When diagnosing system display and performance problems, the first place to look is Direct3D -- the interactive 3D graphics subsystem created by Microsoft.

If you have an outdated display driver or other problems with your graphics pipeline, then Direct3D will not work optimally and performance in Presenter, FXShow, and the 3D FXD Player will suffer. Indeed, problems in Direct3D can even cause the Instant Effects Presenter toolbar to not show up in PowerPoint, or the 3D FXD Player to fail to start.

Fortunately, Microsoft offers a utility to test the operation of Direct3D (and the rest of DirectX) on your system: DxDiag.

Here's how to run DxDiag and save a text file that describes your graphics system and any problems DxDiag discovers:

• From the Windows Start menu, choose Run
• Type "DxDiag" (without the quotes) in the Run textbox and press OK
• Wait for the progress bar on the lower left to complete
• Finally, press the button labeled "Save All Information..."

This will prompt you for a file name to save the text description of the results DxDiag has uncovered.

Since our software is so dependent on Direct3D running smoothly, Instant Effects' tech support staff will often request a copy of this file to help diagnose issues involving installation, performance, or poor display quality.