Same issue here--- here's what madonion sent me:
Hi,
Q: I have a Radeon 8500 and I get the following error message: Could
not create render target depth-stencil surface -
D3DERR_INVALIDCALL. What's wrong?
A: There is a possible fix for this. Please uninstall the ATI drivers,
reboot (important) and then please install the latest drivers
from ATI.
There is, however, another approach to this isssue. If you are
experienced user and are familiar with registry editing tools you can
try the following:
This answer has been constructed with the help of our users and forum
moderators.
Full thread with illustration can be found here:
http://discuss.madonion.com/forum/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=mo3dmark2001&Number=426700
Basically the problem is this...
When trying to run the Advanced Pixel Shader (APS) test on a Radeon
8500 (possibly other cards too but this is the main one that I
know about), you get an error message like the one below:
Could not create render target depth-stencil surface -
D3DERR_INVALIDCALL
You get this because the default settings for the most of the Radeon
8500 driver forces it to not allow the use of an 8-bit stencil
buffer. This is very easy to rectify; I did it using a tweaking program
whereas Morpheus_Phreak did it via the registry. Since he
gets the credit, I'll use his method:
(1) Click on the Start button.
(2) Click on the Run... button.
(3) Type in regedit and then hit Enter.
(4) Go to the top, click on Edit and then Find and type in ZFormats.
(5) Hit Enter and wait for your PC to search through the registry.
(6) When it comes up with the first successful search, look to the
large panel in the right hand side of the registry editor; there
should be a list of commands.
(7) Look for the command that says Default - it will most likely have
the number 3 after it.
(8) Double-click on the "Default" word, and a new window will pop open.
In the bottom part, where it has the number "3" highlighted,
change this to either 7 or 15 and then click the OK button. Choosing 7
means that the stencil buffer will be made available and the
range of z-buffers you can choose are 16-bit and 24-bit. Choosing 15
gives you the 32-bit option for the z-buffer too.
(9) Now press the F3 button at the top of your keyboard to search
again.
(10) You should find a few entries for "ZFormats"; just look for those
that have the "Default" command in them and change them all
to "15" - remember to press F3 to search again each time.
(11) Once you have changed all the settings over, close regedit and
then reboot your PC.
(12) Start 3DMark 2001 SE up but remember to check the test settings if
you've set the ZFormats number to 15. This means that, by
default, 3DMark will now use a 32-bit z-buffer instead of the usual
24-bit z-buffer. There is a performance difference between the
two and you can lose marks when running with a 32-bit z-buffer.
Don't forget to reboot after making the registry changes - enjoy the
new APS test!
Regards,
MadOnion.com Support
> Error msg: Could not create render target depth-stencil surface -
D3DERR_INVALIDCALL
>
> happens when I try to run the advanced pixel shader test.
>
> I have tried various settings for the video card (too numerous to
list), but still get the same error.
>
> OS: windows 2000 sp2
> Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; Q312461)
> GFX card: radeon 8500 retail
> Driver version: 6032 BETA
> CPU type: AMD Thunderbird-C 1333 MHz
> DirectX version: 8.1
> Motherboard: ASUS A7V133 (BIOS 1005A)
> Memory: 512Mb PC133
> Where the user was:
http://www.madonion.com/support/3dmark2001
I haven't been able to check to see if this works, as my pc is on its way across the pacific ocean right now. Could you try this fix, and post the results here, please?
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