I only have the trial version, and ran into a problem with it. It worked great at first, then all of a sudden, it only plays in a software mode. Very slow now.

I have a radeon 7500 mobile. Any ideas?

Change drivers or DirectX version recently?

Did you use "Windows Update"?

I have not changed direct X. I was previously at X9.

I am puzzled because I had it working at work. All was fine, as it was the day before at home also.

But for some reason, I tried it last night and it was super slow. If I look in the options, I can see that my only list of choices for rendering the screensaver now are ..desktop setting, software 600x800, and software 768x1024.

If you press "s" while the saver is running, I can see that it is running in a "software emmulation" type mode....hence...the 1 frame a second.

I have not changed anything, and cant figure out why all of a sudden the screen saver does not see my vid card correctly. Since then, I have tryed several video drivers....still no luck.

The strange thing is that when I play any games...the card kicks in and works fine.

On a side note, several times I have tried running the saver, and a message appears "no direct3d..beginning software rasterization"..something like that.

Does not make sense to me. I have tried all different d3d driver settings. ... performance, quality, AA off, things like that. No luck.

It would not bother me as much if it never worked...I just cant seem to figure out why it started to do this.

I even tried the 0.9 beta screensaver...same result.


Any help?

Thanks in advance. :)

Things don't change "all of a sudden".

You didn't run Windows Update?

Since you have a laptop, I would head to the website of your laptop manufacturer and make sure you are running the latest drivers for your video chipset.

Go to Start, then Run.. and enter DxDiag. Assuming you have this utility, it will tell you the status of DirectX. Specifically if it is Acceleration is disabled.

4386+ views! - ???? ... Mmmm! :confused:

Good point. Tells you something huh.

Still waiting for a response to some of the questions.

It's because he posted this at the tail-end of the
** Goldfish Aquarium version 1.0 (Oct 8th)!!!**
thread where it surely would have been ignored.

I split it into its own thread.

Yeah sorry for posting it there...wasnt the right spot to address the issue.

Alrighty. In my last post I forgot to mention that I did indeed do all the windows updates. This was previous to the slowdown of the saver.

I just ran the Dxdiagnostics.

I'm running dx 9.0b

Is this the latest one? I thought 9.1 is out. Maybe I'm wrong.


Im running XP Pro, 512 RAM 266 DDR, a P4 mobile 1.8Ghz.

For the vid card....looks like you were right.

DirectDraw Accereration says not available.....

Direct3D is enabled though....

AGP Texture acceleration - not available.....

I tried to run the directdraw acceleration tests. They seem to work for the first few...until you get to the fullscreen test.

On the first full screen test...maybe when it switches modes...it crashes.

At the bottom, I get the following message.

DirectDraw test results:Failure at step 20 (colorfill to back buffer): HRESULT = 0x887601c2 (error code)

So...what do you make of this?? IS direct X 9.1 out...or is 9.0b the latest?

Thanks again :)

Also, even though Direct3D is enabled, if I run those tests as well...they fail right away.

same code as above, or very similar. Also received an out of memory error...was either on the direct 7 or 8 test..cant remember. But all three tests failed first shot. direct 7,8, and 9.

Sounds like your video driver is the problem. You will need to completely uninstall the current Video Driver then reinstall the newest one you have. Just upgrading sometimes leaves old files that causes conflict with the new driver.
Warning: Changing video card drivers can also create problems. I suggest to follow the instructions that comes with the Video Driver installer.

Decibles,
The latest Radeon series driver is Catalyst 4.10. You can get it here. You'll want the display driver and control panel. You might also want to download the Cat Uninstaller and use it first to remove any ATI drivers and stuff that is already there (though be warned that it will remove ATI screensavers and demos also).

thanks for the heads up. I definately tried to download a few different drivers. However....I am certain that i did not download the catalyst drivers. Bevore I do though....could someone please tell me if the mobile chips are included in the catalyst drivers? I am running a mobile radeon 7500.
Thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure that the Catalyst drivers are for all the cards in the Radeon family. However, you might want to check the ATI website for more info.

Don't say it works if you're not sure, Clint. Normal Catalyst Drivers won't install on Radeon Mobile cards/chips. Try the Omega drivers instead. Those are tweaked Catalysts that often run way better than the Catalysts and also allow for installation on laptops.

If that doesn't work I suggest visiting thispage for a different approach on the problem.

Various Catalyst and Radeon drivers can be found here.

Good luck!

/Tiny Mobility

Or go to the website of your laptop's manufacture... Get the latest video drivers from them...

Tiny,
Notice that I said "I'm pretty sure...," as opposed to "I'm positive beyond a shadow of a doubt," or "It is absolutely the Catalyst driver that you need." Hence the other part of the post that recommended checking on the ATI site concerning what drivers are required by the specific card. Clear now?

Crystal. Just questioning what made you believe Catalysts worked with Mobiles. An positive answer to a question based only on a personal belief that they should really isn't much help.

/Tiny Daniel Kaffee

I think it must have been the word "Radeon" that led me astray. On the ATI site when searching for drivers, there are some listed as "Radeon family." Not having a laptop myself (except the one on top of my thighs), I foolishly jumped in trying to be helpful without having all the information. Not the first time, probably not the last. Glad there are those more knowledgeable here that can take up the slack. ;)