Problems calling Methods that are part of DirectX

Alright, I finally have my compiler(Microsoft's free Visual C++ compiler) working and it builds windows applications perfectly. The problem occurs with DirectX specifically when calling functions of the IDirect3D9 class. I included d3d9.h and linked d3d9.lib and the following code works, compiles and links fine: IDirect3D9* d3d_ptr; D3DDISPLAYMODE d3dDM; if( (d3d_ptr = Direct3DCreate9(D3D_SDK_VERSION)) ==NULL) //error However, when attempting to call functions with d3d_ptr, such as GetAdapterDisplayMode the compiler says: error C2039: 'GetAdapterDisplayMode': is not a member of 'IDirect3D9' C:\DX9\Include\d3d9.h(254) : See declaration of 'IDirect3D9' The code in my source file is: if( FAILED(d3d_ptr->GetAdapterDisplayMode(D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT, &d3dDM))) My first notion was that GetAdapterDisplayMode was not a function of IDirect3D9; however, according to all of microsoft's documenation and other sources I have found it should be. I am completely stumped!?? Thanks for the help