Age of Empires Forums

Do you mean that the disk itself is not readable or is the install stopping at some point or the disk is not autorunning?

Have you tried canceling autoplay (type "Autoplay" in the Start search), browsing the CD and running setup.exe manually by right-clicking on it and selecting "Run as administrator"?

Complete install/reinstall instructions can be found here: 

http://forum.agecommunity.com/forums/thread/960099.aspx

WinstonChurchil:

This is only happening on one of my computers though.

If the disk is readable on other computers I would say that you have a dirty, mis-configured or damaged drive.

The first thing I'd do would be to clean the disk with a weak soapy solution followed by a rinse and wiping with a soft, lint-free cloth. Then I'd get a can of compressed dusting "air" and blow out the drive. If the game disk still won't read I'd uninstall then reinstall the optical drive's driver and run a diagnostic (your computer software may have come with one, otherwise you can download one for a free trial use).

As far as configuration goes, for most users reinstalling the driver should set the drive to usable defaults. However, some drives must be further configured. For most users all you want to do is to try to either toggle DMA mode on or off. If you are having a hard time reading disks try setting DMA mode off.

http://windows7themes.net/how-to-enable-dma-in-windows-7.html

If you still can't read the disk, then it's a simple matter to install a new optical drive. CD/DVD RW drives are the least expensive part of the computer and you can get a quality one (LG, Sony, etc.) for around $20. Before ordering one, however, check your system to see if the drive is SATA, USB or PATA (older systems).

Here is an example of a good, inexpensive SATA drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136247 

WinstonChurchil:

Also, I tested it on my Laptop, and it reads the disk, but wont even start up. If you know a solution to this, thank you.

Previously, you implied that you could read the disk and install it on your laptop but not on your desktop so I inferred that the disk was OK. However, if you can't install it on either your desktop or laptop and have cleaned it without success then it probably is bad. Microsoft will replace defective media.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246

I know I said it worked on my laptop, but when I tried playing it on there today, it wouldnt open, then i uninstalled, and it wouldnt read. Thanks for your help.