I got everything fixed up. My video card is working ok now and the Alice
game is able to run again OK. If you see the message I just wrote to JLC, I
explain it there.
Yes, the Catalyst 4.2 drivers do have DirectX 9.0a because thats what I
installed, along with the drivers. Before that, I had 8.0a. I know I didn't
have DX 9.0. and DX 9.0 was among the Catalyst 4.2 drivers. I think DX 9.0a
caused problems on my computer because I then downloaded DX 9.0b and its ok
now. I did reinstall Catalyst drivers, but the second time I installed them,
I didn't install DirectX 9.0a file which was included with the drivers,
because by that time I had installed DX 9b.
No, none of the Catalyst drivers on the ATI site include DX 9, Mary. When
you do a web install for DX 9.0b from M$' site, the installer checks your
configuration and just downloads what you need - this keeps the download to
not much more than 10MB, usually. But for DX 9.0b to be included in another
install, it would have to be the complete redistributable, because the
installer doesn't know in advance what files you're going to need. And
that's a 36MB file. The complete Catalyst suite isn't that big: a Catalyst
driver file set which included DX 9.0b would have to be over 60MB. It's
possible someone's offering a zipped version somewhere else (would still be
at least 50MB, I would think), but not on the ATI site. They sometimes have
a link to the M$ DX site for it, but even that doesn't seem to be there on
the current Cat 4.2 ME/W98 page.
I've been downloading so many different things, I forget if I downloaded
that or not. I can't remember if I found the free version. I found one
called Reg supreme. Is that it? Its the one you have to check off if you
want certain things deleted from the registry.
All the copies of jv16 v1.2 seem to have been replaced by v1.4 now, which is
shareware. Pity! If you really want a copy, reply to my address above
(unmunge it first) and I'll send you one.
I would say ATI and possibly other video manufacturers don't explain things
for uninstalling as well as they could - at least thats my view.
No, they don't. People have raised various suppositions about this; a lot
of people seem to think that, since successive upgrades seem generally to
work without problems, ATI just let it go, and possibly reap an additional
bonus that if someone takes their ATI card out and tries to replace it with
another make, they're going to run into problems. However, that seems a
somewhat bloody-minded and ultimately self-defeating way to ensure customer
loyalty, and I don't really think it's that likely. More likely is the fact
that, due to the complexity of their software installs, it's not easy to
produce a really effective uninstall routine, especially at the rate they
are forced to produce driver updates. And it's probably true that
explaining the problems with installs/uninstalls would cost them more
customers, since too many of them would just think it too much to cope with.
But they do explain clearly for those who bother to read the driver notes
how to uninstall and install new drivers - the real problem comes with those
who don't bother to read the installation notes - and haven't read the notes
on anything else on their systems, either. And the fact that they don't
just demonstrates how unproductive trying to explain it all would be for a
commercial company. RTFM! And, at base, of course, we're dealing with
Billy Goats' massively unsatisfactory OSs...
I didn't use the install CD. I used ATI's most recent Catalyst drivers from
ATI site.
Best thing to do
I think the error messsage was referring to 3dfx cards having a problem with
the game, but it was not referring to my problem. My problem was probably
caused by DX 9.0a.
Probably so.
Do you mean am I still using my Windows when I got the motherboard/CPU and
video card?
That doesn't necessarily cause a problem, though it can. sometimes you might
need to reinstall windows, but I wouldn't do that unless I have to, because
reinstalling over the old Windows doesn't always solve your problems, and if
I had to uninstall and reinstall, I would lose all my Windows programs and I
have a lot of utilities. would take me hours.
At any rate, even with the old Windows, my problems didn't have to do with
that. It had to do with old video card inf files, then problems with DX
9.0a. Now after installing DX 9.0b and reinstalling the Catalyst drivers
again, everything is ok and Open GL is ok too, so I can run my game again
with no errors.
I know. That's why, as I said, I put everything I want to keep on another
drive. That means I can fill it up as much as I want, and since I'm not
running anything from it, I don't have to worry too much about defragging it
or just how full it gets. And I still have everything I downloaded (and
loads more - packrat's dream...) to reinstall if I need to format c: All I
have to do is remember my tweaks and what I had installed, and put it back
again.
That is such a pain though. My last resort. I don't do it unless I
absolutely have to, though I think you should do it every once in a while to
clear out junk. But It looks like I won't have to.
I need to back up all my drivers and important stuff onto a CDR. I did that
already, but collected more stuff since then.
As I said, another drive is the best solution. They're getting cheap now, as
well. All you need is a spare IDE number and a slot to put it in. You can
then transplant everything you want to keep to it, and also configure your
My Documents folder to be on that drive. I also build up a text file of
everything I do to install Windows again; that way, I've just got to follow
it through. The other thing I do before a clean install is copy over my
email messages, accounts, address book and favorites list. Particularly if
you take the time to think about it first, and make a complete list of what
you need to do, it's not that hard. And you'll be surprised at how much
better your system will run.
But, I'm afraid that if you're trying to transplant your previous Windows
installation to your new mobo/CPU/videocard, you're always going to have
problems. You'll have installed chipset drivers for your previous mobo, all
your previous installations will have optimised themselves for it, and
there'll be a lot of stuff on your system which shouldn't be there. If you
upgrade your system to the extent that you have, the only way to ensure it's
going to run properly is a complete new install - not even a re-install.
It's up to you, but I'd say that, even if your system runs, there's no way
it's going to run anything like as well as it can/should until you format c:
After all, you now have a better mobo, a faster CPU and a better videocard
now - shouldn't it all be running slick-as-you-know-what rather than
crashing out on you and giving you grief?
Some of the people here actually format and install their systems anew every
six months or so, just to give them the edge a new system has. You can get
by fine with occasional reinstalls and good maintenance and have your system
running excellently, but after the changes you've made to your system, I'd
say it's never going to run at even a reasonable level until you bite your
hard drive and do a new install.
Thanks for your help.
Mary
Sorry about the bad news. But I learnt the hard way...
patrickp
However, if you have an ATI