*CRASH* The memory could not be 'read' error, for HL2 and CS:S

[psalm]

Well.. I got my Gold collectors edition box today

 

[3rd Ranger Batt]

anyone else with an ati card try what i said? i still have not crashed. its kinda nice. and everything runs smoother.

At the risk of sounding completely ignorant.....what exactly is an omega driver....i have the latest driver from ati....not sure what the omega driver is.

Please 'splain

P4, xp sp2, 3.0 GHz, x800xt, 1GB RAM, O/B sound

 

[sholnay]

As others have said, nothing has worked for me either - tried all the "fixes" - reinstalled completely (took about 20hrs to do that btw), lowered dx audio, changed my desktop resolution.

Anyway, nothing new - played the game again for the usual 10 minutes then got booted out - got the memory error, then steam gave me this error too:

then steam completely shut down.

Also, I am getting the most crashes in the fan boat area of the game, I still havent gotten through it yet and before I got to this part of the game, i was able to play for 2 hours straight up to that point. Anyway, just thought I'd share that. Oh yea, it did crash for the first time at the teleport - but I managed to get through it.

I'll take that email someone said they got yesterday as at least a sign that this problem is in fact known by valve, hopefully it gets fixed before the holidays

 

[Christos]

Deleting the game, and re-installing it worked for me.

 

[chewchewtrain64]

I'm convinced that my specific gettings of the error comes from the fact that my laptop uses Intel Extreme Graphics 2.

I, too, have Intel Extreme Graphics 2. And I believe we had the same numbers in our errors(just from my memory)...you may be onto something...

 

[Hazar]

Like has been said before, there are most likely many different causes to the same problem.

My hl2 just borked again and was coming up with this error again.

Stepping down the heapsize a lot has seemed to work.
My heapsize is 100000 now, even though I have 512mb of memory.

 

[falyfal]

i dled the omega drives and it isnt choppy at all now but the game still crashes at the loading screen but not when it stops a sec for the autosave...im confused someone help me plz valve fix it....give us a patch

 

[SlimJimE17]

At the risk of sounding completely ignorant.....what exactly is an omega driver....i have the latest driver from ati....not sure what the omega driver is.

Please 'splain

P4, xp sp2, 3.0 GHz, x800xt, 1GB RAM, O/B sound

You can get the drivers here
http://www.omegadrivers.net/

 

[SlimJimE17]

YAHOO!!!!
I have had the game running now for 2 hours without a crash.
I set my launch options to "-w 1024 -h 768 -refresh 75 -developer 1"
and then set all my video settings to "low", simple reflections and trilinear filtering.

I'm going to try and find which setting is causing the memory on my PC by turning them back on one by one.

Slim

BOHOO!!!

My last statement was a bit premature, the game still crashes with the read error but it’s taking a lot longer.
The game crashes about every hour.
The first time must have been a fluke that it run for so long.
I know you don’t want to here this but the gravity gun is a lot of fun.

At the moment I cannot rate this game because of this read error, it seems that the game wasn’t beta tested enough.

Think I might complete Doom III, Far cry or Thief III again until a patch comes out.

Slim

 

[psalm]

Ok for those of you that crash over and over again at the same spot.. TURN OFF AA!!! I was stuck at the teleporter. Turned off 4xAA (which defaulted to on) and 3 HOURS OF PLAY WITH NO CRASHES!!!

I hope this works for more than just one person!

Cheerio!!

 

[m0nkeyy]

decided to give CS Source a whirl for the first time last night, that bombed out quicker than HL2....about every 2 mins or so...seemed to be just at the end of a round or when i grenade went off etc....looked at task manager aswell and it was using nearly all my memory (i have 512mb). loads of HD activity in that and HL2 aswell and to top it off my HD started to overheat and made the dreaded clicking noises

 

[cyk]

I'm on a Gigabyte K8NS Pro motherboard and I just updated the nforce drivers from Gigabytes site and the bios to F6 and HL2 runs, for now.

 

[handers]

Seems there are a lot of similar problems. My system :
XP SP2
Asus P4P800 E
1 GB
FX 5900 NVidia
on-board sound

After some initial crashes I changed the video settings to playing in window at smaller resolution, reduced the settings to medium or low.
This advanced the gameplay to over the initial freezing point of teleporting Alex. On the next start-up HL2 reset to optimal settings, freezing all over again.
I read somewhere about NVidia not being able to cope with DirectX 9. Since november 9th they posted new video drivers (66.93). After installing these I was able to run for at least 45 minutes.

This indicates to me a harware problem with the videocard, rather than a sound card.

 

[xienix]

same problem

windows xp sp1
Msi neo2platium mainboard
amd64 3200+
2x512 ddr pc3200
geforce ti4800
1x 120 gig maxtor 8mb cache
1x 200 gig maxtor 8mb cache
creative adigy 2

it is only in hl2 in cs:s no problems at all averge fps is 65

 

[ch0ke]

Seems there are a lot of similar problems. My system :
XP SP2
Asus P4P800 E
1 GB
FX 5900 NVidia
on-board sound

After some initial crashes I changed the video settings to playing in window at smaller resolution, reduced the settings to medium or low.
This advanced the gameplay to over the initial freezing point of teleporting Alex. On the next start-up HL2 reset to optimal settings, freezing all over again.
I read somewhere about NVidia not being able to cope with DirectX 9. Since november 9th they posted new video drivers (66.93). After installing these I was able to run for at least 45 minutes.

This indicates to me a harware problem with the videocard, rather than a sound card.

hey handers i installed those drivers and it crashed after like 3 mins
the thing is it seems to have got worse when i first played hl2 it only crashed to desktop after like 20 mins of playing now i cant play for more then 2 mins at a time and it doesnt just crash to desktop now my pc just ****ing restarts itself, and then says overclocking has failed when i havent even overclocked any components. and i dont think it is a gpu problem because i have tried my mates gpu a 9800 pro and a 9800xt in my comp and it still restarts.
and it cant be my hl2 download cause my mate couldnt be arsed to download it so i jsut moved my files to his pc and it doesnt restart on his or crash
so i was just wondering has anyone here tried a fresh install of windows? cause im just wondering maybe seeing as it it a handful of us maybe we have some common error with windows? just an idea...

edit-why hasnt this post and the sound error post been stickied yet?

 

[the_alien]

I'm getting the same crash...

I bought a new Samsung SATA HD, installed WinXP Prof SP1a, installed NForce driver 5.xx and the detonator. Installed Halflife 2 and played for about 8 hours with "just" 2 bluescreens.
Now I'm in Ravenhold (or whatever it is called ) and the game crashes after about 5 minutes without an error.

I installed SP2 and now I'm getting the same error message posted several times in this thread.

I installed the new NVidia beta driver. The game runs smoother, but not longer...

I tried the bin-copy-fix, heapsize param, playing without audio... nothing helped.

My specs:
Asus A7N8X rev 2
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
2xDDR400 512MB in dual-channel-mode
MSI Geforce 3 Ti 200 64 MB DDR
Samsung SP1614C SATA 160 GB
Teac CD-ROM
NoName DVD-ROM
Windows XP Prof SP2
DirectX 9.0c

Got the DVD retail box.

 

[ch0ke]

i wonder if this has anything to do with overheating? because ravenholm seems to be alot more gpu intensive than the earlier levels cause of the lighting and shading i dunno im probs just speaking out of my arse, all i know is that when i open my case and stick a fan blowing onto my pc, it ussually takes a longer time to restart..

but when my m8 brings round his ipod im gonna reinstall windows and see how that goes unless someone has already done that and it didnt make a difference then please tell me cause it is hassel to reinstall windows

 

[the_alien]

See my post above. A have a fresh Windows installation and it is making no difference.

I don't think it is a problem with overheating, my case IS open! And the fact, that hl crashes after a certain period of time is an argument against the overheating theory...

 

[The ToAsT]

Not a fix, but a consistent finding -

AGP aperture size in BIOS set to 128Mb = memory could not be "read" error within 5 minutes, every single time.

AGP aperture size in BIOS set to 256Mb = takes between 15-30 minutes before crashing.

AGP aperture size back to 128Mb = back to <5 min crashes.

Haven't tried 512Mb or larger yet. Like I say its clearly not a fix, but has helped me at least play for a little while longer. Still seems to point to a memory leak, doesn't it?

 

[Toadhead]

I'm getting the same problem..
I have bought the game 2 days ago and I haven't played it yet, that sucks.

I have posted too many posts on forums but nobody that can help me.

Yesterday I have mailed the tech support: [email protected]

I still got no reply back
I suggest, that everybody here.. YES EVERYBODYmail that tech support about this problem!!!

We all paid for the game, even €5 more than I normally pay for games! (others are €50 en this was €55), so I want a working game!

The shop I bought the money from doesn't take my game back becuase I have already used the serial key, so this realy realy sucks!!

 

[Flarnet]

Registred just to post that I'm also having this.

I'm one of those who cannot even load the menu (crashes after loading the blurred background for a while)

If I disable the rendered background (-console) I can load the menu fine, but then it crashes when trying "new game".

When it crashes I get dumped to desktop with an error box that varies. Sometimes it's "something vertexbuffer", sometimes it's "d3d9 render something" and when I try "new game" from the crippled menu I often get "could not load breen_monitor something".
After I click ok on that error box I get the infamous "could not be "read" bla bla bla" error box.

I've tried EVERYTHING suggested in this thread save the Windows re-install. No luck.

Xp sp2
Retail DVD (but now with everything re-downloded via Steam)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb
AMD 2600+
VIA Mb
1Gb RAM
One CD-Burner, One DVD-reader
ALL latest everything: Drivers, updates, Dx9c yadda yadda.
No processes running
D-Link 804 (?) Router I think

 

[hynsey]

Valve are on it

Yesterday I have mailed the tech support: [email protected]

I still got no reply back
I suggest, that everybody here.. YES EVERYBODYmail that tech support about this problem!!!

I've received a response from Erik at Valve. They're aware of the issue, and investigating it. It would probably be worth your while to email the address above with all your hardware specs, the memory number, and any additional info you can give them, to help them solve it.

 

[baldor]

For this guy it helped to download hallife (swedish):
http://halflife2.panvision.com/forum/?view=topic&id=4840&forumId=1

he has the same error as me (freeze-sound-back to windows without error) and solved it by downloading halflife from steam. Not a solution with my bandwith, but have anyone else tried it?

 

[steelslay]

try this

have any of u tried to play offline yet i have a similer problem but i have caught my hl2 knocker , what was hapaning ?.wot i was experienceing was that the game was doing the same crash out as someone mentioned earlyer in the thread, it was popups even ones that were blocked had the same problem with a diferant game [playing bf-v online] sept that hl2 goes mental instead of just going back to desktop my pc specs are just over the min specs and im useing old gfx drivers as ive found them the most stable, if u are useing nvid,gfx cards it might be worth useing older ones i also had to revert back to older drivers for a few games to run? i feel for all of u as there can,t be anything else more anoying than waiting an extra year on top of the long wait for the sequil after hl1 to find that the dam game not work proper this has got to be the most biggest headf**k known to a gamer

 

[kielhanson]

I too have this problem.

The detonator 66.93 drivers DOES fix this for me, however I always get a bluescreen when I quit HL2 or search for servers on CS:S =/

So I'm still using the 61.77 detonator drivers.
However, whenever I try and load CS:S or HL2 first it'll say it can't set the video mode till eventually it will run it in a window, which works fine but it's at a low resolution and i can't see much.
If I try changing the resolution - this is where i get this application error. I don't get it whilst trying to save or anything. So basically I kinda have to run the game in a window =/

AMD athlon XP 2800+
Audigy 2 platinum
Geforce 6800 GT
MSI K7N2-L

I've tried disabling my Audigy 2 and using my onboard soundstorm, but still the same thing happens.

Basically - it's just this games fault totally. I take it everyones other games work fine? mine do! So this is something Valve needs to address

 

[steelslay]

have any of u tried to play offline yet i have a similer problem but i have caught my hl2 knocker , what was hapaning ?.wot i was experienceing was that the game was doing the same crash out as someone mentioned earlyer in the thread, it was popups even ones that were blocked had the same problem with a diferant game [playing bf-v online] sept that hl2 goes mental instead of just going back to desktop my pc specs are just over the min specs and im useing old gfx drivers as ive found them the most stable, if u are useing nvid,gfx cards it might be worth useing older ones i also had to revert back to older drivers for a few games to run? i feel for all of u as there can,t be anything else more anoying than waiting an extra year on top of the long wait for the sequil after hl1 to find that the dam game not work proper this has got to be the most biggest headf**k known to a gamer

:naughty: sry i forgot to give my specs and the nvid, driver is 6.14.00 [10,5656]and my specs...
xp2000.***ning at 1.7

gainward golden sample gt4ti4200 x4apg

soundblaster 5.1digital drivers 5.12.0001 3509. {english}

o/s xp pro with sp2

ram 333fsb ddr 768meg

mobo, is asus a7v333 onboard sound disabled via bios

 

[steelslay]

And I am having the crash problems with a GeForce 4 440 Go.

:O these gfx cards are based on the geforce 2 architecture maybe hl2 is streching it abit to mutch esp if its the ;( 32meg ver

 

[Dreamhacker]

Read on steampowered.com forum, that to fix this error re-download from steam, without any interuptions. Meaning, delete steam COMPLETELY, removing steam and everything in the Steam folder, re-install steam, download HL2 without a single stop. And u shouldn't run other software in background than AV/Firewall.
Don't know if it works, but can someone try. Won't do it myself as I don't have the error

 

[fizz]

Well, i removed the game through the properties in the steam menu. I then reloaded it (took 2 days), and then switched my resolution in game to match my desktop 1280x1024, and guess what. No more graphic anomolies, and i can leave the train station now! I had to leave for work so i couldnt play longer, I was 15 minutes late as it was

 

[OzMo]

Other kind of memory read error

Hi,

I get a memory read error, but prior to that, I get another kind of message:

During map loading, crash back to desktop and popup message that says:

"CModelLoader::GetExtraData:recaching models/error.mdl failed"

then the memory read error, and then crash...

My tried attempts to fix this:

- I deleted error.mdl
-> He gave me an error about some file he couldn't find and that he couldn't load error.mdl (so I put it back)

- Tried every possible combination of screen resolutions, video, audio options and refresh rates...
-> nothing seemed to work faster or slower -> same errors

- Turned off/on audio onboard ...
-> nothing seemed to be different

- I installed all the latest drivers
-> nothing seemed to be different


My system specs:

-- P4 2.8Ghz w/ HT
-- 512 Mb DDR PC3200
-- Geforce FX 5600 ultra w/ 256 DDR RAM
-- Asus P4P8 mobo
-- 5.1 surround sound card
-- creative 5.1 set
-- Windows XP Home SP2
-- Windows firewall on / off: no difference


Please help

 

[hynsey]

Read on steampowered.com forum, that to fix this error re-download from steam, without any interuptions. Meaning, delete steam COMPLETELY, removing steam and everything in the Steam folder, re-install steam, download HL2 without a single stop. And u shouldn't run other software in background than AV/Firewall.
Don't know if it works, but can someone try. Won't do it myself as I don't have the error

I've tried this, and it didn't work for me. Has worked for others though. I guess every case is different - it might work for you. TBH, i'm not bothering with any more 'fix' attempts. It's clearly a fault in Valve's software. They've made me aware they are investigating and trying to resolve, so that's enough for me until there's an update to the software through Steam.

 

[Dreamhacker]

EDIT: Now I get it when loading menu . Gonna re-install the whole computer and try the method I said, I think

 

[nausicaa]

The stuttering bug and memory crash seems to be the same problem. I have both and and i really tried every named solution.. but it's no good.

what's the trick do bypass the menu animation again ? takes about 5 minutes to load..

 

[budgie55]

-console will load the game quicker bypassing the fancy but pointless main menu

 

[CliveRambo]

it deffo seems like a memory leak as i have loads of mdmp files from this game. I got stuck after 4-5 hours at the end of the water hazzards level and the memory error occurs as i try to load the next level.

I think im right by saying that the memory leak can only be fixed by a patch. so we await valves asistance on this one by the looks of things

but anymore suggested work arounds are still good in my books

:sniper: memory bug

 

[Toadhead]

If the patch doesn't arrive soon I atleast hope that Valve will gives us something extra's like DoD:Source for free or something

Otherwise I will be pretty pissed,
I paid alot of money for the game (€55, thats €5 more than all other games!), so I want to play it.

 

[Billox]

Fixed

After updating my graphics drivers, sound drivers and mobo drivers, reinstalling the OS, steam, hl2, renaming gcf files and redownloading them, underclocking my CPU and doing a make HL2 not crash dance. I finally got it to stop doing the memory could not be "read" erroring.

How did I do it?

You'll have to wait for HL3!

No, I pulled out one of my two double sided 512MB dimms of DDR400

Down to 512MB now, but played for a few hours without a hiccup, HL:S works too. It's all good.

Check my previous posts for my exact "memory could not be read" error, by clicking on the member history thingie

I still accept that this is a problem that is fixable by a patch, the game is probably very sensitive to hardware quirks, and despite the fact that my system has always been rock solid until this game, removing some of my hardware solved the problem.

I'd like to suggest that anyone else with similar problems can fix it by doing what I did, but I'm not so sure.

Either way, if you're still stuck, keep looking at your hardware, it's probably going to be quicker than waiting for valve.


Billox

 

[nausicaa]

I have been able to bypass my memory crashing problems. Setting everything to lowest details, resolution and sound quality did the job for me.. It's smooth gameplay... however the game would run so well on 1600*1200 with all details on ;(

 

[Billox]

My exact error for those uninclined to search back through this thread.

The instruction at "0x241f8977" referenced memory at "0x013af5c0". The memory could not be "read".

 

[Toadhead]

Only have 512 MB RAM... and don't even know how to get it out of my
machine so no option for me

VALVE!!!!
Faster! Faster! We want to play HL2 this year


edit:
my exacter error: http://www.freewebs.com/toadhead/hl2error.JPG