Today I bought Sims Castaway and to my dissapointment it did not work. Our computer was wiped just over a month ago and I had Sims2 on it and it worked fine. I haven't really had the time to play it since we got our computer back so I haven't installed it again. I noticed that a lot of people get the same error message when they try to play Sims2:
"Failed to find any DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics adapters in this system! Please make sure you have a DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics adapter and have installed the latest drivers provided by the manufacturer. The application will now terminate."
**NOTE**This is for Sims Castaway and NOT Sims2 (I haven't tried that one yet...)
I'm kind of new to this, so I don't know how to get all the information, but right now I can tell you the following:
When I do a dxdiag:
SYSTEM
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600)
System Manufacturer: ECS
System Model: P4VMM2
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHZ
Memory: 480 MB RAM
Page file: 233 MB used, 892 MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DISPLAY
Device-
Name: S3 Graphics ProSavageDDR
Manufacturer: S3 Graphics, Inc.
Chip Type: S3 P3M266
DAC Type: S3 SDAC
Approx. Total Memory: 32.0 MB
Current Display Mode: 1024x768 (32 bit) (758Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Driver-
Main Driver: S3gnb.dll
Version: 6.13.0010.1048
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Mini VDD: S3gnbm.sys
VDD: n/a
DDI Version: 7

Thank you to whoever tries to help me! And also, bear with me because I'm not up to par on all the technical jargon...I don't even know what a lot of the stuff in the info up there is supposed to signify...

Well, have FUN! Looks like a cute game.

My first thought is that MAYBE you need to reinstall or upgrade directx. The version looks funny to me.

Goto
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&DisplayLang=en

Hope that helps. Let me know.

Yeah, it should be fun...if I ever get it to work, lol.
I downloaded the version off of that site, but the message still came up.
However, it does feel nice to know that this version doesn't look funny.

Oh, I also checked to see if there were updates for my video card and couldn't find any. I also tried to download other drivers from the S3 site but whenever I tried to install it it said that the hardware (card I'm assuming) isn't compatible.

As to video driver how about here
http://www.s3graphics.com/en/resources/drivers/legacy/software_archive.jsp
when you select ProSavage the next page will have drivers. They also disclaim to support drivers any more and suggest you visit viaarena.
So try that and let me know.