Can't run any games properly on Win 7 Ult x64

[slick530]

I'd recently clean installed windows 7 64-bit on my 1 year old system. Everythings' great except for gaming. I tried running COD4 which is suppose to play nice with 7 according to Microsoft but it just couldn't last more than 5 minutes on single player mode. It just keeps crashing. I haven't tried multiplayer as I knew you have to apply a patch before able to run punkbusters. Anyway, I'd uninstalled the game and install it with all the lastest patches (up to 1.7). But still it crashes. Every time the crash is a nasty one, meaning I can't use Contro+Alt+Del go back to the desktop but have to hard reset the machine. I'd tried running Prototype as well, it lasted a bit longer but still hard crashes. All of my graphic drivers and BIOS were up to date and I still can't think of any reasons for the crash. I'd even turn off overclocking and run it on stock speed. As a note, all those games plus many others were running great on the same system with Vista Ultimate x64. Any logical solutions would be much appreciated.

 

[pinstripe]

You might check to make sure you have directx 9 installed, and that you have the old c++ libraries. In my install of Win7 those were missing and a lot of games wouldn't work because of it. Otherwise it sounds like a driver error but you say you're all up to date, so that's all i can think of.

if you still have issues, you may have to try different versions of your graphics drivers.

 

[thewindowslinux]

Well it couldn't be that your diretx is out of date since directx 11 comes with windows 7. What I would suggest is first making sure your video cards are compatible with Windows 7. Check the manufacturer's site. Try uninstalling and then reinstalling your drivers. Also, this might be that the windows 7 install didn't work correct and now its erroring out.

 

[pinstripe]

no, its not that its out of date per se, its just that he may not have the directx 9 runtime or whatever. afaik, it doesnt come by default in the win7 install, you just get dx11.

 

[LPDad]

Pinstripe, Are you saying that Win7 may not run these games (made for directx 9) with the supplied directx 11??
We might ALSO need DirectX 9c (or DirectX 10) runtime installed??

If that is the case then it sure would solve a lot of gaming problems, especially with older games.
I would really like to know the answer to this one.

BTW, here is the DirectX 9c Runtime Download: Download details: DirectX End-User Runtime

I have not tried it yet.

 

[Uber Philf]

If your COD is crashing try plugging in a Microphone, has worked for many.

 

[SleeStak]

I had an error when I first installed CoD4:MW saying that it needed some directX 9 components...after installing the directX 9c runtimes I have no problems running any of my "older" games on W7 x64 HL2, CSS, CoD4, Cod:WaW, CoH, GW, etc.

 

[mpcrsc562]

i've found out--even with vista--one of the first things you should do with a clean install is to go to microsoft's download center and download directx. it will be 9c and somewhere in the area of 70 ~ 80 mb.

 

[LPDad]

i've found out--even with vista--one of the first things you should do with a clean install is to go to microsoft's download center and download directx. it will be 9c and somewhere in the area of 70 ~ 80 mb.

Good to know. I posted a link to Directx 9c (4th post above this one) download.

ADDENDUM: For the heck of it, I tried to install it (over my Win7 x64 DirectX August09 update)....would not do it....said "a more recent install was detected" and the installer quit.
well...I tried.

 

[ickymay]

You might check to make sure you have directx 9 installed, and that you have the old c++ libraries.

yes this is correct , I play a game called Entropia Universe and there are two things I have to update in windows 7 before it will run, the first is the 33.5 MB install of direct x 9.0 and the second is the 32bit version of visual c vcredist_x86.exe , this is because the installer and runtime are still 32 bit and codings not great, even though the game engine is crysis

 

[pinstripe]

yeah, further confusing things there is a x64 version of the visual c++ redistributal that you may need for certain games as well.

 

[slick530]

I'm pretty sure all my direct X (whether 9,9.0C,10) were all installed and that my graphic card is 100% compatible with 7 (it's a XFX GTX-260 Black Edition). I'd even tried to reinstall 7 and run it with Vista SP2 compatiblilty mode and administractor. Maybe I'll try it with XP SP3 comp mode later, but I highly doubt it'll work. The only thing that I suspect is the source of the failure is my MB (Maximus II Formula P45 chipset), the board isn't "Windows 7 ready/approved" according to Asus. If that's the case, I feel really disappointed with Asus. Any how, I think if that's really the case, there might be some new bios for it in the coming weeks/months as I'm sure there's pretty much a lot of people using this board. Thanks for all the suggestions anyway. I'll keep u guys updated if anything "spectacular" happen. Peace!!

 

[slick530]

I'm giving up dude... I'd tried every possible tweeks to run games on 7 but it just won't work. It must have something to do with my MB not playing nicely with seven. I'm dual booting Vista is my last resort. I'll forget running games on 7 at least until I change new MB and CPU. To be honest, gaming wise, 7 is a whole lot worse than Vista. At least back in the days when MS first release Vista, I can run all my games properly. It really sucks that MS can't get everything perfect. I'm just totally not convinced 7 is perfect for gaming. It just ain't.

 

[gpruitt54]

Well it couldn't be that your diretx is out of date since directx 11 comes with windows 7. What I would suggest is first making sure your video cards are compatible with Windows 7. Check the manufacturer's site. Try uninstalling and then reinstalling your drivers. Also, this might be that the windows 7 install didn't work correct and now its erroring out.

I had similar issues. I had used Windows Easy Transfer to bring over some files from my old system, game me all kinds of problems. Did a clean reinstall of windows 7 Pro 64bit. most of the initial issues are gone now.

Still, there some games that simply will not install, and in ither cases, will not work after they are installed, like Crysis for example.

FYI

 

[TheTech]

I've noticed that the RC would let my games work and the RTM wont. Also i had to manually install DX 9.0c March 2009 release, August 2009 had issues. Acronis True Image home makes it easy to do !! The only game I cant make work under ANY circumstances is SOF 2, all COD games from COD to COD-Waw run, SOF3 Payback runs, so does UT 2K3 & 2K4... Crysis 64 as well, Had to set manually Run as Admin to all links.
Drivers from nvidia for the RC release seem to work so far.. not using 191.07 release.

All the above games mentioned worked flawlessly under Vista Ultimate x64 using normal installation with the exception of COD 2. As mentioned above, RTM did some
serious changing to Folder permissions that I had to change for game updates to actually install. Novalogic products Joint Ops and J.O. Escalation updates would delete files and Windows seven Default folder Permissions wouldnt allow web updates or local updates untill I changed the folder permissions to allow " Everyone" full access. not to damn secure but it worked. Far Cry & Far Cry 2 both installed natively and run so far with no probs.

 

[slick530]

Yo Tech, for reals the March Distribute of DirectX work for you? I must give it a try then. But do u have to uninstall the August edition then? I'd only tried 191.07 drivers from Nvidia and the one that came with Win 7. I must as well give that a try too but I won't put high hopes on it. I'm dual booting Vista and 7 anyways even though it worked. 7 just gives me the creeps regarding the gaming issue.

 

[Frostmourne]

Disable your sound card.

 

[slick530]

Disable your sound card.

What's the point of playing a game without sound then?

 

[Frostmourne]

Use onboard sound. You built that PC right? Enable on-board sound.

 

[slick530]

I don't think my Maximus board have on-board audio as it's a high-end board that comes with an X-Fi card. Even so, I rather dual boot Vista and play games there. At the moment, 7 is a really bad idea for games. And it's not just me or the small part of the community, a lot of PC gamer friends I know who happened to clean/upgrade to 7 tend to have problems with their games one way or the other.