Problem. Don't know what to call it.

[Pak_Track]

Hi guys.
My PC has the following specs:
Intel Core 2 duo
1GB RAM
275MB Graphics
Intel (R) Graphics Media Accelerator.
Direct X 11


I know it's not much but pretty much enough for playing the games I like. They are IGI, Counter Strike 1.6 and Half Life.


My story:


I was playing CS 1.6 when SUDDENLY, a power failure occured. It is not uncommon in my area and has never really caused me any damage until now.
I restarted my PC and opened CS again. I got the error(I've never seen it before.) "OpenGL failed to close properly. The game will start in software mode. I thought, this isn't a problem. I'll just shift it back to Open GL. You see, Counter Strike's software mode is very low res. About 800x600. I increased it back to 1280x1204 and changed to Open GL. The game restarts when ever you change the video mode. Now when it started, I couldn't see the screen or buttons and shit but could hear the music and the sound of the mouse over on the buttons. I thought great. I'll just reinstall my video driver. I uninstalled it, redownloaded and reinstalled it. Now when I start CS, it just displays an error "Game could not start in the selected video mode. It will now start in software mode." But it's not starting whatsoever. I tried opening IGI but i get the error "IGI requires Direct X 7 or above to run even though I have Direct X 11. Also high graphic browser games don't run and i get texture problems in shockwave games too.
I'll add that I am able to start Counter Strike in software mode when my PC is in safe mode but am not able to shift to D3D or Open GL modes.
why is this happening guys? I haven't been able to play computer games for months. I hope you have a solution.


Regards

[Kulverstukas]

This had been happening to me a few times, but I cannot remember how I solved it. Usually reinstalling windows fixes the issue, but it could be that your DirectX is broken. You need to reinstall and unlucky for you it is a massive bitch to remove DirectX (downgrade), but lucky for you I have a utility that I have been using many times, download it here: http://upload.evilzone.org/download.php?id=6438267&type=zip

Boot your windows into Safe mode, pop in your Windows CD and do what the README says. This will downgrade DirectX to old version 8. When done you can boot windows as normal and reinstall DirectX11.

Btw I always play CS1.6 in Software mode because it runs without any lag whatsoever. OpenGL and other lag so much that it is very hard to play.

[Stackprotector]

I will advise you to closely check any available benchmark/informational tools (dxdiag) to see if  there is any obvious problem you can spot. It can even be the graphic card. As a last resort reinstall (hard so remove the files after software uninstall) all drivers related to the GPU

[Darkvision]

I will probably forget a few things, but its been a long day and even longer night(im feeling mighty staby at the moment). Anyway few things to try/do


try running it in compatibility mode, (95 or 98 preferably), often with old software like that it will get around your issue, and you can try restoring your settings to where they were. Check the integrity of your game files, steam apps have the built in functionality for that(just go to your library of steam games(while in steam, not on the actual disk), open properties, and click the check integrity button).


Any time you have power problems it can cause hardware damage as well. so when you open the game and the screen goes black does it stay this way after you close the game?(in other words you have to reboot to get your screen back) if so then your PSU got damaged and needs to be replaced. Have you re-seated your graphics card? sounds crazy but yeah sometimes it works.


Other than that if you have already redone your video drivers the most probable problem is that it created an out and out conflict with the card. to fix that you can A re-install windows(im assuming thats your OS) or B uninstall/re-install all your games(keeping save files is fine) but you need to completely remove counter stirke, half life, and even steam would be a good idea, and since your going that far might as well make a clean sweep and get windows media player and any other playback programs as well. THEN re-install your video drivers, and re install all programs. Its a PAIN IN THE ASS when this happens, but it does occasionally happen to where some crazy conflict appears, but doesnt show against any one program/utility. I had it happen once to my CD-ROM drive. no new programs installed in 6 months and it just quit working. finally the only thing i hadn't done was the above. so i got rid of anything that used the CD-ROM drive, redid its drivers and re-installed everything and everything worked perfectly.


The card itself could have been damaged. Test with known good hardware, or with your on board video card if you have one(removing the card itself for that test obviously).