Game Problem

[compidiot]

I need help getting one of my computer games running. I played it fine the other day but now when I go to start it up a message comes up that says that it is unable to create an DirectDraw 4 Surface and that the game is shutting down. It says a hardware only DirectDraw object creation was attempted but the driver did not support any hardware. What does this mean and what can I do?

[Tweaker]

First, what OS are you running?

Do you have the latest Direct X running?

Do you have the latest video drivers?

Some system specs might help us to help you out better.

[compidiot]

I have Windows 98 and have downloaded the latest version of Direct X. I'm not sure about the video drivers but the confusing part is the game worked find one day and the next would not. What would cause that?

[Tweaker]

Well, have you changed anything lately?

Have you installed any other application that might have changed your settings?

Hard to say, you could restore a backup registry when things were ok. I believe in Windows 98 you can select up to 5 previous dates when things were running ok.


Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 221512

How to Manually Restore the Windows 98/Me Registry

The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

This article was previously published under Q221512
SUMMARYThis article describes how to restore a backup copy of the Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition (Me) registry.

MORE INFORMATION Under normal circumstances, Windows is capable of detecting and recovering from registry errors automatically. If Windows is incapable of this, a previous copy of the registry can be restored manually. Windows makes and stores a backup of the registry when you start your computer successfully each day. By default, five previous copies or the registry are stored. To restore one of these previous copies:
Start your computer, press and hold CTRL, and then choose Safe Mode Command Prompt Only from the Windows 98 Startup menu. If you are running Windows Me, start your computer with the startup disk.

At the MS-DOS prompt, type cd\windows\command, and then press ENTER. Where windows is the name of the folder in which Windows is installed.


At the C: prompt, type scanreg /restore, and then press ENTER.
Select the previous registry you want to restore, and then press ENTER.NOTE: A properly working registry has the word "Started" next to the date.


When you receive notification that you restored a properly working registry, press ENTER to restart your computer.

Post back and let us know how things turn out.

[compidiot]

I followed the instructions you gave me to restart the computer and restore it from an earlier date but it still won't work. It still says the same thing about a DirectDraw Surface not being created. I did install one new game, Age Of Mythology, and it was after that that I started having problems. I uninstalled Age Of Mythology thinking that maybe that was the problem but it didn't help. Any other suggestions?

[Tweaker]

Have you tried re-installing Direct X?

Also give this a look over, just might help.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/pando.../downloads.htm

[compidiot]

I reinstalled Direct X 9.0 and still the same thing. This is so frustrating. I cannot think of anything that would make it unplayable now when it was playable a day ago. It's a simple game with nothing fancy installed.

[Tweaker]

Here is a shot in the dark, have you tried re-installing the game?

Also make sure you have the latest patches for the game.

http://gh3d.com/pcpatches.shtml

[compidiot]

Okay I stumbled across this message. It says that the version I have of Direct X is newer than my DxDiag. It says I need to get a newer version of DxDiag. What is that and where do I get a newer version?

[Tweaker]

Direct X 9a is probably what you need.

You can get it here.

[compidiot]

I got that today because I thought that might be what I needed too but it didn't help. My Direct X Accelerator and 3D will not become available. I had them before and now they won't work. Is there a way to uninstall Direct X and start all over? Or would that even work.

[Tweaker]

Did you check here, I posted a response to your thread about Direct Draw.

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/...threadid=18719