Re: Issues with Direct3D Acceleration and Games Minimising

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From: Malke (malke_at_nospoonnotreally.com)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2004 07:03:11 -0700

Bob wrote:

> I am having problem with a number of games not running properly. What
> happens is that the game (this problem affect several games) which all
> have previously worked without problems doesn't start properly. The
> screen try's to reconfigure to the appropriate graphiocs mode as
> required by the game but after a the screen shuddering and a message
> saying "adjusting screen" (or something like that) the game just
> minimises to the task bar and i am returned to the desktop. I cannot
> alt-tab or switch to the game to make it work - the computer tries but
> drops my right back to the desktop. I have changed resolutions,
> refresh rates, updated drivers, loaded XP SP2. I have tried running
> DXdiag and it claimes that there are no problems - however when i run
> the tests, Direct Draw works ok but the Direct3D Acceleration starts
> to adjust the screen but then reverts back to the DXdiag window saying
> that a key was pressed and the operation was cancelled. This occurs
> for all the Direct3D tests.
>
> My machine is a ShuttleX SS51G
> P4 2.4GHz
> 756Mb RAM
> 120Gb Disk
> DVD+RW Sony DRU-120
> WinXP Pro (all updates and SP's)
> NVIDIA Geforce4 MX 440 (V6.14.0010.6177 drivers)
> DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
>
> any suggestions to fix this would be aprpeciated - i have even tried
> re-installing the OS (not a clean install) but that didn't work
> either. Perhaps a reset of all DirectX settings but i don't know how
> to do that....

You've just about exhausted all the software troubleshooting, so I would
now look at hardware failure. Try each thing below one at a time and
test after each change:

1. Open pc and reseat the video card. Obviously the machine must be off
when you do this.

2. Swap out the video card with a known-working one.

3. If the substitute video card does the same bad behavior, connect the
machine to a different monitor.

The video card you have is an inexpensive one not particularly good for
3D gaming. You might want to try a better one anyway.

Malke 

-- 
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

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