Larry Roberts wrote:

On 25 Aug 2005 13:38:30 -0400, Digideus
wrote:


Hi all,

I have an older PC with a P3 500 processor running in a Biostar M6VBE
motherboard, which I believe runs up to AGPx2. Its running Windows 98
SE, has all the latest updates from Windows Update. I am running what
I believe to be the latest Bios patch as well.

I originally ran an ATI Rage128 GFX card and was very happy with it.
Unfortunately I had to remove the card and replaced it with a cheap
Nvidia GEForce2 MX440 SE.

This seemed to work fine until I tried to run Star Trek: Armada II.
Ever since this I cannot enable Direct3d. Even though DXDIAG says its
enabled, I get errors when I try to test it, namely....

Direct3D 7 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device):
HRESULT = 0x887602eb (error code)
Direct3D 8 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device):
HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)
Direct3D 9 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device):
HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)

I tried removing everything, replacded the card for a FX5200 and
reinstalled the latest Forceware drivers from the Nvidia site and
DirectX 9.0c. but I still get the same errors.

I remove the forceware driver, reinstall the ATI card and driver and
Direct3d works again!!!!

I reversed the process and it doesnt work.

I KNOW the FX5200 supports Direct3d, and DXDIAG says its enabled, so
why cant I run the direct3d tests without the errors?

Anyone?



From my expirence, it seems that DirectX 9 is not stable with
Win9x OS. I was running WinME (tried 98SE as well) up till around the
time DX9 came out. I started having all kinds of problems with
graphics. Some of which you describe. If you already installed DX9,
then your stuck with it as it can't be removed unless you format the
drive, and reinstall Win98SE from scratch.
I might be wrong about DX9 being the problem, but if no one
else has a better idea, I'd say format, reinstall everything clean,
but only install upto DX8. However you'll problably need to install an
older Nvidia driver as well as the newer ones may require DX9 be
installed.

I have DirectX 9c on my Win98SE and it causes no problems. I have also
removed the running version of DirectX and gone back to others for
testing purposes. This was done without reinstalling Win98SE. There are
many Google hits for programs that can remove DirectX safely without the
need to reinstall your OS.