Weird Error message trying to run a program

[Nestersan]

Situation:

A customer calls you;

" I have a game called Sims 2 that is not working. The game was working before, but my PC was giving trouble running this other program and I adjusted the hardware acceleration down a notch till it started to work. I now want to play the game again, but it is not starting. I set the hardware acceleration back to the highest setting, but all I get is an error message

'Failed to find any DirectX 9.0c graphic adapters in this system! Please make sure you have DirectX 9.0c compatible graphic adapter'

then the game quits back to the desktop.

The system is a PC with a Pentium 4 CPu at 2.5 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, DVD-R, Intel Integrated Video Accelerator.


ps. This is PURELY a software problem...

Solve:

[tommytrouble]

i would say install directx9 c and run back the game..or run the direct x9 diagnostic tool from windows to see the status of the directx 9 software ifi am right pm i hradly check back on these things

but if that fails i get a 9x9 vid card but then its software related anyway

[Gnostic]

I agree with Mr.Trouble. Try doing a repair/reinstallation/upgrade of the graphics card/driver.

[Nestersan]

All software and Video drivers are current. Dxdiag works fine...tee hee hee, this one was a puzzler, but weirdly enough,the answer is in the error message.

Please note, I said it is PURELY software, and it is a Windows setting that is solvable in five clicks.

Think about what about what DirectX 9 needs to run, and think about what could make the system think that it does not have those requirments!!

Ps. BLAME M$ for the screwup!!

[Skele Drew]

This is real puzzling. And I'm a software guy. What's the version OS? XP? How did the user go about changing the settings - regedit/cpl/other? Could it be a compatibility setting that got switched down, but not up again? Hmm...

[Nestersan]

XP Professional. But you actually got the answer right, just never pin-pointed which it was.

[Skele Drew]

XP Professional. But you actually got the answer right, just never pin-pointed which it was.

Well you did say M$ screwed up, so I'm putting my money on the cpl applet. They sometimes have some pretty weird quirks. Right now, my display cpl is malfunctioning, can't change my res, etc. and can't bother digging up the registry any more...

[Nestersan]

It is actually compatibility mode, it was dropped down to 640 colours. Dx9c see that and run screaming the other way.

[BlaqMale]

never saw this thread but nice one

1. Click Start
2. Click Run - type dxdiag
3. Click yes about digital signing
4. Click Display 1 (you might have more than 1 like me)
5. Click Enable for either
   
   • DirectDraw Acceleration
   • Direct3D Acceleration
   • AGP Texture Acceleration

5 clicks is throwing me off

1. Click Start -> Click Control Panel -> Click Display Right-Click Desktop
2. Click Properties
3. Click Settings
4. Click Advanced
5. Click Troubleshoot
6. Click either
   
   • the slider to full hardware Acceleration
   • enable Write Combining?

EDIT: FAIL - i took too long to type my reply
i was wrong anyway DUAL FAIL

[Skele Drew]

Can't really check this out the usual way since my system doesn't really operate like the usual anymore. And I've never had that problem. But still, this is crazy. M$ has some lazy people that just have DX check the current colour config instead of the h/w itself too .