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

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first i would like to thank

misterbelgic and battleweary

misterbelgic said to put this -developer 1 after the -applaunch

battleweary said to download an old driver 61.77for nvidia

because now i am able to play HL2 , i ve been playing for 3hours and half ,and decided to post what i ve done so far .

i bought memory ram 129$
(in my machine got only 2 sockects for mem sticks ,2 by 256
i had to remove one )
i bought new nvidia geforce 6800 gt 400$
i removed the ati 9600 se 128mb

i opened the pc ,and cleaned all the dust (used a small vaccum), defragmented hd over night , i did not want to Reformat the HD because i have a lot softwares with no cd ,so it s precious stuff .
also i haven t closed the pc ,i am afraid of overheating .
also

When i installed the geforce 6800 with new driver , and tried to play HL2 , i got the mesage again (memory could not be written), i was about to kill someone ,spent more than 500 $ for nothing ,
but after doing the suggestion from misterbelgic and battleweary , i played none stop with no problem .
its in this link :
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=51549&page=44&pp=15


BTW here is my spec
amd xp2100
768 MR
nvidia 6800 GT-256MB O/C
HD 120 west

i have an ati 9600 se+one stick 256mb in my trash can (value 140$)
plus what i bought the nvidia+the new 512 stick (value 550)
total :690 $

914642_20041116_screen016.jpg
 
Hoorah - now got it to run memory error free!

Just moved my mem stick from slot 1 to 3.

Two hours and no crash - just the audio stutter, but compared to before this is heaven.

I had previously tried all kinda crap to get this thing working:-
changed audio card, video card, drivers, defrag, display settings, Bios AGP fast write, etc, etc......... Drove me bloody nuts!

Let's hope valve get this sorted for all of us.
Cheers
 
...still think it's Steam

I played this game all the way through and it was only when I went back later to replay some of my favorite levels that it started choking. I started with and still have the nVidia 6800 GT, and I know many of you were able to play the game with lower-end cards until, at some point something happened, and we began seeing this error. While many of the suggestions here may temporarily fix things, I'm still convinced that a new version of Steam should fix this problem (or the older version - that one seemed to work fine). I note on here the hardware specs of everyone's computers, and they should all be able to handle these games fairly well (with a few exceptions, but these should result in slower framerates, not necessarily memory crashes). The last I read from Valve/Steam was that they were aware of this problem and they were working on a patch. Is the patch ready? I'll find out in a few minutes. :p
 
I had this very same error.

Then I realised I had 1gb of ram that was dual channel and they were in the wrong slots in my computer..

GG human error on my part
 
Still steamed... but here's a possible fix

Well, it seems that Steam/Valve hasn't come up with a fix. Here's a possible solution: Convince Valve to turn off the upgrade feature of Steam. We reinstall Half Life 2 and use the stock version of Steam, which worked fine before. Think that would work? Think Valve would go for that? :hmph:
 
I have the same problem as all of you guys. Before, i was never able to get past the first load screen after the Valve Logo. I took the suggestion from Kold in this thread and was able to get by it. I have deduced that i think that at least some of my problem is related to video. I can never change any options under the Video tab in neither CS: Source or HL2.



Specs: Dell Latitude D505 Laptop
1.5 GHz P4
1 Gig DDR RAM
Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller - the default one from Dell

Its brand new about a month old.
 
hmm, yeah the error started right after i got the fricking patch :(
 
heheheheh now the game crashes on the loading screen but CSS works falwless
lame
 
What A Week

The Following is a time table of my half-life 2 “experience”

Tuesday Oct 19th 9:30am
Drove 15 miles and bought The Gordon Freeman cover copy of the CD set of Half Life 2 at a cost of 54.95 plus tax at a Best Buy.

9:45am- arrived home to my system of love and understanding, a hand-built Athlon 64 3400, VIA k8v-Deluxe, Brand New BFG 6800gt OC, Audigy 2 ZS, 1 gig of the good stuff Micron DDR-400 etc, etc.

9:50am- began to install HL2 with my 52x CDROM
9:59am- inserted disk 2
10:05am -disk 3
10:13am- disk 4
10:20am -disk 5

10:21am- inserted disk 1 for authentication
10:30am -16%
10:40am -62%
10:50am -62 %
11:00am -62% (I am now officially late to my Chem Lab, which I skip)
11:10am -79%
11:17am -100% (Woo Hoo)

11:18am- Steam, play games, Half life 2, Launch…. Preparing to launch….
BOOM. My Computer of love and understanding takes a dump of massive proportions. I get kicked out of windows, no program error, no blue screen of death; I get a complete restart back to my BIOS load screen. That not the bad news, once it checks my CD and DVD drives it fails to located my WD 7200rpm Raptor Hard Drive.

It is now 11:20 and I have had HL2 for almost two hours and I can’t even load windows

11:21am- I try in Vain to restart my computer, only to be defeated by the same error message every time. The definition of insanity is repeating the same task over and over and expecting a different result. After restarting my computer 20 times I take action.


11:24am- First I Unplug PC- this is a time consuming process all in all, three wires for my Klipsh Promedia’s, one for my Ethernet, Keyboard, USB Mouse, Game pad (Nostromo they rock) TV Tuner Cable, Back up hard drive, video in, sound out.

11:30am -I Reseat the Hard Drive disconnecting the IDE cable and reinserting it

11:35am- I meet with success, as my Hard Drive is now operational.

11:36am- I notice my Win XP load time is about a minute plus, 6 times the usual amout
11:38am -Still haven’t played half life 2 yet.
11:40am- check my hard drive, imagine my surprise when Disk manager shows me that my drive is 59% fragmented. Obviously I defrag

11:41am- begin defrag
11:59am -23% complete
12:21pm- 100% complete

It is now 12:30pm I hold my breath and Start HL2

12:31pm- I get a Nice out of focus picture before Crashing Back to desktop.
12:32pm- Take 4 aspirin and take 15 minutes to think (Meaning I Jerked off to relieve my frustration and took a dump)
12:47pm- feeling refreshed I try once again to start hl2 and to my surprise it starts.
12:48pm- while setting up my options, keeping things conservative going with recommended settings, I hit the apply button and I am greeted by a looping sound for 30 seconds before crashing back to windows.
12:50 -since I am using XP pro I checked my monitor, to find a miscellaneous Application error report, since I don’t speak Hexadecimal this does me no good.
1:01pm -I now am mildly miffed, try once more to start the game and low and behold I get to the opening train sequence.
1:02pm- notice a dramtic stutter in the same places in the G-mans speech (a-a-again, w-w-w-world) I ignore this for the time being and begin to play.
1:07pm- the mind blowing graphics are cool but being the audiophile that I am the skipping are getting annoying.
1:27pm- almost 20minutes of game play, you would think I was in the clear….wrong, wrong, wrong
1:27pm- Memory Could at such and such Not be Read at such and such, Application Terminated
1:28pm- Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted
1:45pm- I look to guidance in these hallowed forums, I am relieved to find that I am not the only one.
2:39pm- after writing down so tweaks I begin to implement them.
Beta Nvidia Drivers-10 min
Via 4in1 Hyperion-4 min
Audigy Drivers-4 min
Edit Config File- 2min
3:00pm- I start the game stuttering is reduced greatly but still present
3:18pm- Crash: Memory error
3:19pm- start HL2
3:39pm -Crash: Memory errot

At this point in time I am now miffed, debate on whether or not to get refund.

3:45pm- I go drastic and remove one of my 512meg sticks of RAM, this involved all the unpleasantness of unplugging and plugging back in a lot of wires.

4:00pm -Take more aspirin and fire up HL2

4:02pm -Load Times are noticeably worse and the stuttering is back big time.
4:05pm -Lowered Graphics, Sound, Textures, and resolution, to med settings
4:06pm -I take a moment to realize the irony in buying a 400 dollar, 16-pipe Graphic card with 256megs of RAM and being forced to use these settings. I Chuckle when I reflect on how I ran Doom3 in Ultra mode and Far Cry with all the settings maxed at 60+fps.
4:40pm- 34min without a crash, (note to self:800x600 looks like (Expletive Deleted) on my 19inch)
4:41pm- Water Hazard Third Load Screen Crash
4:43pm- same place, memory crash
4:45pm- crash, same place
4:47pm -Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted
5:00pm -Uninstall Game
5:05pm -Defrag
5:10pm -try a fresh install
5:20pm -.Cab error, installation aborted- WTF
5:21pm- retry install, completes.
5:30pm- much faster install and verification, still defrag afterwards, only 23% fragmented
5:45pm- Launch game
5:50pm- Configured in game options start game
5:51pm- “…your time has c-c-c-come again”, exit game tweak config
6:02pm- Game starts no stuttering, looks like crap because textures are set to low
7:05pm- Water Hazard Third Load Screen….crash, it crashes, it *ucking crashes
7:07pm- return to Forums and try to download game files from steam
9:10pm- 4.5gigs in 2hours, am very happy that Adelphia doesn’t charge bandwidth usage fees
9:12pm- my lab partner call me asking why I wasn’t in class, I give him the lowdown, he reply was that I was stupid. I agree with him.
Have been Working for 12 hours on this and have very little to show for it. I resolve not to play until it has been patched.
10:12pm- I lose my resolve and begin working the problem again
10:15pm- start with the basics (Can We Say Reformat)
11:15pm- Complete Reinstall of windows XP, had problems with activation, to many upgrades I guess, I will fix that later.
11:20pm- Drivers, Drivers, and More Drivers, all the latest and greatest.
11:30pm- Install From CDs
11:50pm- Launch game- to my surprise it works, still cannot make it past the third load screen at the water hazard, without memory crash. Expletive Deleted
What I gained from all this
1. The game now works with Medium Textures, at any resolution, 1600x1200 is smooth High Textures still result in massive stuttering, even if resolution is set to 640x480
2. The skipping is there but hardly noticeable
3. Sound is good, no pops or clicks

I then Spend the next two days installing all my various other programs and MP3s
I leave for Thanksgiving Break, I do NOT take my PC with me
Upon my return today Steam updates HL2
I can now get past the third load screen. I am a happy man.
So The game runs good for a hour, I use this information and I decide to put my other 512 back in to give me my Gig o RAM. That takes 10minutes and a lot of hassle
15minutes later…crash “memory can not be read”
Try again..same results.
Figure BIOS problem, flash with 1.004 revision from Asus.
NOW, now I can play with High textures, and no skipping however…THE GAME STILL (Expletive Deleted) CRASHES with a Memory Error
Tried running mem-manager in backround…crashed
Increased my latencies…crash
Lowered them…crash
Tried DDR-333…crash
DDR-266…crash
Tried swapping RAM sticks in different slot configurations…crash
Tried the heapsize 512000 command…crash
Tried the heapsize 384000…crash
Tried Optimal Mode in BIOS…crash
Tried Aggressive Mode in BIOS…crash
Tried Auto Settings in BIOS…crash
Tried a Sacrifice to the Heathen Gods…crash
Tried a BIOS setting called RAM Interleave Mode…and it works, it works, it works. THANK YOU GOD, IT WORKS :cheers:

After my entire ordeal, it is 1:08am in the morning and I am able to run HL2 the way God…I mean the Gabe intended it to be run. As of right now I have gone 6 Hours with all settings maxed at 1600x1200. But if one where to ask, “Was it worth it all?” My answer would be HELL YES.
Bryophytesd AKA gordon13
 
Changing RAM Slots Worked for Me

I have been lurking around this thread for a while waiting for a fix to this problem. I noticed a few people saying moving RAM slots helped, but I thought that was stupid. How could that possibly help? Anyway, I was installing a DVD burner tonight, and thought I may as well give it a try. I had two 256MB sticks in slots 1 and 3 for dual channel. I moved them to 2 and 4. I then proceded to play for over an hour with no crashes or problems whatsoever. How can this be? I would love to get some explination. For now, though, I am just happy.

Erik

FYI, My Rig:
P4 2.4 @ 3.12, 2X256MB Dual Chanel DDR, Radeon 9800 pro 128 MB.
I run HL2 at 1024x768 with everything but Antialiasing and Antrostopic Filtering at max. I don't remember what I have those set at.
 
Gordon 13....I applaud your post. I was rollin'. Sounds alot like what I went through. That took time and alot of <sigh> patience. Glad it worked for you....you Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted Expletive Deleted....<ahem>.....I still have the prob, and congrats.

Im out Expletive Deleted!

:cheers:
 
gordon 13 , i know what you ve been through .

i spent 3 days day and nights (sat,sun and monday)until i finally
succeedd to play hl2 ,in these 3 days how many times i rebooted the machine ? i would say like 90 or 100 times because of installing suff and deleting stuff ,and windows ask for restart .
but like you said its worth it ,it is a really smart game ,you always think while you keep advancing in the game ,i played ut2004 and doom 3 , it s almost no thinking ,it s basic pickup stuff and shoot (tard)
but hl2 is more than that ,that interaction and those enigms that needs to be resolved ,it s just great game ,it s 2 26 am ,and i m going back to play for 30 mn before i go to sleep .
good luck guys for trying to play hl2 .
 
space cowboys
it depends of your mobo (motherboard) ,
i have a compaq ,and if i need to go to bios ,i hit f10 at restart .
and for the update bios ,i went to compaq website because you need to get the specific update rom for your machine .
 
BIOS settings

On the issue of BIOS Settings
I have an Asus K8v-SE, I went to their website and downloaded the 1004 BIOS and a program called aFudos 2.11. Made a start up disk in XP, copied the bios (Had to rename the extension from.AMI to .ROM) and afudos to that disk. Restart the computer with Disk inserted. at the promt type
"afudos /ik8vb1004.ROM /n" that flashed the bios. To get to the settings restart your computer and hold down the DEL key. The RAM settings where under the memory configuration menu. Hope this helps.
 
Not to bash gordon13's accomplishment... and now that I've said that I don't even know why because I'm not even going to talk about it... but here's a rhetorical question that's on everyone's mind. Why would Valve avoid patching this for this long? Apparently there is a way to fix the problem... even though everyone's solution seems to be different... some being incredibly simple and some incredibly complicated (gordon13)... but it's obviouslyan isolated problem... I mean since everyone is getting the same error shouldn't it be a fairly simple process (at least for those that created it) to change whatever is causing it? I mean I'm an amateur programmer at best... I'm a hardware person mostly... but honestly when there's an error like this in other games... especially for such a large number of people... it's addressed in short order... there hasn't even been official news from Valve referring to this yet has there? I don't know I just think it's weird.
 
StarBob said:
Not to bash gordon13's accomplishment... and now that I've said that I don't even know why because I'm not even going to talk about it... but here's a rhetorical question that's on everyone's mind. Why would Valve avoid patching this for this long? Apparently there is a way to fix the problem... even though everyone's solution seems to be different... some being incredibly simple and some incredibly complicated (gordon13)... but it's obviouslyan isolated problem... I mean since everyone is getting the same error shouldn't it be a fairly simple process (at least for those that created it) to change whatever is causing it? I mean I'm an amateur programmer at best... I'm a hardware person mostly... but honestly when there's an error like this in other games... especially for such a large number of people... it's addressed in short order... there hasn't even been official news from Valve referring to this yet has there? I don't know I just think it's weird.
Click to expand...

Whatever the problem is lets just hope that Valve hurry their arses up and fix the goddamn problem. It is seriously so disapointing to get so worked up by promises of a great game only to find out it doesn't work.
 
I managed to delay the inevitable crash!
I changed 2 things, and I'm not 100% which one did it, but here goes:

First (and most likely not the thing that did it) I moved my RAM sticks up a slot each.

Second, and what I think did it, was setting Virtual Memory in Windows to a minimum of 1.5Gb and max of 3. I managed to play for about 6-7 hours till it crashed, where as before it was every 10 mins or level load.

I've not played since my last crash (only so many hours in a day!) so hopefully it wasn't a one off. I hope this will work for at least a few others as I think you'll agree a crash every 6 hours is heaven compared to every 10 mins!
 
i have the memory error, but i can avoid it by declocking my cpu to 185 fsb instead of 200.

nb: 190 still makes me crash, but after 10-15 minutes instead of 3-5 on 200 fsb.

i also tried everything suggested before doing this though :X
 
Re-opened, with the warez stuff deleted.

Do NOT discuss warez in this thread - it is not permitted on this site.
 
over at steampowered.com, someone has got a reply from valve about this problem. according to them, (they could be lying) a patch will be released any day now. i really, REALLY hope thats true. if its not, ill cry.
 
any day could be.. well any damn day... what a stupid thing to tell someone
 
im so sorry misterbelgic, it wasnt my intetion to hurt youre feelings.


(bad english i know)
 
destrukt said:
i have the memory error, but i can avoid it by declocking my cpu to 185 fsb instead of 200.

nb: 190 still makes me crash, but after 10-15 minutes instead of 3-5 on 200 fsb.

i also tried everything suggested before doing this though :X
Click to expand...


how the **** do you lower the fsb. ive put my settings to maual and it comes up with the fsb currently at 200 and in the info box it says it should be between i think it was 50 and 400. but i cant actually change it
anyone know?
 
go into bios highlight the xxx fsb option, than press page up or page down.
 
Does anyone else find this strange?
ATI logo on the HL2 box.
ATI coupon in the box
People with nvidia cards have to wait for a later patch
Memory errors and crashes, most of which are probably on motherboards with Nvidia chipsets.

Just how difficult would it be for Valve to put a single memory address that causes errors in the game, and ATI writes their drivers to not use that specific memory address at all?

Battle.
 
Battleweary said:
Does anyone else find this strange?
ATI logo on the HL2 box.
ATI coupon in the box
People with nvidia cards have to wait for a later patch
Memory errors and crashes, most of which are probably on motherboards with Nvidia chipsets.

Just how difficult would it be for Valve to put a single memory address that causes errors in the game, and ATI writes their drivers to not use that specific memory address at all?

Battle.
Click to expand...

i had ati 9600 se ,removed it
and replace it with a new nvidia 6800ge O/C .

Have you tried to remove one stick mem ram ?
i heard dual mem get some problems .
 
HD free space prob?

For me, virtual ram is set to 1gb to 1.5gb all the time,
once my HD free space dropped to 500~700 MB , i can still run CS, but it lagged like HELL~~~(not a connection prob for sure), rite the way=> i removed whole bunch of files to free up to 8~9GB, CS run lag-less-ly....
HL2 is still the same prob as above ?
i have 4gb free HD now, HL2 still crashed with that "read" error!
i tried many suggestions - swapping ram(2x256MB), setting page file, down-grade the nVidia drive to the Aug 04 one(still now), down-grade Directx to 8.1(still now),also tried to play HL2 in new clean XP SP2 with Dx9
none work, still crashing crashing crashing T____T
by the way, during that every-2-minutes-crashed-HL2, sometimes(sometimes do , sometimes dont) i got A.I. Disabled(didnt say on screen) which.......enemies wont attack you, just stand aside like a pis of wood, innocence isnt screamming for help, chopper stopped on air > not shooting
anyone got same prob as me ? /\ /\ /\
nice to meet u guys, newbie here, sry for long-bad english
---------------
i have 2x256 MB those both got errors(how to fix? buy a new one?) during memtest & onboard nVidia
 
I can now perceive when a memory dump is about to occur in CS:Source. The game gets extra choppy.. and audio stuttering appears right before a crash (within 5min anyway). I just need to disconnect/reconnect or join a new server. Unacceptable really.. but a quick solution for me.
 
What an awful tease

Well, I played HL2 for about an hour this morning with no problems on one of my machines. Very pleasant - I got a close look at the mug on a stalker. Eww! Anyway, when I went to play it tonight there was an update to Steam! Joy! Unfortunately midway through my catharsis this evening it crashed again. Hope springs eternal though and I'll give it a few more tries. Let's GO Steam!
 
Well even after the DM update the game still has memory crashes.

Goddamnit. Hurry up and fix it!
 
oh you must be shitting me!!! they didnt fix the damn memory crash? what the ****!!!!!!!!!!!
 
hmmm... moving the half-life 2 folder away made my game work :) hopefully it will help you too :)
 
Cant play DM for longer than 30 seconds without crashing.
Running an x800pro with an a64 3000 and an audigy soundcard.

This is the only game i have ever had crash this often.
 
Well... as a present yesterday I wound up with a new video card.

Guess what- no more crashing, no more memory read errors.

If nothing else has worked, you guys/gals may want to check into replacing your video card.

Amy
 
this patch made my game worse

I used to be able to get to the first door in the entire game where u had to stack the boxes to get outside. Now i cant even make it past the load for the opening sequence!!!
 
Edmondo said:
Glad to hear you are having possible success g911turbo. To anyone else having memory problems a Prime95 test is definitely worth doing - as it will highlight any instabiltity with your system RAM (which is more likely to be seen with an CPU intensive game like HL2).

With all this talk of changing timings/moving RAM chips around (or removing them) definitely implies that some people have general RAM instability issues. I'm not trying to say aren't possible bugs in HL2 however, which may cause the problem for some people.

What brand of memory do you have g911turbo?
Click to expand...

512 corsair bh5

512 kingston hyperx (i THINK it might be BH5)

so im guessing that my mem is failing at 220 fsb because one of the two reasons (or both)

1 - my hyper x is really NOT bh5
2 - my abit nf7-s is being pushed to its limits (no mem voltage mods, so 220 is the limit usually anyways)

I might try moving my sticks around to see if i can get back up to 220 withough bluescreening
 
Help Anyone!

I got all the way to the base where you have to shoot down the gunship with the LASER-GUIDED ROCKET LAUNCHER! :sniper: ... but crashes with looping sound and memory read error before I can bring the bastard down :(

My specs are:

Motherboard: Asus A7N8X 2.0 Deluxe
Processor: AMD XP 2400+
Memory: 1.0 GB DDR400 (2 sticks of 512MB Micron)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB DDR
Sound: Nforce2 Onboard Sound
OS: Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers:
Using Omega 2.5.90 Drivers on the video card
everything else is up to date straight from the manufacturer.
 
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