As of two weeks ago, every game on my computer stopped working other than WoW. Literally. I tried running Modern Warfare 2, and it "stops responding" while starting. I had the same issue with Borderlands and L4D, so I figured it may just be Steam. Unfortunately StarCraft 2 stops responding on the load screen as well, as does BioShock 2. I restored my computer to a backup from a month ago, and nothing has changed. I've updated all my drivers for my graphics card and BIOS, and still nothing. I've uninstalled Steam (and all its games) and SC2, and still nothing works.

The thing that makes no sense to me, though, is that WoW runs perfectly along with any other non-game program. Unless my computer is trying to tell me that WoW is the only game worth playing, I'm at a loss. I'd really like to avoid reformatting everything if I don't have to, so I'm coming to you fine folk for help. Anyone ever see or hear of something like this before?

I've been having some strange load issues since the realms reset Tuesday night...but I don't know what they could have done that would interfere with games, like the Sims 3. This might just be a strange coincidence. Sims 3 crashes upon getting to the neighborhood screen.

DirectX issue?
Have you tried uninstalling it and then reinstall? I'm not sure if it's still possible, since I've never heard of it causing problems but I know for older versions (< DX8) there were custom uninstallers you could find via google.
Or try reinstalling DirectX.

If you've ever bought a game and it's not running, then you could contact customer support. Maybe they come up with something.

Do OpenGL games run? Is WoW OpenGL? If yes, what about other OpenGL games? Does StarCraft 1 run?

Next thing you can try is disabling sound / setting software graphics for games that support that configuration outside the game.
Or physically remove your GFX card (if you have an OnBoard GFX chip) / sound card and see if it makes a difference.

Do sound editors like Audacity still work (record a song)?

These are all stabs in the dark as I have no idea what could cause this, but my suggestions should help to narrow down the source of the problem.
It might also help to give us information about CPU, GFX, OS, MoBo, RAM and sound card if applicable.

Oh and one last advice: You can try reinstalling your OS without reformat.

One time all my steam games didn't work, responding that "Could not connect to Steam" when steam was on.
My brother got pissed off and started trying to fix it by reinstalling everything in steam,
It worked :l

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
MoBo: EVGA 132-YW-E179-FTW
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8500 @ 3.16GHz
RAM: 4096MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250


Dunno if this helps but:
DxDiag Previously: Crashed in system information (stage 4) & DirectShow (stage 1). Re-running DxDiag with "dontskip" command line parameter or choosing not to bypass information gathering when prompted might result in DxDiag successfully obtaining this information

StarCraft 1, WarCraft 3, Diablo 2, and WoW run.
StarCraft 2, Borderlands, CoD:MW2, Left4Dead, Left4Dead 2, Braid, Warhammer 40k, Portal, Trine, and Bioshock 2 wont run.

To me, that seems like a DirectX issue, but I thought SC2 was OpenGL like the rest of Blizzard's games?

There's your problem.

That is not a problem since that card can handle all the games he mentioned. You should be banned for saying such inaccurate ideas.

The card I had prior was a 9800 GT, and that ran everything I have beautifully. I seriously doubt it's the card, but thanks anyway.

I'm not seeing a pattern yet, mostly because I don't know whether these games run on DX or OGL.
Also do as I said and try with a different GFX. Onboard, or old GF9800 doesn't matter.
And if you have any old game that can run in software mode that'd be great for testing dx related problems.
You also didn't report back if disabling sound helps / sound recording works with other programs.

I just attempted to reinstall Windows 7, and it gave me some error towards the end. I ended up having to use the repair disc to revert to an older backup. Now it works fine all of a sudden.

My guess is it was a DIrectX issue, as the dxdiag wasn't even working properly.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 11 2010, 6:53 am by DevliN.