Massive direct3d problem, please help!!!

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falcon_eddie

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my eternal respect to the genius that busts this one open.
I have a Dell inspiron 1150 running Windows XP Home.
I've had problems running direct3d. Yeah, I know, something original.
the problem began with my screensaver pretty abruptly. I'd had some issues with my LCD which I mistook for graphics card issues, so I reinstalled the driver for the graphics card. I'm not sure if this was a direct consequence, but my 3d screensavers stopped working and started displaying the message "could not find any direct3d compatible devices". I've also been unable to run games compatible with directx 9.0 that I could previously run without any problems.
Here is what has been done, in order: Driver updates from Dell support page, re-instillation of new motherboard, Directx diagnostic (reports indicate that I cannot enable my direct3d acceleration), entire system diagnostic (no errors at all. I also updated my diagnostics utility with the same result), repair/reinstillation of Windows, driver updates again from the Dell support page. Nothing has worked, but I know my laptop is capable (with the inbuilt graphics card it contains) of running the things that it is currently refusing to run. In other words, I dont believe that either purchasing a new graphics card or updating my drivers is going to help.
Can anybody suggest anything else, other that attacking my laptop with a crowbar in a rage of frustration and sacrificing the mangled pieces to the lord of the underworld?
 
Its possible that you may now have multiple graphics drivers now. I suggest that you boot into safe mode by pressing F8 before windows begins booting and select safe mode. When it has booted up, click start button, settings, control panel, system. If you cannot see system then switch to classic view. Click on hardware, device manager, display adapters, and remove everything. It will want to reboot but dont let it do that yet. Click on add/remove programs and remove anything to do with the graphics card aswell. Once that is all done, reboot into windows and install the drivere again and with a biit of luck it may be working again. If this doesnt work then feel free to contact me at amy time as there are a few other things to try if needs be.


Sorry about it being a bit long winded but it is a little complex.
 
Thank you for your help so far. Unfortunately that didnt work, however I discovered something in the process. When I uninstall the drivers and reboot, my 3d screensavers work! However as soon as I reinstall the driver, they stop working again and give me the same message. Does this help identify the problem?
Further suggestions?
Thanks heaps once again
 
What is the video card you are using? Do you have integrated graphics on the mobo? If so make sure it is disabled if you are using the video card.
 
I'm not sure how to tell if I have Integrated graphics on here ... and I'm not sure how to find the video card either - I'm not very computer literate, I've just learned a lot in the past week.
I think the video card is this though:
Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
 
get into BIOS. hold DEL or F1 or whatever key gets you into BIOS when you boot up. (RTFM). Then look for onboard equipment (if any). If you have onboard VIDEO turn it off. (only do this if you're putting in an external card.)

Always REMOVE all graphics drivers BEFORE installing new ones. Go to Add/Remove programs under windows control panel.

Onboard graphics may or may not have drivers on the hard disk. Some computers have the drivers built in on an EPROM (not many though.)
If you turn it off in BIOS, it won't matter where the drivers are.
 
Okay, the graphics controller and the video controller (which could for all I know be the exact sme thing) are both inbuilt. All I can find in BIOS (is that setup or boot menu?) is video controller: Intel 852GM/GME/GMV. Cant disable anything from the screen I'm at right now.
 
There has to be a setting in there somewhere to turn it off. If not, It would be highly irregular.
 
User issues.

Thanks for all your suggestions, I found out what was going wrong. Originally I just needed to reinstall my drivers. What I didnt account for was my flatmate, who is fond of attempting to fix things he has no knowlege of while he's drunk ... or worse.
So the problem was as simple as turning my hardware acceleration back up to full (he'd set it to almost the lowest setting).
Sorry for wasting your time guys, you do a great service and were far more helpful than Dell was
 
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