Direct3d Issues
 

Has been happening for a few formats now but only after awhile do they start to happen. I have problems when I try to run games and when I try to run DxDiag, I get "Direct3d functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer." Run I try to run KOTOR I get my Catalyst drivers are below 3.8 when I just upgraded them to 5.4 for the 50 time 15 minutes ago and that OpenGL failed because I have 1.1.0 Drivers

I already did a search on it in the forum and found this
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...light=direct3d

Really just wanted to know if those might be the only culprits for this problem since I'd know if its worth sending back the computer since its a Dell Dimension 8300. Or if I should just format and try to update anything in a specific order.

Have you tried removing the driver, rebooting, and reinstalling it?

Yep along with formatting and reinstalling a few times. I'm started to think its hardware but not really sure what. I read somewhere that it could be motherboard or gfx card.

I also tried other drivers like OmegaDrivers and those dont work either

It's a Dell, the ATI is an extremely cheap knockoff most likely and probably isn't recognized fully by the Catalyst drivers.

Since you said you're running Catalyst I'm guessing that you got the new drivers from ATI? Have you tried drivers from Dell's website instead? Being that the hardware is most likely proprietary, the drivers would need to be tweaked as well.

I'm almost 100% positive its straight from ATi the only doubt is the doubt you just gave to me liquidlight but I definitely will try that. Thanks for the advice

Well, a test that could confirm it, is the card standalone or is the graphics chip built straight onto the motherboard? If it's a standalone it could be true ATI, but if it's on the MB Dell makes their own boards.

And just because the GPU is made by ATI (probably the Radeon) that doesn't mean that the control chips are, which is where most of the compatibility and support issues would arise.

And a test did confirm it. It's a Radeon 9800 NonPro standalone so I'm still pretty sure its built by ATi.

After installed the Dell drivers it worked amazingly. All DirectDraw and Direct3d test in DxDiag worked fine but when I tried to update to the latest ATi or Omega drivers, it goes back to the same problem I had before. So am I kinda screwed from now on with my driver choice because I know this never happened during atleast the first year of having this PC.