since im a total noob assume i know nothing..

so as a new dx9 material i try and load either ben clowards or style's shaders, but neither work. for both it says error loading file - no valid techniques found

what's this?

Are your viewports in DirectX mode? Check it in Customize -> Preferences -> Viewports tab, then look in the driver section.

If they are already in DX mode, then I'd guess your graphics card is too old. What gfx card do you have?

yup its d3d 9 on radeon 9200

Hmm 9200 is very old, that's probably why it's not working. A decent modern NVidia card isn't very expensive, I'd recommend getting one.