direct-x 9

Hello,
I haven't had any problems for a while so I decided to mess around a little. I have an older board and the updated drivers do not support all the functions of direct-x 9. I found a program ( http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2935.html) that is supposed to uninstall direct-x 9 and use your XP disk to reinstall direct-x 8. I followed the directions and the program seemed to be working until the last step. I received an error message stating that there was an installation failure. My computer seems to operate normally so I don't think direct-x 9 was uninstalled. I would like to try and get back to direct-x 8 but I'm not sure if that’s possible without a reformat. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,
D.E.

 

Click start>run and type dxdiag and then click ok. Dxdiag will tell you the version of directx you have. You can also use it to test your directx to make sure it's working.

 

Thanks Zander. I do have directx 8.1 but all the directx features are grayed out and unavailable. I thought maybe dx 9 was the problem with not having 3D capability but I see I was wrong. I wonder if restarting the computer would make a difference? Probably not. Any other thoughts....... anyone?

Thanks again,
D.E.

 

Ok. After rebooting, the directx features are still grayed out. Is this a good indication that my MB is too outdated?

Thanks,
D.E.

 

I would guess it's the result of your failed attempt to uninstall DX9 and reinstall DX8. Don't know what to tell you though. You could try reinstalling DX8 and see what happens.

I removed part of this post. I had a good look at DirectX Buster and it doesn't say anything about WinXP, so.....

Have you tried system restore yet? Even if you get back to DX9 it shouldn't matter as long as you aren't having any problems with it. You should still have all the DX features you had before.

 

Wow, Zander, I found out more about DX9 than I ever expected to know. Thanks for the tip!

Johanna

 

Ok I see where I must have grabbed the wrong http. The program I used was: DirectX 9 Uninstaller - [2002-12-23 | Freeware | 33 Kb | Win All | 26299]
Uses your original XP or .NET CD to restore DirectX 8. from:http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads28.html. Running the command you posted above I see DirectX 8.1 and I did have DirectX 9. In both versions though the DirectX settings are/were grayed out and set to disabled. I don't think I have a good restore point. I forgot to set a restore point before I performed that operation. The only point I see listed is from the 13th (yesterday after I tried to uninstall DirectX 9). I may try and reinstall DX 9 from Microsoft again. I will post back.

Later,
D.E.

 

After giving this some thought I was wondering if adding a video card might give me the 3D capability I'm lacing now. My MB has AGP integrated graphics but no AGP slot. I do have 3 PCI slots. Can anyone help with this?

Thanks,
D.E.

 

As a result of this thread, and because a couple games quit working in XP some time ago, I decided to uninstall DX9 and try DX8.1.

The program you mentioned did not work completely. I tried DirectX Eradicator, and that worked perfectly without Safe Mode. I now have a working DX8.1 with no errors in dxdiag.

But my games still don't work, so back to DX9.

Did you get full DX functionality back with no errors?

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The integrated AGP graphics will be from the monitor output on your motherboard. There won't be any other AGP without an AGP slot.

I used to use an ATI PCI card. It worked very well, but not so well as an AGP. You will notice a big improvement if you can increase the video memory by using a PCI card, but it will never be as fast as an AGP.

It seems to me that the PCI card depends a great deal on CPU speed. When I used that card in a 500 MHz machine, it lagged a lot. But after switching it to a 1700 MHz machine, the PCI card really performed well.

A good card is really not that expensive these days. And it wouldn't hurt to have a PCI card as a backup just in case your other video failed for some reason.

You'd want at least 32 megs, 64 better, 128 maybe not worth the money for a PCI. Here are some examples:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=319

 

Thanks Abraxas for your reply. I tried the program you mentioned and it worked with no problems. The DirectX settings were still not supported in DirrectX 8.1 (all grayed out and "Not Available "). I think it's time for a new MB unless there is something else I'm missing.

Thanks again,
D.E.

 

You've probably tried an updated video driver for that board, but here is one (v.1.17):

ftp://ftp.pcchips.com.tw/agp/sis.zip

Of course, there really is no substitute for an AGP slot, but a PCI card will no doubt be better than what you have onboard.

 

I'm not so sure that dxdiag being greyed out is a sign that your video card or chip isn't supported. DirectX also has sound functions. l would think dxdiag should be available whether or not the board is supported. The tests would simply fail when you tried to run them. That's what the tests are for. Looking at your board and processer type in your sig, I wouldn't think that it's all that old. What kind of video card or chip do you have? Also, what kind of sound card? I have a hard time believing that they don't support some version of DirectX. If they do, the newer versions should work. It's just that the newer features they provide wouldn't work with your current hardware. You may or may not notice it. If a newer game required a video card that supported DX9 the game wouldn't run. If it only required DX7 and your card supported it, it would run. Same thing with sound.

 

Thanks for the reply Zander. I do not use any plug-in boards for video or sound. What I use is all integrated. Abraxas, I installed the AGP update you found (I missed that one) but nothing changed. Having run dxdiag and under the display tab there is a message that says "Direct3D functionality not available. Also the three settings: DirectDraw Acceleration, Direct3D Acceleration and AGP Texture Acceleration: Not Available. Do you think I could still be missing something? I think I bought this board in 99 or 2000 and it was a closeout. I'll check the date on my video driver but I think it is also 2002.

Thanks again,
D.E.

 

How about the sound. Can you run those tests? What kind of video chip and sound chip is on the board. You've got me curious now. One of my kids has a concert I've got to go to tonight. Maybe when I get back I'll dig out my old 233mhz PII (1997) and install DX8 or 9 on it and see if mine ends up greyed out too. If I get around to it, I'll post back.

 

Once again Zander, thanks for your time and interest. Sound is C-Media and video is SIS-630. Sound tests run fine except MPU-401.

Thanks again,
D.E.

 

Just out of curiosity, in your Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, Troubleshoot, do you have your video acceleration set to max or has it somehow been moved down, disabling many DirectX features?

 

Abraxas, are you a genius or what? Your question turned out to be my answer. I don't know how I missed that one. I installed XP in Sep. 2003 and have always had this problem. I never checked video acceleration and just assumed it was on full.....duh!

Video acceleration was barely up at all, just above the minimum (or off) setting. Everything seems to be working fine now. I guess the new MB will have to wait. Thanks so much Abraxas and Zander for all your help. Maybe tonight I'll be able to sleep.

Thanks again,
Don E.

 

Good catch Abraxas. I was scratching my head here wondering what would be causing this as it seemed to me that dxdiag should at least run the tests and then tell you the card doesn't support this or that. From what dutch wrote about uninstalling and reinstalling I was thinking it was more a problem that was a result of that. Probably never would have thought to check the video acceleration. Would've continued to attack it from my angle and never got anywhere. Glad you thought of it.

For what it's worth, I did dig out that old puter and installed dx8 on it and everything was fine. Installed dx9 after that and that too worked fine. The computer didn't blow up like I thought it might. No smoke or anything.

 

What started me in this direction in the first place is that I posted on the PCChips Lottery Forum looking for updated drivers (LAN didn't work right). After finding them in various places and installing them, my 3D graphics didn't work. When I posted back someone suggested the board might be to old to support DirectX 9 and supplied the above site with a program to uninstall 9 and reinstall 8.1. The rest is history

You guys are great
Don E.

 

I've never seen a board that had the DX tests grayed out, either, and I've seen a lot of old ones! Like Zander said, the tests should still work.

DirectX is so remarkably back-compatible that DX9 not working when 8 did just didn't seem right, either.

Glad you got it all sorted out.

PS. I used a PCChips M598LMR board until just recently. I liked that board a lot and got to know it intimately after ruining the BIOS chip. DX worked fine on that and it was quite a bit older than yours. For what it's worth, I never found much useful in the PCChips Lottery forum. You are better off here! Wild guesses and shots in the dark are all legitimate posts in forums. Trouble is, they don't seem to label them as such over there .