Fishing for a solution I like.

[SlackJawedYokel]

Actually, I'm pretty sure I know what the solution is... getting a new video card.
I just wanna make sure.

The Story so far:
Suddenly discovered I couldn't play Battlefield 1942, WarHammer or Prince of Persia any longer.
Battlefield opens to EA video blurb and hangs, video freezes, audio stutters.
Warhammer and PoP simply stop at a black screen.
Also noticed at about this time that the screen "zooms" in and out just a bit... 5 to 10 pixels when new windows pop up.

Uninstalled old NVidia drivers(GeForce 5600 card) and installed latest drivers.(used Driver Cleaner and discovered I had multiple intalls of drivers... dummy me forgot to uninstall when I updated. Doh)
No change.
Updated to Direct X 9.0c.
No change.
Checked Direct X Diag.(did not run tests)
No problems found.
Discovered the fan on my video card was dead.
Replaced, no change.
Ran Direct X Diag again this time with test.
Aha!
Direct 3D test locked up tight on upside down DirectX logo... lol.
Direct Draw test was fine in the "small box" test, but locked up tight in the "full screen" test.
Direct Sound was ok.

Obviously I've got problems with Direct3D/Direct Draw.
The question is how do I solve this problem?

I'm running XP Pro with all the latest updates.
Video is 1200x1600 at 85Mhz refresh on a 21" Sony G500.
And as far as I know all of my drivers are up to date.
This all started about 2 months ago and as far as I can recall didn't involve any new hardware/software changes.
I've been running this card for well over a year now.

After thinking about it a bit, I'm wondering if the fan failing didn't cause the card to toast a chip... Except for this "zooming" issue and the Direct3d problem, it runs perfectly fine.
Thankfully, it is a BFG card and has a lifetime warranty so they'll replace it for free within 10 days.

Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks
Cletus

[jayfish]

1. Have You Tried To Run Anything That Uses OpenGL?

I OpenGL doesn't work either, it might be a pretty good indication the GPU is damaged. If OpenGL works then it's time to look elsewhere. Even if OpenGL fails there is alot more to look at. It's just a matter of taking the time to do it.

Jay