Age of Empires IV is the fourth-generation live strategy video game from the house Age of Empires series, developed by Relic Entertainment. This Age of Empires IV is one of the best choices for those who love RTS games and world history. Like any other popular video game, this game is not free from glitches and errors. Many players have recently complained that Age of Empires 4 is crashing and freezing on their PC.
Some players point out that a Black Screen appears on the game’s home screen when the game launches, and they are left with nothing to do. You do not have to panic at this stage; it is better to go for solutions to fix it. However, in this article, we have compiled a few solutions to resolve the same issues on Age of Empires 4. Let’s have a look.
Before moving on to any of the solutions, you should first check the system requirements for running Age of Empires 4,
Some workarounds:
- Make sure you have steady and accurate internet connectivity.
- Ensure any unwanted apps/programs are not running in the background.
- Disable your Antivirus temporarily.
- Disable Overlays.
If any of the above strategies do not help you, you need to move on to the detailed solutions given below.
Fix 1: You can Verify the Integrity of Game Files:
If any new game is crashing or freezing while in the startup, you first need to check the integrity of game files. This solution helps in most of the same issues. to do so,
- Firstly, you need to open Steam and go to its LIBRARY.
- Then select and right-click over Age of Empires from the list and click on its Properties.
- In the newly opened screen, select the Local Files option and click on Verify integrity of game files option
- Once done, restart the game and check whether the said issue is resolved or not.
Fix 2: Launch the Game with Administrative privilege:
Sometimes the Age of Empires IV might crash, or a black screen appears on the screen due to lack of required permissions. Here the best possible solution is to open the game with administrative privilege. To do so,
- Firstly, move to the Age of Empires 4 installation folder, then right-click on the Age of Empires 4.exe file and select Properties from the sub-menu.
- Now in the Age of Empires 4.exe screen, click on the Compatability tab from the top horizontal menu.
- Then tick the checkbox beside the option Run this program as an administrator under the Settings section and click on the OK button.
- Once done, check how you can play the game without any hassle.
Fix 3: Update Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables:
Another solution to the Age of Empires 4 freezing and black screen problem is to make sure that your system has all the needed files to run the game. Predominantly you need to check if Visual C ++ Redistributor has been updated. To do so,
- Firstly, go to the official website of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables.
- Now select the latest version applicable to your system( 64-bit or 32-bit).
- Then download and install it on your system and check for improvement.
Fix 4: Update Drivers:
If your graphics driver is out of date, your game may crash or freeze when you try to launch it. You should update your graphics driver and check for improvements to avoid such a situation.
To do so,
- Firstly, type Device Manager in the search box and launch the relevant search result.
- Then inside the Device Manager, expand the option Display adapters.
- Now select and right-click on the Graphic driver and choose the Update driver option from the drop-down menu.
- Once done, restart the system and check the said issue is resolved in your case or not.
Fix 5: Launch the game from the .exe Application:
You need to launch the game from its .exe application to avoid the same crashing and black screen problem in Age of Empires 4. To do so,
- Firstly, right-click on the Age of Empires 4 from the Steam Library.
- Then click on the Properties from the sub-menu.
- Now click on the Local Files and select the Browse Local Files option.
- There locate and double-click on the AoE4DE_s.exe application and open the game
- Now the said issue is to resolve for you.
Fix 6: Move the Game app to Another Drive:
Sometimes Age of Empires 4 crashes or freeze due to the low disk space of the drive. To tackle this issue, you can free up drive space by deleting unwanted files or moving the Game app to another drive to provide additional virtual memory. To do so,
- Firstly, press the Windows button, and in the search box, type Apps and features and open the relevant search result.
- Then from the list, select the game and click on the Move tab.
- Now select a drive you need to move the game from the sub-menu.
- And click on Move, the game will shift to the selected drive automatically.
Fix 7: Perform a Clean Boot:
If any of the above solutions do not resolve the issue, then you need to run clean boot the system. To do so,
- Firstly, press Windows + R to launch the Run dialog box, then type msconfig and click on OK. Now ‘system configuration’ window will open before you.
- Now in the System Configuration window, go to the Services tab from the top menu and tick the checkbox beside the option Hide all Microsoft services and click on Disable all button and click on the OK.
- Then select the Startup tab from the top horizontal menu and select the Open Task Manager link.
- Select the Startup tab from the top menu in the newly opened Task Manager, select all startup services from the list, and click on Disable.
- Then restart the system and check the Age of Empires 4 crashing issue is resolved. If yes, then again go to the System Configuration window, open the Services tab and enable all the startup services you disabled earlier, one after another, until you find the problematic item from the list. Once found, eliminate the problematic service from the system permanently.
- Finally, check the said issue is resolved or not.
These are all about resolving the Age of Empires 4 Crashing/Freezing and Black Screen issue on PC. If you have any queries or doubts after reading this article, please leave a comment in the below comment box.