C&C Generals - Error Fix [Very Easy Guide]

Finally, both Generals and Generals: Zero Hour games are on Steam and of course they came with lots of problems.

Problem 1: "You have encountered a serious error! ..."
Problem 2: Widescreen is not supported
Problem 3: Weird Problems (FPS Drop, Input Lag, No Sound, ..)
Problem 4: Lag, FPS Drops and/or Low FPS in Skirmish Mode
Problem 5: "Please make sure you have DirectX 8.1 or higher installed. Also, verify that your video card meets the minimum requirements."

Let's fix these below, then.

Note: Solutions are moved to the content section, please look below

Important Note (for Zero Hour) : Same steps are valid for C&C Generals: Zero Hour too, but be sure C&C Generals is running well and be sure C&C Generals is installed before Generals: Zero Hour..

Important Note (for Zero Hour)

Same steps are valid for C&C Generals: Zero Hour too, but, before running Zero Hour, be sure C&C Generals is running well and be sure C&C Generals is installed before Generals: Zero Hour.

Problem 1: "You have encountered a serious error. Serious errors can be caused by many things including viruses, .."

1) Download DirectX 9.0 from here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109
2) Click on directx_Jun2010_redist.exe and it'll ask you a folder.
3) Pick any folder to extract the packages.
4) Open the folder that you picked.
5) Find DXSETUP.exe and run it, and complete the setup.
6) Run the game.

Problem 2: Widescreen is not supported

1) Find Generals in your game library.
2) Right click on Generals and go to the properties.
3) Find the title "LAUNCH OPTIONS" and the input below of it.
4) Copy and paste this without quotes to the input: "-xres 1920 -yres 1080"
5) Now, you are able to play Generals in 1080p (FHD).
6) If you have different resolutions rather than 1080p, you can just edit by according to it like: "-xres 1366 -yres 768"

Problem 3: Weird Problems (FPS Drop, Input Lag, No Sound, ..)

I haven't run into any compatibility problem with Generals in Windows 10, but some people may run into different problems.

(For example, I have run into FPS Drop problem in campaign mode of Generals: Zero Hour due to the compatibility issues, but I haven't run into in Generals.)

Changing compatibility mode sometimes works to solve these weird issues, here are the steps:

1) Right click to the C&C: Generals in your Steam Library.
2) Click on Properties in the right click menu.
3) Select installed files from the tab.
4) Click on Browse button and it opens the folder of the game.
5) Find Generals.exe and right click to it.
6) Click on Properties.
7) In the tabs, select Compatibility.
8) There's a section named "Compatibility Mode" and underneath of it there's a checkbox with a title written "Run this program in compatibility mode for: ".
9) Click on this checkbox.
10) Now, the selectbox is opened. Select "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" and click Apply.
11) Run the game.

Problem 4: Lag, FPS Drops and/or Low FPS in Skirmish Mode

This problem is based on the 'replay' files, in this section, we're going to solve this problem by a simple solution.

1) Find the save data in below paths.

for Generals: C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Data

for Zero Hour: C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data

2) Right click on Replays folder, then click on the Properties option.

3) You'll be seeing Properties of Replays folder, click on Security tab.

4) There'll be some user groups or users like SYSTEM, Administrators, {YOUR_USERNAME}

5) For each user and user group, click on Edit and click on a checkbox under Deny for only Write permission.

6) Then click on Apply, and OK and enjoy your game.

Note: Twilight Flame map might still be laggy with 7 bot players, but other maps are fine with 7 bot players with this solution.

Problem 5: "Please make sure you have DirectX 8.1 or higher installed. Also, verify that your video card meets ..

I've run into this problem recently and I think I found the reason of this issue.

I have 2 monitors and these monitors have different resolutions. If I set a resolution that is not supported by the active monitor, then game throws this error.

Basically, you can NOT set a resolution that your monitor does not support.

For example, if your notebook have 1366x768 max resolution and you set 1920x1080 resolution for the game somewhere (in options.ini, in Steam Launch Options or somewhere else), game will throw this error.

Here's a quick look how to fix this:

1) First of all, be sure you have installed DirectX as I mentioned in Problem 1. Please read carefully, and follow all the steps.

2) Most of the people override their game configs or game launch options somewhere to run this game, you should revert these changes.

Note: Uninstalling and/or reinstalling the game won't revert all of your changes. You need to check if there's an entry related to screen resolution in options.ini file (and the other config files if you changed or used 3rd party tools).

In options.ini, if you've defined resolution somehow then you'll see something like this below.

Resolution = 1920 1080

You should be sure that if your screen resolution is the same with this resolution. If you have 1366x768 resolution, then you should change this to below.

Resolution = 1366 768

You can find the options.ini file in below paths

Zero Hour: C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data

Generals: C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Data

3) If you haven't changed anything in config files before, then you should check your launch options. You can follow the steps in Problem 2.

4) If you set resolution in options.ini and also in Steam Launch Options in the same time and if these resolutions are different than each other, remove one of them or make them same.

Alternative Solution (for DirectX and video card problems) (not tested)

A lot of people said deleting dbghelp.dll in the game folder works (for both Generals and Zero Hour). I haven't tried that, because I solved my problems with the steps I specified above but some people ran their game by deleting this file.

Note: This method is not tested by me, however I am sharing this here. Maybe it works on someone else's PC too.

Important Note (for Zero Hour)

Same steps are valid for C&C Generals: Zero Hour too, but be sure C&C Generals is running well and be sure C&C Generals is installed before Generals: Zero Hour.

Hopefully, this guide helped to solve your problems.

Good luck, have fun!

[EmT]

do you have a solution for mouse slipping out of game?

[Lt. HooblaDan]

When I run the game with dual monitor, my mouse just slips right out of the game window and onto my secondary monitor - in effect, i cannot mouse edge scroll to the right. Any idea on fixes?

[Nuffo]

Thank you very much. It works perfektly ;-)

[Audio]

found it , in my Library , i right click on Generals , and click browse local files , and there it was. i deleted that dbghelp.dlll file , and ........... It WORKS !!! now i can go to watch the intro , and go to the main menu , now going to see to register and play with REVORA

[Audio]

Where is dbghelp.dll located ?? i installed Generals , from Steam , getting Direct X 8.1 error , thanks

[Thors10]

yeah, it won't recognize my DirectX installation. I just won't start.

[chap1524]

hey so i ran into the fifth problem and have no idea what this means

C:\Users\{YOUR_USERNAME}\Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data

nor what options.ini. file is could someone lend me a hand thank you

[a.k.hammad]

non worked. so frustrated

[666slayar]

@zhihao16 if u got no ini file then just create one. either using powershell, or create manually and change the extension to .ini

[666slayar]

like many others, my pb after the ini file is: i got multiple monitor and the game is running on the main, but when i wanna scroll in game to left or right the cursor just goes OUT of the game and this obviously leads to mis clicks or empty actions and will directly result in some unwanted defeat, at least not being able to scroll horizontally in game is just... game breaking for ppl like me. alt tab does nothing for me it just let me goes out of the game completely but what i want is to LOCK cursor IN the game all the time, like any other game, such as sc2 (where u can choose windowed or borderless window btw, funny such "simple" solution is causing this much pb in EA games. to say im disappointed is a huuuuge understatement (my hate against EA is growing exponentially)