Direct3d has quit and I'm stumped

[zinotrope]

I've nearly given up hope here. My PC has suddenly decided that it can try to run Direct3D, but all I get is either a blank screen or just some strange artifacting, such as a couple random greenish triangles. Everything else works fine. Dxdiag shows no errors, and it will run the Direct3D tests just fine, but as I said, I see nothing until it returns to ask me if I saw what it thought I saw. DirectDraw still works just fine. Here are my basic specs:

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
MSI K7T Turbo2 (MS-6330)
Windows ME
512MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
SB Live Platinum
DirectX 9.0c

Not the most exciting thing, I know, but it's been working great until this.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling my drivers a time or two (completely uninstalling both times), updated my directx, updated my chipset drivers, tried a system restore (it tells me it can't restore to a previous point after going through all the motions and restarting), and absolutely no change. If I try to start a game or something else that calls on Direct3D, the sound plays, but nobody's home. I've tried ATI, and so far all I've got is a link to a generic "tech support" page that told me to make sure my video card was getting power, if I was having problems using a DVI (I'm using a good old fashioned monitor), and telling me to reinstall my drivers (which I had already told them I had). I'm about at the end of my rope after many hours of trying to figure this out. Any help or suggestions?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

What psu do you have?

It could also be that your videocard is going/gone bad.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[zinotrope]

Psu

It's an Antec PP-303X 300 Watt. I've only had the card for maybe a year and a half now, so I really hope it's not already going bad.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Go HERE and take a look at this handy psu power calculator.
Then post back with the results.

Regards Howard :grinthumb

 

[zinotrope]

Power results

Thanks, Howard

According to my/its calculations, it says I'm drawing 277 watts. The only hardware I've added recently was a stick of memory, but it's ran fine since then.

 

[zinotrope]

Follow-up

I tried stripping down my machine in terms of voltage just to check. I pulled out my old modem card I only kept in there "just in case", unhooked a couple extra USB slots that were attached to my motherboard (took up a slot but didn't plug into a PCI bus), and even tried pulling out one of the sticks of memory I had, dropping it to 384MB. Once I pulled out the memory stick, running the DirectX diagnostic with Direct3D caused the test to lock up, so no help there. Is it possible that my DirectX/Direct3D is corrupted (even though it tries to run just fine) even though I've ran the new installation from the Microsoft site? Any other ideas?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

I`m sorry, but I still think it could be your videocard. Can you either try it another system, or try another card in yours?

Regards Howard

 

[zinotrope]

Update

Well, I sent my card back to ATI via an RMA (thankfully it was still under warranty), and put in an old 32MB nVidia card I had (the original card in this machine). Well, the Direct3D worked in that (although that card never played nice with my sound card, slowed my general boot up time and caused other weird graphic anomalies), and I got a "new"/refurb card back from ATI a couple weeks later. Well, nothing changed. I still just get a black screen with any 3D apps or running the Direct3D tests through DirectX diagnostics. I tried running it through my TV to see if somehow there was a montior problem (even though the old card worked just fine) and no dice. There's no problems seen by DirectX, the drivers seem to be installed fine, and I have a problem believing I'm unlucky enough to get 2 bad cards from ATI at this point. Yes, my drivers are up to date, and yes I did a full uninstall of my old nVidia drivers before trying the "new" card. This is getting old, and I really don't have the $$ at this point to be dropping even a cheap new card in my system. Any other ideas? Anyone?