Cant play 'cracked' games

[mmansons]

Hey dudes!

I was wondering if someone could help me find why I cant play 'cracked games'. I installed rise of nations and Age of Empires 3 (which I own) and they worked just fine, but when I replace the .exe files so I can play without the CD, the game takes me back to desktop with an error message:
AppName: age3.exe
AppVer: 4.105.1007.3243
ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0
Offset: 00000000

Recently I had to reformat my hard drive and thats when the problems started. I used to be able to play 'cracked' games just fine. I also recently installed Norton System Works 2006

I am running on a Gateway Desktop with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.
10024 MB of ram
Pentium D processor

Any help will be much appreciated!

[DABhand]

Yeah media center is ok, but alot of people have problems with certain packed executables...

Its a shame too :(


EDIT: Wish I had your memory :P

[mmansons]

So, do know why I used to be able to play it, right before I reformatted my hard drive, and then afterwards I wasnt able to?

Would it help if I got XP professional?

[DABhand]

Updated drivers for your graphic card and sound card?

[mmansons]

Yep, thats the first thing I did!

[DABhand]

It sure is a conundrum, only logical choice is possibly a small hardware fault or media centre wasnt installed right.

Its difficult ofcourse to pinpoint problems over a forum, but I cant think of anything else that may help you.

Unless a member who has MC had a similar problem may have overcome it.

[bierhuettl]

well i recognized with age3, that the game (when started by cracked exe) does crash right at the beginning (age3.exe encountered an error and has to be closed or something like that) - unless you got xp with service pack 2. had the game on my bro's laptop with "only xp", did not work. on mine (the same), xp+sp2 - works fine. installed sp2 on his laptop - also works fine. very strange.