Gainward GeForce3 DirectX 8.1 Problems

[LightRider]

After I installed DX 8.1, I noticed a horrible problem when running the diagnostics. Everytime I tried to run the Direct3D tests, it always failed during the DX8 interface test with the following message:

Direct3D test results: Failure at step 5 (GetDeviceCaps): HRESULT = 0x8876086a (3D not available)

This is a GeForce3 Ti 200 from Gainward, it damn well better have DX8 3D availiable on it! Is anyone else having this problem or know how to deal with it? I got rid of ExpertTOOL after reading that it was causing problems, and I've had this problem with both the qualified drivers and nVidia's latest. The DXInfo program that came with experttool also reported me as having D3D version 7, which might also explain why this is happening. I've tried searching through the MSKB and found nothing there. For clarity, my rig is as follows:

Athlon XP 1.4GHz
ECS K7S5A
Gainward Geforce3 Ti 200 Golden Sample
Win98SE

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Bozo Galora]

get device capabilities
make sure you have DirX 8.1 final (.0881) or d/l from MS

use this to uninstall old corrupted
shut down, boot into safe mode, install new DirX 8.1
reboot.

or dirx eradicator

 

[LightRider]

I am running the .0881 version, and they're not corrupted as far as I know. I'm hesitant to uninstall DX as I don't want to fork this system. However, I'll try it if I can find no other way around it. Thanks for your advice.

UPDATE: Removed and reinstalled DX and everything's fine now. Thanks for the help.