i've had this problem before, and it always happens when i install windows 98 (SE) out of the box. i can't do lots of things because of it. i can't play videos, and even worse, i can't get to Windows Update. i know there's a thing for non-IE browsers, although it has the things i need, there are little things i want from the original one. (and i want to watch videos...)
i can't seem to get rid of this problem this time....i have DirectX 9.0c (just installed, i had 9.0b about 10 minutes ago)

All I can say, Wolf, is that when I had this trouble it was caused by Video drivers or DX9. Run DXdiag, check video is shown as okay, check AGP, then update drivers and if all that fails consider re-downloading DX9c, in case it's a corrupted download. Good luck