Oh the Humanity

[andrewducker]

Today has been computer hell. I wanted to show my Dad Massive Assault as he's a fan of strategy games. So I downloaded and installed it, then tried to run it, at which point it complained about there not being a Direct3D card installed. I endeavoured to find out what was causing the problem...

4 hours later, I've uninstalled and reinstalled drivers about 25 times, have taken every card out of the computer except the graphics card (which has been out, but went back in again) and have played with everything from general settings to security settings for regedit.

And suddenly it starts working just fine. For no reason I can adequately fathom.

So I look at the three cards I've got out of the box, put them all back in and put the lid on.

And it doesn't boot up.

So I take out card 1.

And it doesn't boot up.

So I take out card 2.

And it doesn't boot up.

So I take out card 3.

It boots up.

So I put card 1 back in.

It boots up.

So I put card 2 back in.

It boots up.

So I put card 3 back in.

It boots up.

So I screw it all back together.

It boots up.

I start Massive Assault.

The pretty pictures all appear.

But no sound.

After a few minutes tinkering I discover that the on-board sound is working, but not the sound card.

So I go to the BIOS and turn off the on-board sound.

And it doesn't boot up.

Giving up entirely, I turn the on-board sound back on, plug the speakers into it and assume my father will never notice that he's got stereo sound and not quad.

Have I mentioned recently that I _hate_ computers?

(That's 6 hours of my life I'm never getting back)

Comments

[derumi.livejournal.com]

It sounds like there's a problem with your IRQ settings with regards to the game. Does the game have a setup.exe file to tinker with after install?

[andrewducker]

Oh, it was nothing to do with the game. Should have made it clearer - the drivers were a complete mess, DirectX9 wasn;t even installed, and when I ran DXDiag it told me there was no Direct3D.

But I suspect that there is a motherboard problem to do with the PCI slots.

[original-aj.livejournal.com]

They're great when they work, aren't they? I've spent today up to my ears in circuit boards too. You have my heartfelt sympathy.

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

You're out your mind (and also obviously out the shower..) I thought this was meant to be the relaxing nothing-like-work weekend??
I'm going back out to the sun in the garden :-))))
Seen your icon yet?

[andrewducker]

This is my weekend off. I wasn't supposed to spend 6 hours getting it working. But it's that or leave Dad's machine in a complete mess...

[andrewducker]

And yeah, icon cool :->