Fail of the Week!

I submit this for consideration of "Fail of the Week"

I feel I must share this and hope others learn from my pain. Noobs fail because they lack knowledge, experts fail because they ignore their knowledge.

The lesson - "Update DirectX when you get your M11x or your games will fail, and don't mess with things before you know they are good."

My trial..

Brand new M11x, I was so excited I just ran through the latest drivers ran some benchmarks OCed it and then had to drop WoW (World of Warcraft on it). WoW can be copped from another PC and run without installing and this is where I failed as most people would install a game which would force DirectX to also be installed.

WoW worked... oops then failed... Then follows reboots, checks, messing with settings and finally a restore of the M11x to factory defaults over a 24hr period (I think about 4 factory resets in total).
I repeated this in various adaptions with WoW and DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) both run then fail at some point. DDO installes DirectX9c (2005).

So I end up on a call to dell describing the whole trial and expecting to send the M11x back. They get me to try various ways to get the games to run with the 3D GPU but all fail.

So it's going back next week - I am convinced.

Well as a last try I install Mass Effect 2... this installs a newer DirectX version and runs flawlessly on max settings... THE PENNY DROPS

I update to latest DirectX.. and retest games etc..

All is well in the world and I have been reminded that IT does not forgive the forgetful or the arrogant. I was too caught up in the machine I forgot to cover the basics.

Happy now though

 

good that a sad start turned into a happy ending

 

where do i update my direct X? Any detailed directions please post.

 

What he said.

 

BUMP. i really would like to know.

 

You can update it using this:
Download details: DirectX End-User Runtime

 

LOL, well thats not much of a fail.
When I got my first laptop, I actually forgot to install my video cards driver! I freaked out when I saw those horrible framerates! (I actually thought they were normal but I expected a lot more)My brother then explained to me that I had to install the drivers . Stupid 15 years old kid

 

SAME here!! Except im 17... haha

 

Haha, only 2 years difference haha. No big deal there

 

@Surf - Great story. The basics do get us sometimes. The best news is that you got it working and hopefully having fun. BW, StevenX

 

Thanks all for the understanding
All is still well so definitely my fail, and I am so relieved. It will take a day or so before I stop imagining games freezing though
I am half way through migrating from my old netbook, got browsers working and and so writing this on the M11x - win!

As for DirectX.. wot Radam said... Download & run and it will check and update as needed.