No text showing at all

Yes NCSGeek, the game runs in safe mode. It has all the text that it should. It was, however,so lagged and choppy as to be unplayable.

If it only runs in safe mode does that imply that it is a program conflict and not a settings/options issue?

If that is true, how about this?:
1) Run the game in normal mode and make a log of all the programs and apps that are running.
2) Then restart in Safe-mode, run the game again and make another log.
3) Compare the logs to make a list of suspects (conflicting programs) to eliminate.

If that makes sense, I am open to suggestions on which reports/logs to use.

I will not be insulted if you correct me. Program interactions are a bit out of my depth.

 

So I went back to re-checked and redo all the steps so far. After each item I rechecked the game to see if it works. When I fix anything mechanical, rechecking is a vital part of the trouble shooting.

When I uninstalled and reinstalled the graphics driver (the exact same version), the game started to show the text!

So I think we have it licked.

Thank you so much for all the help. I am sorry to take so much of your time. You have been great.

If you want any other info I am happy to oblige.

 

I have not. I will check it now.

I guess I should reverse that regedit too?

 

This thing is solved.
After all the troubleshooting and gracious help from NCSGeek and other community members, it came down to the video drivers.

I had already updated them to no effect, but I uninstalled the video driver (for the third time I think), restarted, and reinstalled the exact same driver. That did the trick for some reason.

Which goes to show you, it is worth rechecking ALL your work if a problem persists.

My video card is a GeForce GTX 660. So it is not new but it is more than jammy enough to run AOEO at max settings with no hiccups. The driver is v397.64.