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Thread: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

  1. #1

    Default Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    I can't seem to find out where this question goes so i'm putting it here...
    I'm trying to play Rome: Total war but whenever i try and start the program the popup says exactly as follows

    Rome: Total War failed to find DirectX 9, Which is required for the game to run. Please reinstall DirectX.

    I have reinstalled DirectX atleast 100 times still can't find it.

    Anyone have any ideas?

  2. #2
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    If you have Vista or 7, odds are you don't.

    Do yourself two favors.
    1 Disable the UAC. It conflicts with this.
    2. Uninstall Rome, delete the folders in program files and appdata, run a registry caleaneer, and reboot.
    3. Install: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en.
    4. Reboot.
    5. Install the game.

    Good luck.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    If you have Vista or 7, odds are you don't.
    DirectX has historically been backwards compatible for about the previous two versions. DX10-11 support DX9.

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    1 Disable the UAC. It conflicts with this.
    No, it doesn't. Not since the Vista beta days.

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    2. Uninstall Rome, delete the folders in program files and appdata, run a registry caleaneer, and reboot.
    Registry cleaner? Come on man, it's 2010, not 2001!

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    IIRC even though it says it's for DX9 it will update the currently installed version.

  4. #4
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    DirectX has historically been backwards compatible for about the previous two versions. DX10-11 support DX9.
    Rime does not find it. Never has and I have used Vista and learned the hard way.

    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    No, it doesn't. Not since the Vista beta days.
    Explain the message. It says it cannot find it. That means it never got installed. Even the version on the rome disc. I have seen it too many times.

    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    Registry cleaner? Come on man, it's 2010, not 2001!
    Yeah. CA's uninstaller is stupid on a good day and this is not a good day.


    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    IIRC even though it says it's for DX9 it will update the currently installed version.
    No, it won't. I've been doing this fight too long.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    DirectX has historically been backwards compatible for about the previous two versions. DX10-11 support DX9.
    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    Rime does not find it. Never has and I have used Vista and learned the hard way.
    It's possible some optional DirectX components used by Rome are missing on a default Windows Vista/7 install. Usually the web installer will include all of them. It's still using the DirectX10 runtime, but through an emulation layer.

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    1 Disable the UAC. It conflicts with this.
    No, it doesn't. Not since the Vista beta days.
    Explain the message. It says it cannot find it. That means it never got installed. Even the version on the rome disc. I have seen it too many times.
    Well, this is a different issue, and UAC has nothing to do with the DirectX error. UAC has had problems with games but most of them were fixed after the RTM of Vista and the rest with SP1. But it's still claimed all across the internet. Rome works for many people with UAC enabled.

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    Registry cleaner? Come on man, it's 2010, not 2001!
    Yeah. CA's uninstaller is stupid on a good day and this is not a good day.
    I'd rather spend 3 hours reformatting than trusting a registry cleaner.

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    IIRC even though it says it's for DX9 it will update the currently installed version.
    No, it won't. I've been doing this fight too long.
    If you check dxdiag it will report back DirectX10-11. It's not even possible to install the DirectX9 redistributable installer on Windows Vista/7.

  6. #6
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    It's possible some optional DirectX components used by Rome are missing on a default Windows Vista/7 install. Usually the web installer will include all of them. It's still using the DirectX10 runtime, but through an emulation layer..
    This game is old enough you have to spoonfeed it. It was not given the brains to look for anything.


    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    Well, this is a different issue, and UAC has nothing to do with the DirectX error. UAC has had problems with games but most of them were fixed after the RTM of Vista and the rest with SP1. But it's still claimed all across the internet. Rome works for many people with UAC enabled.
    UAC for a single user pc is a POS at best. I come from a time when you did your own covering your back instead of suing somebody for not doing it. It's called self-responsibility.

    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    I'd rather spend 3 hours reformatting than trusting a registry cleaner.
    To each his own. I've been using Eusing Free Registry Cleaner since it was released with no problems. Read the price - free.


    Quote Originally Posted by vanity View Post
    If you check dxdiag it will report back DirectX10-11. It's not even possible to install the DirectX9 redistributable installer on Windows Vista/7.
    Dxdiag will say that because Microsoft software programming egotists tell it, too.

    For your information, I did install the dx9 redistributable installer on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and not in XP compatibility. I also did it on Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    UAC for a single user pc is a POS at best. I come from a time when you did your own covering your back instead of suing somebody for not doing it. It's called self-responsibility.
    Yeah it really used to be. Nagged all the time and didn't work for half of the games you threw at it. It's much more silent in Windows 7.

    Disabling UAC generally means more work, actually:
    - Using an administrator account for everything, where if you get hit by a virus, you're hosed.
    - Using a limited account, but now you need to manually change directory permissions for all games - or run them as administrator.

    It didn't work so well in the past, but now it's failed to not impress me for any game I've tried.

    Quote Originally Posted by irishron View Post
    Dxdiag will say that because Microsoft software programming egotists tell it, too.

    For your information, I did install the dx9 redistributable installer on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit and not in XP compatibility. I also did it on Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium.


    That's odd, years and years ago when Vista was released I remember people trying to slipstream Vista with DirectX9 integrated and the installation would abort. Hmm, anyway, it's not meant to be supported. Even the Wikipedia DirectX article mentions shortly how the various DirectX 10+ layers operate in unison.

  8. #8
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    You can force dx9 down Vista and 7 throats. If you have any doubts after the fact, try Rome and Medieval2. They will finally run. If you are still a Doubting Thomas, in dxdiag, save to file, and open in Notepad. All the files in the redistributable, including dx8 and dx9, are loaded at startup and listed.

    As far as adminr rights to everything, After I got 7 installed, activated and updated, I shoved the UAC bar all the way to the bottom, and went into C:'s security tab, got my account and gave myself ownership to everything from there down. That ended many problems in other folders in a hurry. Time well spent.

    Then when I updated dx9 for Medieval2 and Rome, no problems from the installer.. When I installed the games, they went where they were intended to go just like XP. I have nothing for them installed in appdata doing it this way.

    Wikipedia is only as good as the input. It's not perfect, either. I use it for reference for other things.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    I was extremely confused after I read about installing DX9 on Vista/7 - didn't make any sense to me. Anyway, I contacted my friend who's a programmer over at Egosoft, and the way he explained it was that the version of Direct3D used accords to the video driver. An XPDM (Windows XP compatibility) driver will always fall back to Direct3D9. A WDDM driver uses D3D9Ex or D3D10-11 based on hardware capability. To use the Windows Aero theme you must use a WDDM driver. Installing DirectX9 redist won't replace DirectX10-11, else Aero and any DirectX10-11 games would cease to work - an old game that installs the redist (like most do) would break the latest releases.

    In summary, then: running the DirectX updater is a Good Thing(tm) - but it's not replacing DirectX on your system, it's updating and installing any components that are missing.

  10. #10
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    That's all I was doing. The humans are having to do what the programs should be set up to do but programmers are human and trying cover all bases is almost impossible. I don't mind doing it this way since I figured it out. This is why I add it it to the to-do list for this message.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Fun chatting with you - it cleared up my misconception that the DX versions were incompatible at least. Thanks, and good luck, Zurikiev!

  12. #12

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    hello, i've followed the steps from 1-5 but rtw refuses to find dx9 on my W7U 64 bit.

    Also during install of RTW i choose yes to install WMR9 and no to DX and gamespy, so does anyone have anymore suggestions?

  13. #13
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    After you get dirextx 9 installed, you have to reinstall RTW so it can find it - or at least I had to.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    i followed your instructions above exactly but it still won't work.
    It still says that DX9 can't be found.

  15. #15
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Did you reinstall the game after disabling the UAC first?

  16. #16

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    yes. UAC have been disabled all the time.

  17. #17
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Are you installing the game in default or another location?

  18. #18
    Leonardo's Avatar Reborn Old Timer
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    Icon2 Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    Quote Originally Posted by roaringsilence View Post
    hello, i've followed the steps from 1-5 but rtw refuses to find dx9 on my W7U 64 bit.

    Also during install of RTW i choose yes to install WMR9 and no to DX and gamespy, so does anyone have anymore suggestions?
    You shouldn't say no to install DX during the game setup, because if you didn't you should also have an installation of Visual C++ 2005 Redistribute as well. These two installations is essential for Rome TW to be working properly.
    I think you're gonna to reinstall the game again and good luck.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    i have tried to install several times (and always following the above instructions) and i've tested with but yes and no to DX.

    However a few days ago a got an error message (activity was not related to RTW install or RTW launch),
    saying something about a D3D error or DX error and no available 3d capable unit or something like that.

    So my theory is that there is a driver or DX conflict somewhere/somehow due to that i had to replace my GF88GTS with an older GF66GT. Anyway i have ordered a new Graphics card and will see if it works better with that one.

    @irishiron, default location.
    Last edited by roaringsilence; April 02, 2011 at 04:39 AM.

  20. #20
    irishron's Avatar Cura Palatii
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    Default Re: Tech Question: Can't find DirectX

    I tried to Google the GF66GT card but I can't rad Japanese. Maybe the card does not support dx9. Have you checked online for its specs?

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