Infuriating Driver problem

[Syterion]

I have a nVidia Riva TNT2 Model 64. It is ridiculously old, I know. Anyway, I am trying to play Medieval Total War. I had uninstalled it from lack of use before, it worked before. So now I install it, and try to play it. It tells me it is unable to initialize Direct3D. I have DirectX9.0. I go to the DirectX diagnostic thing, and it tells me Direct3D functionality isnt available, so get the latest driver. I go on the Nvidia web page, and download the driver that it says updates the TNT2 Model 64. I download it, and run it and it tells me that the Driver setup couldn't locate any drivers that are compatible with my current system.

I am furious. It worked years ago. I have changed nothing. Someone help me.

 

[Speedo]

Despite what nVidia says, newer drivers don't always work so well with older cards, and when you're talking about ancient cards, well, you can see how well it works.

I think there are at least a few sites out there that keep databases of older driver versions. Look for one of the them and go for some older drivers, I'd say start off with trying 2x.xx or 3x.xx.

 

[Harleqin]

I have the TNT2 Ultra card as well. I can't access that machine right now, but I think I'm running with the 5x.xx drivers for it. I know for a certainty that the 77.xx drivers don't support the card.

 

[Syterion]

I took your advice, downloaded the 56.12 driver or something, and it says Direct3D is now available. However, it fails when I do the test for Direct3D. The
DirectDraw test works, though. What is the problem now? Would a different driver make a difference? The exact errors are :
Direct3D 7 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x887602eb (error code)
Direct3D 8 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)
Direct3D 9 test results: Failure at step 8 (Creating 3D Device): HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)

EDIT: When I try and run Medieval Total War anyway, it shows the flash screen, then the screen turns black as if the game is running, and then it goes back to the desktop as if you never tried to play it. No error message. I already tried reinstalling it.

 

[Speedo]

Uninstall the driver, reboot, then run Driver Cleaner, reboot and reinstall.

If that fails, you may have to manuall strip the registry, unless you'd prefer to reinstall windows...

 

[Syterion]

Nah, a 3x.xx driver worked fine.