This past weekend, my son installed DirectX 9.0c on his PC only to find that none of his old games would run anymore. Note that he was running DirectX 8.1 before DirectX 9.0c was installed.

There is no way, to my limited knowledge, other than re-imaging his machine, to un-install DirectX 9.0c and to re-install DirectX 8.1. However, of greater concern I need to know:

1) Is it possible that my son installed a preliminary version of DirectX 9.0c, whereas installing the correct version would've resulted in full downward compatibility for all of his old games?

2) If item #1 above is not possible, is there a way to uninstall DirectX 9.0c and to then re-install DirectX 8.1?

3) If the newer games require DirectX 9.0c and it's installed, is there a way to alternate between DirectX 9.0c and DirectX 8.1 so he can play both his old and new games?

Note that I've ordered a the following graphics card for his machine and was wondering if anyone thinks there will be any problems associated with it:

BFG GeForce 6600GT OC 128MB AGP

Note that my son's machine is running Microsoft Windows XP Home with 512K of RAM, with a P4 processor at 1.8 GHz. And yes, it does have an AGP slot...

Any help anyone could give me with the above concerns would be very much appreciated...

srtek
srtek@yahoo.com

Going to DX 9 should not make any difference in games you can play so I think it is something else.

Anyway....

1. Would have to know what he installed but the full installer is HERE.

2. Yes there is with DirectX Happy Uninstall.

3. No you can not do that.

I would try reinstalling video card drivers before messing with DirectX.

If you update to SP2 it includes DX9 as well as lots of compatibility fixes for games.

I'm with AZ on this, DX9 shouldn't have pooched all his games, something else is wrong. Try dwnlding new chipset drivers, and new vidcard drivers.

If the vidcard drivers are too old, they just won't work with DX9.

The BFG card you ordered is rock solid, and overclocks even better than what BFG sends it at. BFG has a bonus lifetime warranty, and 24/7 support. I've read good things about the card, although I'm going with the eVGA 6600GT, same 24/7 support, 2 year warranty, but an upgrade option that allows you to recoup the original purchase price of your current card, when buying a new card, within a time limit, of course.

Either/or, the eVGA is cheaper, but the lifetime warranty of the BFG is very sweet, and they don't care if you OC it more than they already have.

I've tested 2000+ games in Windows and DX9 works fine for all old DX games from DX1-DX8....it's not necessary to go back to or alternate to an older version. (This might be necessary with DX10 but we won't know until it's released next year)

Could you list these "old" games?