Not sure if this will help, but do you have the un-official DirectX 5 patch?nt4dx5 (.zip or .exe file). It may help DS problems as DS3 is sometimes unstable.
 
Chris

No I don't because I can't find it... but I'm looking for it now and I've found several files thanks to your nt4dx5 filename help. I'll post results later

Okay how am I supposed to replace files that are "in use"?
 
Specifically:
Dplaysry.exe - replaced
Ddhelp.exe - replaced
Ddraw.dll
Dsound.dll
 
okay i got the 2 exe's replaced now i just can't get the dll's in.

Ah crap! That Registry file that came with the unofficial patch must have changed the version of direct x my games detect. this just screwed up aoe2 completely... now i can't even start aoe2 up because i get the error message "Age of Empires 2 requires DirectX 6.1a or higher" Wheres the folder/registry-folder that says what version of directx i have?

The registry settings for DirectX are under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the registry editor application (regedit). The file that came with the patch (dx5.reg) should not have created any problems as long as you did not run the file. This is true as long as you have SP3 or higher (i'm sure you do if you have AOE2). I have AOE1 Gold and it runs without any problems with the patch and SP6a. There are two other DX patches from Microsoft (these are supported):
 
DirectX Media 6 and the DirectX Media 6 Update for DirectAnimation
go to microsoft.com/downloads and do a search for directx media 6
 
&
 
DirectPlay 6.1a
go to microsoft.com/downloads and do a search for directplay 6.1a
 
I hope this helps & you get your game working again.
 
Chris.

@ aliem: Searc microsoft website for a program called "inuse.exe"
 
It wil let you overwrite files that are in use. Just takes a reboot so you know after you use it.
 
it's a beauty.

I'll try both of the above tonight when I have time, thanks for input, just don't have time now.
 
Update:
 
Found 2 minutes to escape and DirectPlay 6.1 did the trick for aoe2. thanks a million. I tried the inuse.exe before i installed dplay... but i couldnt really figure out what to do. thanks for that anyway.
 
still have that darn sound problem in half life... I guess I can let it pass... it's really annoying though.

I should start backing up files.
 
I recently replaced my original OpenGL files with the one from this site:
http://www.opengl.org/users/downloads/index.html
 
And now whenever I go into an OpenGL game such as Half Life... the screen gets all shaky when anything moves... I know what I did was stupid but I thought there was like... better OpenGL drivers.

I'm glad to here that DirectPlay fixed the AOE2 problem Half-Life shouldn't have needed any OpenGL software as NT 4 comes with OpenGL 1.1. Maybe you should see if there's anyway to uninstall the downloaded OpenGL drivers? That way you could go back to using the native-NT drivers.
 
Hope this helps.
Chris.

Well, it wasn't an install type of thing... just the files.. I'm pretty sure the one that screwed it up was Opengl32.dll since that was the only one replaced.

nevermind i fixed the opengl problem.
 
but i still have the problem with sound in half life.