Red Alert 2 suddenly stopped working, no new software added, no XP updates, no hardware changes. When I start playing it, when the character talks the games freezes for about 5 seconds and then carries on. Bloody annoying and makes the game unplayable.

Yuri's revenge gets as far as the loading screen, batters the hard drive for a bit and then stops responding.

I've tried everything. Compatability mode etc etc I have even reinstalled XP and installed RA2 and Yuri before anything else same result.

Also, another oddity. When I go on the 'net the RA2 on line site tells me that my version is incompatible.

I've done nothing to it. Hell, can't even get the thing to run properly.

What gives? Any ideas?

Found out the answer!

The problem is service pack 2. Red Alert and YUris revenge will not work if service pack is installed.

I reformatted the hard installed up to service pack 1 only and Red Alert works fine, albeit takes ages to load but it does work.

As soon as I installed Service Pack 2 - bang, it stops working again.

I have service pack 2 installed and both work fine.

1. Have you done the updates for both games?
2. Are your copies legal?
3. Try slowing down video and sound acceleration to see if that helps.

pardon me, this might seem a bit newbish, but how exactly would I slow down the sound and video acceleration? also on yuri's revenge, i have a main executable error when the game is installed and updated. I changed the combatibility of the main game executable to Win 98 and that works but it gets stuck at the loading screen. any suggestions?

I have almost the same problem as zaphod2003, but at me it freezes for some seconds when the female voice says something [you know, "building", "structrure garrisoned", etc].
I have XP with SP2, and my RA2 is original. Tried to disable the soundcard, set voice level to zero, set the sound acceleration to none, change the compatability mode but nothing really worked for me. Also I tried Yuri's Revenge, I had to wait aprox. 10 minutes for it to load, than another 10 minutes to start a game, but when I play it freezes for some seconds [randomly]. Any suggestions?
My comp: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ / ATi Radeon 9600xt / 512DDR / TerraTec Aureon 5.1 Fun. I have the latest drivers.

I tried to play without the latest [1006] patch & it works. No freeze at all, but hey! I have to play with the bugs?!

Here, I did this and it worked.

1. Have you downloaded any mysterious map packs, like Nurple and such?

2. If you did delete every map pack you downloaded, or if your sure that you know which one, and did it say Game version incompatible right when you extracted something to your RA2 directory? Then delete it.

3. If that still doesn't work, DELETE your westwood folder, if you can't delete it go to your search bar, type in westwood, and delete it.

4. Open up your control panel, go to Programs and features or whatever it says.

5. Uninstall C&C Red alert 2, and Yuri's revenge.

6. Uninstall Westwood components.

7. Reinstall everything.

8. Log on and play, it should not say Game version Incompatible anymore.

Lets hope this works.
If it worked for me, it should work for you.

Be more careful of what you dl to your RA2 directory.

i have a diffrent problem..... I install the disc and everythings fine..... It will load the autorun and when i press play it will show red alert 2 and my disc drive will just stop working. every other disc works fine so its not the drive..... P.S. i have downloaded the patch and i've tried the compatibility thing. can someone help me?