DirectX problem?

[jh88fan]

Posted this in "Gaming and Benchmarks" earlier but thought afterwards that this might be a more appropriate thread instead, since it doesn't pertain to a particular game.

A while back I installed a Radeon 7500 PCI in my HP store-bought PC. I had to disable the onboard video to do so. With some 3d games (not all) I get this error message or something like it when I run or configure a game:

"Access violation at address xxxxxxxx in module "D3D.DLL". Read of address xxxxxxxx."

I'm currently running Windows 98SE, DirectX9.0, Catalyst 3.0 drivers for the Radeon 7500.

specs for the system:
P3 533mhz
256mb pc100
unknown mobo (store-bought), 133mhz fsb though
Radeon 7500 PCI version, 64mb ram, 128-bit

I should mention that these games did run, although poorly, with the onboard video before I upgraded.

Is this a problem with DirectX, the drivers for the 7500, or something else I've overlooked? I haven't had much luck with tech support.

Any help would be really appreciated!

JH

[GaryRouth]

Did the HP let you disable the onboard video in the bios? And if you start the computer in Safe Mode, how many Display Adapters are listed in Device Manager? If the onboard still shows up in there, change it's properties to Disabled, just so that those resources aren't going to be locked up, or causing conflicts.

Other than that, you might try something like 1) reinstalling DX9, then 2) reinstalling the Catalyst, and then 3) reinstalling a game that is getting the error. Sometimes games auto-setup based on what they detect during installation.

If that doesn't do it, the forums specific to the games in question might yield some clues. [might also take a quick search over at ATi, they have a pretty good support site]

Hope the quick fix works
. . . Gary

[jh88fan]

The onboard video is still listed in Device Manager, but is disabled and shows in Properties as not using any resources. It is, however, the first device listed ("Radeon 7500" is listed below).

Just out of curiousity, does installing a game create a hidden "configuration" file somewhere based on the current graphics and sound cards, so that if the video is disabled later to install a new video card, the game fails to detect a rendering device? Reinstalling the games doesn't seem to make a difference.

One of the games I had trouble with, after getting the above error message, a window came up where you would normally select a rendering device and a sound device. But in my case, no options were listed at all, as if the game could not detect the onboard video because it was disabled.

I hope I'm not getting long-winded here, but I was curious.

[GaryRouth]

The older games used to store system info and settings in ".ini" files, often in their own folder. The newer games are quite a bit more sophisticated nowadays, but I'm guessing that they still store many settings (to help optimize the performance) - but these days it could likely be a Registry setting.

My suggestion came from a few posts on gaming forums, where many seem to prefer reinstalling their graphics driver after updating their Direct X. . . The rest is a guess on my part [. . . I've had some lucky guesses along the way . . . ]

. . . I did take a quick glance at similiar, but not exact match, errors on a few gaming sites a few minutes ago, and several gamers had luck with their access violations by rolling back their video card drivers to a previous version ( ---> and some, by upgrading to newer!) . . . the tangle seems to be in the interaction between the video driver, the version of Direct X ---and of course the coding in the game itself [many specify which version of Direct X they prefer in their installation notes].

I'm a fan of recent video drivers, so I think you might get lucky going to the 4.3 Catalysts & see what happens [uninstall your older drivers first - the full installation notes and downloads are at http://www.atitech.com/support/drive...=8&submit.y=11 ]

I'm guessing that a little experimentation with different versons of the Catalysts might do it. . . check for patches or other info a the game-specific forums, though, if it doesn't.

[Oh . . . and run the DX diagnostics just to see if anything comes up in there -- Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information . . . from the "Tools" menu, choose the Direct X diagnostics]

Sorry my first guess didn't work, hopefully my 2nd and 3rd tries will go for a better effect!
. . . Gary

[jh88fan]

Thanks for the help!

I downloaded the Catalyst 4.3 drivers but haven't installed them yet, also downloaded and installed DirectX9.0b. Everything looks OK in DXDIAG, ran all the tests with no problems.

I'll get the new Catalyst installed and post back on how it worked out.

[glc]

Proper order is install drivers, THEN reinstall DirectX.

[GaryRouth]

Thanks, glc, for the correction. I was scratching my head trying to remember that one. Maybe I should try hypnotizing myself before I reply to threads