Max Payne 2 and Direct X 9

[DougB]

Hi, I just upgraded video cards from a nvidia geforce3 ti 200 to a sapphire radeon 9600xt. All of my old games run much nicer but Max Payne 2 won't run at all. It used to run fine on my old card but now all I get is a message saying that Max Payne 2 requires a direct x 9 compatable display adapter and it won't even start. The radeon is made to optimize direct x 9 so I don't understand why this is occurring? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. :confused:

[Coconut Monkey]

Do you have the latest drivers for your card ( www.ati.com ) and Directx 9.0c ( www.microsoft.com/directx ) installed? Make sure you remove the previous drivers from Add/Remove Programs before installing the new ones.

[DougB]

Thanks for replying. ATI drivers(6.14.10.6414) and Direct X (9.0c) are up to date. I did install my ATI drivers first before uninstalling the NVidia drivers which may have been a mistake. Would uninstalling and then reinstalling the ATI drivers help? :o

[Coconut Monkey]

It could help. All kinds of grief can occur if you don't uninstall old drivers, especially if the previous video card chipset was made by a competitor!

It's a good idea to start afresh (format or a clean install of Windows) when installing a new video card, if you want trouble-free operation.

[DougB]

Coconut Monkey,
Thank for the suggestions. They were all sound advice. The problem however turned out to be an incompatability issue with Windows XP. I changed the XP compatability to emulate W98 and the game runs like a charm. I'm not sure why this wasn't an issue with the NVidia card unless the game was optimized for NVidia. I've been told that HL2 is optimized for ATI. I guess I'll find out at Christmas. Thanks again.

[rcrevolution]

hmm odd I run Max Payne 2 with a 9600XT no problem and i didnt have to change my XP to make it look like 98.

[Catweazle]

DougB, you should not have to set program compatibility to get that game running. The fact that you've had to indicates underlying problems, most likely resulting from adding an ATi card without first eliminating all traces of NVidia drivers. I'd also suggest you format and start over fresh and clean, to avoid future problems ;)