Ddhelp Performed an Illegal Operation...

[william8mitchell]

Hi guys, when i try to play games (Max Payne in this instance) i get one of those annoying illegal operation errors for a File named Ddhelp, i have to Ctrl+Alt+Del the game i tried to start. If i then try to start the game again my system crashes.
My specs are,
Biostar MVC6F Mobo
Via Ezra 80Mhz CPU
Nvidia TNT2/Nvidia GeforceMX440 SE (Tried both seperatly)
Onboard Sound
4GB WD HDD
Some cruddy 56K modem
Win98

Ive just went back to Win98 from XP because ive been having too many problems with XP so Win98 is a fresh install, its also happened in the past with Win98 so its not a 1 off thing, but i have had games working in the past.

[meese]

Do you have the latest version of direct x? Ddhelp is a direct x help program. Checkout the links below:

http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/3685.html
http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/ddhelp.htm

[william8mitchell]

No, not the latest, ive tried 8.0 and 8.1 still the same problem.

This is what it says in the details bit, if its any use to anyone....

DHELP caused an invalid page fault in
module WINMM.DLL at 015f:bfe13531.
Registers:
EAX=00000003 CS=015f EIP=bfe13531 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=82f7ddac SS=0167 ESP=008fff20 EBP=008fff6c
ECX=009b0000 DS=0167 ESI=bfe13522 FS=0daf
EDX=82f7ddb8 ES=0167 EDI=c1b06fb0 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
89 41 10 ff 72 0c 68 bd 03 00 00 ff 72 58 e8 42
Stack dump:
00000000 bff85046 82f7ddb8 c1b06fb0 000000c0 82f7ddac 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000001 81d2cd20 00000001 c1adda04 bff741fb 008ffd50 008fffbc

[dlh75]

80mhz CPU? How much ram do you have? Here is the
recommended specs to run Max Payne: Windows 95/98/ME/2000, 700 MHz Intel or AMD processor, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB Direct3D-compatible graphics card, DirectX 8.0, DirectSound-compatible sound card . Do you have at least these?

[meese]

This MS KB Article covers that exact error: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=179295

[william8mitchell]

I got 512mb of SDRAM (1 stick)
The TNT2 is 32MB AGP
The GeforceMX440 is 128MB AGP

Downloading DX9 now.

[william8mitchell]

Downloaded DX9 - Still get the same damn error.

I have played Max Payne before because i downloaded a copy off of Kazaa but i just bought the orginal today because the crappy copy had no speech.

[william8mitchell]

Alright well as you can see i started this Thread way back in March and, i still have the same damn problem 5 months on, i've formatted my drive countless times, downloaded and installed DX8/9 many many times (on a 56k modem!) and installed different GFX card drivers but none worked.
I then took a break from trying to fix it but recently i have had a craving to play some of the many games i spent lots of money on so today i again installed a game (Max Payne again) and as you probably can guess it did the exact same thing - ddhelp peformed and illegal blah blah blah.
I'm getting EXTREMELY annoyed at this because everyhting used to work so well, plus im not formatting my computer because i have LOTS of files i have collected for my website which will be almost impossible to collect again, i dont know if anyone can help me in some way other than giving me a link to some massive document or telling me to redownload and install things countless times because i just cant keep doing that with my computer. And i dont have the money to buy a new computer or any new parts and i dont see the need to since most of my parts were all recently bought brand new.