Inside: SereneScreen Fan Forum - View Single Post - Bug: Unconfirmed Could not find any compatible Direct3D Devices

Dale · 01-31-2009, 09:33 PM

Originally posted by Jim Sachs:

The right-click-installation feature (it's a Windows thing, not ours) has an annoying characteristic. Even though you have right-clicked on the copy that you wish to deal with, Windows looks through its list of known screensavers (usually in the System32 directory) for a local copy of the same program. The name that it uses is the internal name, not the filename. If it finds a match, it runs that copy, NOT the one you clicked on.

So, when testing a new version, it's important remove all old versions in the system32 drawer (or wherever your OS likes to keep screensavers). I'm not sure if this is what's happening here, but it is a feature of Windows which makes it very difficult to tell if something has been fixed because you never know exactly which copy is running. This only applies to right-clicking the file -- if you double-click the file, then that's the copy that will run.

OK, let me clear that up first (again).

I didn't do a "right click-installation". I downloaded the .exe from SereneScreen, and ran it.

I chose this machine to test first, because it had NEVER had MA3 on it before. Just MA2.6. And it had been sitting on a shelf for about 2 months, so I had to (chose to) do a bunch of Windows and Office updates to it first, and also ran the DirectX9c updater to make sure that was up to date.

Also, before I ran the MA3 installer, I ran dxdiag (which is, of course, a Microsoft test program) to check for Direct3D function and verify that I truly had version 9c.

As I said, the computer passed all tests for Direct3D functionality (7, 8, and 9) - visually displaying the rotating cube reasonably well.

The system is a Compaq Presario 5BW250, latest BIOS and video chipset drivers from Compaq, Celeron 700 processor (yeah, I know the spec is Pentium 800 minimum). i810E (82810E) chipset, 512 MB memory.

I understand that this system is wimpy and I didn't expect great performance. Jerky movements, etc., would be expected.

But in addition to testing the installer, I thought I would test the current MA3 on a machine that was at essentially the lower limit of the specified requirements.

Another issue would be, how would some "plain user" determine if his/her machine would run MA3. [Yes, I recognize that the SereneScreen site "encourages" downloading the trial version, etc. But it's common to just ignore that when somebody says "Hey, this is great, you should buy it". Or you get it as a gift.]

That last bit would be a different topic, for another day.

01-31-2009, 09:33 PM	#18
Dale Banned Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Western Missouri Posts: 960	Originally posted by Jim Sachs: The right-click-installation feature (it's a Windows thing, not ours) has an annoying characteristic. Even though you have right-clicked on the copy that you wish to deal with, Windows looks through its list of known screensavers (usually in the System32 directory) for a local copy of the same program. The name that it uses is the internal name, not the filename. If it finds a match, it runs that copy, NOT the one you clicked on. So, when testing a new version, it's important remove all old versions in the system32 drawer (or wherever your OS likes to keep screensavers). I'm not sure if this is what's happening here, but it is a feature of Windows which makes it very difficult to tell if something has been fixed because you never know exactly which copy is running. This only applies to right-clicking the file -- if you double-click the file, then that's the copy that will run. OK, let me clear that up first (again). I didn't do a "right click-installation". I downloaded the .exe from SereneScreen, and ran it. I chose this machine to test first, because it had NEVER had MA3 on it before. Just MA2.6. And it had been sitting on a shelf for about 2 months, so I had to (chose to) do a bunch of Windows and Office updates to it first, and also ran the DirectX9c updater to make sure that was up to date. Also, before I ran the MA3 installer, I ran dxdiag (which is, of course, a Microsoft test program) to check for Direct3D function and verify that I truly had version 9c. As I said, the computer passed all tests for Direct3D functionality (7, 8, and 9) - visually displaying the rotating cube reasonably well. The system is a Compaq Presario 5BW250, latest BIOS and video chipset drivers from Compaq, Celeron 700 processor (yeah, I know the spec is Pentium 800 minimum). i810E (82810E) chipset, 512 MB memory. I understand that this system is wimpy and I didn't expect great performance. Jerky movements, etc., would be expected. But in addition to testing the installer, I thought I would test the current MA3 on a machine that was at essentially the lower limit of the specified requirements. Another issue would be, how would some "plain user" determine if his/her machine would run MA3. [Yes, I recognize that the SereneScreen site "encourages" downloading the trial version, etc. But it's common to just ignore that when somebody says "Hey, this is great, you should buy it". Or you get it as a gift.] That last bit would be a different topic, for another day.