Half Life 2 Steam and game problems... [Archive]

View Full Version : Half Life 2 Steam and game problems...

Legion

28 Sep 05, 02:10

Patrocles

28 Sep 05, 10:08

Full Monty

28 Sep 05, 11:48

Had a quick look through for other comments on similar things but to no avail... are there any others here who are playing Russian Roulette with getting a game of Half Life 2 actually up and running on their PC...

Got to be the buggiest thing i have ever sen... and Steam dont seem to give a damn, unles they are just bogged down by the 1000s of complaints and cries for help! :mad:

The biggest problem I've encountered with playing HL2 is a compatibility problem with Nvidia graphics drivers - many of them don't draw the textures, especially the water, properly. If you're using an Nvidia card then I'd recommend the Omega 'tweaked' drivers you can get from http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1027

Beware though, they pre-date 'Battlefield 2' so you might have problems if you also play that quite a bit.

A good site to discuss all things HL2 related is http://www.hlfallout.net/ where you might get more help with your problems :)

Skirmisher

28 Sep 05, 12:51

I had been running Half-Life 2/Steam/Counterstrike Source without problems for the better part of a year. Now I started getting "program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" whenever I attempted to run half life 2,or counter strike,or half life 2 deathmatch.
So I purged the whole mess from my system.

To bad to because I always enjoyed half -life.

gobeavs

28 Sep 05, 18:42

I've never had a problem with the actual STEAM app myself. The servers and authenticating HL2 was a hassle, but never a problem with STEAM itself.

If it weren't so bloated, I think it would be useful. A good idea, poorly executed.

Skirmisher

28 Sep 05, 19:36

I corrected my last post,actually the steam app was starting but whenever I attempted to launch a game I got the error. :blab:

But since everything that valve does now won't run unless steam is running I blamed that. Maybe I'll reinstall the original half life again,free from steam.

Legion

28 Sep 05, 20:03

Out of curiousity what kind of problems are you or others encountering with HL^2? I ran HL^2 and Steam on my computer with no problems. However, I recently formatted my computer and made a personal decision to BAN all Steam and Starforce-protected software from my computer.
:)
Man... so many problems, so little time. :blab:

Both HL:DM and CS:S run about 70% of the time, but if they dont run (Usually leaving a messed up screen with the original loading screen cut up into mismatched horizontal bands) then i usually get 1 more chance to re-try, and if thet doesn't work then the whole PC is frozen and i have to re-boot :mad:
When it does run then occasionally on the first map change the whole thing freezes up (as above) and i have about a 50% chance of being able to shut it down by calling up the Task Manager... or i have to re-boot :mad:

As for HL2, well... usually i dont even get THAT far... i often get the horizontal banding on load up, i also get the imfamous sound loop crash (and it is not my sound card, Steam would make a good politician, they blame sound cards/video cards that work with everything else, but THEIR programs - hmmm is that a pattern i wonder?)
As i progress to another section of a level (there is that mini-load, right) then i often get a crash... (frozen screen)
And then there are just the random frozen-screen events!
Most of these require a re-boot! :mad:

I am running a 2GHz P4 with 768MB on-board.
Graphics card is an ATI9600XT and i have a 24-Bit Sound Blaster Card
I try to play at my screen resolution of 1024x768, but i have tried it with the DirectX8 adaption and that increases my chances of actually getting in, i just dont get far... By default i turn all the graphics resolutions down to minimum...

Overseer

28 Sep 05, 21:13

What drivers are you running Legion?

Patrocles

28 Sep 05, 22:09

Man... so many problems, so little time. :blab:

Both HL:DM and CS:S run about 70% of the time, but if they dont run (Usually leaving a messed up screen with the original loading screen cut up into mismatched horizontal bands) then i usually get 1 more chance to re-try, and if thet doesn't work then the whole PC is frozen and i have to re-boot :mad:
When it does run then occasionally on the first map change the whole thing freezes up (as above) and i have about a 50% chance of being able to shut it down by calling up the Task Manager... or i have to re-boot :mad:

As for HL2, well... usually i dont even get THAT far... i often get the horizontal banding on load up, i also get the imfamous sound loop crash (and it is not my sound card, Steam would make a good politician, they blame sound cards/video cards that work with everything else, but THEIR programs - hmmm is that a pattern i wonder?)
As i progress to another section of a level (there is that mini-load, right) then i often get a crash... (frozen screen)
And then there are just the random frozen-screen events!
Most of these require a re-boot! :mad:

I am running a 2GHz P4 with 768MB on-board.
Graphics card is an ATI9600XT and i have a 24-Bit Sound Blaster Card
I try to play at my screen resolution of 1024x768, but i have tried it with the DirectX8 adaption and that increases my chances of actually getting in, i just dont get far... By default i turn all the graphics resolutions down to minimum...

bummer! yeah, try some of the remedies suggested here. Other than that i think gobeavs said it succinctly that maybe Steam is a good idea, but poorly implemented. good luck!

Legion

28 Sep 05, 22:49

What drivers are you running Legion?
Whoa... now that i am gonna have to coached through... where do i get that info from?

Overseer

28 Sep 05, 22:52

Whoa... now that i am gonna have to coached through... where do i get that info from?

Here's the easy way to figure it out. Have you updated your drivers in the last month or two?

If not, go to www.ati.com, go to "Drivers & Software", pick your OS, then click on Radeon, and download "Catalyst 5.9" drivers. The problems you were describing, sound at least in part, as outdated drivers, so download those, install the file, restart your computer, and I'm guessing it'll run better.

gobeavs

29 Sep 05, 00:12

Here's the easy way to figure it out. Have you updated your drivers in the last month or two?

If not, go to www.ati.com, go to "Drivers & Software", pick your OS, then click on Radeon, and download "Catalyst 5.9" drivers. The problems you were describing, sound at least in part, as outdated drivers, so download those, install the file, restart your computer, and I'm guessing it'll run better.
Hehe...if he doesn't know what drivers are I bet they are as old as his computer :D.

That could be the issue, since it sounds like he hasn't updated in forever.

Overseer

29 Sep 05, 00:36

Hehe...if he doesn't know what drivers are I bet they are as old as his computer :D.

That could be the issue, since it sounds like he hasn't updated in forever.

Yeah, and the visual problems he described sound more likely to be driver than anything else.

Legion

29 Sep 05, 08:40

Here's the easy way to figure it out. Have you updated your drivers in the last month or two?
Yea updated the 9600XT when i installed HL2 (in August), but not the latest... am doig it now to see what the story is

Legion

29 Sep 05, 10:16

Yup, didn't make the slightest bit of difference...

Full Monty

29 Sep 05, 15:03

Yup, didn't make the slightest bit of difference...

Did you clean out the old drivers first? If you just overwrote with the new ones bits of the old ones could still be causing problems. Suggest you download 'Driver Cleaner' from http://www.drivercleaner.net/ and follow the instructions that should completely purge your system of all remnants of the old drivers.

I'm not saying this will work but it'll be a useful experience :)

Legion

30 Sep 05, 00:59

Did you clean out the old drivers first? If you just overwrote with the new ones bits of the old ones could still be causing problems. Suggest you download 'Driver Cleaner' from http://www.drivercleaner.net/ and follow the instructions that should completely purge your system of all remnants of the old drivers.
Full Monty, you are a legend... this worked a treat! Thanks for the help...
Thank you too Overseer

Overseer

30 Sep 05, 01:48

I thought about suggesting you uninstall the drivers first, but I've never had a problem that I needed to, sorry for not including that step! :)

Full Monty

30 Sep 05, 09:33

Full Monty, you are a legend... this worked a treat! Thanks for the help...

I'm glad your problems are solved. Hopefully you'll be able to enjoy many hours of glitch-free gaming.

Thanks for the appreciation :)

gobeavs

30 Sep 05, 18:36

I thought about suggesting you uninstall the drivers first, but I've never had a problem that I needed to, sorry for not including that step! :)
Heh...I've always just installed new drivers over old ones (and I have done beta installs, reverts from betas, etc)....tried Driver Cleaner once, didn't do a thing - so I haven't done it since. Though as I think Full Monty says, it helps some people. Especially if they have had nVIDIA drivers on previously and are now using ATI.

Full Monty

30 Sep 05, 20:15

Heh...I've always just installed new drivers over old ones (and I have done beta installs, reverts from betas, etc)....tried Driver Cleaner once, didn't do a thing - so I haven't done it since. Though as I think Full Monty says, it helps some people. Especially if they have had nVIDIA drivers on previously and are now using ATI.

I think if you've been using drivers that work then simply installing over the top or reverting will probably be okay. However, if they've become corrupted or just don't work for whatever reason (or you've swapped card manufacturers) then this kind of procedure can help.

Legion

01 Oct 05, 06:30

Especially if they have had nVIDIA drivers on previously and are now using ATI.
Yes, this must have been the problem, as i changed my graphics card over from nVidea to ATI about a year ago... and when i ran the driverer cleanup i decided to do both ATI and nVidea, a good choice in retrospect

Full Monty

01 Oct 05, 09:41

Yes, this must have been the problem, as i changed my graphics card over from nVidea to ATI about a year ago... and when i ran the driverer cleanup i decided to do both ATI and nVidea, a good choice in retrospect

No wonder you were having problems. Poor system didn't know whether to draw or paint! :D

Incidentally, regarding the Omega drivers I mentioned above. The chap you does them keeps the ATI versions up to date (apparently he beta-tests for ATI too) and they are very highly regarded. http://www.omegadrivers.net is the homepage.

Patrocles

01 Oct 05, 10:41

Yes, this must have been the problem, as i changed my graphics card over from nVidea to ATI about a year ago... and when i ran the driverer cleanup i decided to do both ATI and nVidea, a good choice in retrospect

If you got the ATI drivers from the ATI website did you check out the instructions? It clearly states to UNINSTALL the old drivers before installing new drivers.
:)

gobeavs

01 Oct 05, 12:38

If you got the ATI drivers from the ATI website did you check out the instructions? It clearly states to UNINSTALL the old drivers before installing new drivers.
:)
We don't need instructions!

Plus, it still wouldn't have helped. nVIDIA drivers are notorious for not coming off completely even if you uninstalled them.

Admiral

01 Oct 05, 12:57

Thanx for the driver cleaner link, Full Monty. A good thing!

(Refresh for full effect)
http://www.net1hosting.com/downloads/cs/steam.gif

Archamus

01 Oct 05, 16:52

The problem I had was the first time I run any steam app i have to wait a ridiculously long time. HL2 took a good 40 minutes of a black screen before running the first time, and cs source took about 15.