Cannot display this video mode..

M

mr giggles

Guest
Earlier whilst playing half life 2 i noticed my resolution had changed from the usual 1024x768 to 800x 600. So i went into options to change it back but accidently selected 1152x864, it then came up with a screen displaying "Cannot display this video mode." However the resolution did not go back to normal it stayed on that screen. I have tried everything to get rid of it, , as i cannot see where options is to change the resolution. i have re-installed it 3 times but that has not made any difference. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. thanks!
 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Source\hl2\Settings]
"ScreenWidth"=dword:00000400
"ScreenHeight"=dword:00000300

for 1024 x 768
 
Hi, i too have this same problem. But instead of changing the resolution i accidently changed the aspect ration of the monitor from 4:3 to 16:9.i have also re-installed and nothing makes a difference, and help would be great!
 
i had this problem once with Return to Castle Wolfenstein , i just deleted the configuration-file and everything went normal again.
just go to ur half-life2 folder and try it , maybe it works here too.
 
I deleted the configuration folder but it didnt have any effect :frown:
 
hmm shit then i dont know :( but it should normally work :\
 
u find that file here btw - It's in STEAM\SteamApps\your_user_nam\half-life 2\hl2\cfg
 
hm im thinking what to try else :) just give me some time .
 
Assuming you have WinXP uninstall HL2 and then go to the physical HL2 folder in your C:\ drive and delete the actual HL2 folder. Reboot system and install HL2 and see what happens.

Good luck.
 
This won't help you any, but I'm having a very similar problem. I have played the game before and its worked great. I uninstalled it for a few months. Then when I reinstalled it later I was messing around with the screen resolutions and stuff, then all the sudden I got a black screen and my computer completely locked up(Ctrl+Alt+Del didn't even work). I restart my computer and try to run the game again. I get no video, but hear that first sound when it supposed to be showing the valve advertisement thing. Then its stays black and I still have a black screen. My computer locks up again and the only way to restart is the power switch. This problem is really pissing me off. Hope this helps diagnose the problem some.

Thanks,
Danny
 
Oh yea, I've tried uninstalling and deleting anything to do with HL2, CS:S and Steam. When I reinstall it I get the same problem. I don't know what the heck I should do. (Maybe curse it and burn the cd's. At least it would be satisfying to do that, lol)
 
No don't burn that CD just yet. let us think it through. Hang on

See if you can raise your monitor screen refreshment rate I think its 60Hz go up one by one up to 85Hz launch game each time. see what happens.

Right click screen
Property
setting
advance
monitor

If that works but your screen is little mess bring down HL2 resolution back to 1024X768 before adjusting screen refreshment rate back to 60Hz.

Good luck.
 
Why did it change in the first place?
After reinstalling you should be able to view in the cfg file what res it's trying to start at.
Maybe something happened and you can no longer use normal higher resolutions.
Run some tests. See if direct3d still initializes at 1024x768. Run different games. This will tell you if the problem is in fact stemming from half life.
 
Problem solved, I was able to change the resolution in the launch options to 800x600 by typing -w 800
After that I started up the game and changed the resolution to 1920x1200 which is my native resolution, and it works perfectly :)
I guess I could have changed it to 1920x1200 in launch options by typing -w 1920, but i didn't try, oh well.

Didn't have to burn it after all, lol
Danny
 
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