Arg. The Game is Locking up and Steam is messing up.

[Doughboy]

Well, I played Half-Life 2 two days ago with no problems. I tried playing it today and it locks up every 5 minutes. The game stops and the sound is all glitchy and keeps repeating untill I shut off my computer. Even when I bump everything to the lowest settings, it still messes up. It sometimes freezes when I try to quicksave but with no sound glitch. The thing is, I haven't installed any programs since the last time I played. I don't know what's going on. I've validated my files, and updated my sound device to no avail.

Another problem I have, which I think may be related because it started happening at the same time, is that if I try to start Steam in offline mode, it says that it can't connect to the internet. It's the same message I get if I try to start online, but my wireless is dissconected. I've tried starting Stream, then disconnecting my wireless, but the game still freezes. I've checked my ports, and everything looks good. Anybody have any ideas?

Here's my specs, I know they're not great (I'm using a laptop), but the game's ran fine for many months.

Processor: 1.6 ghz
1 gb of ram
Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon X300

 

[Barney Fife]

Try getting a decent V-card...Better yet, try playing HL2 on desktop rather.

X300 is old and worn out. Meaning: Laptops do not perform as much as desktops, X300 is not prefred card for nowadays games, for lack of decent GPU speed and V-ram space.
Laptops do also heat up pretty fast.
It is time for you to move on to Desktop.

Good Luck

 

[Doughboy]

But the game has been running perfectly fine untill now. With all due respect, I can run any game on the market right now with my laptop. Oblivion runs fine and all current first person shooters that I have tried work fine. I'm tired people telling me my computer sucks every time I have a question. Half-Life 2 is the only game that doesn't run well (as of yesterday).

 

[Barney Fife]

But the game has been running perfectly fine untill now. With all due respect, I can run any game on the market right now with my laptop. Oblivion runs fine and all current first person shooters that I have tried work fine. I'm tired people telling me my computer sucks every time I have a question. Half-Life 2 is the only game that doesn't run well (as of yesterday).

Sir, I seriously doubt Oblivion and most of current games run on your Laptop fine.

HL2's Source Engine is the MOST solid, Stable and optimized engine out there, next to Dreamcatcher's PainKiller. If Oblivion ran on your laptop, then we would not be having this argument and you would not be looking for help.
I have nothing against your laptop, as I volunteered here to help others, I'm just giving you my opinion, based on my knowledge. It is up to you to take it or leave it, but that doesn't change the fact.

Good Luck.

 

[Doughboy]

I came off a little rude. I thank you for trying to help. It's just that I stated in my topic that the game RAN FINE TWO DAYS AGO. I've been playing this game since November with no problems. I didn't need a new computer then why now? Why don't you believe me?

And I'm also sorry to say, but Oblivion runs perfectly fine. It never crashes or locks up. Do I run it with all the options turned to the highest? Of course not. But it runs perfectly fine. Why would I lie? Please, believe me when I say I can run new games on my computer. I'm just wondering if someone can tell me what I might do to fix this problem.

 

[Beerdude26]

Try following these troubleshooting tips:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Also, make sure you have the latest video and sound drivers.

 

[Doughboy]

Thanks for the links. The game seems more stable now after I tried starting the computer with no application running. It froze twice on me with the message "The application failed to initialize (0xc000012d). Any idea what this is? Thanks for the help.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

But the game has been running perfectly fine untill now. With all due respect, I can run any game on the market right now with my laptop. Oblivion runs fine and all current first person shooters that I have tried work fine. I'm tired people telling me my computer sucks every time I have a question. Half-Life 2 is the only game that doesn't run well (as of yesterday).

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!?

I have a 1.7GHz and a ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 and it runs fine with YOURS?!?!?!?

You guys think it would run fine in my computer?

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Thanks for the links. The game seems more stable now after I tried starting the computer with no application running. It froze twice on me with the message "The application failed to initialize (0xc000012d). Any idea what this is? Thanks for the help.

I had that error, i just deleted HL: DM: S and ShadowGrounds Demo then restarted computer and it was fine

 

[loughor]

I see "The application failed to initialize (0xc000012d)" is mentioned - that is the exact same error I think is behind my problem.

Fresh installation of Ep1. HL2 and Lost Coast are fine, as it Q4. But Ep1 won't go past the (inactive) menu. Getting out cleanly is hit-and-miss and often it's a power off/reboot. On the occasions I can get to the menu bar, it's that error looking at me.

I've been around the Steam support site and forum and there's a lot of people with Ep1 hanging. The only obvious issue I can think of is that the graphics drivers may not be the latest. However, this being a Dell laptop, ATi inhibit the drivers loading and Dell are hardly the best at after-sales driver support.

What application is failing to load? I don't have the demos mentioned above. Suggestions gratefully accepted

You know, I've spent almost as much time trying to solve this puzzle as I will playing the game when I do get it fired up!

 

[CyberChimp]

Hi Doughboy and all,

I had the same '0xc000012d' error message with Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and the cause turned out to be my video drivers. Everything worked fine once I'd uninstalled the old drivers and installed the new ones (details below).

Old video drivers: Radeon X800 XT 6.14.10.6575 (8.051-040825a-017826C-Dell).
New drivers: 7-4_xp_dd_44981.exe
Retrieved from: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html

 

[Ridge]

Dont forget that as we move into the summer months, it gets warmer, and the laptop heats up faster that way and components can only get so warm before they reach critical mass and shut down to protect themselves...

 

[Asiantreeemu]

Same Error message

Hey all, just to start, i have a radion x1300 (not the best i know, but good enough to play a reasonable amt. of games @ best graphics) 2 gigs of ram and a 2.60 intel core2 duo. i installed the newest drivers for my card after garrys mod crashed and crashed and crashed but i still get the same message that has been posted here i was wondering if it deff. is the fact that my card is crap or could it be something else? if it is the card then thats good cuz i have a MSI geforce 8600gts otw from newegg.com

 

[Beerdude26]

Looking at this thread (sure, it's not HL2, but it explains the reason why it crashes), it seems that you need to give HL2 more virtual memory. HL2 has its own cache called 'heapsize'. Here's a tutorial for you on how to increase it:

Left-click on the Steam tray icon.

Select "Games".

Click on the "My Games" tab.

Right-click on "Half-Life 2".

Select "Properties".

Click on the "General" tab.

Click on the "Set Launch Options" button.

Put in the window box: -heapsize 1048576

Click "OK".

Click "Close".

Other heapsizes (yours is correct, I put it in for you):

256 MB RAM: 262144 kilobytes (Heapsize = 131072 kilobytes)
512 MB RAM: 524288 kilobytes (Heapsize = 262144 kilobytes)
1024 MB RAM: 1048576 kilobytes (Heapsize = 524288 kilobytes)
2048 MB RAM: 2097152 kilobytes (Heapsize = 1048576 kilobytes)