hoak Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 (edited) Several multimedia applications and games have this issue (though many do not), and I'm not the first to experience it... None of the applications known to have the issue have any problem running on Server 2003 prior to SP1... In essence if you try to run the game or application on Server 2003 with SP1 installed you'll get the message:This application requires DirectX version 8.1 or greater to run.No error messages of any kind appear in the Event Viewer.... The problem can be resolved by using a utility like DirectX Happy Uninstall, at the cost of $12, by uninstalling and reinstalling DirectX 9c... It would seem that most of the MM applications and games are older, circa DirectX 8.1 or older -- and that this must be some very simple registry entry issue that is corrected when DirecX 9c is reinstalled.A sort of neat freak for solving problemes like this; I find uninstalling and reinstalling sort of a crude solution and wonder if anyone might know how I can troubleshoot the issue, and find out what exactly is causing it -- or knows what's going on outright and has a simple solution? Edited February 3, 2006 by hoak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 6, 2006 Author Share Posted February 6, 2006 Here's something interesting that may be related; take a look at your driver properties sheet; for NVIDIA its the top of the control panel tree; and then look at the DirectX version it reports... Many will see "DirectX 3"...Perhaps this is a driver issue post SP1 for Server 2003 in what NVIDA drivers are able to see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJARRRPCGP Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 (edited) look at the DirectX version it reports... Many will see "DirectX 3"...Something's fishy about this. Wonder if Microsoft was using some NT4 code in Windows 2003's DirectX?! I hope not! I know that NT4 didn't support any DirectX version later than DirectX 3x! Did Microsoft get lazy and "borrowed" code from NT4? Edited February 7, 2006 by RJARRRPCGP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 (edited) Could be, but it all worked before SP1... Perhaps it's Microsoft found the broad enthusiasm for 'Server 2003 As A Workstation' putting Windowws XP in well earned bad light and took steps thwart it; ATi drivers no longer install properly without a lot of manual dorking around -- and now this DX issue would seem to suggest something's amiss... Edited February 12, 2006 by hoak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 18, 2006 Author Share Posted February 18, 2006 Anybody know what's different about how DirectX installs on Server 2003 SP1 then how it installs on Server 2003 sans SP1 and XP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softice Posted February 18, 2006 Share Posted February 18, 2006 My experience:1. minish Version from "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectX".2. to find a Windows Security Update CD, Which contained directX 9.0B, install directX 9.0B.3. update to directX 9.0C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 18, 2006 Author Share Posted February 18, 2006 Ok I found a DirectX 9b redistributable install -- but what does "minish" mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted February 20, 2006 Share Posted February 20, 2006 DirectX 9 is removed when installing SP1 - this is a "by design" thing. I second the recommendation for using DirectX Happy Uninstall, as it's the only sure-fire way I've found to reinstall DirectX 9.0c. Don't be surprised if it breaks again when the next SP comes out, but until then it'll get DirectX 9.0c back on the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 23, 2006 Author Share Posted February 23, 2006 Thanks apokok and softice -- I did get it to work... cluberti I do not believe that SP1 "removes" DirectX 9, but I do believe it somehow criples it; if you look at the status information reported by the DirectX Diagnostic Tool DirectX 9 appears in order on Server 2003 SP1, and in fact many games and applications that require DirectX 9 run fine.The problem appears in driver properties that report DirectX 3, and many older games and applications that specifically require DirectX 8.1 either are not seeing correct registry information they need to find what they need, or are not seeing file/file versions they need to run...This is a job for one of the Windows System Internals Gurus like the famous Gurglemeyer, he could get to the bottom of something like this and have it more sorted out then Microsoft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluberti Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 DirectX on Windows 2003 SP1 is listed as 9.0c, but if you look closely at the files they're different minor version numbers than XP SP2 with 9.0c. It's like a mixture of 9.0b and 9.0c (I'm not in the DX dev group, so don't quote me on it), and it requires using something like happy uninstall to remove and reinstall the proper DirectX 9.0c. Otherwise, it'll report quite a few different versions to programs - which is odd, and I don't know the reasons behind the crippling, but it is indeed not the same after SP1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJARRRPCGP Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 Thanks apokok and softice -- I did get it to work... cluberti I do not believe that SP1 "removes" DirectX 9, but I do believe it somehow criples it; if you look at the status information reported by the DirectX Diagnostic Tool DirectX 9 appears in order on Server 2003 SP1, and in fact many games and applications that require DirectX 9 run fine.The problem appears in driver properties that report DirectX 3, and many older games and applications that specifically require DirectX 8.1 either are not seeing correct registry information they need to find what they need, or are not seeing file/file versions they need to run...This is a job for one of the Windows System Internals Gurus like the famous Gurglemeyer, he could get to the bottom of something like this and have it more sorted out then Microsoft. But I believe Microsoft said that the problem is a bug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 24, 2006 Author Share Posted February 24, 2006 Is there any manner of 'official statment' to that effect (I couldn't find anything)? It seems pretty odd as even Microsoft promots Server 2003 as a robust 'mission critical' client and DirectX is essential for so many multi-media applications... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmX.Memnoch Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 What about the Feb06 DX9.0c redistributable? Will that restore things after an SP1/R2 install? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoak Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 (edited) Well I tried it using softice's proceedure on the previous page with the Feb06 DX9.0c redistributable and it seems to have messed up things even more -- now DiretX apps that were fine CTD...Apparently SP1 'locks' some DirectX component files so they can't be upgraded properly with any of the current DirectX distros out there. It's looking more and more like the Happy DirectX Uninstall tool might be the only sure path... Though I can't feature spending $12 to fix something Microsoft has broken...Surely someone on these forums knows what's going on between SP1 and DirectX 9 on Server 2003 and will eventually post... I hope! Edited February 27, 2006 by hoak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Hunter Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 Just a couple of suggestions:Try extracting all of 9.0b and 9.0c to separate directories and copy the following from 9.0b to 9.0cdxsetup.exeDSETUP.dlldsetup32.dllApparently the 9.0c installer has a bug of some kind.Slipstreaming SP1 (with nLite) may work?Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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