This is going to be long and I don't imagine many will read it but I felt the need to post so here goes.
I installed Modern Warfare 2 Friday and began noticing problems from the minute I inserted the disc in the drive (literally). The first time I put the disc in the drive it tried to bring up the installer splash screen but failed and my display stopped refreshing. I rebooted my computer and everything was back to normal. I inserted the disk again and the installer ran fine (an hour later I was ready to play).
I launched the game and configured my controls and video/audio options and started the first mission. So far so good, I beat the training mission and started watching the cut scene before the first mission. Then, there was an error sound and my monitor turned off. I couldn't ctrl+alt+delete or alt+tab back to windows.
Reboot and get back into windows. Try to launch the game again and it gets to loading the first mission from the mission select menu...blam back to desktop, all the colors are screwed up resolution is wrong and I have 3 windows up for call of duty (iwsp4.exe, directx error, and an unlabeled window). End the process and desktop goes back to normal.
At this point since I couldn't read the error box (I never was able), I tried running dxdiag. All of the direct3d tests failed. I rebooted the computer and ran dxdiag again and everything was fine. So I uninstalled Modern Warfare 2 and began downloading it through steam to reinstall fresh on Saturday morning. Got up saturday morning and began the 1 hour process of reinstalling. Long story short same problems after reinstall.
I downloaded directx from microsoft, reinstalled that. I downloaded the latest nVidia drivers for my Geforce 8800GT (195.62) and installed them. I downloaded the latest drivers for my sound blaster audigy 2zs and installed them. I downloaded the latest chipset and motherboard bios and installed them. Relaunched the game after each of these things was done and nothing made a difference. I tried running the game at various video detail levels and in safe mode at 640x480. I tried changing my desktop to 1024x768 and launching that way. I tried rebooting with everything disabled through msconfig with no dice there. Nothing worked. At this point I was about to format my computer and try a clean install but I decided to relax and play something else for an hour and see if I could come up with something else to try.
I tried to launch Heroes of Newerth and it crashed to the desktop throwing a directx error. I ran dxdiag and if failed the direct3d tests. I rebooted, and launched Heroes of newerth again. This time I got all the way into a game and it crashed to the desktop. I rebooted and opened Fallout3 and it wouldn't get past loading a mission before crashing to the desktop.
At this point not only could I not play the game, that I just paid 64 dollars for, but it had completely eliminated my ability to play a game requiring directx. In desperation I uninstalled Modern Warfare 2 single and multiplayer and uninstalled steam.
Everything is back to normal now. I was able to play several games of Heroes of Newerth and Fallout3 works just fine again. I don't know if it was Steam or Modern Warfare 2 causing all of the problems but either way uninstalling was required to fix everything.
resent failed: n/a".
