Topic: Problem running SFC III. Cannot see DirectX 9b (Read 6874 times)

Javora · « **Reply #20 on:** September 30, 2003, 04:15:31 pm »

When I try to run SFC III I get an error stating that DirectX 9b is not installed then SFC III stops. DXdiag says that DirectX 9b is installed. Any ideas? Thanks.

Javora · « **Reply #21 on:** September 30, 2003, 04:55:10 pm »

This seems to be a problem with mainly Activision games. SFC III and Castle Wolfenstein are the only two games not running. The only other game I'm having problems with is Age of Empires II. This games runs but when I end the program the task bar turns black. Also when I right click on the open desktop the menu is black and unreadable. I'm starting to think that I'm looking at a reformat/reinstall. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Toasty0 · « **Reply #22 on:** September 30, 2003, 05:57:40 pm »

Ideas:

1.) Check to be sure you have the latest video drivers installed for your video card--updated for DX9b

2.) Make sure you have the latest patch for SFC3 as it addresses a dx9 compatability issue

3.) take 2 asprin and wait for my bill.

Javora · « **Reply #23 on:** September 30, 2003, 06:26:52 pm »

Thanks Toasty I'm downloading the latest ATI drivers now, although I am running the previous version now. I am starting to think this is bigger than just SFC III as the Castle Wolf (as well as AoE noted above) is having the same problems. Since I am running two hard drives. Is it possible to move everything to my second drive (OS and all) and start then reformat/reload the first drive to see if that solves my problem? Also is there any way I can uninstall these games and remove their entries from the registry? I think I want to try that before I start reformatting drives. Thanks again.

Dambreville · « **Reply #24 on:** September 30, 2003, 09:45:07 pm »

Hey, what ATI card are you running? What ATI drivers are you using?

I am using Radeon 7500 4xAGP 64MB with Catalyst 3.7 on Directx 9.0b. I am running a clean install of SFC 3 with the beta patch installed. No mods or the like. If I run SFC 3 clean, it crashes because of directx 9.

I can move around on the map but after pressing ready when I accept a mission (conquest) I get this error:

Unhandled Exception! in Version 1.01 Beta 2 Build 500
Sfc3.exe caused an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION in module d3d8.dll at 001B:02B38303

EAX=00000000 EBX=000003DE ECX=06FDB180 EDX=0149BFD0 ESI=00000400
EDI=01498240 EBP=000003FA ESP=0012FBE8 EIP=02B38303 FLG=00010206
CS=001B DS=0023 SS=0023 ES=0023 FS=003B GS=0000

001B:02B38303 (0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000) d3d8.dll

If I just install the directx 9 fix and not the beta patch, I get the same error (omit the version numbers).

I am running WinXP Pro fully updated as well as my sound drivers.

Does anyone know how to fix this other than reverting back to directx 8.1/9.0a??? Is anyone with an ATI card using 9.0b able to play the game?

Javora · « **Reply #25 on:** October 01, 2003, 08:19:35 am »

Hay Dambreville, I'm running the same Radeon card that you are with currently the latest drivers. When I try to run SFC 3, I get an error saying that SFC III cannot find DirectX 8.1. When I try to run Castle Wolf, I get an error saying that the game cannot write to a file. The Strangest thing so far is when I run AoE. I can play the game but once I exit out to the desktop the taskbar turns black along with any dialog boxes. Some setting got changed or some file get corrupted that I can't find and fix so I will be reformatting and reloading shortly.

Your case however sounds fixable Dambreville. First remove SFC III from your hard drive and then reinstall. After SFC III is back on your hard drive, load the beta patch but do not install the SFC III DirectX 9 patch. To my knowledge you no longer need the DirectX patch once you install DirectX 9.0b. After all of that is done try running the game. You may need to delete the folder that SFC III was in after you uninstall the game. As any saved games may not work. If this solution doesn't work then look in this forum for a thread that deals with getting SFC III to work on WinXP. That thread is here somewhere but I just don't have the time to look it up. Try my suggestion and see what you find, if it still does not work let us know and we will try to go from there (or at least I will after I get my system back up). Good luck, I hope this helps.

CmdrK · « **Reply #26 on:** October 01, 2003, 08:45:09 am »

I'm having the same problem with the exception in d3d8.dll. I can play the game, move in the map and such, but when I click 'Ready' to start an engagement. Poof! To desktop with the error dialog. I don't believe SFC3 works with DirectX 9b. It worked fine earlier on my system when it was DXa version 4.09. I now have DXb version 5.03. I tried a system restore in XP but it wasn't very clean. I ended up with other problems.
I managed to get the game to work one night, but on the reboot the problem was back. I had unregistered the newer version of the d3d8.dll and registered an older d3d8.dll. It had no effect until I reinstalled the game and patched it. Then it worked - for awhile. I think XP did me a favor and undid my d3d8.dll changes.
I'm still working on it.

P4 2.4ghz
XP home
128 nvidia fx5200
SB Audigy
512m ram
latest drivers

Dambreville · « **Reply #27 on:** October 01, 2003, 10:28:54 am »

Your error sounds very odd Javora. However, it does sound as if something is corrupted or drivers or something were not installed (or uninstalled) correctly... at least thats what it sounds like to me. If you are going to reformat, try SFC 3 beta patched first with all the default drivers and the directx that comes off the cd.

As for the suggestions, I have tried all of them in the past and none have worked. I am running a clean install of SFC 3 beta patched with NO directx fix currently and thats what crashes as well. When I uninstalled the game each time I made sure that the folder was deleted and that the registery was clean of SFC 3 regs.

As for WinXP Pro being the problem, that is not the case... I was just saying it to let you know I have the latest updates for it via Windows Update. SFC 3 used to run fine on my system before I installed Directx 9.0b.

There is a post in the Starfleet Command 3 BETA bug reports here, but it was receiving very little attention or feedback that helped so I decided to post in this forum as well

CmdrK, that does sound like something there. I look forward to if that is the case. I think Directx 9.0b did something to d3d8.dll that SFC 3 does not like...

As for other games on my computer, everything else runs great with my current computer configuration.

WinXP Pro fully updated
Directx 9.0b all tests passed in dxdiag
Radeon 7500 4xAGP 64mb using 3.7 Catalyst drivers
Realtek AC97 audio latest drivers
512mb DDR 266MHz RAM
P4 1.7GHz

I am just hoping now that I can get an official yes or no that SFC 3 has problems with directx 9.0b and that the official patch will fix this if it is. If there is a fix someone has found to work with the current patch, other than reverting, I am all ears

Toasty0 · « **Reply #28 on:** October 01, 2003, 04:03:35 pm »

Ok, guys, did you remember to uninstall the previous video card driver before installing the new ones?

Depending on the manafactuer you will either have a situation where the updated driver is not installed or you'll have a corrupted install.

Also, be sure you've installed the DX9 runtimes. A couple times on this board I've read a post where the poster has installed the DX SDK (software development kit) instead of the runtimes files. You can find the correct files for end-users at : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=141d5f9e-07c1-462a-baef-5eab5c851cf5&displaylang=en

HTH

Dambreville · « **Reply #29 on:** October 01, 2003, 06:56:20 pm »

Okay, so I am now convinced it is NOT Directx 9.0b...

I uninstalled Catalyst 3.7 and restarted. Upon restarting, WinXP installed some out of date ATI drivers automatically without me doing anything. I then restarted and tried SFC 3 beta patched with Directx 9.0b, and it worked!

My question now is how do I stop WinXP from automatically installing the out dated drivers? Every time I remove them and restart, windows reinstalls them.

I would like to just install Catalyst 3.7 drivers fresh and see what happens.

Thanks

Toasty0 · « **Reply #30 on:** October 01, 2003, 07:25:58 pm »

Quote:

Okay, so I am now convinced it is NOT Directx 9.0b...

I uninstalled Catalyst 3.7 and restarted. Upon restarting, WinXP installed some out of date ATI drivers automatically without me doing anything. I then restarted and tried SFC 3 beta patched with Directx 9.0b, and it worked!

My question now is how do I stop WinXP from automatically installing the out dated drivers? Every time I remove them and restart, windows reinstalls them. I would like to just install Catalyst 3.7 drivers fresh and see what happens.

Thanks

XP would only install them (the outdated driver(s)) for a detectd peice of harware that does not have a driver present/installed. BUT!!!! To do this the old driver MUST still be PRESENT on your ssystem...OR!!! you have the freaking ORIGINAL install disk in your CD drive.

Let me ask you this: How can XP install something that has been uninstalled?

Dambreville · « **Reply #31 on:** October 01, 2003, 11:00:18 pm »

Windows installs necessary VGA components first for the hardware, then all of a sudden, it starts telling me Radeon 7500 is being installed, then it says your hardware is installed and ready to use.

The actual driver version is not even the cd version... I am not exactly sure where it is getting the drivers from unless it saved them where it does not uninstall the files. The cd is sitting in its sleeve no where near the computer, and the computer does everything on its own. The only driver package I have is in executable format, and thats catalyst 3.7. The driver version that WinXP installs is not Catalyst 3.7 either.

Anyways, I am going to try Catalyst 3.6 now and hope it resolves this or then do 3.5 and then probably try some other things I have not done yet...

Short answer: windows chooses to save necessary files that do not become uninstalled because the program being monitored by the uninstall program does not write the files (much like creating a shortcut to a game by yourself that the uninstaller does not uninstall with the game except, in this case, the file itself is copied and moved). It then runs the program when windows recognizes the hardware. Kind of like Plug and Play, except, it did not have Radeon 7500 drivers on the default WinXP disc drivers set.

Javora · « **Reply #32 on:** October 02, 2003, 03:24:09 am »

Ok just completely reformatted and reloaded my hard drive and everything works now. The odd thing is I had to use the DirectX SFC III patch to get SFC III to work. I thought that DirectX 9.0b fixed that?

Dambreville there is a thread on getting SFC III to work on WinXP around here somewhere. I would search it out and take a look. Just to be on the safe side. Good luck.

Dambreville · « **Reply #33 on:** October 02, 2003, 10:14:21 am »

Resolved... at least for now

Windows was installing Catalyst 2.3 drivers which appears to work with directx 9.0b fine and none of the other games have big issues with it either so I am happy

Not EXACTLY sure how or why windows pulled those drivers for my hardware re-installation unless those were the first I downloaded a long time ago...

I tested Catalyst versions 3.7 3.6 3.5 and 3.4 and all had this issue...

Anyways, thanks to everyone for the help! I just hope these drivers can run upcoming games... at least until the official SFC 3 patch comes out

starwolf3500 · « **Reply #34 on:** October 02, 2003, 11:40:39 am »

Javora: Directx 9b doesn't fix anything in the game. It fixes and updates system files used by the game to create graphics and sounds ect. You have to either load the Directx 9 fix (for unpatched version) or go to a beta patched version (beta patch already contains the fix so do not install Directx 9 fix separately). Be careful that you don't have two versions of your video drivers running at the same time. Sometimes Windows will keep both versions active and the only way to eliminate the older version is in Safe Mode.

Both you guys should go to device manager and check which drivers are running for your video card. If you see more than one, reboot in safe mode (F8 key during startup I think for XP) and then go back to device manager and delete the old driver. This should help.

<S>

CmdrK · « **Reply #38 on:** October 09, 2003, 04:06:35 pm »

I found that using compatibility mode on the SFC.Exe corrected the problem for me.
Maybe everyone has found this out already since this thread has seemed to die.

I tried Win98 option first, didn't work.

The Win 2000 option with no Display Themes and no Advance text handling worked.
(I think that's it. You'll see what I mean I think.)

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