Home - Help
Support - FAQ
STEP 3: Select Category
- Forum Help
- Game Activation
- Game Help
- Other
- Sales
- Technical Support
- Audio Problems: I don't hear sounds or music in my game.
- Backup/Recovery: Can I back up my savegame files and/or move them to another Windows computer?
- Backup/Recovery: Can I make a CD backup of the setup file for the game that I downloaded?
- Cauldron: My villager dropped the cauldron, and I can't find it anywhere. Can I get it back?
- Collectibles: Collectibles aren't producing tech points.
- Deleted game: Is it possible to recover a game that was accidentally deleted?
- Display Problems: All I see is a black (or white) screen when I launch the game.
- Display Problems: The game does not display properly on my computer.
- Display Problems: The game doesn't fit on my screen.
- Display Problems: When I try to run the game, my screen is gray.
- Elders: I can't get more than 50 Esteemed Elders/Totems.
- Error: The game crashes when I try to run it. Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
- Errors: Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children.exe is not a valid Win32 application. How do I fix this?
- Errors: "Error while unpacking program, code LP5. Please report to author." when attempting to run the game.
- Errors: "Program stopped working" in Windows Vista.
- Errors: "Update failed. Are you online?" message when attempting to update my game stats.
- Errors: "Virtual Villagers has stopped working" message in Windows Vista.
- Errors: Failed initializing DirectDraw. Only 16-bit and 32-bit displays are supported in windowed mode.
- Errors: I can't install the game, due to an NSIS error.
- Errors: I get an error message: Could not open display. Error code=0xc8660160 or 0xc8660110
- Errors: Missing export DDRAW.DLL:DirectDrawCreate.EX.
- Errors: This program has been damaged, possibly by a bad sector of the hard drive or a virus. Please reinstall it.
- Forums: I am having problems trying to access the game forums.
- Game Freezes: My game freezes when I try to refresh statistics.
- Game Freezes: My game is sluggish, jerky, or freezes up.
- Game won't run: My Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children (Windows) game quits before it completely loads.
- Game won't run: The game minimizes to the taskbar and can't be played. I hear the game running, but when I click it the game goes back to the taskbar.
- Gong: I can't get one of the gong pieces.
- Gong: I can't pick up one of the gong pieces.
- High Scores List/Leader board: Can I get on the leader board if I didn't buy my game directly from LDW?
- High Scores List/Leader board: Why don't my game scores appear on the leader board?
- Installation: How do I reinstall Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children for Windows or install it on a different computer that I own?
- Internet: Do LDW's games connect to the Internet during game play?
- Masters: My villagers aren't progressing beyond Adept skill level.
- Missing .exe file: When I try to launch the game, I get the message that Windows is searching for the .exe file. Where did my game go?
- Multiple players: How do I have multiple games going in Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children?
- Names changing: Why do the names of my villagers keep changing and duplicating?
- One gender left: There are only males (or females) left in my tribe. Is there any hope for this game?
- One villager left: There is only one villager left in my tribe. Is there any hope for this game?
- Pause: How do I pause (or unpause) the game?
- Pause: I paused my game overnight, but my villagers all died. Why did that happen?
- Pause: I paused my game, but when I started it again my villagers were all in different places. Why did that happen?
- Percentage completion: The game isn't displaying the percentage of completion on a project that my builders are working on.
- Population: What is the maximum population that I can have in my game?
- Saving game: My game isn't saving my progress, and it starts a new game every time I launch it.
- Stew: Why don't all of the stews that I make count in the stats?
- Time Change: Will Daylight Savings Time affect my games?
- Time: Time isn't passing properly in my game.
- Transferring characters: Can I transfer my characters, food, tech points, or anything from Virtual Villagers: A New Home to Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children?
- Virus/Spyware: My anti-virus software has notified me that there's a virus in the game and has removed it. How do I get my game back?
- White boxes: I edited some of the images in my game, and now they have white boxes around them. How do I fix them?
- Windows 7: Will LDW's games work with Windows 7?
- Windows Vista: Will LDW's games work with Windows Vista?
- ~~ My question is not listed.
Frequently Asked Questions
I don't hear sounds or music in my game.
Both your computer and the game settings must be properly configured to hear the sounds and music in the game.
Make sure that the sound isn't muted on your computer and that your speakers aren't turned down or unplugged (if they are external speakers). Some computers have a control for the sound levels on the keyboard that should be checked. If those things are OK, launch the game and, from the Main Menu, select Options. Make sure that the sliders for Sounds and/or Music are not positioned fully to the left, which will turn sounds off. If they are fully to the left, move the sliders to the right until the sound levels are at a comfortable setting.
If those things don't resolve the problem, you may need to go into your Windows Control Panel and check your sound settings. Click Start=>Control Panel=>Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices. Make sure that the settings for Adjust the system volume aren't preventing you from hearing the game sounds.
If those steps don't resolve the problem, you should check your sound card's hardware settings. The easiest way to do that is to use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. Click Start, then Run, then type dxdiag in the window and press OK. The DirectX Diagnostic tool will open. You may be asked if you want to allow checking for digital signatures (I usually allow that - it's harmless). On the first page of the tool (the System tab), you can find information about your computer and DirectX version.
If you click on the Sound tab, you'll see information about your sound card. Is your sound card's hardware acceleration slider set all the way to the right (Full acceleration)? If you test DirectSound, does it successfully pass all of the tests? What is the date listed in the driver section in the upper right? If the date is more than 6 months ago, you should check with your computer manufacturer or sound card manufacturer to see if there is an updated driver available.
The next tab is the Music tab. If you click on the Test DirectMusic tab, does the test complete successfully?
Going through these steps should resolve the difficulty you are experiencing with the game's audio.
Finally, if all of the preceding steps fail to restore audio to the game, a tip from a Windows 2000 user suggests that playing audio in Windows Media Player (such as a Web radio streaming audio program) may resolve the issue.
Was this answer helpful? Yes | No, I would like to submit a support request.