Half-Life Fallout: HL2 crashes without -nosound... - Half-Life Fallout

Hi!

I'm new here, just registered. I was thinking that perhaps someone here could help with my problem with HL2 and Episode One.

And in case you're wondering, yes, I'm the same Cosmic Sea as on the official Steam forums, with the same problem.
If you have any pointers for solving this problem of mine, I would be most grateful.

Okay, I've been running HL2 with this kind of a machine for some time now (If I remember correctly, I bought the game back in 2005):
Windows XP (service pack 1)
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
512mb RAM
GeForce FX 56000
Soundmax integrated digital audio (Asus A7V8X-X motherboard)
Direct-X 9.0c

When I first got the game installed and running, performance was awful. It turned out to be the fault of the 3D-card, turning down the direct-X level to 8.1 got the game running smoothly. (while that geforce model was sold as a direct-x 9 card, it can just run the game in that mode, nothing more).
When I got that problem sorted out, the game was very stable. Played it through several times. When Episode One came out, I bought that too and completed that several times too.

Then I had this bit of a pause from late 06 untill early this month (March 07). It was the 5th when I felt like playing some HL2 again. Started up the game and loaded the latest save there was.
Now I ran into a hellish crashing problem! After some experimenting, I came up with the following:

Symptoms:
At certain specific points, the game freezes with looping sounds, and crashes to desktop some 10-15 seconds later. In full-screen mode, no error message is given. Crashing in a window pops up either "memory can't be read" or datacache.dll error messages.

Occurs when:
Seems like whenever I come across a point where a piece of background music should start playing.
-starting a new game (game loads as normal, crashes immediately after the HL2 intro text appears)
-leaving the trainstation in the beginning (step out the doors)
-running from the combine CP's to the attic of the apartment building in the beginning (right after the loading pause in the last staircase before entering the attic)
-being chased by the combine chopper when driving the hover boat in water hazards
-leaving Nova Prospekt, going to the staircase with a zombie (right after the second encounter with the antlion guard that's attacked by the combine when you enter the hall from the broken window, leaving your antlion pack behind).
-after some swearing with HL2, I tried E1, and it crashed the same way, inside the citadel, right after the first loading pause

Can reproduce :
Yes, every single time

I ran several tests & doohickeys to see if the problem was caused by component or driver conflicts and such.
-Dxdiag showed no conflicts or other problems
-Steam crash test showed nothing wrong, except for my Zone alarm firewall as a possible troublemaker, but that allows internet access to Steam and the games involved
-I ran avast! virus scan and Ad-awere, which found nothing
-Spybot found some of the usual sith, but removing them didn't do any good
-defragmented hard drive
-defragmented game files with Steam
-verified integrity of game files with Steam
-tested RAM with memtest, passed with no errors

I also updated windows XP, 3D-card, and soundmax audio driver.
Results: the game still crashed like explained above.

While updating, testing, and swearing, I contacted Steam's support. But untill now, the advice I've been given revolves around updating drivers (like they're out-dated or something. I had played the game for quite long with perhaps 3-4 random crashes. Very little IMO) and running the game with different laucnh options and other tweaks.

Nothing seemed to work:
-disabling background applications
-trying different windows' virtual memory settings
-lowering sound accelaration level from dxdiag, all the way to none (emulation)
-running game in a window
-lowering game's direct-x level to 7.0
-turning game's sound quality to mininum
-turning game's graphic options to mininum
-tried several different launch and console options, including heapsize, mat_forcehardwaresync, sound sync options, -nosound etc.
-and finally uninstalling the games & Steam, deleting all files left over, then doing a fresh reinstall

All of the above but one failed to do any difference. That was -nosound
The game runs like it should with sounds disabled.
Do you have any idea what could cause this kind of behaviour?

I don't have any sound issues with any other games or applications, only HL2 and Episode One. And it seems to be a problem with the Source engine accessing in-game music for playback. Counter-Strike: Source for example runs without any problems.
And there seems to be no way to test HL2 without music, since turning down the volume in the options won't disable it. It's still loaded into memory and causes crashes (tried that one too). Same goes for disabling the sound device from windows' control panel, the game still crashes. But -nosound makes them work again. And since playing without sounds is kinda like watching a silent movie blindfolded, I would really like to get them working again.

Looking at numerous forums and tweak guides, I could find countless cases of people having problems with random crashes and audio-related stutters, but only a few having similar problems as me.
Many people have complained that Source has been getting more and more unstable with each update, but I don't think I'm having that problem. Those issues are reported with all kind of games, including DOD:S and CS:S, the latter working fine for me. And I remember HL2 working just fine after the last update (which is from April 19th 2006, according to the update history).

What could cause this? Why won't the damn think work?

You tried updating your motherboard chipset drivers?

I've just hunted down the latest Chipset drivers for you based on your motherboard chipset (KT400)

http://www.viaarena....onpro_v510a.zip

Install them and reboot the computer, then try HL2 again.

Hope it works =]

Cheese, on Mar 18 2007, 11:23 PM, said:

Thanks!
To be honest, I don't even remember when I last updated my chipset drivers.
I'll try them and report back tomorrow.

Good to hear that there's still something to try before re-installing windows.
Some people on the Steam forums as well as a friend of mine both recommended re-installing winblows, but I have been a little sceptical about this "periodic re-install perfectly normal with windows" thing. I understand that windows can get somewhat slower with time as it gathers useless junk and left-overs from wherever, but that it would degenerate to a point where it can't run games properly, I doubt it. (but then again, I'm not an expert with XP...)
One bloke also recommended getting more RAM. While it would surely boost overall performance as well, it's quite an expensive way to troubleshoot a game, IMHO. And if the problem were because of the lack of RAM, wouldn't the game try to work around it by using virtual memory, instead of crashing right away? But then again, the problem should'n be because of faulty RAM, I checked it with memtest and it passed without errors.

I'll call it a day now and try those chipset drivers tomorrow.

I got those chipset drivers downloaded as well as sound drivers for my MB from asus' website.
Tried them today, no luck, HL2 still crashes.

Seems like I'm running out of ideas now.

What would do this kind of thing? Those parts of the game with no background music work fine, but when one should start playing, pow! It's dead and I'm back on the desktop.
When the game locks up,the audio loops and it sound like the hard drive is working on something intesively. Usually it's like this when loading a new area, not in-game.

Last week I tried to record a video of a crash with Fraps, but it didn't show the issue. The recording stopped the same instant moment the game crashes, just like if I had stopped recording.

I've thought about reinstalling windows. A complete reinstall with the formating would be quite a chore, copying all the files and documents and stuff from the partition I have windows in, then copying them (and some software I still have in it) back. Would a repair install do any good? That at least wouldn't require all the copying, just the waiting while it installs, am I correct?

Try deleting the actual HL2 folder, not the GCF's just the folder. That should force it to re-extract the files from the GCF's.

Might be worth a try ?

Cheese, on Mar 20 2007, 09:28 PM, said:

Well, that's definately more pleasant than reinstalling windows! I'll give it a try.
Oh, and to make sure I delete the right directory, you mean *\valve\Steam\SteamApps\Username\Half-Life 2\HL2 ?

Delete "?:\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\Username\Half-Life 2\"

"\Half-Life 2\"

Got it.
I'll give it a try.

Deleting that folder didn't help, still crashing.

Hmmm...
I was thinking, could this be caused by a recent Source engine update?
This popped in my while thinking about games crashing. I remember updating Star Craft caused rendered it unplayable with the Zerg, as the game would always crash when a certain background music piece started playing. That was easy to solve, reinstall and play without the patch.
Well, at least I could try...
But with Steam, it's trickier.
How do I keep Steam from updating ANYTHING? I just need the game installed and registered to my account so that I can play, nothing more.
Reinstall, register, pull the (internet) plug. Will that work?

To stop instant updates when you connect to the internet choose which game you want to stop the updates for then choose properties go to updates and change it to do not automatically update but sometimes for sound crashes it can be due to your sound card sometimes you need a soundcard not just onboard sound but you might want to upgrade your rig altogether my HL2 runs fine on Pentium4 1.6ghz, 768 ram, nvidia 5700gt

I don't have the proper time to fully address your issue(s), but your rig could use at least another stick of 512. Hopefully you are running HL2 with medium textures as well.

Did you submit a support ticket to Valve?

EDIT: Wait looks like you submitted a ticket to Valve, what have they told you to do? Also you are running XP with Service Pack 1? Why? Update to Service pack 2 asap and install all high priority updates.

Also, you should install the LATEST VERSION of drivers for your video and sound cards. It appears that you did most of the steps already that I would have directed you to do as well. Also have you had a look at this? It appears that it could be sound card related if that is the problem you have.

EDIT2: Also, have you installed the latest version of Direct X from Microsoft?

My HL2 did run just fine on a AMD XP2600 (2,1ghz), 512mb RAM, Geforce FX5600...
Yeah, a completely new rig would be sweet (I could get playing that IL2: 1946, now I have to settle for FB+AEP+PF version 3.04), but getting a new machine isn't quite possible right now.

I just don't get it, the game worked with without issues well over a year, Episode One too, and now it refuses to even start, and crashes whenever it should playing music.
Well, I can play CS:S, that's pretty good, but not my cup of tea.
Why on earth would the game work for quite a long time even with that soundmax integrated chip pretending to be a sound device? And with no PC hardware changed in between?
And why would HL2 work with sounds disabled (-nosound), but crash with soundmax disabled via windows' device management? If my little grey cells are working correctly, that would suggest an engine problem (disabling soundmax disables sound while -nosound stops the music data from being loaded). But then again, I'm not an expert, I don't know. I'm somehow suspecting a source update gone completely FUBAR...

Oh, btw I tried reinstalling the game today, being online just for logging to my steam account, then pulling the plug. No luck, Steam doesn't think about starting un-patched games. So much for trying earlier versions.

If this truly is a subtle hint by Valve to buy a new computer, because I haven't supported the hardware makers for a while, I'm not buying it.

That is all well and good, but if you don't even want to upgrade your drivers or do ANY work on your part, then its not our fault, nor is it Valve's. Did you even attempt to update your sound and video card drivers?

In the end, you really need to just take this up with Valve and see where it goes.

Trooper, on Mar 22 2007, 09:52 PM, said:

ANY work on my part? What makes you think so?
Sorry, I may have given the wrong impression of myself, but upgrading drivers, trying tweaks and looking for possible solutions is pretty much all I've being doing on this PC this month.
Perhaps the only thing I haven't tried updating yet is BIOS.

I have contacted contacted Steam support about this, here's what they have suggested so far.
Defragment game files: Done
Verify integrity of game files: Done
Update drivers: Done
Check software & hardware conflicts: Done
Run virus and ad-ware scanners: Done
Lower sound acceleration level: Done
Close unneeded background applications: Done
Reinstall direct-X: Done

One thing the support guy suggested that I haven't tried is the following: "If you are able to adjust the IRQ, please give that a try."
I'm not familiar with IRQ, that does it do and how do I adjust it?

I have exactly the same problem, and it's driving me nuts.
To make things short, I'm playing Episode 1 and I have tried everything that Cosmic Sea describes. (no need to say anything more, because his problems are being reproduced in my computer like a carbon copy)
[b]The only way to get the game working, is using -nosound.
I'm not an expert, but I understand enough about SW & HW and I can say that this has to be a problem with the game engine.
Hope somebody at Valve can check this, and can take the problem on their own, instead of saying that it's about the sound card, drivers, etc.
This is my first game from Valve, but this horrible experience it's going to prevent me from buying one of their games ever again. Never before I had such problems.
How on earth two different computers with different configurations can crash the same way, at exactly the same points. My PC is very up to date, both in HW & SW (including updates and drivers), but as I said, this problem is not related to our PC's, is because the game is unstable.
Any help is welcome, at least there is someone else that is going thru the same pain as me, it gives me some comfort, for one moment I thought that I was the unluckiest man on this planet.