STILL can't start SL (With Log)

Okay, last night I had enough time to try to fix this issue, which I'm pretty sure at this point is an OpenGL issue.

I went into add/Remove and removed the Nvidia drivers.
I ran DriverCleaner and set it to nuke Nvidia and ATI drivers.
I also ran a Registry cleaner I've got for safety.
I rebooted in safe mode.
Ran DriverCleaner again.
Installed the Nvidia drivers that came with my card (175.16).
Rebooted and completed the installation.

Then I ran the OpenGL tool, and again, it told me I only had Microsoft's OpenGL 1.1, and SL 1.20 would not launch.

I also got an e-Mail from BFG suggesting that the only solution was to exchange the card, which makes zero sense.

Ah, if only there were a DirectX SL viewer....

Tried a system restore?

Sounds like the OpenGL built into windows is borked.

The last time it worked is way too far back for any restore points. Plus, that wouldn't account for the new card, I'd be doing it all over again.

Since BFG's support was totally lame (Answer 1: there is no problem. Answer 2: exchange the card), I'm trying NVidia's, which they put up a LOT of roadblocks in front of.

Do you have the little nVidia settings icon in the system tray?

Does it say anything about OpenGl in there?

It looks like your system is a 4x AGP. It's an old motherboard, and not a high end one, right?

What is the motherboard? It might well be listed there but I don't see it in all the mass of technical stuff.

When you uninstall the video drivers, and reboot, what exactly happens when you reboot, and how do you respond?

If you do Control Panel / Display / Settings / Advanced / Troubleshoot , what does it show for hardware acceleration?

nVidia has a user forum, FWIW.

No. Not in the menu on the tray thing. If you go to the NVidia Control Panel, and choose system information, it mentions that the DirectX version is 9.0c, but doesn't mention OpenGL, although there looks like there's enough room for another line.


It's an MSI KT3 Ultra.

The thing is, I know it CAN work, because I have been on. It's just that somewhere in the process something has broken.


That's a pretty broad question. It uses some default video driver. The resolution is lower. I don't get any error messages or anything.


The slider is visible, and it's set all the way to the right at "Full". "All Accelerations are Enabled"

On another forum I got some advice. My problem was actually a couple of BIOS settings.

Of course, the last time I went into BIOS, I upped the clock speed from 133 to 134, and the CPU fried. So I had to find a new Athalon to plug in. Took a few days to find such an old processor, but $10 at Re-PC netted me a new Athalon 2200+, so not only does it run faster, it also supports SSE, so I can play Portal!

Turning on Fast Writes, and setting the AGP port explicitly to 4x (as fast as this board goes) seems to have turned the trick, because as soon as I get everything back up and running, I was able to log on.

Apparently blowing up my CPU was a good thing. I was able to log in, and freeze after a bit (gotta knock that clock down a notch probably. And get out of that Mall I've been stuck in for the past two months).

What forum?

What did you get while you were at the mall for two months?

Congrats on getting it working.

nVidia's forum. Although it was a long time before someone hit on the BIOS problem. There was a lot of unloading and reloading of drivers, and a lot of superstition. You know, "Every time I crash, I reformat my drive, reload Windows, and sacrifice a chicken" stuff.



I wasn't able to log on for two months....

Now to see if I can get on and stay one without freezing.... I knocked the clock down by a tick to see if that had anything to do with it.

The mall question was a joke.