Cant get past the first load screen, before the main menu

[dAFr3sH]

O.k i'll try that but, 91. Thats kinda old, wont that effect other games, like unreal 3, crysis,GoW, CoD 4 etc. I know i said 93.71 worked like a charm, but i still want to play all my other games. I think if sacrificed enough for this game. Damn Ubisoft

[Blín D'ñero]

"Sacrificed" ??? What have you sacrificed?

You installed a beta service pack, and also a wrong pack of drivers on your card. Stick with the old driver, as newer ones won't bring any advantage to your old GF 6600.

Again (now with link): 174.74 is NOT for your card.

GeForce Release 174.74

Products supported:
GeForce 9800 GX2
GeForce 9800 GTX
GeForce 9600 GT
GeForce 8300
GeForce 8200
GeForce 8100/NVIDIA nForce 720a
NVIDIA nForce 730a

Uninstall the nVidia drivers you are currently on, and revert to 91.85: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_91.85_2.html or, if you like, 93.71.

[dAFr3sH]

I only installed 174.74 because i thought maybe it will stop dm from crashing, and that sevice pack 3 update came in windows update. But still, why is this game such a bi h?

[dAFr3sH]

Ok, going back to the old drivers hasnt helped. What could still be wrong? When i start up the game, it would usally at least get me into the menu, but now i cant. It gives me the Black screen of death, and then says engine error, someting Direct 3d error, re-installed Direct x 9 march 08 but still the same thing. Maybe i should get this game for xbox 360, as nowadays drivers are messing it up

[dAFr3sH]

Engine Error

Internal driver error in IDirect3DDevice9::Present()

So i click ok, then up comes

mm.exe - Application Error

The instruction at "0x0f323e2c" referenced memory at"0x0d76a1a0".The Memory could not be "read".

This also happens with all my source games, HL2, HL2 Ep2, CS:S, Portal etc. Strangly. Crysis and Unreal 3 etc all work fine.
Whats going on here?

[Blín D'ñero]

Doesn't sound very healthy.
I suggest you:
use the Steam Backup function for your games,
or try it manually:
Copy and paste your downloaded Source games from SteamApps to an archive folder. Then uninstall all your Source games + delete the remaining files manually (Steam does a lousy job deleting them so do it manually). Then uninstall Steam and delete all Valve/Steam registry entries using CCleaner.
Defragment!
Then reboot,
then reinstall the latest version of Steam. [(redownload from Valve: http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php) <-- click on "GET STEAM NOW" at the top.]
Because you registered your games before, the folder SteamApps should be re-created automatically.
Check that it has, then you can start filling it by putting back the games files you stored.
Either way you choose, the point is to Copy back your saved Steam games, then one by one update them via the My Games list so that in the end, you'll have 'refreshed' them.
Right-click on each game > Properties > "Validate local cache files", and "defragment local cache files".

[dAFr3sH]

:thumbup: I think i just found the solution! Object Dock from Stardock was my problem. All this time. I formatted a old 80 gig wd, put a fresh copy of xp pro sp2 on, put on the drivers that came with my pc, 93.71 nvidia drivers,installed DM and thats it! I didnt even update the game nor windows. No problems with startup, no problems with loading or playing, nothing. I could even play, exit , the play again, I could even load my old saves from the skull temple. BTW, I got how to get that 2nd crystal in, stand on the left hand side of the spider, by the legs, then slowly move your cursor towards the slot and/or around it. Anyway, im kindof a fan of object dock, making my desktop feel alive, but when I installed it again, problems came . I couldnt even load the main menu, so i uninstalled it, well what do you know, problem fixed. Now all my other source games works as well.

[Blín D'ñero]

Ahhh... great! :thumbup:

I suppose Object Dock (because it relies on shortcuts) is not compatible with keyb+mouse controlled gaming. Maybe it has a shortcut to disable it before running a game. Is there a shortcut to temporarily disable it, to shut it off?

Anyway, thanks for reporting, i'll add it to the FAQ.

Oh and... enjoy the game!

[dAFr3sH]

Yeah, the stange thing is that even if I had disabled object dock (unload as ob puts it) my source games would keep on crashing,I would usally kill the process with task manager. That kinda sucks though, I like Object dock

[dAFr3sH]

Ok now that i can actually enjoy this game, again, theres just one more thing thats bothering me. My cd-key for DM MP doesnt work on steam, everytime i try to activate it, it just says invalid. Heres my e-mail i sent about 2 weeks ago to steam support, no response. What a surprise

"I have recently just purchased Dark Messiah retail DVD, it is the Ubisoft Exclusive version. It comes with Single and Multiplayer.
The SP goes to C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and the MP goes to C:\Program Files\Steam, although the SP does not need to got through steam or require a serial key, MP does. Now the key that is on the Steam support page is "1AB2C-D3FGH-456I7-JK8LM-NOP9Q" Mine is like "XX1-12XX-XXXX-XXXX-X1XX" X= Letter, where there is a number, there is a different number. Steam says that my key is invalid, what should I do?"