F*ck Computers.

This Wednesday, I added an extra gig of RAM to my PC, then everything went to shit.

Mourning the loss of me not being able to play TF2 for hours on end, I decided another stick of memory was in order for my B-day, especially since McAfee hogs more than a third of the miniscule gig I already had installed. The package finally arrived this Wednesday, and I tore that shit open and popped it in, re-installed TF2, and damn if it didn't run. In fact, Counterstrike Source didn't work either, or any Source related thing I tried to run, or anything 3-fucking-D (except PA:ORSPD), so I was right pissed.

I ran diagnostic programs, thinking it my be a driver problem in the videocard. In my foolish optimism, I had updated the whole Catalyst software package (I'm running an ATI 9600 pro),
as well as the latest version of DirectX. I downloaded a program to sweep the registry of any display drivers, and then reinstalled the ATI software, just to be sure there weren't multiple drivers causing a conflict--nope. I updated the chipset drivers on my motherboard, which I hadn't done, ever, and was actually a good idea--nope. I scoured the Steam support forums, looking for anything--I ran another diagnostic on the processor to see if it was still compatible with the source engine (a lot of changes have been made)--nope. I mean, yeah, it was. That wasn't the problem though.

I was feeling thoroughly fucked at this point. I had spent at six hours shining a turd, and for what? I checked more forums, and finally came upon the idea of running a diagnostic of DirectX itself. Turns out, some thing, some option for rendering Direct 3d, was turned off by default when I last updated the software. Never did that before! Anyway, I reinstalled TF2, and it sill ran like crap, so I give up. Whatever. At least Diablo 2 runs better now. :P