Works in OpenGL mode only...???

[alkali5000]

Hi there,

I had received a Compaq Presario 6430nx :p from a friend for free. (oh come on it was free!) Anyway, I swapped out my video card, hard drive, and PSU from my old computer into the new one and now for the last couple weeks I have been going crazy trying to fix a seemingly random black screen freeze or restarting of my computer while playing 3D games. The main game I had concern for being able to play was World of Warcraft because it has a monthly fee, but the problem also seems to occur in Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights.

I emailed Blizzard but there was obviously not a response for a while. While waiting for them to respond I have discussed the problem in depth with numerous people. After annoyingly getting all kinds of totally different opinions from practically everyone I asked I finally got an email from Blizzard.

They suggested that I try running the game "WoW.exe -OpenGL -NoSound -Windowed"... Amazingly this solved the problem! I decided to eliminate the possible cause and ran "WoW.exe -OpenGL -NoSound" still worked fine... so I ran "WoW.exe -OpenGL" still worked fine... Obviously it has something to do with Direct3D yes?

While playing WoW I met Cheshirecat (administrator of these boards?) and he suggested that I come here for help. So here I am... Does anyone have any idea why my computer doesn't like Direct3D? What (if anything) can be done to resolve this? Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights both worked fine as far as I could tell on my previous computer with that video card (I have completely reformatted and reinstalled everthing so I know that's not the problem).

Here is my system specs:

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
DirectX: 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP, 2133 MHz (16 x 133) 2600+
Mobo: FIC AM35 (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video)
Chipset: VIA VT8375 ProSavageDDR KM266
Memory: Samsung M3 68L3223DTL-CB0 DDR SDRAM PC2100 (133 MHz) 256MBx2(512MB)
Video card: VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4600 (128 MB)
Audio: VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller (onboard)
Hard Drive: MAXTOR 6L040J2 (40 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Network card: Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
PSU: XPower 300W

I checked the RAM its good. I'm 100% certain the CPU is not overheating. I have all the latest drivers for everything (except VIA 4in1 I have the 4.43 because my VIA chipset is older and those are suggested for KM2## chipsets, but I also tried the newer ones as well, didn't help) I also tried older NVIDIA drivers for my video card still didn't make any difference. I have not tried putting a more powerful PSU in there but I would assume that 300W should be sufficient. I can pick up a nice 400W in a couple days and test that out but the game runs perfectly fine in OpenGL mode with no bad stuff happening...

This computer just seems to hate Direct3D...

Any ideas?
Alkali

[Obfuscate]

WoW is a pretty demanding game in the ram, cpu and gpu areas. I'm tempted to say that your computer is just flat out to old to handle the game. Never the less I'm 99% sure its more likely the graphics card and ram than anything else.

Straight up you need a newer computer. I know thats NOT the answer you were looking for but these days if your computer does not have computer parts no more than 6-10months old alot of new games just wont play well for you. Or they will crash your computer by trying to write to much to your ram or over taxing your graphics card.

Sorry.

[alkali5000]

WoW is a pretty demanding game in the ram, cpu and gpu areas. I'm tempted to say that your computer is just flat out to old to handle the game. Never the less I'm 99% sure its more likely the graphics card and ram than anything else.

Straight up you need a newer computer. I know thats NOT the answer you were looking for but these days if your computer does not have computer parts no more than 6-10months old alot of new games just wont play well for you. Or they will crash your computer by trying to write to much to your ram or over taxing your graphics card.

Sorry.

BLAH! :p

Well I am willing to accept that fact and won't be too much of a problem to get new parts in a couple weeks especially if I get hired at a new job, I have a second interview friday morning so I'm hopeful. If it comes down to that I will just save up some cash and buy newer parts, but WoW really isn't a new game almost a year old. I suppose it could be that it requires more RAM that is easy to fix. Just seems like an odd reaction to insufficient RAM and an even stranger fix...

WoW ran fine on a much older computer (AMD Thunderbird 1000MHz) with the same video card, hard drive, PSU (I am testing a 400W on this computer now as I type) and much older slower PC-133 (but twice as much... 1GB) RAM... and a mobo that is nearly 7 years old... just doesn't seem logical to be the reason...

This computer is only a year or two old...

Well anyway I don't wanna argue about it, I'm glad you responded. I'm just curious to hear what people say now that I know for a certainty how to at least play the game. (damn OpenGL!)

[Shellz]

your graphic card cannot handle it.......plain and simple.