Alright, I dont know very much about "technical names" so bear with me A while back my system became corrupted and I had to do a scandisk. The scandisk found alot of corupted bundles, so I needed to go back to an old copy of my disk. Anyways, something happened to my DirectX because when I tried to play a game, the error mssg would come up: "could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with DirectDraw". So I tried installing a new Version of DirectX, but that didnt work, so I even tried Re-installing win98. But the same error Message comes up. So I opened dxdiag and another error message came up: "Error: Problem getting extra display info, result code = 0x8876024e(error code)". So, I decided to go under the display tab. When I went to test my DirectDraw it said: "DirectDraw test results: Failure at step 9 (Creating primary surface): HRESULT = 0x8876024e (error code)". I'll admit my computer is pretty plain, but everything was fine before The scan disk. What can I do to alow my DirectDraw to work?

Makes me wonder if you display (video) drivers got corrupted somehow. Perhaps they should be re-installed from their CD, if any, or later ones downloaded. Get hold of a freebie called EVEREST. This will give a stack of info about your machine but the bit you are interested in is Display/Windows Video. There might even be a link there to get them from if you have no CD. Derek.W

To save you searching: SEE EVEREST HOME EDITION Derek.W

alright... i have a VIA/S3G unichrome graphics card, and whenever i try to turn on a game, it says that my card is not compatable with DirectDraw... (im really pissed) so just a quick question... HOW THE F**K DO I TURN THIS THING(DirectDraw) OFF?! craptastic

If the system used to work then it is rather unlikely that the card (hardware) is the problem - tho nothing is impossible I suppose. Much more likely is that something has gone wrong with the drivers (software) for your card. Now you have the info, search using Google to see if you can find a replacement driver to download for your card. I'm assuming that you haven't got a CD for this card with the drivers already on it. Sometimes Everest is kind enough to give a link to the driver website, but if not it's a matter of Googling away. Make sure whatever you download is suitable for W98 and that any numbers tie in with your card. Just to add that you may not be wanting to turn off Direct Draw because this is probably essential for the game. Get the right driver installed and it is likely to resolve the problem. Derek.W

I had a quick look using Google. This is the VIA website: VIA (DRIVERS) You may have to use Everest to get all the numbers you can lay your hands on. It seems you have on-board drivers (ie you don't have a separate graphics card but it is built into the motherboard itself). There are all manner of different display driver situations and I'm not familiar with yours. Maybe someone will drop by who is. Otherwise it's happy hunting I'm afraid. Make absolutely sure that you have no CD for the motherboard, with the display (graphics) drivers already on it. Derek.W