1. Warhammer 40k Dawn Of War Mods

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I recently upgraded my computer to a windows 8.1 HP Envy computer, when I tried to run the game after setup and installation it failed with an error message.This applies to DOW1 DOW winter assault and DOW Dark Crusade all giving the same error.

Here is a picture of the error message hope it provides an insight to the problem:

I have tried running in compatibility with XP but still no luck, Any ideas on how to rectify this?

5 Answers

I've had a few issues with Dawn of War over the years, so I thought I'd share my experiences. You've mentioned that you've done some of these steps, but for sanity's sake I'm going to list them all anyway:

Working with what you've got

Sometimes Windows' permissions & security can get in the way of you actually using your PC.

• Navigate to where the Dawn of War folder was installed. It's probably C:Program Files (x86)THQDawn of War.
• Find the game's application .exe file.
• Right Click -> Properties -> Compatibility tab
  • Check 'Run this Program in Compatibility mode' and select Windows 7 (to start with, try Windows XP SP3 if 7 doesn't work)
  • Check 'Run this program as an Administrator' as well.
• Try to run the game.

Drivers, Updates and Installations

Warhammer 40k Dawn Of War Mods

Assuming you've made it this far then there is a high likelihood you will need to try installing again. but first, we can try updating your PC, and installing necessary drivers.

• If you have pending updates, restart your PC to install them. It's entirely possible that one of these updates contains the missing or updated Direct X library or some other driver you need.
• Check for and install the latest version of your Graphics Card drivers
• Completely uninstall the games, and install them again, one at a time and confirm they work.
  • If during installation the game asks if you want to install Direct X as well, make sure you click 'Yes' and follow the prompts. (It's been so long since I installed the standalone version that I can't remember if Dawn of War does this).
  • Start with Dawn of War, then Winter Assault, and finally Dark Crusade (even though it's a standalone, do it last).

Desperate Times

So, you've gotten through the above and the game still isn't running. According to a source on Relic's forums, you may need to play around with some config files.

To summarise the steps in the link:

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1. Have Dawn of War & Expansions fully installed

2. Navigate to the Dawn of War directory C:Program Files (x86)THQDawn of War.

3. Find the Drivers folder. Inside this folder there are two files, spdx9_config.txt, and nvidia.txt

4. Create a folder called something like Originals and move these files into it. You may need the original files later if/when you need to download and install updates.

5. Create two empty files with the same names as the files above.
6. Place the dummy files into Drivers and run the game. It should hopefully launch fine.

The author advises not going for the Window option on configure as he found it buggy.

Edit: I did some more investigating, and what the spdx9_config.txt file actually does is lists compatible graphics cards. Unfortunately the game was built to take this list seriously, and as the list has never been updated (from a fresh install perspective at least), the game fails when it can't find your graphics card on the list.

Luckily, I've found an updated file (as of Dec 19, 2012 at least), which I've pasted here. Copy the entirety of this scroll area into your new (empty) spdx9_config.txt file.

I got the same 'Spooge driver not found..' error with DoW: Dark Crusade disk version. Starting the game as Administrator or using compatability mode (XP and Windows 7) did not work.

I tried deleting the C:Program Files (x86)THQDawn of War - Dark CrusadeDriversspdx9_config.txt file and then I was able to start the game and config graphics.

First of all, you have stated that compatability mode does not work, what about running it as administrator? I've found that for example League of Legends will sometimes fail to boot if you do not specifically launch it as admin, even though my user account already has admin access.

If all else fails and you simply can't get it to work under windows 8, you could run XP in a virtual machine, a fairly easy way to do it is listed here.

Have you checked your graphics card is running the program in hardware mode, further, have you tried right clicking the shortcut and selecting 'run as administrator'?

Finally have you tried running the troubleshoot compatibility option?

Same problem here, just delete the file. Run the game and if it doesn work create a blank file with the name spdx9_config . Game runs now.

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