DirectX Install problems

All I can tell you is that this is something other Vista users are not having to do. So something is amiss with your DX install most likely, as you suspect. Have you tried uninstalling any DX updates and you video card and drivers and starting that process from scratch?

I re installed me gfx drivers but that didn't help. I don't know how to uninstall DX updates   Isn't there some sort of "repair" button somewhere i can click and it reloads all of my windows? files because that would be extremely helpful right now.

Even if i can't fix this problem i just want to get crysis warhead running. i'm trying to overwrite my wsock32.dll with another one but it says permission denied on my own computer!!!

you can try running "dxdiag" - just type that in the search pane

and you can run system file checker off the DVD - just boot from it and follow the 'repair windows' prompts

you can also try 'system restore' and restore the PC to a time before all this started happening

is it just 3d stuff that is flaking out or are you getting other instability or missing files too?

Vista protects system files very closely but you should be able to right click on the winsock file and manually set the permission level. Probably. Some system files can be a real bear to alter.

dxdiag runs fine and says "no problems found" on each tab

The windows DVD only gives me these options:
Startup repiar - for startup problems
System resotre - i've had this problem the whole time on this installation
windows complete PC restore - I don't have any backups to restore
windows memory diagnostic tool
command prompt

As far as i can tell DirectX is the only problem. Every version i have tried to install has failed so far. Everything not directx installs fine

I've got crysis warhead working on a sepreate partition with a fresh install of windows.

I don't know what the rule is about installing drivers or the service pack first but from now on i'm installing drivers then the service pack. This is the second bad install i've had where sp1 was installed before the drivers. Last time I had a bad windows install was also when I installed sp2 on xp before I installed drivers. Both occasions were with two different computers, two different Microsoft OSs and presented two different problems. This may sound like a coincidence but i won't be leaving anything to chance from now on.

DRIVERS FIRST!!!