D3D "broken"...

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UnregedAsOfYet

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Note: I'm the user who recently asked for help about formating hard drive partitions (and something else, sorry I forget). Yes, I should register, and I will).


I've heard - and suffered - of many graphical bugs with PCs, but this one takes the cake, I think.

Any game using D3D will show a black screen. Age of Mythology, UT2003's D3D mode, parts of Morrowind. The computer doesnt hang, everything works fine - except that there is no display.

About the "parts of Morrowind": no videos, water is screwed up. Pixel shading not working, though it did before. And there are..words..on the water. Literally, there are words drifting on the water. And words or no words, the water is definitely not what it should be with pixel shading OFF.


I used the same drivers for well over a year (30.82), didnt change any setting. I use/d Rivatuner (to force AGP 4x, not much else), but again, didnt change any setting lately. Its uninstalled right now, anyway.

The only things that have changed on my comp in the past weeks/month: installed Stronghold, made ISOs of Final Fantasy 7, installed a satellite card config program (for TV channels I mean), overclocked my CPU, exchange a bar of RAM for a bigger one, used my monitor on my brother's computer. Absolutely nothing else (I suppose I might still have forgotten something though).

I think we'll agree that none of this could have any relation to the problem. The only things that sound suspicious (to any computer) are the CPU overclocking (600 to 733) and RAM exchange. However, everything works flawlessly in OpenGL, it only bugs in D3D. Thus there is no relation. Also, I reinstalled my video drivers, in case a D3D library was "stolen", replaced, or something.

---------------
My comp specs:

P3-600, overclocked to 733 (see note below)
Asus P3V4X (VIA Apollo Pro133A)
512mb of (unregistered) SDRAM
Geforce 3 - 30.82 drivers
DirectX 8.1
Win98SE

Note on the overclocking: I followed the instructions from the motherboard's manual. Switch from JumperFree mode to "manual" mode. Put some switches ON for 733mhz (133*5.5). Double check. And that' it, right? The thing is, my computer shows as though the CPU is still running at 600mhz, both during bootup and in window's general system properties. I have noticed a performance increase, but you know how easily the mind is tricked. So I'm not certain my CPU is overclocked, in fact.

I'm long due for a format, but...well, I hate this. It takes ages, need to make backups (I always forget something), and I always seem to encounter new bugs. Like when it says Himem.sys is corrupted (or the like), and the comp wont boot until I put a new one (now where was that disc? *cries*). Anyway, formating is a lot of trouble.

Do you computer gurus have an idea what the solution could be? Oh, by the way, DXDiag finds no problem at all, the D3D test is succesfull.

Fortunately, the game I always play supports OpenGL. What is it with developpers not supporting OpenGL (as in, it cant be used at all)? Isnt it superior to D3D? Plus, all nvidia graphic cards, as far as I know, perform better in OGL.

*Hugs his Amiga* Amazing how people will go for what's popular rather than for what has more potential. Althought I may be wrong on OpenGL > D3D thing (but I honestly doubt it).


Ahem. I should be sleeping by now, so I'll just stop here. Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any suggestion/advice, solution/...
 
Here's something off the top of my head, and anyone else is welcome to throw in their .02 worth.

The monitor going black, to me, seems like your monitor and/or the game might be switching to a refresh rate that the monitor can't handle; therefore, the monitor goes black.

Have D3D games worked in the past? Also, you could always try the newest nVidia drivers, just to see if it helps any.
 
D3D games always worked well before this, yes. Same drivers, same driver/game configs, same monitor.

As for new drivers, honestly, I dont want to. Even at guru3d, where everyone jumps at new drivers (what an understatement), the general consensus is that the 30.82 drivers are still the very best available. Best image quality for both 2d and 3d, works for nearly everyone, no graphical bugs, etc.

Refresh rate, uh? That might be it...
I booted some D3D games and checked (always in 1024x768), but the monitor says the refresh rate is 85hz (same as anything else for that resolution). However, that may be because I get no display, so the monitor assumes it doesnt change. Probably.
Its set to "optimal" in windows, by the way (and has always been). Maybe Rivatuner somehow changed it in D3D.

Unfortunately, Morrowind was the only D3D game I have that would show something (so that I could check the refresh rate) - but I gave back the CD to my brother and uninstalled the game. Mistake :(.

Thanks for the suggestion, I have a feeling you found the cause. I'll try some things.
 
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