wine users - Dec 2008 - Valve Source games display problem

I'm hoping someone can help me figure this problem out. It's been
bugginng me for quite a while. First, basic specs:

8.04 Kubuntu
x86 64 bit system.
Nvidia 9600 GT video card
2GB RAM

Wine version 1.1.10

I've been running wine for several years, so it's distinctly possible
that I've got some leftover configuration information that's messing me
up. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling to see if that would help. No
luck.

With that background, the symptoms:

1) Open Steam.
2) Log in normally. All Steam displays, with the exception of the Flash based
content on the Store tab, looks fine.
3) Select the "My Games" tab. All content displayed properly.
4) Choose a game and launch. Launching the game works correctly.

5a) Team Fortress 2:
5a1) Choose a server to connect. Connects normally.
5a2) The introduction display, which I believe is simple HTML, shows a black box
instead of the content that the gameserver admin has created.
5a3) Hit 'Continue'. Game loads normally.  Plays normally.

5b) Left 4 Dead:
5b1) While the game launches normally and runs the intro movie correctly,
something odd occurs when it finally gets to the menu display. I see the moving
background of zombies. I hear all the sounds correctly. The odd part is that
while I see and hear all this stuff, I can't see the menu!

It gets a bit stranger. If I just move the mouse pointer around the screen, I
get the little click as I pass over approximately where the various menu items
should be. I think I have even managed to select one or two because the
configuration of buttons sometimes seems to change.

Both of these games are ones that others have reported on AppDB at WineHQ as
working with hardware configurations that are similar to mine. My current
tentative working hypothesis is that I've got a HTML rendering problem that
is affecting both games.

I thought I'd found the solution when I realized that wine-gecko was not
installed. Installing the latest version has not resolved the issue.

Does anyone know if I'm on the right track? If so, what should I try?

If you think I may be off base, do you have any advice as to what steps I should
take to investigate the problem?

TIA

sgtrock wrote:
> 5b) Left 4 Dead:
> 5b1) While the game launches normally and runs the intro movie correctly,
something odd occurs when it finally gets to the menu display. I see the moving
background of zombies. I hear all the sounds correctly. The odd part is that
while I see and hear all this stuff, I can't see the menu!

Try completely reinstall Steam as suggested on AppDB. It could be something left
over from old times.
I don't have L4D can't tell for sure. But Valve did make lots of changes
in L4D engine comparing to TF2. Could be one of those changes is what you see.
You can also try dxlevel 90 (anything else won't work).