CoD4, UT3, AND TimeShift are all not working...what luck....

So, I decided to download the three demos as I've been looking forward to the games for a while--I installed each demo, then updated my video drivers (I'm on my old computer, which uses an x800GTO, and not the 8800gts that's in my sig). When I try to launch TimeShift, it opens and then immediately closes. When I launch UT3, the splash screen loads, the game appears to start, and then it immediately crashes. When I try to launch CoD 4, it changes my monitor's resolution....about 4-5 times a second...indefinitely, and doesn't respond to cntrl-alt-del, alt-tab, or alt-F4, so it forces me to restart completely.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling my video drivers, updating XP, reinstalling at least one of the game, and exiting out of any suspicious or generally unwanted running processes. I'm running out of ideas, and it doesn't seem like anyone is having the same issues.

Here are my full specs on this comp.:

AMD Athlon XP 3000+, x800GTO, 1gb RAM PC2100, ASUS A7N8X mobo, XP Home SP2

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here?

My friend just has this same problem I told him to update his sound drivers and it worked for him.

He can now play...

Dont know if it will help in your case but thought i would suggest.

I didn't actually download them from GS, GamersHell tends to be much faster....that said, I think I found a major clue here...when I run a Direct3D test in dxdiag, these are the results:

Direct3D 7 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x80004005 (Generic failure)
Direct3D 8 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (error code)
Direct3D 9 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086c (error code)

I've never had a problem with that before, I'm thinking there's something wrong with my Direct3D dll...but I've already tried updating right from Microsoft and it hasn't solved anything, as well as rolling back my old video drivers. One of the demos (I think it was CoD 4) did claim to install the latest version of DX9, and strangely enough, I now have a copy of Direct3DX.dll for every version from 9.04 to 9.12, all installed at the same time, according to dxdiag.

And I'm not playing on my other rig because it's at school, and this one's at home...I'd play at school but I don't end up with a lot of time and the Internet there is the equivalent of dial-up so playing UT3 would be out of the question there.

corrupt downloads is unlikely to be the problem, ive lots of corrupt dloads (about 3-4 per month), and when that happens they wont install
if installation goes fine usually means download not corrupt

u seem to have tried everything logical, dunno why they wont work =/

cu asa calculator vrei sa joci ?

Yeah, I can say for certain (and it's just about the ONLY thing I can really conclude here) that these files aren't corrupt...cause the problem seems to be with Direct3D and not with the demos themselves. The ET:QW demo is the only "old" game I "tested" and I figured that was enough at the time, but I'm assuming it uses OpenGL and that's why it was able to run.

Well, now I'm even more confused...Neverwinter Nights and Stepmania work just fine, but UT2k4 has a runtime error on startup (and used to work just fine).

And I'm not playing on my other rig because it's at school, and this one's at home...I'd play at school but I don't end up with a lot of time and the Internet there is the equivalent of dial-up so playing UT3 would be out of the question there.

adamwhyvern

Wait... let me get this straight, your school computer has a 8800??? and you run on a x800 (my old card! :D)??
Something isnt right there >.>

[QUOTE="adamwhyvern"]

And I'm not playing on my other rig because it's at school, and this one's at home...I'd play at school but I don't end up with a lot of time and the Internet there is the equivalent of dial-up so playing UT3 would be out of the question there.

X-tract

Wait... let me get this straight, your school computer has a 8800??? and you run on a x800 (my old card! :D)??
Something isnt right there >.>

Yeah I would think that the rig that can actually play current games would be where you can actually play them.

jESUS UPDATE YOUR VID CARD TO LATEST BUILD. THATS ALLDude_1000

Yeah, I can say for certain (and it's just about the ONLY thing I can really conclude here) that these files aren't corrupt...cause the problem seems to be with Direct3D and not with the demos themselves. The ET:QW demo is the only "old" game I "tested" and I figured that was enough at the time, but I'm assuming it uses OpenGL and that's why it was able to run.

Well, now I'm even more confused...Neverwinter Nights and Stepmania work just fine, but UT2k4 has a runtime error on startup (and used to work just fine).

adamwhyvern

etqw came out this month, u have a weird defintion of old

cu asa calculator vrei sa joci ?

bubupriest

Yes he does want to play with this "calculator" as you put it. Like one of my older machines still kicking it around lol.

OK, let me clarify a few things, 'cause everyone's taking trivial points and making trying to hijack the thread with them >.>.

By "school", I mean the one in my dorm...I'm only home for fall break, and I wanted to try out these games while I had the chance. Yes, I do occasionally have time to play the games, but still, UT3 will likely flat-out not work on campus with the kind of connection we get, and the fact that my games have suddenly stopped working is kind of alarming in its own right even if I can try some of these out when I get back.

"JESUS OMGHAXMORON UPDATE DRIVERS" or something to that extent--yeah, did you even read my posts? That's the first thing I tried, and if anything, that was part of the problem, but I've also tried rolling back to last month's drivers and that didn't help anything. It's obvious there's something outright wrong with my DirectX installation, judging by my dxdiag results, and the problem isn't SM3.0, cause UT2k4 used to run perfectly without it and now behaves just like these demos.

Now, updating DirectX hasn't worked at all, and in fact, I'm thinking that's what caused the problem...is there any simple way to just completely uninstall it? There isn't an uninstaller or an add/remove program entry, and even if I could just go into the registry and do it all manually, it seems like there's probably a reason why I shouldn't be attempting it if there isn't already a quick way to do it.