And before cursing at Direct X, did you even bother to run the tests and find out what it was in your system that isnt compatible or is having problems? It sounds like a driver problem, probably one of your drivers wasnt compatible. If you just update the problem driver, your problems with Dx9.0C would go away too.
9.0C has been out for months. Millions of people have downloaded it from MS and installed it on their computers, but your problem makes it a piece of crap? Interesting philosophy there. (Not that I'm a big fan of MS, or their practices when it comes to releasing new software, but blaming them for your problems here is just putting off the real problem).
Even if your drivers are up to date, sometimes when you install a new version of Direct X one can get messed up. After determining which component is causing the problem, if it is the latest driver, try just reinstalling it. That might solve the problem. If not, try going to a previous version of the driver (especially if you are using non-standard drivers or 3rd party drivers). In the end, if all else fails, use your system restore and roll back your comp to before you installed Direct X 9.0C. At some point its going to become the standard and you will HAVE to upgrade to it, or the next level of DirectX. If I were you I'd want to figure out the problem before that time comes and you cant hide in an older version anymore. Good luck with it in any case.
