"Couldn't initialize game"

Question

I get this message every time I try to start a game such as solitaire or freecell on my Windows Vista laptop. What's causing it and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

Hello Kala88,

Welcome to the Microsoft Vista forum.

After reading the issue I would suggest you to check the issue in a new user account and if that fail's then you can uninstall and reinstall the game which you are not able to play.

To do this please follow the following steps:

Click on start menu> control panel>program and features>turn windows feature on or off>click on the plus sign beside games and expand it.

You will see all the windows games, please uncheck any game that is not working and click on ok.After the process is done please restart the computer and go to the same location and put a check mark against the same game and click on ok, this will reinstall the game.Restart the computer again and check.

You can also try to run the system file checker scan.

The steps to do the SFC scan are listed below:

Running the System File Checker…

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.
2. Click Continue or supply Administrator credentials if prompted.
3. In the Command Prompt window type the following, and press Enter:

sfc /scannow

4. You should see the following on-screen messages:

Beginning the system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.

Verification % complete.

5. Once the scan has completed you will receive an onscreen message resembling one of the following:

…found no integrity violations

…found corruption but repaired it

…found corruption that it could not repair

6.Please reply with the completion message that you received.

If the above SFC Scan produces errors and says it cannot repair them, stay at the command prompt and do the following:

At the command prompt, type in:

notepad sfcdetails.txt then press the ENTER key

copy/paste the last 30 to 50 lines here so that we may look at the contents of the log file.

Please do let me know the outcome.

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Regards,

Shaolin Roger Thapa

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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