Rendering Issues with CF 1.9

Well, this is my first time on this forum, but that is irrelivant. I've been playing freelancer on my computer for some time now, both vanilla, and modded. I have never tried CF before, and installing it has managed to render my copy of FL useless.


My problem(s) started with fighting COMODO antivirus over the MP3Codec.dll, then in FLMM over actually installing it. After working around those, uninstalling CF, FLMM, my graphics driver, disabling my antivirus, and rebooting my PC, I still manage to get a splash screen of FL not detecting a video card. My hardware has not changed after it last ran perfectly on vanilla. While installing, I have tried the minimum graphics, and the older compatibility. Still get the splash of death. Knowing that my video card is not the problem, I ran a quick search on how to bypass the card check. I downloaded an unprotected FL exe, and changed the hex offset of 1B17B80 value from 0F 85 to 90 E9. That solved the splash screen. Running that config, I watched the intro movies, and could get to the menu. I heard the music, but the screen was black. I am now stuck. Does anyone have an idea?

Well, I think I've got it. I wiped everything Freelancer related from my primary HDD, dug around, formatted an older one, then put a fresh OS and Freelancer on it. Seems to work. It pays to keep the old recovery disks Now I've got CF running on single player.
Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

I haven't tried multiplayer, I think I'll stick with SP until I'm used to everything. (And I'm really shy about PvP multiplayer things.)