DirectX 10.1 on Windows 7

Forums › Microsoft Windows › DirectX 10.1 on Windows 7

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#83832 21-May-2011 15:42

Hi,

I have a GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD 4650 on an AGP system so there's no cheap upgrade option. Anyway, I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows XP. On Windows XP all my games ran perfectly well with directX 9.0. When I switched to windows 7, DirectX became DirectX 11 and my games don't work that well at all let alone on my natural resolution of 1920 x 1080. My graphics card was purchased before windows 7 was created or having Beta testing but I've got it to work so the OS support is OK. The question is: the hardware was only designed up to directX 10.1 and I was wondering if I could downgrade to DirectX 10.1 without breaking my computer. And another thing is in my favourite game, Star Wars Battlefront II, has no sound and I am wondering if that is to do with DirectX because the only thing that's changed is the graphics driver being updated and DirectX.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#471931 21-May-2011 16:00

A Google search will lead you to a huge number of links regarding Star Wars Battlefront II and Windows7. Reading through those may help you.

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#471956 21-May-2011 17:15

But you see, it has nothing to do with the windows vista dual processor affinity issue nor does it have anything to do with my sound driver. I have already researched this and my issue has not come up. My sound driver hasn't had an update since 2007 and I already had the latest sound max drivers when I got the game in 2010 which worked with no problems. That is why I believe it is a directX issue seeing as my non directs 11 comparable graphics card has been working strangely ever since I updated to windows 7 and subsequently updating to DirectX 11.

Ragnor

8196 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#472042 21-May-2011 23:35

In Windows 7 you don't just have one version of direct x you actually have the latest and previous versions available.

The game will use the maximum version that it was designed to use and that your gfx card supports.

If you think there is a problem with your DX install run the DX Installer, this will update and install any missing 9, 10, 11 files
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

Also is the game patched/updated to the last version that was released by the maker, 1.1 I think?

Otherwise I suspect your problem may be sound card driver related. Is the soundcard onboard your motherboard, what make/model of motherboard?

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#472096 22-May-2011 10:23

I have updated my Star Wars Battlefront II to 1.1 and the unofficial 1.3 patch. I believe it is a directx issue as using the exact same sound drivers, when I had windows XP installed, it worked perfectly. I was, however, just using that as an example. Another example is my two oldest games, star wars Jedi academy and Jedi outcast, don't load at all even though I have gotten Jedi academy to work on a netbook running windows 7 starter. Also, CoD4 is laggy both in single and multiplayer. I have turned everything to a minimum; resolution 1024 x 768 no shadows specular map off etc but it still lags even though on my windows XP I got it working fine with antialiasing on 8x with the resolution 1920 x 1080. I have tried all the regular fixes and nothing has worked. I defraged my computer 3 times yesterday using the auslogics disc defrager.

It doesn't have to be a DirectX issue but I don't want people saying that my hardware is too old. If there are individual fixes for all these issues then please tell me because those are pretty much all my issues (there are about 2 or 3 other issues). I will try that DirectX installer but I'm not on the computer right now.

Thanks.

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#473142 23-May-2011 20:02

It's an intergrated sound max driver but I'm not sure of the motherboard.

Ragnor

8196 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#473233 23-May-2011 23:43

Did you run the DX web installer, any change?

Speccy can probably tell you what motherboard make and model you have
http://www.piriform.com/speccy

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#473666 24-May-2011 21:10

The direct x installer made CoD a bit better but it's still barely playable. Both of the games that didn't load now load but extremely slowly (10 minutes for a cutscene) and star wars battlefront II still has no sound.

Ragnor

8196 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#473870 25-May-2011 12:22

What are the specs of the machine (cpu, ram, system type 32bit or 64bit)? Go to Control Panel > System & Security > System.

Next step I would find out the motherboard model either via Speccy which I linked earlier, or popping off the side of the case and having a look at the board or checking the documentation that came with the PC (motherboard manual, invoice from when your got it etc).

Then go to the motherboard manufacturers site and find the latest for Windows 7 drivers, download and install those.

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#474087 25-May-2011 18:38

I have been told b a friend who is good with computers that the reason my games are laggy is because I don't have enough RAM/CPU and that he sound won't work on star wars battlefront II is because DirectX 11 isn't compatible with the game. Thank you for you responses.

SepticSceptic

2157 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#474416 26-May-2011 14:06

Do let us know how it turns out - I have the same AGP card, though I am not a big game player.

You should have at least 2GB RAM for Win7 + games, 3GB preferred. Even so, my aging setup is a bit slow on certain applications - ie MyMovies - 5-6 seconds to dig into a movie detail, rather than 1/2 second on a more modern hardware ..

There was one weird issue about HDMI issue and sound output - if you have HDMI, you need to disable ( or enable ? - don't recall ) HDMI Sound in order for the sound card to output audio ...

Ragnor

8196 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#474508 26-May-2011 18:04

The game uses DX 9.0c.

Because you upgraded windows you won't have gone through the games normal install process in Windows 7 meaning some DX 9.0c files needed might not have been installed.

However, if you ran the latest DX web install on Windows 7 you would have got have all the DX9.0c files the game needs installed.

I bet if you find out your motherboard model and go and update the motherboard chipset drivers and sound drivers to the latest windows 7 versions you will likely solve your sound issue in the game.

Without knowing the specs (cpu, ram etc) can't really comment on whether you have enough.

However I would say your current gfx card may be a bit under powered for 1920x1080 resolution, older games though should be fine.

Did you get a new screen too at the same time as you upgraded from XP to Win7?

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#474972 27-May-2011 22:21

Dual core 2.6Ghz processor, 2GBs DDR2 RAM, SoundMAX integrated sound card and I can't remember my motherboard off the top of my head but when I updated to windows 7, I updated my motherboard and BIOS to their latest drivers which from memory were last updated in 2009(?) though I will check that. Also if it was a DirectX issue, wouldn't my games have no sound?

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#474976 27-May-2011 22:29

I got the new screen with my graphics card about a year ago. This just seems odd because windows 7 runs much more efficiently than windows XP did except in games. My gfx card could handle CoD with anti aliasing on 8x with 1920 x 1080 easily. But now with the current settings, I could run it on my iPad, almost.

kipm

23 posts

Geek

#475073 28-May-2011 11:36

My motherboard is an Intel D865GLC. My CPU has one 2.6GHz core. I'm gonna do a dual boot with Windows XP unless there is a software solution.

Ragnor

8196 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#475299 29-May-2011 00:43

Well that explains it.

That motherboard is just too old I'm afraid. Intel discontinued support for it well before Windows 7 came out. No official windows 7 drivers were developed for it by Intel.

The base drivers Microsoft ship with Windows 7 allow it work in a basic manner but definitely not optimally which is needed for gaming.