Direct3D functionality not available (again)

[PhilT]

I know this question has been posted a million times all over the web
but I still cant find an answer that actually works. DxDiag shows my
Direct3D functionality.

I have an ATI Radeon X1650 PRO 512M card and I have the latest drivers
- I have tried a few versions and cleaned the machine between each
test using DriverSweeper.

This card is a replacement for an nVidia GeForce4 MX4000 card which
also had no Direct3D functionality - again all the latest drivers.

I have a works PC with onboard graphics (Intel) with the same problem.
A collegue also has this problem on his home PC and he has found that
re-installing Windows will fix the problem ... for a while. In his
case looking at certain videos on uTube will kill his Direct3D.

I dont really want to re-install Windows on the offchance it will fix
it.
It seems that software component somewhere is the cause.

Does anyone really know the cause of the problem or any tools to
diagnose it further.

MB: AOpen AK77-600GN, 2GB RAM (1x3M,2x512M)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton 1.9GHz), MMX, 3DNow
DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Drivers: ati2dvag.dll (6.14.0010.6925 - 25/02/2009 22:41:10)

 

[PhilT]

typo ...
MB: AOpen AK77-600GN, 2GB RAM (1x1G, 2x512M)

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* PhilT:

I know this question has been posted a million times all over the web
but I still cant find an answer that actually works. DxDiag shows my
Direct3D functionality.

I have an ATI Radeon X1650 PRO 512M card and I have the latest drivers
- I have tried a few versions and cleaned the machine between each
test using DriverSweeper.

This card is a replacement for an nVidia GeForce4 MX4000 card which
also had no Direct3D functionality - again all the latest drivers.

I have a works PC with onboard graphics (Intel) with the same problem.
A collegue also has this problem on his home PC and he has found that
re-installing Windows will fix the problem ... for a while. In his
case looking at certain videos on uTube will kill his Direct3D.

It's a bit hard to understand what your problem is, but I suppose that
you just loose D3D support.

Have you checked that hardware acceleration is enabled (in the display
properties -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot -> Hardware Acceleration slider,
should be fully right)? Also, you can disable and enable Direct3D
acceleration in DxDiag (in the Display tab).

Also, do you have the AGP drivers for your mainboard installed? They
usually should be installed *before* any gfx drivers are put on.

Benjamin

 

[PhilT]

Have you checked that hardware acceleration is enabled (in the display
properties -> Advanced -> Troubleshoot -> Hardware Acceleration slider,
should be fully right)? Also, you can disable and enable Direct3D
acceleration in DxDiag (in the Display tab).

Yes, Hardware Acceleration is fully to the right. I have tried it in
each position with no change.
I cant disable/enable Direct3D in DxDiag because it is not available -
the enable/disable buttons are greyed out.

Also, do you have the AGP drivers for your mainboard installed? They
usually should be installed *before* any gfx drivers are put on.

Yes I have the latest AGP drivers - at least I cant find anything
newer.

 

[PhilT]

I forgot to mention, that DxDiag also shows that none of the DirectX
features are available ...

DrectDraw Acceleration: Not Available [Disable button greyed]
Direct3D Acceleration: Not Available [Disable button greyed]
AGP Texture Acceleration: Not Available [Disable button greyed]

The button to 'Test DirectDraw is available and it does run some
tests.
The button for 'Test Direct3D' is greyed out.

 

[DRS]

I forgot to mention, that DxDiag also shows that none of the DirectX
features are available ...

DrectDraw Acceleration: Not Available [Disable button greyed]
Direct3D Acceleration: Not Available [Disable button greyed]
AGP Texture Acceleration: Not Available [Disable button greyed]

The button to 'Test DirectDraw is available and it does run some
tests.
The button for 'Test Direct3D' is greyed out.

When was the last time you updated your DirectX? The latest release is
March, 2009.

 

[PhilT]

When was the last time you updated your DirectX?  The latest release is
March, 2009.

It was 9.0c (Sept08), It is now 9.0c (Mar09) .... why dont they change
the version number?

anyway, it hasn't made any difference.

 

[Augustus]

I know this question has been posted a million times all over the web
but I still cant find an answer that actually works. DxDiag shows my
Direct3D functionality.

I have an ATI Radeon X1650 PRO 512M card and I have the latest drivers
- I have tried a few versions and cleaned the machine between each
test using DriverSweeper.

This card is a replacement for an nVidia GeForce4 MX4000 card which
also had no Direct3D functionality - again all the latest drivers.

I have a works PC with onboard graphics (Intel) with the same problem.
A collegue also has this problem on his home PC and he has found that
re-installing Windows will fix the problem ... for a while. In his
case looking at certain videos on uTube will kill his Direct3D.

I dont really want to re-install Windows on the offchance it will fix
it.
It seems that software component somewhere is the cause.

Does anyone really know the cause of the problem or any tools to
diagnose it further.

MB: AOpen AK77-600GN, 2GB RAM (1x3M,2x512M)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton 1.9GHz), MMX, 3DNow
DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Drivers: ati2dvag.dll (6.14.0010.6925 - 25/02/2009 22:41:10)

I wound up selling my X1650 Pro AGP card well over a year back (was on son's
system) simply because I could not get it to function with any drivers past
the 7.5's. Every subsequent version and hotfix resulted in the "Zero Display
Service Error". It would work fine with the 7.5's but unfortunately many of
his games needed newer drivers. Upgraded the m/b to a budget Asus one an got
a 9600GT PCIe card.

 

[PhilT]

*Try* this driver. It was developed to fix a similar issue for HD2000 and
HD3000 series AGP cards.http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/CatalystAGPHotfix.aspx

I might give this a try in the next couple of days when I have a bit
more time.

You have the latest VIA Hyperion (formerly 4-in-1) AGP drivers installed,
right?http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VIA_HyperionPro_V523A.zip

Yes, thanks. I already got hold of those and they're installed.

Make sure AGP is enabled in BIOS, and AGP aperture size is 64 MB or larger
(if option is available).

AGP is turned on but I had to disable AGP Fast Writes as this cause
video corruption.

I've checked around the office and 4 PC's have the same fault. Only
one person has no fault on their home PC. This must be more than just
a driver update to get it fixed.

I have an OpenGL extensions viewer (http://www.realtech-vr.com/
glview/) and that shows 'N/A' for the DirectX version info.
3dMark06 crashes on startup with the message
"IDirect3D9::GetDeviceCaps failed: Not available
(D3ERR_NOTAVAILABLE)" ... this makes me think it's DirectX more than
the AGP drivers.
Since DirectX is integral to XP and cannot be uninstalled and re-
installed I cant see a way forward.
Maybe if I put on a really old version of DirectX it might just work !

 

[DRS]

[...]

Over the years I've had zero compatibility issues with old hardware
and old games in conjunction the latest DirectX.

+1 on that.

I have never had a problem with the DirectX upgrade on any hardware platform
or with any game or application.

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* DRS:

+1 on that.

I have never had a problem with the DirectX upgrade on any hardware platform
or with any game or application.

Dito.

Benjamin

 

[PhilT]

Well, I've searched and searched and the common answer is drivers - I
have the latest VIA Hyperson drivers, the latest ATI drivers etc etc
and guess what ... it still doesn't work. I have wiped all drivers and
started from scratch but still no luck. Having seen many posts where
driver updates DO NOT resolve the problems, I suspect there is still
something else wrong for me and many others.

My last option is to re-install Windows XP (yes it is a genuine copy)
and try again. In an earlier post, I mentioned that a colleague has to
do this regularly to resolve the same problem on his PC - despite
having all the latest drivers installed.
I suspect something in the original install gets screwed up by an
update somewhere and nobody has managed to post a solution anywhere.

 

[PhilT]

Haven't dealt with AGP in a long time... Try capping the AGP speed to 4x in
BIOS. My VIA K8T800 board from back in the day never worked correctly at 8x,
despite having the latest GART drivers.

Thanks. I just tried that but it hasn't worked.


I have just checked the DirectX settings using PCWizard
(www.cpuid.org).
The hardware settings don't look too healthy ...

Driver Information :
Model : Radeon X1650 Series
Driver : ati2dvag.dll
WHQL Level : Yes
Version : 6.14.10.6925
Revision : 158
Vertex Shader Version : 3.0
Pixel Shader Version : 3.0

Interface :
Refresh : 75 Hz

Memory Information :
Video Memory : 5 MB free on 1 MB
Local Video Memory : 5 MB free on 1 MB
AGP Video Memory : 5 MB free on 1 MB
Texture Memory : 5 MB free on 1 MB

Hardware Information :
Z-Buffer : 0-bit
Hardware Level : Yes
3D : No
GDI : No
BANKSWITCHED : No
NOHARDWARE : Yes
PALETTE : Yes
PALETTEVSYNC : No
READSCANLINE : No
VBI : No
AUTOFLIPOVERLAY : No
CANBOBINTERLEAVED : No
CANBOBNONINTERLEAVED : No

Overlay Information :
ALIGNBOUNDARYDEST : No
ALIGNBOUNDARYSRC : No
ALIGNSIZEDEST : No
ALIGNSIZESRC : No
ALIGNSTRIDE : No
OVERLAY : No
OVERLAYCANTCLIP : No
OVERLAYFOURCC : No
OVERLAYSTRETCH : No
ZOVERLAYS : No

Palette Information :
ALPHA : No

StereoVision Information :
STEREOVIEW : No

BLT Information :
BLT : No
BLTCOLORFILL : No
BLTDEPTHFILL : No
BLTFOURCC : No
BLTQUEUE : No
BLTSTRETCH : No
DMA : No
CANCLIP : No
CANCLIPSTRETCHED : No
COLORKEY : No
COLORKEYHWASSIST : No
ZBLTS : No
CANBOBHARDWARE : No

Video Modes :
DirectDraw Mode 109 : 320x200 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 110 : 320x200 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 111 : 320x200 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 112 : 320x240 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 113 : 320x240 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 114 : 320x240 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 115 : 400x300 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 116 : 400x300 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 117 : 400x300 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 118 : 512x384 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 119 : 512x384 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 120 : 512x384 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 121 : 640x400 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 122 : 640x400 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 123 : 640x400 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 124 : 640x480 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 125 : 640x480 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 126 : 640x480 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 127 : 720x480 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 128 : 720x480 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 129 : 720x480 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 130 : 720x576 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 131 : 720x576 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 132 : 720x576 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 133 : 800x480 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 134 : 800x480 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 135 : 800x480 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 136 : 800x600 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 137 : 800x600 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 138 : 800x600 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 139 : 848x480 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 140 : 848x480 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 141 : 848x480 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 142 : 1024x768 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 143 : 1024x768 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 144 : 1024x768 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 145 : 1152x864 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 146 : 1152x864 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 147 : 1152x864 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 148 : 1280x720 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 149 : 1280x720 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 150 : 1280x720 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 151 : 1280x768 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 152 : 1280x768 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 153 : 1280x768 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 154 : 1280x800 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 155 : 1280x800 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 156 : 1280x800 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 157 : 1280x960 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 158 : 1280x960 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 159 : 1280x960 (32-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 160 : 1280x1024 (8-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 161 : 1280x1024 (16-bit)
DirectDraw Mode 162 : 1280x1024 (32-bit)

Advices :
The symbol indicate : Approximate Information
The symbol indicate : Information may be inaccurate

 

[PhilT]

The low video memory readout seems to indicate that AGP is not functioning
correctly. Maybe the GART driver isn't kicking in... VIA offers a set of
"retro" chipset drivers for older KT266 boards like yours:http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VIA_4in1_443v.zip

You are installing everything in administrator mode, right?

Yes, I am an administrator.

Thanks for the link. My board actually has the KT600 chipset which is
not specifically listed against the 4.43 drivers. However, the AOpen
site (http://global.aopen.com/products_detail.aspx?auno=413) does have
version 4.48 (slightly newer) available for my MB.

When I built the PC many years ago, I remember bugs in the 4in1
drivers. AMD blamed VIA, VIA blamed AMD and there were weekly updates
at one point. I probably kept updating them on the PC and it could
have got into a mess.
With the video driver, many file and registry entries can be left over
after an uninstall. The advice for the VIA 4in1 drivers is to
completely remove the old ones. Any tips on how to ensure they are
completely wiped out before I re-install ?

I will try both of these versions old versions and the latest version
when I can be sure I have wiped out the current set.

 

[PhilT]

Well, my plan was to install XP onto a spare HD and have a dual boot.
Then I came across some notes about NetSupport screwing up
DirectX .... guess what, all the PC's I have seen with the problem
have NetSupport installed.

I have tried this on two works PC's and it works - DxDiag now shows
the enable/disable options for DirectDraw and Direct3D (both with
onboard intel graphics).

I had to change a timeout value from 0 to 7 in the registry and then
reboot.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779884.aspx

I will try my home PC when I get home tonight. I was unable to try
today as I have remote registry changes disabled

I'm hoping this works - if so, this might be an extra solution to add
to the 'update the drivers' recomendation.

 

[PhilT]

Well, my plan was to install XP onto a spare HD and have a dual boot.
Then I came across some notes about NetSupport screwing upDirectX.... guess what, all the PC's I have seen with the problem
have NetSupport installed.

I have tried this on two works PC's and it works - DxDiag now shows
the enable/disable options for DirectDraw and Direct3D (both with
onboard intel graphics).

I had to change a timeout value from 0 to 7 in the registry and then
reboot.http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc779884.aspx

I will try my home PC when I get home tonight. I was unable to try
today as I have remote registry changes disabled  

I'm hoping this works - if so, this might be an extra solution to add
to the 'update the drivers' recomendation.

WOW, it worked on my home PC too. All sorted ... now lets see how
slow it is

 

[PhilT]

Congrats! I'm not familiar with this NetSupport software and I'm very

surprised that it brokeDirectX. Glad you you were able to find the root
problem and fix it without a Windows reinstall.

I've been using NetSupport for over 10 years now (in a number of
jobs). It has always been a tough choice between NetSupport and VNC.
The only reason to pick NetSupport in the begining was support for
Alpha & Intel processors - something we needed at the time.

I beleive the Direct3D problem can occur with a number of remote
desktop packages. In order to view the desktop over the internet, they
disable all acceleration.

I have just recommected to my office PC and DxDiag is showing that
Direct3D is disabled again. Checking the registry (running regedit on
the office PC) shows the value set back to zero. However, running a
remote registry editor I see it is still set to 7. I'll find out on
Monday if the office PC is still ok.
I suspect that NetSupport will disable Direct3D for the duration of
the connection and then set it back to it's previous state. The
original installation of NetSupport must set the registry to zero.

 

[PhilT]

Hi there

I have the same problem with the Direct3D functionality not available.
I only know the basics when it comes to computers so I was wondering if
you could let me know how to change the timeout value?

Thanks for your help

NJW

NJW,

If you're not familiar with editing the registry I would advise
against trying to do it yourself as you could cause more damage.
However, that's Microsofts advice - if you are really careful you
should be able to do it

Click Start->Run and then type regedit and press OK
You should now see a window that looks like explorer - a tree of items
in the left portion and other data in the right part.
Depending on whether this has been run before, the tree in the left
may be partly expanded. Start by collapsing all of the open nodes
(click on the [+] symbols)

If, at any point, you cant findthe data or are not happy, then simply
close regedit without making any changes.

ok, now to find the key to be edited - we eventually want to get to
'HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\DCI'

expand the branch called 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'
now expand the branch called 'SYSTEM' (can you see where this is
going?)
Then expand 'CurrentControlSet' (not any other that might look
similar!!!)
nowexpand 'Control' then 'GraphicsDrivers' and finally 'DCI'

So far we have not made any changes but this is the final stage.

Hopefully on the right you will see a data item called Timeout.
If it is not there then it will have a default value which should be 7
- DirectX should work.
If it is there (and it isn't set to 7), double click on the word
timeout and you should be able to edit the value.
Make sure the 'decimal' option is checked and then type a value of 7
and click OK - (actually hex or decimal wouldn't matter but I just
want to make sure you dont have any more questions)

That's it all done. Now close regedit and reboot - you may be able to
change graphics mode and see the fix but a reboot should do it.

Finally run DxDiag and see if the options are there.

 

[PhilT]

Hi there

Thanks for the instructions. I found the data item called Timeout but I
wasn't sure if anything needed to be corrected/changed this is how it
read:

Name                Type                        Data
(Default)           REG_SZ              (value not set)
Timeout            REG_DWORD        0x00000007 (7)

Thanks again for your help

NJW

That figure of 7 is fine - DirectX should work - as long as the
hardware and drivers are all ok.

I'm guessing that you have something else wrong - possibly a driver
install problem.

Sorry this didn't help.