DirectX my arse!

[Dandontdare]

I've no drokking idea what a "DirectX" component is or why my game needs them to run, but they're pissing me off.

I reinstalled windows this week and now my favourite game (Civilization 4) won't run, either from disc or from my steam account. I get a message saying that the renderer has failed or something (i'll post more details if anyone thinks they can help).  It advises me to check my DirectX settings or video card, but doesn't say how.

I think that one of the many windows updates and/or service packs has upgraded me to DirectX 11 when I need DirectX9, but I have no idea of what or where it is or what to do about it.

I hate computers sometimes.

[Banners]

Use "dxdiag.exe" which should sort you out.

[Dandontdare]

Thanks, but I need a little more - when you say "use" what exactly do I need to do? Is that something I'll find in the game folder or elsewhere? Do I just open it?

[Banners]

If you're on Windows 7, just enter "dxdiag" into the Search box. If you're on XP, click on Run from the Start menu, and enter "dxdiag". :-)

[Dandontdare]

cheers, I'll give that a try!

[Dandontdare]

it turned out not to be DirectX at all - when windows was reinstalled my graphics driver wasn't updated, so that fixed that problem... but thanks for the advice though. (That dxdiag link brought up oodles of information, none of which meant much to me!)

another problem though ... my mate partitioned my hard drive after installing windows, which means that all my photos and music etc are no longer in the 'my documents' bit of the C:/ drive, but are now in a separate F:/ drive. I've been told there is a way that I can reconfigure the links for 'my pictures' or 'my documents' to link to these folders on the F:/ drive rather than the (empty) library folders on the C:/ drive

Anyone able to talk me through how to do that?

[a chosen rider]

another problem though ... my mate partitioned my hard drive after installing windows, which means that all my photos and music etc are no longer in the 'my documents' bit of the C:/ drive, but are now in a separate F:/ drive. I've been told there is a way that I can reconfigure the links for 'my pictures' or 'my documents' to link to these folders on the F:/ drive rather than the (empty) library folders on the C:/ drive

Anyone able to talk me through how to do that?

Not that I've tried this, but I think you can probably right click the appropriate My Pictures/My Documents folder, switch to the 'Location' tab and change it there.

[Trout]

In this thread, the only word I understand is "arse".