DirectX problem

[Der Helm]

I have a problem with 2 games so far, TF2 and Exteel. When I leave the game and want to start it again later I get an error message like this (from Exteel, TF2 sounds similar (Device could not be created) but I can't copy/paste from that window)

OS: Windows XP 5.1 (Build: 2600)
CPU: AuthenticAMD Unknown processor @ 1802 MHz with 1023MB RAM
Video: ATI Radeon 9550 / X1050 Series (6783)

디스플레이 모드 전환에 실패했습니다: CreateDevice failed (D3DERR_INVALIDCALL). DirectX9.0c와 최신 그래픽카드 드라이버를 설치 하신 후에 게임을 다시 실행해 주십시오.

<?int?Core.Errors.History?>: UD3DRenderDevice::UnSetRes <- CreateDevice <- UD3DRenderDevice::SetRes <- UWindowsViewport::TryRenderDevice <- UWindowsViewport::OpenWindow <- UGameEngine::Init <- InitEngine

Is my (really really shitty) graphic card giving up ? Or is it a driver issue ? Or what ?

HELP! 

[Trippy]

Have you tried updating your driver?

[Engels]

I suspect you're trying to play the game in an unsupported resolution. By unsupported, I mean your monitor doesn't do the resolution you're trying to play it in.

[Der Helm]

Have you tried updating your driver?

Yes. Did not help.

I suspect you're trying to play the game in an unsupported resolution. By unsupported, I mean your monitor doesn't do the resolution you're trying to play it in.

I'll check that.

[rattran]

Might want to try uninstalling your video driver, running driver cleaner or something like it to clear out any remaining crap, then reinstall fresh drivers.

[Trippy]

Try updating your motherboard chipset drivers.

[Stephen Zepp]

Slow down a sec--before you do anything major, open up your "Run" option, and type in dxdiag.

Blow off the initial check regarding Microsoft's "approved" drivers--MS's drivers are the worst you can have for any given configuration.

Make sure that your version is DirextX 9.0c, and then run the tests on the "Display" tab.

Finally, do what Engels suggests, and try to run the game in a lower resolution. It's possible (and happens often, we have the same issues) that the games are incorrectly reading allowed modes/resolutions from the card, and attempting to create a render device that isn't valid for your card.

[Der Helm]

Make sure that your version is DirextX 9.0c, and then run the tests on the "Display" tab.

I did as Engels suggested.

On DxDiag.

Hm. I get error messages for the 640*480(16) display mode. Which seems weird, because card and monitor supported that resolution.

By the way. When I reboot the computer I can run both games once, before I have to restart to play them again.

edit: The problem started after a mini-update from TF2 or Steam, I think Tragny experienced a similar problem, if not the same. He wrote something about than in EVE-chat a few days ago.

[Stephen Zepp]

Make sure that your version is DirextX 9.0c, and then run the tests on the "Display" tab.

I did as Engels suggested.

On DxDiag.

Hm. I get error messages for the 640*480(16) display mode. Which seems weird, because card and monitor supported that resolution.

By the way. When I reboot the computer I can run both games once, before I have to restart to play them again.

edit: The problem started after a mini-update from TF2 or Steam, I think Tragny experienced a similar problem, if not the same. He wrote something about than in EVE-chat a few days ago.

It does then sound as if it's a bug with the code, not the program. render devices are notoriously hard to get perfect, and have a lot of logic corners that are easy to miss. For example, in our latest beta, we have one that sounds just the same as you are getting--works fine the first time, fails afterwards.

As it turns out, our default video preferences are fine, but once they run the engine, we save a faulty set of data to the user prefs, and next time it tries to load, it can't set a video resolution of "600 2". (obviously, it should be "800 600", with, in this particular case, FSAA set to 2).

[HaemishM]

I had that problem with Half-Life 2 and HL2 Ep1 a LOT. I almost couldn't finish Ep1 because of all the crashes. Ep2 still had the problem, but the game was much more stable. I did have to run them all with -dxlevel 80 command line parameters. TF2 sometimes gives me "OS Paged Pool Physical Memory" errors, which is related to the same type of render error apparently. I've reinstalled video drivers, updated them and nothing has seemed to make the errors go away.

[Der Helm]

"OS Paged Pool Physical Memory"

Oh, those I got as well, never thought they were related. Somehow those went away.

In other news, I just changed desktop resolution a few times and the dxdiag errors are gone. 

I do not know if the gaming problems persist, because I do not have the time to test them at the moment.