Some Directx Error

[Marliins]

I start playing maybe for a bout 4 or 5 minuets, than I get a black screen with a white text shown in the middle saying

directx surface unavailable

...........I just bought the game too, dont want to have to take it back

can anyone help me on this ???

ps - I had Directx 8 (windows standard).... so when I got this error message, I updated to directx 9... same error message comes up.... and im getting frequent crashses in neverwinter nights :/

[VernMcC]

What finally ended the DirectX nightmare for me was that Realtek released new audio drivers on 6/27/03. Before that some things helped, but it never went away. The thing that seemed to help the most was cranking back the Audio card's acceleration. This did not stop it, but it did help. I would suggest you first make sure your audio and video drivers are current. If that does not do the trick, then start playing with the acceleration of the audio then video card. Good luck.


Edit: Oops, forgot to mention that you should get the install validator from the download section. That will insure your install was complete before you start messing with the hardware.

VL

[Iskabis]

yeah, i was gonna mention the install validator. apparently lots of people got bad installs and have to manually copy one or more .mob files over.

-rhyssan

[Ordinator]

Whenever I get this error message it dumps me back to the desktop and I get a DDhelp page fault in module <unknown> and then MoO3 will not start back up till I reboot. All of my drivers are current (bios,sound,video,etc), DX9, MoO3 1.2 validated, etc. Every other game I have works like it should (aside from their own bugs :) )

I don't think the DX surface is anything System related. I think it is more of a Game->DirectX mis-code.

Of course I could be WAY off, but that is what it seems to me.

One thing I have noticed it that I ONLY get the surface error when I SHIFT+ENTER to advance the turn. If I continually push the turn button with the mouse then I can play for 28 hours straight (no exaggeration :) ) without problems.

[Iskabis]

for my 'puter, i only ever get the dreaded DXSU error when there's something wrong with one of the game's data files. (always because i modded it wrong somehow, or installed a mod incorrectly) that's why the install validator has helped so many people - if one of the mob files (or a mod based on one of them) is garbaged, the most obvious sign is when you get the DXSU error...

(oh, and i always use shift+enter rather than clicking the turn button. mouse usually isn't anywhere near it, so it's easier to keyboard... :) )

-rhyssan

[Ordinator]

Originally posted by Iskabis
(oh, and i always use shift+enter rather than clicking the turn button. mouse usually isn't anywhere near it, so it's easier to keyboard... :) )

-rhyssan

Don't get me wrong, I hardly ever get the DXSU error, but when I do it is when I shift+enter. And I agree with you completely, the mouse is never in the right place for the turn button :)

[Iskabis]

Originally posted by Ordinator
Don't get me wrong, I hardly ever get the DXSU error, but when I do it is when I shift+enter. And I agree with you completely, the mouse is never in the right place for the turn button :)
well, i'm much better at modding now, so i haven't seen it in over 3 months. so really, i hardly ever get it either anymore. :)

it just seems weird for a keyboard shortcut to tickle it when it ought to be doing the same thing as clicking that button... maybe a shift+right-click (or some other key+mouse combo) to end turn?? no matter where the mouse is??? ;)

-rhyssan

[Ordinator]

I know the game doesn't take well to losing focus (alt+tab and what not) So I am wondering if maybe I bump the properties or ctrl key and that is what causes the lost focus and DX/ddhelp error. I honestly don't know, and it doesn't happen enough to really bother me.

[zesuila]

I heard someone write about Realtek sound chipset who have some problems it seems. I have an asus a7nv8x deluxe motherboard with realtek onboard ac97 sound chipset.

Before installing the code patch, i had no problems with moo3. After the patch, i became plagued by problems: Unavailable DSX surface, crashes and even blue screen of death and Windoze XP rebooting my computer!
And this happened often in moo3, but it never happened in any other game i have(Gta3, Rollercoaster 1 and 2, Morrowind, etc.).

Finally, i found out that there was a new driver for this chipset(the 3.17 driver) coming with the other drivers for the motherboard. I've installed it and since then, all my problems have disapeared in moo3. The voices sounds in moo3 are more crisp too, more realistic i would say.

So you might wanna check your sound card because it seems to be a problematic area with moo3.

[Ordinator]

Originally posted by Iskabis
for my 'puter, i only ever get the dreaded DXSU error when there's something wrong with one of the game's data files. (always because i modded it wrong somehow, or installed a mod incorrectly) that's why the install validator has helped so many people - if one of the mob files (or a mod based on one of them) is garbaged, the most obvious sign is when you get the DXSU error...-rhyssan

I have found this to be accurate. I have been playing with the files and the ONLY time I get the DXSU error is when a modded file is screwy. I was getting them when I first got the game, but then my sound drivers were out of date. When I got 44.03 drivers for my SB 16 PCI card the problem was fixed, until I started with the mods.