Failed to find directx 9 compatible adapter

[Lerf]

I am NOT using a noCD patch and the only info I can find on MATY on this problem mentions a problem with where that's installed, but that's obviously not the problem here.

I was trying to locate a bad recolor file via the binary system.  The game crashed, as I expected, but when I got back to desktop the shortcut icon to M&G Stuff was gone, so I made a new one and after I'd shifted half the files in the folder, deleted my .cache files, and tried to restart the game I got a "Failed to enumerate any DirectX 9 compatible graphics adapters in this system!"

I also tried renaming my MyDocuments/EA Games/Sims 2 file to see if that was the problem.

Now, the graphics adapter had been there and locatable maybe three minutes before.  I tried restarting, and cold booting.  I reinstalled the latest NVidia driver, and I even loaded up Oblivion to see if maybe the something had fried the graphics card.  It ran fine.  I cleaned the M&G DVD.  No luck.

I'm using Windows 7, with an NVidia GEForce 9800 GT.

[J. M. Pescado]

Failed to find graphics card tend to be a side effect of what happens if you push ALT-CRTL-DEL durng startup, sending it to the lock screen, or do something that eliminates the DX draw surface-thingy. This is not normally a condition that persists past the immediate cause, let alone restart, though.

[Lerf]

I'm sure I didn't do that.  I never minimize during startup--if it takes too long I read a book or something.  And in this case I only had some recolors in so startup takes about 5 minutes.  I did minimize when the game crashed, though.  It was the only way to exit the game.

And the problem persists even after shutting the computer down overnight. 

[J. M. Pescado]

I have no idea what you may have done to cause this. Do you have some kind of weird setup, possibly involving multiple monitors which may or may not still be present? You could always try reinstalling the drivers and/or game.

[Lerf]

Nope, nothing weird at all in my setup.  

And reinstalling is my next option, I guess.  I already reinstalled the new driver.  That was about the first thing I tried after restarting the system didn't work.

Edited to add:

A complete reinstall was the only answer.  I tried uninstalling/reinstalling M&G and the problem persisted, so I spent the day taking everything out and putting it back.  It runs OK for the moment, though the missing M&G icon reappeared, having renamed itself to the same name as a folder I'd made just after the last crash and my attempt to restart the game.  It turned up only after I'd uninstalled everything and had only gotten as far as reinstalling the base game.

So far everything works.

[J. M. Pescado]

See, when in doubt, you could always try reinstalling.

[Liz]

To the scary necro dude, it seems silly to start a new thread on this same subject when this one's just halfway down the front page.

I'm on a 2-month-old rig running Windows 7. Have just installed TS2 and all EPs and SPs (except for TSS). And I am getting the "failed to enumerate a DirectX9 compatible graphics blah blah blah" when I attempt to start the game.

My video card is a NVIDIA GeForce GT 320. Its drivers, and my directx (11, which insists it's backward-compatible), are all updated to the most recent versions. Dxdiag finds no problems. Trying to let the Device Manager update the card's drivers agrees it's already up to date. I've been researching this problem for several hours now, and none of the recommended steps has helped (telling the game to run in XP sp2 compatibility mode, dl/run dxwebsetup, aforementioned dxdiag, and other "download and run this to update the stuff that you've already updated" options). I've also specifically instructed the sims2ep9.exe I'm using to run the program as Administrator, as if that might have helped. I've even made sure my sound card was up to date, as one site said the error was not actually about graphics but was instead a directx 9 audio thing needed by K&B (and TSS), though buggered if I know why I have 4 different NVIDIA High Definition Audio controllers...

A couple of minor setup items that may or may not be an issue--
1) My game is all store-bought and installed from the actual discs, and I'm attempting to boot with the No-CD+Dizzy's portrait hack for MG, posted by Crash at the end of this thread. This worked just peachy for me with XP sp2. Has anyone here noticed any difference with this method in Win7? (I'm aware the original portrait-regerating fix is Dizzy's and is from off-site, but his original seems to be for cracked/dl copies only. To my knowledge the aforementioned thread is the only place to find a "starter" that both bypasses the Launcher (thus avoiding activating SecuROM) and cuts out that stupid portrait regen.) No idea why this would affect "enumerating a directx 9 compatible graphics blah blah", but I'm running out of ideas.
2) The game was installed to "Program Files (x86)" instead of just plain old Program Files. Should this matter?

I'm not sure what constructive options I really have now for getting TS2 to work on this machine. I can try starting without the No-CD/portrait thing, using the game's Launcher instead, thus getting SecuGoop all over my system, but I'm hesitant to do that for obvious reasons, especially when it's such a long shot. Or I can take the advice directly above this post and spend what's left of my night and spend it uninstalling and reinstalling the entire game from scratch again, crossing my fingers and hoping that this magically solves the problem. I do not love this option even a little bit, but if it's the only thing that works... And if I take that option, should I allow it to install to Program Files x86 again or direct it to plain old Program Files this time?

Any other constructive ideas?

[rosess]

Try disabling your computer's screen saver.  If it's triggered while your system is loading the game, that could be the issue.

[Liz]

This is an error that pops up within seconds of double-clicking the startup icon. I can see how triggering the screen saver might be problematic if the game were taking half an hour to load all my CC or something, but this error pops right away.

[rosess]

This is an error that pops up within seconds of double-clicking the startup icon. I can see how triggering the screen saver might be problematic if the game were taking half an hour to load all my CC or something, but this error pops right away.

Whoops, yes, I was remembering Lerf's comment about reading a book when it loads and attributing it to you.  Sorry about that.

[wizard_merlin]

Have you tried a different no-CD crack? maybe that is the problem.  You didn't mention whether your system is 32 or 64-bit, although it shouldn't matter that much.  I got my no-CD .exe from game copy world and that's all it does.  Might be worth a try.

I loaded Sims 2 a while back and it ran without a problem, only the minor annoyance of not supporting the monitors native resolution.

My system is win 7 64-bit, 6 GB RAM and an Nvidia GTX295 (dual-board) graphics, with an i7 CPU.

[Liz]

Trying a different crack gets me the exact same error, so that's probably not it. (And yes, my box is 64-bit too.)

Thinking I may have to go through the whole, tedious uninstall/reinstall routine with fingers crossed and hope for the best (unless anyone else has an idea?). That'll have to wait until tonight, though, when I've had a lot more sleep and slightly less beer. And I don't know if this'll find an answer here, but I'm not eager to necromance another thread over this same installation... Since I'm planning to use clean/empty templates, does anyone know if that makes a difference in whether I install to Program Files x86, Program Files, or some other location? There was some talk about problems there in the Clean/Empty Hood Templates thread, but I wasn't sure if there was a definitive answer for it.

[Sita]

If it helps any - I had similar problems - and reinstalled computer completely to a XP 64 bit system.
Installing to the default location is probably a good idea, or so I have been told. So that is C:\Program Files (x86)
One thing someone said, and worked for me on the old 32 bit system for a while, was - make sure the AntiVirus is switched OFF before installing the graphics drivers.
The other thing is that I have NOT been able to get my No-CD hack (even freshly downloaded) to run at ALL, EVER, on the Win 64 bit system. Game works perfectly (touch wood) from the disk. So I have had, in the end, to choose Securom over not playing ANY Sims 2. Does your game work from the disk?

[wizard_merlin]

I installed TS2 onto E: Drive where I install all of my games to reduce clutter on the main drive.  I didn't try using old saves or anything, so can't say if that would cause an issue. 

When you installed, did the game at some stage say it wanted to install DirectX 9?  If so, did you let it?

[Djinnie]

I run my game from a no-cd crack in the 64 bit program files on a windows 7 system. I had exactly the same problem. With me, the cause was the installation of the no-cd crack. Before going through the hassle of uninstall/reinstall, it might be worth double checking the location of your no-cd crack. I spent hours downloading drivers etc, to find that moving the crack's location solved it in seconds. Since then, it's run beautifully with no crashes/freezes etc, so it is possible I promise.

[Liz]

...it might be worth double checking the location of your no-cd crack. I spent hours downloading drivers etc, to find that moving the crack's location solved it in seconds.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. Hours Days downloading drivers, etc. Moved the crack. Solved. After doing something right the first fourteen times, I had assumed I got it right on the fifteenth. I assumed incorrectly.

[DrNerd]

I'm having the same problem. Where do I need to move the no-CD crack to, to get the game to load without the DirectX 9 error message? Right now, it's in the TSBin folder, per Zazazu's instructions in the SecuROM thread. Downloaded from Gamecopyworld, Fairlight's crack, also per Zazazu's instructions in the SecuROM thread.