Windows 2000 and Direct 3D

[radic]

I get a Fatel Error message as below when I open a game, nearly any game.

Direct 3D: No Suitable Harware found

It has ran fine up untill last week and all of a sudden I get this, it sucks but at least I'm getting some work done insead of playing games. Anyone herd of this happening on w2k advanced server or just w2k before. I reinstalled Direct X 8+ and even tried an emergency rescue and a windows reinstall of IE 5.5.

I can run most programs that use Direct 3D and Direct x like 3Ds max and Premiere etc
Processor pII 400 single
Motherboard Duel pIII capable epox
RAM - 256
Video card 32 meg Asus Ultra D 3800

[Technochic]

There must have been SOMETHING that happened right before your games started to fail. I know that there are not a whole lot of games out there for Win2K (may be different in NZ), but if they were working fine and then all stopped all of a sudden... think back; did you install something or make another change to your PC?

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When in doubt, reboot!

[wolfmann1]

With some prodding, Windows2000 will play just about any game. Sometimes you have to install a no-cd patch to get things to work, or update your video drivers.

What this sounds like is a degradation in your operating system, something got corrupted or isn't "alligned properly", especially if you didn't have problems before. Try reinstalling the drivers for the offending hardware, such as your video card which should be the culprit.

Also specifics about your driver revision, DirectX version, OS version (is SP1 installed), and any specific stats about any hardware you may feel is being affected.

By the way, why are you using Windows2000 Advanced Server as a workstation OS? Windows2000 Professional should be more than sufficient to do what you need to, and leave the Advanced Server on a dedicate server computer you don't have to fiddle with or play games on.

Especially with WindowsNT and Server software, sometimes not upgrading or "Advancing" your OS by adding things if you don't absolutely need that function is better and keeps things stable. I had Windows IE 5.5 bork an installation of WindowsME, but not affect an installation of Windows98 or Windows2000 Professional. With Microsoft its hit and miss sometimes...it should work, but doesn't.

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