DirectX 9 problem (M17x R3)

Hello!

I've had my M17x for about a month now. Installed SSD, more RAM, and reinstalled Windows 7 x64 once I had tested it (3dmark, furmark, etc). Followed the guides here and used only drivers from Dell/Alienware. Using the v285.62 GeForce drivers. Optimized for running the OS on SSD and so on. Downgraded BIOS to A08 for SATA3. Trying my best to keep it clean without unneccessary apps.
For the first few weeks I only played SWTOR and StarCraft II which worked perfectly (and still do).

But yesterday I installed Steam and a few older games. First was Dawn of War II which uses DirectX 9 (and Games for Windows, hmm). The first install seemed to work ok (Steam didn't give any error iirc) but when I tried to launch it I saw it tried to install DirectX again, and that step never finished. Had to kill the dxsetup process to get it moving, and since it relies on DX the install won't finish successfully (when I launch it again it simply repeats the process). Similar thing with DoW2 expansion Chaos Rising and Dungeon Defenders.

When installing DoW2 stand-alone expansion Retribution the DirectX setup also fails (after I kill dxsetup.exe) but the installation continues and the game then starts ok. So it seems games that require the DX setup to return success will fail, while games that doesn't require a successful DX setup installs ok.

Next, I tried to manually download and run latest DirectX setup. It hangs on "copying files" and if I examine the DirectX.log file I can see it stops when running "infinst.exe d3dx9_36_x64.inf". No entry in the log after that. Both the dxsetup.exe and infinst.exe processes seem to "hang" at this stage.

Then, after trying to google the problem, I tried to reboot into safe mode and install DirectX manually. That works without any issues. But when I return to normal mode the problem remains, even though I can see all the DX9 files installed into System32 (including the d3dx9_36.dll file) etc...
Dxdiag.exe says everything is ok.
DX9 games that already are installed run great (tried Dragon Age, etc).
In the end, the problem is with the games that require DX setup to be successful...
I tried turning AV off, killing unneccessary apps and processes, but so far no luck.
Any ideas?

One thing is to fix the failing dxsetup, which is the root of the problem - but I've pretty much run out of ideas here...
The other idea I've had is to fool the games into believing dxsetup is successful - but not sure how to do that... It's not easy to see exactly what Steam does when launching a game...

Could the problems be caused by Nvidia Optimus?
Would it be worth updating the GeForce drivers to unofficial v290 beta?
What's the latest Intel HD graphics drivers?

I was planning to visit a friend this weekend, about 3 hours drive from here, and have a mini LAN party. But that requires some good ol' games.... which most likely won't install (like DoW2 and Dungeon Defenders).
And there I was thinking my new rig was working perfectly...
*sigh*

 

Hey did you restart your computer and try opening the game again? i recently just got a new alienware and i had that exact same problem, it tried reinstalling every time i tried to open the game, as soon as i restarted it opened fine!

 

NVM, i just saw you rebooted into safe mode and it worked.

 

also with the bios A08 you should be getting 6Gb/s from your pm830, i had an issue where i had to move my hard drive into the second bay to get the 6Gb/s speed. ill try to help with the other question also by installing a directX9 game on my steam and see if i can find a solution.

 

Thanks Cploof88, much appreciated!

Yes, I've restarted it several times, both safe mode and normal.

I put my SSD in the free (second?) bay and with A08 BIOS the Intel RST app report 6Gb/s transfer rate (with A09 it said only 3Gb/s).

 

haha ok i was just making sure you were getting the 6Gb/s, in the top i read it said you downgraded to the A08 to get the 3Gb/s speed!

 

I meant "SATA3" as in SATA revision 3 - which is 6Gb/s

Small progress with DoW2 (not the DX root cause)... Booting into safe mode I managed to start Steam and run the DoW2 install, which made DXsetup complete with success. Then back in normal mode the install step is done so the game launches successfully.
Dungeon Defenders however, does not work to install in safe mode (it complains about graphics hardware and exits).
This is just a workaround for DoW2 (and maybe some other games) - I would love to solve the real problem!

 

More workarounds found... I managed to fool the Dungeon Defenders installer into believing DXsetup (UE3Redist.exe really) was already finished (reg hack). And other games can be successfully installed in safe mode.

But the real problem remain - anyone with ideas?
Rep power to anyone with a good suggestion