tenaciousleydead

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Dec 6, 2004
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ok so my problem is any direct x game i play either wont start, or just stalls forever and i never get to play. when i try to play COD2 it goes to the menu but when i try to change the settings it quits and brings up a direct x help window. im sure this only applys ot directx and not my hardware because i can play opengl games like quake 4 easily, plus im having graphics problems in windows(toolsbars went back to classic style). anyone have an idea on how to fix this? in the directx diagnostic tool it says nothings wrong so i dunno, Thank You.
 

Dafaad

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Jan 18, 2006
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Your machine should work, however, something is definately wrong. It could be corruption either in your video drivers or with the DirectX install.

Nvidia has done a great job making it easy for us home users to install their new drivers. The problem is, that most of us don't read the read me portion, or tips for installation for the new drivers. So, we leave the existing drivers in place when trying to install the new ones. So the first question is. Did you ever install new Nvidia drivers without removing the old drivers first. If you did, this could cause the type of problems you are experiencing. Remove your nvidia drivers completely, reboot and then dont let them detect, if running XP. Just hit cancel... After completely removed and rebooted then install the new Nvidia drivers and see if that solves the problem.

Even if it doesn't solve the issue, it was still a good thing to do. Now for the second possible problem. DirectX itself may me hosed, while you cannot remove DirectX, without being a software engineer. (most of them would fail.) You can re-install it from Microsoft's directx site. This will clean up and overwrite any mess in their. Between these two tips, you should be able to make things run right.

Sometimes when one trys to play an older CD with previous DirectX requirements and DirectX (older version) on the CD. A game will not see the newer directx and try to install a DirectX version 7 or 8 on top of DirectX version 9 or 10. A later (newer) version of DirectX will contain the files of an earlier version. But if a game over writes the newer file, then your games that require the newer version will not work.

When you get it right and working, set a restore point. So if you use older game CD's or others. You can restore back without having to go through all this.

Hope this helps and good luck, nothing more frustrating then a computer that doesn't work, well unless you had 2 of em that didn't.