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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:22am |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | BTW you seem to have a knack for misspelling InlandAZ's name...
Actually. I didn't notice it either - is that whiskey I smell on Willow's breath?
Unless you are THERE, giving tech advice in a Forum ( or over the phone like I do)
Oh please don't tell us who you work for -
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:40am |
BelindaSchattenjger
Posts : 2093
Joined: 21 OCT 2002
Status : Online | Maybe he works for Dell computers.......LOL!!!!!!!
I have a Dell, and their tech support is crap.....never can get someone to talk with, unless you wait almost an hour sometimes on hold.........
BTW.....I noticed the misspelling of your name right away too.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:45am |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By InlandAZ (11 JAN 2003 6:22am)
Actually. I didn't notice it either - is that whiskey I smell on Willow's breath?
You know... if it wasn't so unlikely, I'd almost think Willow's first name was Janelle
Oh please don't tell us who you work for -
You prefer to be surprised?
I forgot my sig.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:49am |
BelindaSchattenjger
Posts : 2093
Joined: 21 OCT 2002
Status : Online | or maybe it's that 'Fish' person.......flying fish or something like that, the person made only 1 insulting post and left.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:52am |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Belinda48 (11 JAN 2003 6:40am)
I have a Dell, and their tech support is crap.....never can get someone to talk with, unless you wait almost an hour sometimes on hold.........
I don't think other companies are much better. Tech support is expensive. So the companies hire the cheapest people - who, surprise surprise, don't know a whole lot. And I imagine being yelled at by angry customers is not a great motivator either.
Smaller companies are generally better (I'm talking about software companies now) - it is not so unusual that you get to talk to the person who actually wrote the program or at least knows a lot about it.
I forgot my sig.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:56am |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Belinda48 (11 JAN 2003 6:49am)
or maybe it's that 'Fish' person.......flying fish or something like that, the person made only 1 insulting post and left.
You mean "friendlyfish"? I doubt that
I forgot my sig.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 12:08pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | TO: Inland AZ"
I went to the MS hyperlink that you posted and downloaded "direct x 9.0 end-use runtime". It took a few minutes.
I searched my computer for dx90_redist.exe and it was not found.
I did find an icon labeled "dxwebsetup.exe, which put me back online and downloaded "dx installation components" for over an hour.
Is this what dx90_redist.exe would have done?
Is there anything else I can do to determine that dx 90 has installed and activated? when I scan for direct x 9.0 I get numerous files).
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 12:21pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | WHOA! I didn't mean to start a war here.
First: I want to thank InlandAZ for helping me. You have gone to a lot of effort and time, and stuck it out in spite of the frustration. I really appreciate it.
2: I acknowledge and thank Willow for sticking up for me. Yes, I'm a newbie and confused and ignorant (and female). Sometimes it's hard for knowledgable people to communicate in very elementary terms (first push this button. Now hit enter...) thank you for identifying that I wasn't quite getting it.
I DO want to understand, and can learn.
I did reinstall Watchmaker when I first found a problem. I did not clean and defragment before I reinstalled, but I do those procedures frequently.
Is the "necrofile" any better than my disk scan/defragmenter?
I did not clear any memory, but it's 65% clear anyway.
I went through the Compaq trouble shooting program before I started this thread. It also has me try to run the dxdiag that didn't work.
My monitor display is fine, except for this game (and aurynquest).
I know that CPU is my central processing unit, which I guess is my Pentium III.
I don't know what BIOS is. How do I find it and increase its value?
This game has some video resolution choices, which I experimented with in the beginning, without visible results.
I could only return the game and exchange it for exactly the same game. by the time I thought maybe it was THIS CD, I no longer had the box or receipt.
I THINK my video card is up to date. I don't know how to identify it. I downloaded some video drivers from the Compaq site. o they run automatically, or do I have to do something to activate them?
Thank all of you so much for helping me and putting up with such a simpleton.
Sincerely, Megan Griffith, CNM, MSN.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 12:59pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | Dear Willow,
You have my permission to gloat. I uninstalled Watchmaker, and several other old games. performed a disk cleanup. Reinstalled Watchmaker and set the graphics for minimal. And the display is beautiful. Plus the character movement is much more fluid. I guess it takes a woman to think of cleaning house.
Actually, InlandAZ had also recommended I clear up some memory, but I thought that it wasn't necessary because my computer is so empty. And I had done a cleanup about a week before I installed Watchmaker.
But this time I did find a bunch of old games I thought I had deleted, but hadn't.
I would still like answers to the questions I posted above, if it's not too much trouble, so I can better understand my system and solve my own problems.
Thank you again to everyone for being so patient and supportive. See you again soon!
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 5:11pm |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | That's good news shipprah - Did you ever verify if dxdiag was updated? Just try running it again from the Run prompt (off the Start Button).
As to defrag clearing up video texture issues - I'm afraid it just doesn't work that way.
By the way, generally anything you download will have to be executed in order to install it. And... dxwebsetup is Microsoft's newest DX update facility (new with DX9). The hyperlink I posted above was for DX9_Redist (but, there could be a documentation error on Microsoft's part).
WHOA! I didn't mean to start a war here.
Trust me, you didn't - Willow is free to post whatever he/she wishes to post.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 6:29pm |
MichalNGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 7058
Joined: 14 SEP 2003
Status : Online | Originally Posted By shipprah (11 JAN 2003 12:21pm)
WHOA! I didn't mean to start a war here.
You did not
In your case I would guess that uninstalling some other game and/or program is what did the trick.
I don't know what BIOS is. How do I find it and increase its value?
BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. It is the lowest level "program" in your computer. If you want to upgrade BIOS, you should be able to find the relevant information and files on your system manufacturer's (Compaq) web site - that's the place to look.
I THINK my video card is up to date. I don't know how to identify it. I downloaded some video drivers from the Compaq site. o they run automatically, or do I have to do something to activate them?[/quite]
The drivers are usually executables - so to install them, you need to run the executable you downloaded.
Thank all of you so much for helping me and putting up with such a simpleton.
Simpleton is not the right term - not knowing about computers doesn't make people stupid
I forgot my sig.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 7:26pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | I still get that Non-unicode error message when I try to run dxdiag.
OK... when I download files from MS or Compaq, I need to
1. save to disk
2. note the name of the file it's being saved to.
3. After the download is done, open that file and look for a file with the .exe suffix
4. click on the .exe file to activate the stuff I downloaded.
Right?
If this is right, the video drivers I downloaded haven't been executed. I'll have to try to find them.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 8:05pm |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By shipprah (11 JAN 2003 7:26pm)
I still get that Non-unicode error message when I try to run dxdiag.
OK... when I download files from MS or Compaq, I need to
1. save to disk
2. note the name of the file it's being saved to.
3. After the download is done, open that file and look for a file with the .exe suffix
4. click on the .exe file to activate the stuff I downloaded.
Right?
If this is right, the video drivers I downloaded haven't been executed. I'll have to try to find them.
That's basically it - there are exceptions (extensions such as: ZIP and TAR are compressed files that have to be unpacked.) The most common (for Windows/DOS) is the .ZIP extention and is decompressed with Winzip (or PKZIP under DOS).
I'll repost the bug report I submitted to Microsoft - but, to be honest I think they're stumped as well. Somehow I think you've managed to get the wrong version of dxdiag installed.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 8:08pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | So, is there some way I can install dxdiag?
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 8:29pm |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | Yeah, there is - but, it would be nice to confirm that you actually have DX9 for ME installed first. With Windows Explorer (Or Search for Files and Folders) locate the file - You should find it in C:\Windows\System... In the size column.. is it 904KB or 916KB... The larger is the NT unicode version.
I've copied the unicode version to my PC... and when I execute it, this is what I see...
Error: This is the unicode version of DXDIAG, which only runs on Windows 2000 or XP. Please use the non unicode version of DxDiag on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME.
Is this the exact message you see?
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 9:00pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | Yes, that is the message.
OK. when I search in windows/system i get a zillion files, One of which is Direct X
In Direct X there are two files:
1. Dinput, which has 186 items in it. Most of these are icons of little notepads and pieces of paper with a paintbrush on them.
2. Migrate which has notebook icons with cogs on them.
One of these is named dxw9xmig. In it there is a long list of file names like amstream.dll=
I dont' see any indication of the size of any of these files.
PS. since we are no longer strictly discussing the Watchmaker, do we need to start a different thread, or continue this by private email?
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 9:03pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | No. these 2 files were last modified in May of 2001.
I found another file named Direct X. It has several files in it, most associated with my daughters Barbie games.
but there are two files I can't open:
dxdiagn.dll and DX8VB.DLL. these were last modified in December, which would have been when I first tried to download Dx 9.0. they are 1,600.000 and 1,100,000 K respectively.
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| 11 JAN 2003 at 9:46pm |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | In Direct X there are two files:
1. Dinput, which has 186 items in it. Most of these are icons of little notepads and pieces of paper with a paintbrush on them.
I see what you're doing - you're looking in a sub-directory (or folder) within the windows directory. (ignore the entries with "folder" Icons for the time being...) What you're looking for is a file named dxdiag.exe (or dxgiag if your folder options specify "hide" extensions for known file types). I'm also assuming that your default folder view is "etails" - sorry... To set the default view - right click any "white space" in Windows Explorer, and peruse to "View"... and then down to Details... and select it. Keep scrolling down until you find the file...
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| 12 JAN 2003 at 12:09pm |
shipprahIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 22
Joined: 21 DEC 2002
Status : Online | I opened windows explorer,
clicked on my computer
clicked on local disk C
there are 2 folders that seem relevant:
1. dx81eng(I reinstalled dx 8.1 from a game disk yesterday. But still got the unicode error message).
2. dxwebsetup, which gives me the window that says welcome to set up for directX 9.0. When I agree proceed with the instructions, it puts me online and downloads installtion components for over an hour, which I have done.
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| 12 JAN 2003 at 5:21pm |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | If your folder view isn't set to Details, it's going to be difficult to explain... It's just as easy to locate the file with Search For Files or Folders... Try it there...
Either way - In as much as the error message is identical, you must have the 2000/XP version installed... You can do two things - You can IM me with your email address and I'll send you the correct version, or find a CD Rom for DX9 and manually extract it from the cab file.
You may also be able to locate a copy on the Web -
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