Starcraft and Diablo 2 won't run Full Screen on Windows XP

[Unregistered]

I just upgraded my computer with a new motherboard, processor and ram. Installed Windows XP Pro and now I cannot play Starcraft or Diablo 2 in full screen mode. When I do, it minimizes to the taskbar and when I restore it, it minimizes it again. I have DirectX 9.0b and the latest ATI drivers. Here are my comp specs.

Gigabyte 8IPE1000 Pro motherboard (NEW)
Pentium 4 2.4ghz 800fsb processor (NEW)
2x 256mb OCZ PC3200 Dual Channel ram (NEW)
ATI 9200 128mb Video card
Integrated 6.1 Digital Audio
Western Digital 36gb Raptor Serial HD

Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated. Also I have upgraded my bios to the latest version, defragged my hard drive and even tried running the apps in compatability mode. I think it may be a DirectX issue. I can run Quake 3 full screen with no problems. I tried dxdiag and had a problem testing Direct3D mode. Everytime it started to test it said I cancelled the test by prossing a button, but I didn't press any buttons.

 

[Dtere]

Try reinstalling? Try exiting out of some of your programs that might be causing it to minimize.

 

[Unregistered]

I have also tried the following with no avail:


-Running latest AGP drivers
-Have latest Bios installed
-Running DirectX 9.0b
-Running Latest Realtek AC97 Sound drivers
-Running latest Catalyst Drivers 3.8
-Running latest Logitech Mousewae drivers
-Norton System Security reports no installed adware or spyware
-Tried disabling Norton System Security
-Tried disabling Norton Anti-Virus
-Tried every combonation of compatability settings
-Tried disabling HyperThreading
-Tried running a lower FSB with East Tune 4
-Used SANDRA to look for memory faults (did not find any)
-Tried throttling down DirectX Sound/Video
-Installed Warcraft 2 and it does the same thing
-Unistalled and Reinstalled Video/Audio drivers

Before I upgraded my machine I was running everything fine under Windows 98 SE. Still have'nt tried any other DirectX apps that are not from Blizzard. So far my conclusion is that everything runs fine except Blizzard games using DirectX. Wish I had Warcraft 3 to test my theory. I'm about to give up

Someone please help me!

 

[Unregistered]

It's official. This is only happening with Blizzard games. I have installed Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 and 2, Monopoly Tycoon, The Sims (all expansion packs) and Pool of Radiance. They all run fine.

I even tried re-installing all my Blizzard games and applying the patches manually. They run fine in windowed mode, but keep minimizing in full screen mode. Kinda makes me think they used the same DirectX base code for all their games.

Maybe it's time to give up on Blizzard games. I am not even gonna try playing Starcraft at 640x480 resolution or Diablo 2 at 800x600 resolution with my desktop set at 1280x1024. I can't see crapola in the game, everything is so small. I'm also not going to lower my desktop resolution everytime I wanna play a Blizzard game.

Please help, I don't want to stop playing Starcraft and Diablo 2 LOD.

 

[Unregistered]

FINALLY A SOLUTION!

I downloaded and ran Refresh Force once and now I'm fine.

http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/

Problem is Windows XP trying to force every DirectX game to run at 60hz. So I used Refresh Force to eliminate all modes except the ones I wanted and whalla. Now they run fine. Not exactly sure why, but I am supposing Blizzard didn't "hard code" a default refresh rate into their games and Windows XP doesn't tell DirectX what rate to run at and that causes compatability problems when running full screen. Just another example of sloppy Blizzard game code. But I love them anyways 8)

 

[Rapmaster]

Sorry you didn't get too many replies but I'm glad you figured it out, and glad that you shared the solution...

I've seen that refresh rate problem before, usually with nvidia cards though. I wouldn't blame only Blizzard.

Developers, Microsoft and video card manufacturers all seem to think that its someone else's job to specify the refresh rate.. Personally I think this should be specified by Windows/DirectX but I'm not sure what the standard calls for.

It may have something to do with Windows XP drivers recognizing 800x600 as the lowest available resolution, instead of 640x480 like it used to be.

The DirectX tools do provide a method to override it (dxdiag.exe), as do 3rd party tools (like the one you used) as well as some utilties that sometimes get packaged with video drivers.