I am really upset. No opengl games will run on my Vista set-up.
I get a black screen and then dumped back to the desktop.
I have an Asus A7V8X, Ati 9600, and run Vista Home Premium.
Ati refuses to answer my support emails.
I cannot run any game that is programmed in opengl.
I haven’t had any problems with a comparable system (A7N8X Deluxe, 9600 Pro, Athlon 2500+). Have you installed video drivers?
If yes but without any luck, try the following:
- uninstall video drivers
- install the latest motherboard drivers available for XP
- reinstall video drivers
This should work, but make a restore point first!
Also make sure you install all the relevant hotfixes for Vista. One in particular addresses memory problems in some of the high-end games (search for KB940105).
This not clear from your post, but be sure to use video drivers from ATI/AMD, not those from Microsoft.
Can I use XP drivers with Vista?
I have done all the above, except try XP drivers for the via chipset.
I think it partially worked. I got close to running Serious Sam 1, but I did get an error message saying my video card cannot run in anything above 16-bit. Obnviously that is not true, for the ATI 9600 can run 32-bit.
Yes, with varying rates of success. It is something best avoided, but in some cases you don’t have a choice.
Edit: Do D3D programs run? Screensavers for example?
Yes D3D works fine and my screensaver also works.
It seems I have a problem ATI and Microsoft don’t care about.
I refuse to buy a console system for gaming, so I guess I have to go back to XP.
If this is just Microsoft trying to kill Opengl, I will be very mad.
Now the opengl games try to start and then give me an error message saying my video card has no 3d acceleration. But, yet I can run D3D games with full 3d acceleration, no problem.
I reinstalled Vista and I now can run opengl. It will run with Rune, but it is really slow. D3D is fast. I know I can’t run a newer game on a 9600 because it only supports a lower directx version.
Wow, can you rewrite your post with correct negations and affirmations at the right places ? I does not really make sense to me.
Anyway, uninstall your current video drivers and install the correct one from here :
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html
If you don’t understand what I write, use your feedback skills.
I did.
Did it solved your problem ?
Oh, btw :
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#writewell
That suggestion was given already, if you had bothered to read the thread.
OK my bad, I arrived at page 2 and did not see it.
I guess nobody has more clues to help you 
It turned out that Windows Vista was automatically installing the MS wdm driver which does not support the advanced functions of my ATI 9600 pro.
I was on the phone with MS for hours and they had no idea how to stop Vista from automatically installing the wdm driver.
I am back on XP.
I think automatic updates is configured to install any new graphics driver updates by default. You can change the default update configuration to prompt you for installation go ahead, at which point you could deselect any driver updates then proceed as previously outlined.