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

[Sniper_J]

I got past the teleport (after constant crashes and reloads), but I am getting damn tired of rebooting the game every 5 min! Also, Ive noticed graphics glitches like the sound on the in game movies (like Dr. Breen's at the train station) not working, and random white squares on the floor where a texture wasn't loaded. Also, some glass windows are made up of little white squares with "x"s through them-what the hell is that!?

This is the worst game ever! Even if the content is good, if you can't freaking play it, it dosent matter! I've tried just about every suggestion, and nothing will stop the memory problem/crashes. This is getting so old-I just want to play the game a paid MONEY for! The only thing that kindof helped was the copying/pasting bin files thing. I was able to get past one load/save spot! WOOT! I was so excited at playing for more than 10 minuets straight! My excitment did not last however, as the game crashed at a random spot a little while later.
This sucks really bad...maybe I should just take the game back...

Hope you all fare better--GL!

Perhaps Valve should have tested this before they released it...at least on systems other than their super computers
I'm seriously thinking of returning this game to best buy, regardless of how freaking bad I want to play it-Its more trouble than its worth. So much for "The best game of all time"!

I also REALLY wish valve would FREAKING DO SOMETHING!!! have they said anything at all? I feel so let down and PISSED!
[ok done venting...for now]

 

[sneakybird]

I had the exact same problem as you guys, my halflife crashed during load of the first level. I tried switching ram, reinstalling half life from a backup I made with steam on another disk. None of that helped.

I erased all steam and half life files from my computer and downloaded everything again in one swoop. Took all night but it was worth it! Now half life runs as it should, haven't had a single error yet and I'm more than halfway through the game.

I guess the old file got corrupted somewhere in the download process.

I hope this solves your problems!

Ok, This is totally lame. I Finalsized the game at 1 AM the morning of the release and played for 15 minutes to the train tracks part. Right after the tracks you go down some steps and it brings up the memory could not be read error, so i uninstalled it, and i am in the process of trying to re-download it. I am very surprised that you got yours re-downloaded that fast. Mine is only at 44% because it will download for about a half hour at 1 MB/s then say "this game is unavailable". It did that yesterday, but today it wont even start downloading. This is really lame. If anyone is having the memory read error, You should wait and try everything you can think of before uninstalling and attempting a re-download. I am about ready to buy the retail copy and give it a try....

That's my 2 cents.
-Chris

PS If anyone by any chance knows a solution to the "game unavailable try again later" error, You should tell me or post a link

 

[Sniper_J]

hmmm, wait....I think i will play the first half life again...i dont know if ill be able to handle playing a good game for more than 10 min at a time...i guess ill try!

 

[taku]

I am about ready to buy the retail copy and give it a try....

I have the retail version and the problem is the same. Don't waste your money.

 

[chewchewtrain64]

People seriously if you have this problem TRY THE FIX!

Go into the steamapps/*your account*/half-life 2/bin directory.
Copy the files from the bin folder to the /half-life 2/ directory.
Copy HL2.exe and the HL2 folder from /half-life 2/ and paste them in /half-life 2/bin/

It just might solve your problem.
I was crashing every single time and now I'm in Chapter 6 and haven't crashed a single time.

I just wanted to point out that this had no effect on my situation. I'm suffering from the exact same "0x241f9877...etc." error as everyone else...and I copied all files as BlazeKun instructed, and could see no difference in performance whatsoever. I still suffer from freeze-then-crashes at every auto or manual save.

 

[sigloiv]

I'm really sorry to the people who still have this problem. I just finished re-downloading the game through Steam and it worked fine. I'm not even running it in Offline Mode; it's only at 77% and I've gotten pretty far past the teleport part. I've noticed the audio stuttering errors on the Steampowered forums and I think that's a mainstream error; I haven't gotten the memory error though and I've been able to play the game.

Sniper_J: I had the white box thing too, as well has a ton of stuff being purple. After the redownload it worked fine. By the way, for the redownload I just deleted the soure engine, source models, and half-life 2.gcf then clicked on the delete local game content button. Then I just clicked the Half-Life 2 game. It took about 2 and a half hours on my 3mbit connection. Good luck!

 

[psalm]

I'm really sorry to the people who still have this problem. I just finished re-downloading the game through Steam and it worked fine. I'm not even running it in Offline Mode; it's only at 77% and I've gotten pretty far past the teleport part. I've noticed the audio stuttering errors on the Steampowered forums and I think that's a mainstream error; I haven't gotten the memory error though and I've been able to play the game.

Sniper_J: I had the white box thing too, as well has a ton of stuff being purple. After the redownload it worked fine. By the way, for the redownload I just deleted the soure engine, source models, and half-life 2.gcf then clicked on the delete local game content button. Then I just clicked the Half-Life 2 game. It took about 2 and a half hours on my 3mbit connection. Good luck!

Sig,

Did you previously crash at the teleporter point? I can save/quicksave fine, but that spot gets me every time...

 

[Sniper_J]

how do you play in "offline mode"?

 

[sneakybird]

I have the retail version and the problem is the same. Don't waste your money.

Well i guess my problem now is that i cant get it to freaking download. I think i need to update my bios and it should work, i just cant test it cause i cant download it!

Man o man............. When will valve at least acgnowlege whats going on?

 

[aliensid]

spose i may aswell redownload all the source stuff again then. deleted cs:s, s:sdk and hl2, redownloading now, should take about an hr so will tell you whether it has been a success then. *crosses fingers, touches wood*

 

[sneakybird]

spose i may aswell redownload all the source stuff again then. deleted cs:s, s:sdk and hl2, redownloading now, should take about an hr so will tell you whether it has been a success then. *crosses fingers, touches wood*

How in the world are you getting it to download so fast? i cant even get mine to start. what the heck...

 

[aliensid]

How in the world are you getting it to download so fast? i cant even get mine to start. what the heck...

40mpbs connection :thumbs:

just keep trying, you should be able to start it soon..

 

[kapowaz]

Well, that took forever but I've read the entire thread up to this point and felt I'd add my take (without duplicating unnecessary questions, hopefully). Now, mostly what I have to say is speculative, but it should hopefully help with ascertaining the cause of the error. I think it's fairly safe to assume that this is not a hardware issue; there are simply too many different combinations of processor/videocard/motherboard/soundcard all experiencing the same problems for that to be the case. It also seems very unlikely to be other software interfering or an OS issue, since people on various different OSs have reported the problem, and the sheer number of users with differing setups makes it extremely unlikely we all have some esoteric third-party app installed which is causing the crashes.

Thus, we can deduce that it is most likely software related. Now one thing that I don't know for certain, but am making an educated guess about is that when we download the game content files over Steam, they are encrypted. This is why it takes so long to be able to 'activate' the game; your system has to actually unencrypt the files, effectively running every single byte through the mill to produce a valid, unencrypted copy (it wouldn't be feasible to have the content files unencrypted on the fly; it'd take stupidly large amounts of CPU time to do this).

Various mooted solutions have mentioned renaming the "source models.gcf" file and re-downloading it, suggesting that this file may actually be corrupt. I compared the filesize of my own to that listed in the thread way above and mine was indeed a few bytes larger than that size. This doesn't prove anything about my copy being corrupt or not, but it does prove that different people have effectively got different files as part of their Half-Life 2 installation. What would be ideal at this point (although given they've yet to officially acknowledge the bug, we may actually get a solution first) would be if Valve were to provide MD5 checksums for the valid game content files. If people check whose copies work compare their MD5 checksums with those of the installation that don't work, we will know, empirically, that these files are in some way corrupt. I am 99% convinced that corrupted game content files are the root of this problem, but this test should make it clear for all.

If anyone with a working copy (no memory read error crashes) would be so kind as to post the MD5 checksums for the Half-Life 2 game content files (all those beginning 'source' in the SteamApps directory, plus half-life 2 content.gcf), then we can begin the process of checking this. Here is an MD5 checksum generator for Windows that can be used to do this testing. I'm in the process of re-downloading source models.gcf, but will post my own results after I do this. If we all come out with different MD5s (as I suspect) then I think we can point the finger at semi-corrupt gcf files. As to how we solve this...well, that's for Valve, I think. If the files are being decrypted on-the-fly so as to authenticate Half-Life 2 but are becoming corrupt somehow, then either the decryption tool is faulty, or something screwy is going on during decryption (I/O problems, CPU usage too high) which could be introducing spurious data.

Sorry about the length of this post, but I figured that by now we're looking at the nitty-gritty of the problem and trying to fix it ourselves. Wonder if Valve will show their appreciation? Or maybe even just acknowledge the bug...?

 

[kapowaz]

And two other minor points: the similarity of the error messages (the actual hex addresses being mentioned) is likely pointing to the problem. The instruction code is likely to always be the same, since it's a particular function that is barfing on dodgy data. The address it is attempting to read, however, is likely to vary according to just where the corruption exists (assuming my hypothesis about corrupt GCFs is right).

Secondly, the .mdmp files in your \SteamApps\<account>\half-life 2\ directory are very likely memory dumps from the point that the game crashed. One would assume these could be read using a memory analysis tool such as those shipped with Visual Studio. Although we probably can't do a lot with them (we have no source code to compare it to! ) Valve will almost certainly find it handy. It may assist them if we zip these files up and send them via email to them. Hey, if nothing else it'll remind them that we are still waiting...!

 

[aliensid]

seems like a plan to me, as soon as this download finishes i shall create md5's of it all; i say as soon as, it is bed time i rekon for today. i shall set my alarm early to check it before i have to leave.

as a starting point for this md5, i will attach the md5 of the original half-life.gcf

 

[aliensid]

It may assist them if we zip these files up and send them via email to them. Hey, if nothing else it'll remind them that we are still waiting...!

If I knew where to send them, I would... :upstare:

 

[MetalSonic53]

Have people gotten this problem with the retail copy too? Or just the Steam copy?

 

[aliensid]

Both it would seem.

 

[kocho]

mines the retail copy. Just finished re-downloading hl:2, no fix.

Im not going to re-install it. Im just going to wait for a fix.

 

[falyfal]

i am very sad. i pray that you computer brainiacs out there can help a dumbass like me get this game to stop crashing i will be very greatful.
i am tired of playin autosave to loadpoint and then repeat.

 

[kkevin666]

Yes retail is borked as well.
Just to throw a real downer in ive played vampire bloodlines-------------------------

Exactly the same problem - all the sound files are mp3s and unencrypted.
Below is an error report:

vampire caused an Access Violation (0xc0000005)
in module engine.dll at 001b:200e3fc8.

Read from location 28a17d96 caused an access violation.

It would seem there is a Major problem with the source engine
that valve at this moment in time refuse to acknowledge.

Doesnt it seem a tad strange that no reviews whatsoever have mentioned this? Or is it because all review sites have the straight code that doesnt need validation?
Then again this wouldnt explain why vampire bloodlines seems as borked as HL2.

 

[BlackGem]

hope this helps

*edit: helps if i upload the zip lol

 

[kapowaz]

Well, source models.gcf has been re-downloaded and is now 2 bytes smaller than my original file. But..... it still crashed within about 5 minutes of play. Here are my checksums (new source models.gcf):

50ec67dbc02cdc60dbed17788e5720bc half-life 2 content.gcf
8915f18433f077ecf50d41b5038bffbf source materials.gcf
8ef841b998f998f4fb40665363091839 source models.gcf
963fd529ba23e8250936940babea7349 source sounds.gcf

 

[assasin123]

when is gabe going to get off his fat ass and fix this problem, this is the first time i buy a game and cant play it.... it wont even get to the main menu, i get that memory error.

windows xp sp2
p4 2.5
fx5800
asus p4s8x with onboard sound
1 gig ram

running in backround are:
dumeter, pc-cillin, acrotray, spybot
:sniper: :flame:

 

[brickman]

Well, I think we should all know by now that we were all a bunch of paying guinea pigs for this software. I feel so used. It should have been obvious from the second I opened the package...no manual, no mention of software support anywhere on the box, no e-mail, no phone number to call, paid or otherwise. The only support mentioned is for windows or for video or audio driver updates...as if to suggest the only problems would lie with the user and not the product. What a bunch of BS!! I paid $60 to test a non-functional beta version!!
You know why this isn't on the store shelves yet, don't you? The big retailers wouldn't stand for this. Wal-Mart, Target and any other large retailer would be screaming at Valve-Sierra about all the consumers trying to return their defective product. That's the trend these days...you've all seen it..."If something is missing from the box, DON"T take it back to the store where you bought it, call us first and we will help you." The big retailers won't buy from vendors if they have the product coming back to the store. So we get to test it for them and they make a little money in the meantime. Well this is the last time I buy a "pre-release" from anybody.

To all of you who had the software work, lucky you. For those of us who have yet to enjoy your experience, I would like to send Valve-Sierra a big @#$%*&$$#@*&, and FU too!!

Hey, by the way, I keep reading about people e-mailing valve...what is the email address you are using....I would like to send a little e-mail of my own. I already sent one the NYS Attorney General about this...I want my money back..now!

This is BS!!!!!!!

 

[BlackGem]

oh yea forgot to post it earlyer. i went into my network and deleted the drivers for folder and priter sharing. it went alot longer without crashing. its almost playable only crashing every 20-40 mins.

 

[OLBaID]

Same memory error, but with a twist

I to have had the memory error and had it run fine for 20-40 min at at time, however after reaching the steps to the canal i now get a stutter in the audio and thrown back to the main menu of hl2 or if severe to windows when i try to load from that point (not a quick save point) I deleted all the saves and still keep getting this issue. I have also read many threads on steam's forums and here with similarties abound. MY error is as follows in the console is spits me back to the main menu
Begin loading faces (loads materials)
End loading faces (loads materials)
execing skill.cfg
Game started
Initializing renderer...
execing chapter3.cfg
Dropped B1666ER from server
Reason: Disconnect by user.
Spawn Server d1_canals_01
Begin loading faces (loads materials)
End loading faces (loads materials)
execing skill.cfg
Host_Error: CMapLoadHelper::Init, map models/items/item_item_crate.mdl has wrong identifier
Well that is my error and i cant get it to run any suggestions are welcome sorry for the long words.
I found this : i too had the crash to desktop when i first launched hl2.
but i knew how to fixed it cuz i figured it out when i got cs source.

it has something to do with somekind of mismatch with refresh rates between the driver and halflife

this is how i fixed it.. install Reforce .. http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/download.html

autopopulate default refresh rates for each resolution for your monitor..then apply..rememebr the refresh rate for the resolution you play hl2 in. go to the launch options (right click
or a command line variable in shortcut) for halflife to. and put this
-refresh 85 ....or whatever refresh rate you going to use for the resolution your going to play in on Steam today. Dont know if it will help anyone but it cant hurt.

Love the Game just want to play it.
OLBaID

System
Asus A7n8X Deluxe
Amd 3200 Barton
1536 Golden Dragon Geil 3200
2 Hitachi 120g SATA in Raid 0
AIW 9800 PRO (4.11 catalyst)
Nforce (4.27)
Dell 200FP Digital LCD

 

[BlackGem]

I to have had the memory error and had it run fine for 20-40 min at at time, however after reaching the steps to the canal i now get a stutter in the audio and thrown back to the main menu of hl2 or if severe to windows when i try to load from that point (not a quick save point) I deleted all the saves and still keep getting this issue. I have also read many threads on steam's forums and here with similarties abound. MY error is as follows in the console is spits me back to the main menu
Begin loading faces (loads materials)
End loading faces (loads materials)
execing skill.cfg
Game started
Initializing renderer...
execing chapter3.cfg
Dropped B1666ER from server
Reason: Disconnect by user.
Spawn Server d1_canals_01
Begin loading faces (loads materials)
End loading faces (loads materials)
execing skill.cfg
Host_Error: CMapLoadHelper::Init, map models/items/item_item_crate.mdl has wrong identifier
Well that is my error and i cant get it to run any suggestions are welcome sorry for the long words.
I found this : i too had the crash to desktop when i first launched hl2.
but i knew how to fixed it cuz i figured it out when i got cs source.

it has something to do with somekind of mismatch with refresh rates between the driver and halflife

this is how i fixed it.. install Reforce .. http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/download.html

autopopulate default refresh rates for each resolution for your monitor..then apply..rememebr the refresh rate for the resolution you play hl2 in. go to the launch options (right click
or a command line variable in shortcut) for halflife to. and put this
-refresh 85 ....or whatever refresh rate you going to use for the resolution your going to play in on Steam today. Dont know if it will help anyone but it cant hurt.

Love the Game just want to play it.
OLBaID

System
Asus A7n8X Deluxe
Amd 3200 Barton
1536 Golden Dragon Geil 3200
2 Hitachi 120g SATA in Raid 0
AIW 9800 PRO (4.11 catalyst)
Nforce (4.27)
Dell 200FP Digital LCD

just did all that, going to try it now....i dont know how to get that console stuff. mind telling me how?

 

[Travis76]

Ok all, i have the same problem, not with CS but with HL2, this is sooo annoying.

 

[OLBaID]

~Console command

to get to the console go into options at the first menu, then keyboard and the advanced tab. Then after errors where you still have the hl2 menu just hit the ~ key and the console will come down. If you get any errors it will be in here.

 

[Zsinj]

After Reinstalling Steam, and all of the games...and now to no avail. It now simply crashes to desktop, but at about the same frequency of before

 

[sigloiv]

People, I have a working copy and am willing to post the MD5 checksums. I'm going to post them in a file, plain-text, and in a screenshot just for the sake of accuracy. All these files work fine; I haven't had an error after an hour of play. I'm going to post them in a file, plain-text, and in a screenshot just for the sake of accuracy. I know I don't need the MD5 for Source: SDK and Source Dedicated Server but what the heck. Please don't just blow this off; I spent quite awhile on it.

Here they are:

7521d1970473d9aea9b963b83f3a1160 half-life 2 content.gcf
49ba9ab3619ebe8fcf64f4a047726972 source dedicated server.gcf
49b380cce5c6b78619d31262b4bfbc61 source engine.gcf
207d21b5bc0c4e3dfad031c80bfeef49 source materials.gcf
334fa6afd9c63d9d5b74bda8fcb662a2 source models.gcf
f2c54cb1952085845e4f07874c1b4394 source sounds.gcf
a09613361dd8c5cf4c1ff02c22e0733d sourcesdk.gcf

psalm: I couldn't even get past the loading screen after starting a new game.

This file is with Source Dedicated Server and with Source: SDK. Otherwise you hash will be totally different. You also need to rename this file to checksum.md5 instead of checksum.txt.
|
V

 

[Billox]

I too am plagued by the memory could not be "read" errors. (I'm getting a reference to "0x013af5c0")

Steps I took were to upgrade video, nforce3 mobo and sound drivers. I tried the replace the source models.gcf file thingie cos I had a slightly higher byte count.

I underclocked my video card (6800GT) down to 330Mhz and memory down to 950Mhz (from 350/1000)

I did a little crash dance in my living room and got really drunk.

None of it worked, I still get the same crash and error, sometimes in the main menu, sometimes I'd get as far as getting out of the train at the station.

CS:S works well for up to 30 minutes then bombs out with the same error. HL:S bombs out straight away like HL2

I found some stuff on google from back in September. Some guy having problems with the same error in CS:S. I emailed him and asked him how he fixed it. His response....

"I fixed it by under clocking my cpu and limiting my fps to 30."

So there you go, another thing to try. I'm at work at the moment so won't be able to try this for 4 or 5 hours from now. If anyone has any success by underclocking their CPU please report back here.

Thanks!


Billox

 

[BlackGem]

my cpu is overclocked. but how would that have anything to do with my prob. my chip was made up to 3200, but mine really is a 2600 barton amd xp

 

[Billox]

I really don't know if it has anything to do with the problem. I don't run my 3000+ Athlon64 overclocked, but I'm certainly going to try and underclock it to see the result.


Thanks



Billox

 

[LeaD]

Hopefully this will fix some problems

Get same memory error, happening during the blurry load page on Steam... haven't been able to play game yet.... Except with mine the load page hangs forever and won't let me back out to the desktop without multiple ESC and F10 pushes. Disabled sound, disabled everything but graphics, no luck.

Epox 8rda3i
XP 2200
2 X 512 GB Crucial
GeForce 6800
SB Live! card

I had the same problem. It's because it wants to run fullscree and there's where the problem comes in. It won't run fullscreen if you have a desktop resolution higher than the fullscreen resolution in game.
So what I did was to lower my desktop resolution to 1024x768 and then started the game. Voila! It started...
Its a bit annoying having to change resolution every time I want to play HL2 but I CAN play it

FYI: I've played around 16 hours into the game, no crashes, alot of quicksaving/loading.
Hope this works for you guys.


My Spec:
MS Windows XP SP1 (****ing SP2 sucks donkey balls!)
Athlon 64 3000+ @ ~3400+
1GB Kingmax Hardcore DDR500 Memory modules
Radeon 9800pro 128MB (Running Catalyst 4.10)
Soundcard: Hercules Digifire 7.1 & Plantronics DSP-500 (both running without problems)

/LeaD

 

[OompahLoompah]

md5sums

People, I have a working copy and am willing to post the MD5 checksums. I'm going to post them in a file, plain-text, and in a screenshot just for the sake of accuracy. All these files work fine; I haven't had an error after an hour of play. I'm going to post them in a file, plain-text, and in a screenshot just for the sake of accuracy. I know I don't need the MD5 for Source: SDK and Source Dedicated Server but what the heck. Please don't just blow this off; I spent quite awhile on it.

Here they are:

7521d1970473d9aea9b963b83f3a1160 half-life 2 content.gcf
49ba9ab3619ebe8fcf64f4a047726972 source dedicated server.gcf
49b380cce5c6b78619d31262b4bfbc61 source engine.gcf
207d21b5bc0c4e3dfad031c80bfeef49 source materials.gcf
334fa6afd9c63d9d5b74bda8fcb662a2 source models.gcf
f2c54cb1952085845e4f07874c1b4394 source sounds.gcf
a09613361dd8c5cf4c1ff02c22e0733d sourcesdk.gcf

I have not encountered the crashing problem described here (though I've only played about 30 minutes), but I certainly have the sound/stuttering problem described in a different thread. Have you experienced that problem?

As a data point, here's the md5sums for my gcf files. Note, I do not have the SDK or the dedicated server. I used the cygwin md5sum implementation to generate these. I downloaded the winmd5 program and verified one of the files matched the md5sum it generated. I had some troubles with it though, so that's why I opted for the cygwin implementation.

33410019bcde486a875be8e5195f0aff source materials.gcf
62fede646929f7708581d203123b350b source models.gcf
371bf86d35cd4be6aaa67ba6ce057dff source sounds.gcf
15a5df83528b60ebd1dd352275089b7f source engine.gcf
d5f647e430681d9369da15b393518227 half-life 2 content.gcf

Note that they are all different. The file sizes are all slightly different as well, hence the differing md5sums.

I pre-downloaded HL2 via steam this past weekend (either Sat or Sun).

Since I'm not interested in playing with the stutters, I'm going to download again just as a shot. It will be interesting to see if the md5sums differ this time -- not that the files necessarily have to match to operate correctly...but it's interesting that they don't match!

 

[psalm]

Well here I go again

Wish me luck this time around...

 

[3rd Ranger Batt]

wow....over my head.

i hope someone can sort this out.....or perhaps a statement from valve, steam, v/u, sierra, President Bush......shoot.....get Derek Jeter in here too.

at any rate.....i have had just about all i can handle.....

this certainly is turning out to be a debacle isnt it......?

 

[Rhadamanthys]

All, I posted once on like page 8 my memory addressing problem on the load screen. I was about to give up and wait for a fix when the game started working, with a few hiccups now and then. The only things I did was redownload just the source models.gcf file, defrag a brand new installation of windows for S&G's and disable then reenable my onboard sound through device settings. I really do not know which action fixed my problem but I know I am afraid to reboot the machine in the event that might make it stop working again. I will post any new findings in the hopes that it may help any of you. What a shitstorm we have been given for $50.00. Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions.