of your mouse pointer, such as a black box around the pointer, a blinking pointer, jerky pointer movement, or the pointer may not appear at all.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if any of the following conditions are true:

• The video adapter does not have enough video memory.
• The game resolution setting is too high.
• The mouse drivers or video adapter drivers are outdated.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use one or more of the following methods in the order that they appear.

Method 1: Verify That You Have at Least 16 MB of Video Memory

Use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool to determine how much video memory is installed on the video adapter. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK.
3. Click the Display or Display 1 tab.
4. Under Device, note how much video memory is listed for Approx. Total Memory, and then click Exit.
   

If you have less than 16 megabytes (MB) of video memory installed on the video adapter, you must install additional video memory on your video adapter or install a video adapter that has more video memory.

If this method does not resolve the issue, continue to the next method.

Method 2: Lower the Game Resolution

1. Start Age of Mythology, and then click Options.
2. In the Screen Size list, click 800 X 600X16, and then click OK.

If this method does not resolve the issue, continue to the next method.

Method 3: Switch to Window Mode

To switch between full-screen mode and window mode, press ALT+ENTER.

If this method does not resolve the issue, continue to the next method.

Method 4: Download and Install the Latest Video and Mouse Drivers

1. Contact your video hardware manufacturer to obtain and install the latest version of the driver for your video adapter.
2. Contact your mouse hardware manufacturer to obtain and install the latest version of the driver for your mouse.

For information about how to contact the manufacturer of your video adapter or sound card, see the "References" section of this article.
You may also visit the following Microsoft Windows Update Web site to see if applicable driver updates are available:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

If you are using Logitech mouse, download and install the latest Logitech mouse drivers from the following Logitech Web site:

http://www.logitech.com

If this method does not resolve the issue, continue to the next method.

Method 5: Edit the Age of Mythology Video Configuration File

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\gfxconfig where Drive is the drive letter of the hard disk on which you have installed Age of Mythology.
3. Double-click VideoCardName.gfx, where VideoCardName is the video card installed in your computer. For example, if your computer has a Radeon video card, double-click radeon.gfx.
   
   Note If you are prompted to use an application to open the file, click select from list, and then choose Notepad.
4. On the Search or Edit menu, click Find.
5. In the Find box, type features, and then click Find Next.

6. Set the value of win32Cursor to 0.
   
   Make sure that the entry appears as follows:

   win32Cursor=1 // DWORD. 0 == d3d cursor. 1 == win32 cursor 

7. On the File menu, click Exit. When you are prompted to save changes, click Yes.
8. Restart Age of Mythology.

REFERENCES

For information about how to contact your hardware manufacturer, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, A-K

60781 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, L-P

60782 Hardware and Software Third-Party Vendor Contact List, Q-Z

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

Additional query words: performance display video

Keywords: kbdisplay kbconfig kbprb KB812511

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