Lots Of Games Not Working - DirectX Issue?

[WeaponX 0]

Hi, for some reason a lot of my games are not working. I installed Prison Tycoon and after it's done, I click on the Run button from the game. It gave me a message "direct3d renderer creation error". If I click OK it will go to the main menu where I could click play button...then it gives me a Windows crash message (do you want to send to Microsoft, etc....). The game then exits.

This seems to be a common problem since the first result I got from Google was on this game. I couldn't find more information on this problem. I have the whole DirectX Diagnostic log if someone wants to take a look at it. For starters, here is the system info:

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519) Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: AWRDACPI
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.1GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 230MB used, 1017MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

One more thing...this might help. I went into dxdiag->Display tab and ran some Direct3D tests. Here is the report I have for this one:

No problems found.To test DirectDraw functionality, click the "Test DirectDraw" button above.
Direct3D 7 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x80004005 (Generic failure)
Direct3D 8 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (error code)
Direct3D 9 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (error code)

Should I worry about the AGP Texture Acceleration right below that Direct3D one? I think this machine has it on Disabled.

Thanks.
Edited April 26, 2006 by WeaponX (see edit history)

[abhiram 0]

I've got a similar system. My guess would be the drivers. That's probably why even the direct3d tests aren't working. Try getting fresh updated drivers from Nvidia or if you already have, then try to get patched up drivers from Guru3d.

I had a problem on my system too with continuous restarts whenever I played GTA San Andreas or any graphics intensive game. I found out that there was a fault with the drivers I downloaded from Nvidia and after installing the drivers from Guru3d, everything worked just fine.

[HellFire121 0]

Try updating the drivers ( Usually a few steps back helps ), if that doesn't work it's probably a corrupt DirectX installation so i'd reinstall the latest directx.If that still doesn't work i'd try some patched up drivers.-HellFire

[WeaponX 0]

Hmmm...not sure why it says nVidia there. Might be related to something on the motherboard as I saw something like that on one of the chips there. I actually have a Volari V3 video card as mentioned here. I think I got the latest driver here (version 1.14.02). Still getting the same problems...at least very similar. Now I don't get that direct3d error message anymore. The main menu comes up and I click on the Play button. Either my eyes are fuzzy or the screen is blurry and "sizzling" across the screen like crazy. I have to hit ctrl+alt+del multiple times to get rid of that and bring up Task Manager. Then kill the game which is taking over 100MB of memory usage.

DirectX 9.0c is the latest version right? I'll try reloading it over itself, but I don't think that's the problem. Is it possible that this video card is too cheap/crappy to handle the game? It had problems playing many games before in the past as well...

[wutske 0]

Well, Volari card aren't exactly the beste cards available
If I remember correctly, the latest version of DX is indeed DX9.0c

Maybe reinstalling DX might help, you never know

I've googled for the 2nd errorcode, maybe this might be usefull: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ (can't read, takes too much time to load since I'm on smallband )

[WeaponX 0]

Believe me, I know this video card is definitely one of the bottom line ones LOL. Wasn't thinking of getting a more decent video card since I wasn't planning on using this custom built pc for games. But lately, my brother has been buying some pc games and even though they are not very memory intensive (just those Tycoon games), it still gives us problems.I looked at the site. They said it might be an outdated driver and it looks like that user's display adapter doesn't support up to DirectX 9.0c. Mine says it's ok...Will try reinstalling DX 9.0 then and report back what happened.Thanks.

[DjCalvin 0]

DirectX 9.0c is the latest version right? I'll try reloading it over itself, but I don't think that's the problem. Is it possible that this video card is too cheap/crappy to handle the game? It had problems playing many games before in the past as well...

Please do not take this the wrong way.
Its your video card, time to throw out the old thing and get yourself a real video card. Heck anything above a $75 Nvidia FX5200 will play most games on the market right now.

If you have updated the drivers, reload directx (yes 9.0c is the latest as well)

- C

[xip 0]

Is a known problem that some video cards have a lot of problems with the directX when gaming. For example, in the past, I had a lot of problems with a Matrox card and changing to a nVidia solved all the problems !

[iGuest 3]

Replying to xipI am having the same problem, but only after I installed Nero. It wants to install dx9 even though I have dx9 installed already. I did a system restore to before I installed Nero, then everything works fine. Any ideas?-reply by drag68