MED also gives an error and will not start.

I have tried adding
video_screen=1
as the first line in main() / small.c which at least clears the screen to black, then aborts with an error message.
video_mode=8
just aborts w/ error message.

Downloaded demos do not work. I'm not sure how to test whether I have a driver problem (or missing driver) or a hardware problem.

I have reinstalled the motherboard AGP drivers. I ran an independent DirectX test which did not report any errors, and I have disabled all overclocking (which was modest) but am now running all bios at system defaults.

I downloaded the factory.zip (bronx street walkthrough). At start I get
Error E-2005530516 Can't create D3D device

That's all the followup testing I've done.
--Peter