Help! I bought a game which requires OpenGL and now it’s not working, but gives me an error:

Most likely your game is based on Quake 3 -game-engine. You might have in your computer some nVidia-graphics chip like NT1/TNT2/GeForce/GeForce2 etc? What can I do? You can drive again DirectX-diagnosis utility, you can re-install DirectX, re-install gaphics card’s drivers, re-install opengl32.dll… any of these won’t help you. It might help you to install Windows again, but problem might occur again.

And hey! Are you sure that your graphics card really supports OpenGL-framework? And you are sure that drivers you currently have installed, supports OpenGL? With some cards, for example Windows XP might install unworking drivers. If that’s the case, then you just download new drivers from your chip’s manufacturer’s webpage.

Some places to start looking:
» nVidia drivers
» ATI/AMD drivers
» 3DFX/Voodoo -drivers + random drivers
» For old chips you can usually find drivers from ajuriapaja (in Finnish only! …though it’s easy to use.)
» www.3dchipset.com

Check also that there isn’t files opengl32.dll and opengl32.lib in your games install directory. If they are there, just re-name them.

Otherwise:

Actually solution is rather simple. In your windows -directory, you can find win.ini -file. Just editing one line from there will save your day. Usually win.ini can be found from path “c:windowswin.ini”. Just open it to the notepad and find line “DVA=0″ (without quotes). Add a semicolon (;) to the beginning of this line (by this way you will “comment it away”). Thats it! Usually this works.

So in other words:

Now you just save file and restart windows. Now when you try your OpenGL-required game, it will most likely work

But there is this if:
If you are using NT-based windows (NT/2000/XP), there might not even be a line “DVA=0″ in your win.ini-file. In this case (and also if editing that line didn’t help) I just recommend you to install newest Detonator-drivers from nVidia. (IF it’s a nVidia chip.)

I had Windows 2000 Professional in use and my graphics card was Riva TNT 16Mb AGP. My problem vanished after installing detonator-drivers version 43.45. Newest detonators might weaken performance of old card, for newest drivers are naturaly optimized for newest cards. Somehow working driver is anyway better than not working at all -driver. ;-) Check that list of places to start looking for drivers again.

Remember to google (more) for this problem. So far the best place, I think, is a message that you can find from OpenGL-forums.

IF… your problem remains, I’m not the one who could know solution for it. I’m not the one to contact (you can drop a comment below if you have any ideas). You should check a helpdesk-number or something from side of your game-box.

All together, your error might look something like this:

With these games it might occur; Medal of Honor Allied Assault(“Mohaa”), Star Trek Voyager Elite, Jedi Knight(II), Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3….

Update 29.4.2007

Remember, that these instructions are very old. Windows XP had just arrived to the shops when this was written. Today best help might be newest drivers. OpenGL seems to be rather picky for wrong versions.