I've been playing Rome total War for quite some time now. However I have always encountered problems with the game crashing on me. I thought the best way to resolve this was to download a couple of patches (1.3 & 1.5 versions) which I did. Since doing this, matters seem to have worsened and I know have "demoshield 7.5" telling me that it has stopped working. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game but still have the same "demoshield" problem. My system is running on Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit. Please can you help me resolve this Demoshield glitch. Thank you.

check the system requirements, but i doubt this would be the issue. update your video card drivers and install any prerequisite software. .netframework, directx, flash, shockwave etc

as you have windows ultimate, you might want to get yourself XP mode and try running the game in that. get it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

it probabely broke or there is something in your computer or ps2 that don't allow your game to start

S/N: d014-0bd4-cbd4-cbd4-1bcc-7438

it was probably only made up to there on purpose to make you but another one(they get more money)

S/N: d014-0bd4-cbd4-cbd4-1bcc-7438
or S/N: d014-0bd4-cbd4-cbd4-1bcc-7438

Try this:
Go to windows explorer: go to computer: Local disk (C:): Program Files: Activision (or sega): Rome-Total war: Data: world: maps: campaign: Imperial_campaign: descr_strat: Then you copy and paste all the factions over to playable, and delete them from non-playable

try re-installing the game. if that doesn't work, you have to go back to the store you bought it at and try to trade it for a new one, because the game is missing an important start file, probably not able to be founddue to a virus or a scratch on the disc. if you cant get 1 for free, you have to buy a new one.

That is your problem. If the game is not compatible with Windows Vista, It won't play it, or play it normally. What I mean is that the game is pretty old (in date created), and the software used to create it was not meant for Vista. Because Vista came afterwards (I think). And Vista has to downgrade while running the game. But it could only downgrade so much. And when it downgrades, it's actually working harder to play the game than having a whole bunch of stuff open at the same time. Vista playes it, but only for a while, because it's not going to downgrade any more.

Hope this helps.

P.S. If you want to play the game, I recomend you get a computer with XP.

check the manula...
mormally there is a sticker of the cd key somewhere in it....