computer help

[fireka]

okay, before i ask this, note that as a fantasy writer myself i am a natural Tolkien freak and a computer retard when it comes to hard ware. so when all these games for Lord of the Rings came out i had to get one. i got this computer at a garage sale, it wasnt to old, but not to new either. i decided to get the pc version of the game because, unlike th others, it follows the book and not the movies (and i also dont have a PS2 or anything like that) i have all the system requirments for the game except one that they failed to mention. an alert screen keeps poping up saying i dont have a 3d accelarator. i dont even know what one is, or i didnt then. i had hoped it might be freeware. no such luck of course, its a pretty expensive pice of hardware. so here is my question; how do i figure out what my computers prodentials are (i dont have a manual) to figure out which accelarator i need? or are they a bit more generic than that? also, is it possible for a cd drive to contain an acclarator, because i have a cd-rom update that i bought which is fairly new. thanks. (i havent installed the cd-rom drive yet, the new one i mean)

[fireka]

oh no,no,no,no,no,no,no.

 

dont even think about putting those other threads above mine so no one can see it. i refuse to belive that someof you are smart enough to mimorize ever millitary commander in the han empire, and can tell me the japanese name for every technique and kata in goju-ryu yet you cant help me figure out this simple little dilema. i thinkith not.

[Tombstone]

Install the new one and see what happens. I don't know alot about computers either. I've been trying for awhile now to put a video up

[kchenault]

Give us your system configuration first. If I am thinking right, a 3-D accelerator is part of your graphics card. What kind of card do you have? Give us the skinny on your computer and maybe someone can be of help.

[fireka]

yea, see id love to but my problem is i dont know quite how to find out my 'skinny' because this thing was bought at a garage sale. the guy worked on computers as a hobby and he just built me the dang thing right there. its pretty fast for the basic stuff i need as a writer but it dosent have a manual so i need a way to find out exactly what kind of system i have here.

[SaiFightsMS]

See what you can find in your control panel. I am no computer great either.

[Musipilot]

I'll help

 

First, what operating system are you running? (Win98, XP, etc...)

[Aamorn KSW]

Assuming you're running a Windows machine (95, 98, 2000, ME or XP) go to the start button then click on run type in dxdiag and hit ok (directx is a microsoft product and this is the diagnostic tool that's a part of it) It'll start collecting information about your system and bring up a window. Each tab will have some info given. Here's the info it would be useful to have:

 

From the 'system' tab: DirectX version (also the game might say it requres a certain directx version so see if your's is at that number or higher)

 

From the "Display" tab: In the box labeled Device give the name and manufacturer. In the driver box there should be a version given

 

That should be enough info for now really - oh what OS are you running? (I think someone above asked)

 

My guess is it's your Video Card (aka graphics card). You can get a good one for less than 100$ now and you can get a not-terrible 3D one even cheaper. I think it could also be that you have a new enough video card but you don't have the drivers or directx version high enough for the game, which might give that error.

[fireka]

on this computer, windows ME, on the other one its 98, both are compatible with this game. the game comes with a download for direct x 8.1 which i have, heres the wammy. i went to that window like you said and on display i ran the test. it tested the direct x 7 and it came out just fine with the spinning directx 3d cube and all. it tested direct x 8 stuff, and didnt do anything, there was a message in the little white box that said:

 

Direct3d test results: failure at step 5 (GetDeviceCaps) HResult=0x8876086a (3d not available)

 

......im going to have to spend money, arnt i?

[Aamorn KSW]

Did you find the name and manufacturer of your video card? It should be listed right above those tests you did. If you post that I can tell you if you'll have to spend money or not