BleepingComputer.com: Directx Trouble

Well, as you can tell from my name, I'm an idiot seeking a bit of help here. I went into regedit to delete Hewlett Packard printer files instead of uninstalling because, well I was to lazy. Bad idea. I also deleted a file named HP. Insinde the file was a list of variou games i have palyed, and some other things, I cannot remember what they were. So, I get off the computer and leave. Haven't been on it for a few days.

Then when I get back and try and run Call of Duty 2, it doesn't boot up and whne it does it's extremely slow. When I conneted to a server, I got disconnected. I looked at the problem for a while, and eventually found out that there is a DirectX error (internal system error). So, I ask a friend how to reinstall directX. He told me to go into regedit and delete the DirectX file, and I did. Apparently when I rebooted my computer it was supposed to reinstall, but it didn't. When I go into dxdiag from the Run menu, it says that there is no DirectX version found.

I'm pretty sure I completely screwed myself over on this one. But I'm not computer genious and I'm really going by what I was told. So, if there is any solution at all, I'm open for suggestions. I have my Windows CD and my graphics card CD, which has directX on it. But when I try and install DirectX it says I have an error.

PS: I havne't used the Windows CD, althoguh I'm pretty sure it's possible to repair files through it. I don't think it is a possibility to reformat, although I think that would work.

Thanks

Moderator Edit: Moved topic to more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

This post has been edited by Animal: 06 November 2006 - 11:53 PM

This may help you out.

btw, welcome to bleepingcomputer.

Thanks man, but it didn't work.

I can't install directX, i get an error when I try saying, "An internal system error has occured. Please refer to (then it lists two files)"

I'm thinking, with all the registry editing that you've done, that it'd be best to try and use System Restore to restore you to a time before you started editing stuff.

If that doesn't work, there are other repair options available.

Well, the bad thing is System Restore was turned off for what ever reason. So I turned it on for future problems, but for this one system restore is out of the question.

Time for a new installation of the OS.

Have you tried re registering the DLLs?
regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS{path}{filename}

you need to do this for each Dll that you need to re register, assuming the files are still in the correct location

Try a repair install of XP before reformatting - it often will fix these sort of issues: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Alright thanks guys, I'll have to try these things. Don't know what an OS is though. I'll try the repair install first, because it sounds easier

I did the repair install and it worked. DirectX is installed. BUT, three files are out of date, and when I run dxdiag it says "Error: Could not get basic sound info., result code = 0x80070057 (Invalid Argument(s))" This message pops up two more times while dxdiag is loading. Also, in the "DirectX Files" tab there are three files out of date. These files are: ddraw.dll, d3d8.dll, and d3dim700.dll. My directX version is 9, and I tried to reinstall it using the CD that came with my graphics card. It seemed to ave worked, but the files are still out of date.

Also, I did all the tests in the dxdiag and they all passed. No problems were found in anything but the "DirectX Files" section.

Any ideas?

This post has been edited by Idiotseekinghelp: 16 November 2006 - 02:55 PM

OS is short for Operating System - in this case it's Windows XP

I'd try visiting Windows Update first to ensure that you've got all the latest updates (to include the DirectX).

Then try updating your video drivers next.