It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
I cannot run Alan Wake. It keeps giving me the error, "Could not preprocess HLSL shader - n/a" I saw the fix in this forum but it did not work for me, perhaps because I have Win XP. I have re-installed DirectX multiple times and updated my graphics drivers but still not working. Please help. Thanks.

Windows XP Professional 32bit (Service Pack 3)
GeForce 8800 GTS
Intel Core 2 2.40 GHz
DirectX 9.0c
4 gigs RAM
Game Patch installed
This question / problem has been solved by hudfreegamerimage
I found this solution, quoted below, link to original post here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/108710/discussions/0/864977025688898181/

---

When I try and run the game i get a error saying could not process hlsl shader -na

I found that I needed to do the following to fix it:
In the steam folder for the game steamapps\common\alan wake\third party\directx\
there are two files you need to extract to folders on your desktop.
1 aug2009_d3dcompiler_42_x86.cab
2 jun2010_d3dcompiler_43_x86.cab

once you have both of those extracted into folders go inside each and copy the .dll file called d3dcompiler_42.dll and d3dcompiler_43.dll into the game directory for alan wake (steamapps\common\alan wake\)

once you have those two files in the game folder it should load with out the error.

this also works for american nightmare. and the files must be copied from archive locations and not from the windows\system32 folder those wont work.

i hope this helps as it fixed the game for me and i felt like sharing.

---

Since this is the GOG version, not the steam versions, you'd just want to do a file search for those cab files or possibly the dll files you're supposed to extract from those (although they say the versions in the system32 folder won't work).

Failing that, I'd probably make sure I had the following installed:
directx9c redistributable
Visual C++ redistributable, versions: 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013
dotNet versions: 3, 3.5, and 4.0 (redistributable versions)

and of course do a reboot.


I've played through the whole game and I'm using Windows XP too. I have all that stuff installed. I only use redistributable stuff from Microsoft. I hate having to always wait for stuff to download.
Post edited September 24, 2015 by hudfreegamer
avatar
hudfreegamer: I found this solution, quoted below, link to original post here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/108710/discussions/0/864977025688898181/

---

When I try and run the game i get a error saying could not process hlsl shader -na

I found that I needed to do the following to fix it:
In the steam folder for the game steamapps\common\alan wake\third party\directx\
there are two files you need to extract to folders on your desktop.
1 aug2009_d3dcompiler_42_x86.cab
2 jun2010_d3dcompiler_43_x86.cab

once you have both of those extracted into folders go inside each and copy the .dll file called d3dcompiler_42.dll and d3dcompiler_43.dll into the game directory for alan wake (steamapps\common\alan wake\)

once you have those two files in the game folder it should load with out the error.

this also works for american nightmare. and the files must be copied from archive locations and not from the windows\system32 folder those wont work.

i hope this helps as it fixed the game for me and i felt like sharing.

---

Since this is the GOG version, not the steam versions, you'd just want to do a file search for those cab files or possibly the dll files you're supposed to extract from those (although they say the versions in the system32 folder won't work).

Failing that, I'd probably make sure I had the following installed:
directx9c redistributable
Visual C++ redistributable, versions: 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013
dotNet versions: 3, 3.5, and 4.0 (redistributable versions)

and of course do a reboot.

I've played through the whole game and I'm using Windows XP too. I have all that stuff installed. I only use redistributable stuff from Microsoft. I hate having to always wait for stuff to download.
Thank you!!! The "Steam" solution did not work being that I could not find the files they were asking for but the second solution you suggested worked great! I installed directx9c redistributable, Visual C++ redistributable, versions: 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, and dotNet versions: 3, 3.5, and 4.0 (redistributable versions) and the game is running just fine. Thanks again!
I'm glad those other libraries fixed it.

A lot of game developers use those dependencies now, but don't clearly mark them as a requirement. It would save people a lot of headaches if they did.