Hello, I have an ATI 9700 Pro, I cannot run any sophisticated game; I ran the Dxdiag tool and following tests fail: Direct Draw 8 and 9; Direct Draw 7 was successful. Any idea any one ? I have installed latest ATI drivers.

What version of Windows? Maybe you don't have DirectX 9.0b? (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=141D5F9E-07C1-462A-BAEF-5EAB5C851CF5&displaylang=en)?

I run XP Pro, with DirectX 9.0b

Could be a few things. Do you have the latest chipset drivers installed? Have you tried reinstalling DX 9.0b? Do you have any IRQ/device conflicts?

I have done all these things; I also tried to do a fresh install of Windows on a new drive; the blue installation screen was scambled (flickering caracters on the botton half of the screen); could it be that I have an issue with my motherboard ? I also recently installed a Zalman fan on my CPU; could it be that I have a heating issue ? Thanks for advices !

That sounds like bad video card. If it's still under warranty, contact the vendor about replacement, if not, it's probably time to go shopping.

Flickering characters is a sign of a poorly graphics card. I seem to recollect reading somewhere that some ATI cards didnt like DX9.0b -0 had to go back to 9.0 I think. Maybe they fixed that one tho..