DirectX woes...

[Tanith1120]

Hi, all...before I go on to my current problem, I'll tell you what led up to it...

A while ago I started noticing a lot of trouble with Guild Wars...freezes, crashes, and the like. A guildmate and I decided I need to update my Nvidia video drivers, so we went through the process. Except in the process I accidentally uninstalled my chipset drivers. So the other evening I uninstalled the video drivers (again), installed the "unified driver" available on Nvidia's website, then reinstalled the video drivers.

This solved all the hardware conflicts in my device manager, and also my system instability. However, I cannot run any game now...Guild Wars looks like a test pattern orgy, and Diablo II, the only other game I play regularly, completely locks up the computer. I had to reboot manually.

Since no other video problems seemed to exist, I ran DxDiag and a few of the tests failed, which tells me that the problem is somewhere in DirectX. Now all that remains is for me to isolate and correct the problem, and I'm trying to learn all I can before attempting anything else. Failing to fully understand the problem before trying to correct it is what's gotten me into this mess.

I'm attaching my DxDiag report and also my Everest report, both made last night. I think all the necessary information is in those, but I can provide whatever else might be helpful. If any gamers more experienced than I could guide me in the right direction, I would be very grateful.

Thanks,

Tanith

[pharoah]

try these steps first !---IMPORTANT: Please Follow These Steps Before Posting---!

[pharoah]

i looked at your everest post,and your problem might be lack of ram.your ammount of free memory is low.


Physical Memory:
Total 447 MB
Used 365 MB
Free 81 MB
Utilization 82 %

this also looks kinda troublesome

Problems & Suggestions:
Problem Current AGP speed is lower than maximum supported. This may cause performance penalty.

[Tanith1120]

I will look into these things, Pharoah, thanks. I actually did read your post before posting anything...and friends have advised me to reinstall DirectX. Your opinion?

Tanith

[pharoah]

yeah i think i would reinstall direct-x first just to be sure thats not the problem.do you have any idea what your temps are running at.if not try this.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...rsviewpro.html

just out of curiousity is this your computer

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Tab=0&NoMapp=

[Tanith1120]

I'll check into my temps (gotta log off now, work tomorrow). And yes, that is my computer.

Many people have made statements like "ick" when hearing the type of comp I run...but up until now, it's really done quite well. And still is, except for this issue. I've had it almost two years.

Tanith :)

[pharoah]

we will work on it the only issue i know is common to that brand is bad power supplies

[Tanith1120]

These are my system temps, according to Everest...

System: 38C/100F
CPU: 47C/117F
Aux: 37C/99F

I also came across a more detailed Everest report about DirectX...seems some video features are not supported. I'm not sure if this is common or not, but I've attached the report for your opinion. I'm now going to uninstall several programs I don't use to free up some memory...but I'm certainly going to leave Everest alone, it's quite useful even if most of the information is over my head.

Tanith

[pharoah]

you know for some odd reason i missed the part where you said you accidentally uninstalled the chipset drivers.here is something id like you to look at.open up control panel,system,hardware,finally device manager.see if there is anything in there with a yellow triangle,or other warning icon.this is just to be sure everything is installed right.

[Tanith1120]

Yes, everything is all right now according to Device Manager. It hadn't been...PCI Bridge Device and SB Bus Controller both had those yellow exclamation points, but when I installed the unified driver from Nvidia those went away, and the comp's performance improved significantly.

I also discovered something interesting regarding physical memory...I run Yahoo IM, and when I turn it off the amount of physical memory available goes from 120 to 174 MB. Obviously I still need to uninstall things do all I can to free more memory, but I wanted to point that out. I can always shut it down while playing GW or D2, of course...if I can ever play again.

One more thing: Apparently there is no "uninstall" for DirectX...it just overwrites, I'm being told. I was grumbling to some mIRC friends that I couldn't find it to uninstall it. Is this correct?

Tanith

[pharoah]

the amount of available physical memory does go up,and down as you open,and close programs totally normal.that is correct direct-x integrates into windows it doesnt have an uninstall.

[pharoah]

another question that 47c on your cpu was the computer pretty much idle other than everest being open.thats a bit high for an idle temp

[Tanith1120]

Well, the only programs running at the time would have been mIRC and Xfire...I think I had Yahoo IM turned off when I took that report. I'm an administrator on an IRC chat server, so mIRC stays open whenever I'm online.

Uninstalled and deleted a bunch of things, reinstalled DirectX, but the test results are identical. Now my focus has shifted to my video adapter (Nvidia GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU), and whether or not that may be conflicting in some way with DirectX. I've also got a friend checking to be absolutely sure I have the correct video drivers for my motherboard. I'm wondering about that myself...neither of these games were affected like this before I started this tinkering. I assumed I had the correct drivers.

I hope so...that "uninstall/reinstall" process is totally unnerving...

Tanith

[pharoah]

yes be sure you have the correct drivers.if that doesnt fix it is your system restore turned on.maybe you could roll back to before the problems started.

this problem could also be heat 47c is a fairly high idle temp.might want to check inside your computer case to see if there is a heavy dust build up.

[Tanith1120]

Will do...I gotta clean tomorrow anyway.

System restore is on, but I've uninstalled/reinstalled the drivers twice, all told...no idea whether the orignal drivers would still be in the system or not. But I can find out this weekend.

You're very helpful, Pharoah. I'm going to be telling my gaming friends about you.

Tanith :)

[Tanith1120]

Well, I cleaned out the comp as best I could...but the temp reading I took afterward is still the same. I might try the other program you suggested, just to see if I get a similar reading.

Reinstalling Direct X has accompished nothing...I get the same test results. However, while noodling around on Nvidia's site I found a question about all this that I had posted to them and had forgotten. Someone there answered it, and advised me to install the Forceware version 84.21 of the video driver, rather than the version 93.71 that I now have. According to this individual, that driver is the most compatible with my GeForce4 MX integrated GPU. Would changing out my video driver (again) have any impact on all this, do you think?

Tanith

[pharoah]

actually the 84.21 driver is the most stable version so far it might fix your problem.

[Tanith1120]

I might just try that, then. It certainly can't hurt.

(Provided I'm careful and don't accidentally uninstall the chipset drivers again)

Tanith

[pharoah]

yeah when you uninstall those drivers you get a box asking what all you want to uninstall.just be sure to uninstall display driver only.uninstalling them all is very easy to do if your not paying close attention.ive been guilty of doing it myself.

[Indoril Nerevar]

Follow the "NVIDIA Drivers" link in my signature for more info on which driver version to use. The thread also contains important instructions on how to reinstall drivers.