Episode one crash/freeze on startup

[Pyotr]

I've bought Episode 1 and it's fully installed and updated.
My PC is an HP Pavilion zd8160ea, with Radon Mobility x600 256 MB and Windows XP SP2.

Basically, the game crashes immediately, not even allowing me to enter the menu. However, using the '-console'-command, allows me to see the menu, but the game still crashes on startup. Only once, don't ask me how, have I been able to actually start a new game. But alas, it got stuck in the intro-scene, looping the animation of flying trash indefinitely.

I've updated DirectX, uninstalled and re-installed video drivers, and tried to run it in lower grade DirectX compatibilities (7, 8.1). I've had a look in dxdiag, and everything seems to work fine. I've tried uninstalling the whole game, defragging all drives, reinstalling and defragging again, rooting out all vira, trojans, spyware, adware and malware.
Nothing works.
I have a nagging suspicion it's got something to do with my drivers, since other 3D applications (though not all. WoW runs just fine) cause problems as well. However, as far as I can figure out, the only driver available for my card is the one on HP's site. Uninstalling and reinstalling those didn't do any difference. Any idea on how I can completely remove my video drivers (Driver Cleaner does not work for Mobility drivers)? Or even what might be wrong?
Please advice me on what logs might be helpful.

 

[Kuriente]

I believe we may be having the same issue, whatever that issue may be...

I have had HL2 on my system for a while with no issues. I recently bought EP1 and it installed fine, shows up on my games list, updates fully... When I try to launch the game however it simply doesn't. I just get the nagging Windows error message saying that HL2.exe needed to close...

I don't think any of my system is lacking but I'll list the specs for clarity's sake:

ASUS A8N32-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 4400 X2
3GB PC3200 OCZ Platinum
EVGA NVIDIA 7900GT OC
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
2x(RAID 0)WD 16M Cache 250GB (system drive)
2x(RAID 0)WD 8M Cache 160GB (previous system drive, currently just backup space)
SONY DVD-RW
500W PSU
Running on WinXP Pro SP2 with all current updates/drivers and latest BIOS.

I could see a potential compatibility issue being the problem, except I can run any source game except this one. I have purged my system of anything steam and then reinstalled with the same results. I have tried a multitude of graphics settings but to no avail. I've searched this forum and steampowered for answers but haven't found many (if any) posts about this problem.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[steve_chillzor]

Hey its my first half life game but i have the same problem. I dont know what kind of computer i got but its an HP media center and its like 4 months old so idk. My thing freezes in deathmatch when im loading EVERYTIME. or sometimes i get lucky and go into the game but 5 seconds later it freezes!!! I have to close it and everything. It always lags just to get to my menu. and sometimes it wont even get me anywhere. It (crashes) and i have to turn the comp. off!!!! I need help.

 

[adaox]

how much ram do you got??
my brother has the same problem, he's got 128 ram (somethimes computer gives error and saying that it will take some ram from "i dont know where but hes taking it xD)

 

[bbson john]

Is 2G of Ram the minimum requirement for play extremely smoothly?

 

[DevgruSeal]

how much ram do you got??
my brother has the same problem, he's got 128 ram (somethimes computer gives error and saying that it will take some ram from "i dont know where but hes taking it xD)

You're kidding right? The minimum system memory requirement is 256mb RAM.

System Requirements
Minimum:
1.2 GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, DirectX 7 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP/ME/98, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended:
2.4 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

 

[adaox]

ye, im not kidding, but the ram cant be a problem, cause the pc is taking its ram from the hard disk, like its using that memorie for a little while. this takes the time it needs, so it stops getting memorie from the hard disk to get more ram as soon as we quit the game

 

[Kuriente]

OK, I figured out my problem to all who may be interested, however I believe mine to have been different than the others who have posted. My problem was that the game would not start at all. No menu, no sound, no intro video, nothing. Hardware was not an issue as listed above, OS, Drivers, BIOS, everything was completely up to date. As it turned out, there was a configuration error in WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) to where Episode One wasn't able to figure out what hardware I had and simply wouldn't load. I fixed this by running some WMI repair commands in command prompt. More info and instructions on how to do this can be found here:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairwmi.htm

The diagnostics utility wasn't really too helpful to me as it only found the problem and didn't repair it, whereas the actually command line commands on this page fixed it nicely.

As for the other problems listed on this page, they sound to me like hardware or configuration problems. For instance you really shouldn't run the game on 128MB of RAM, honestly I really didn't think that would work at all. The Hard Drive memory you are refering to is the Page File which is used by the system when you run short on RAM, when btw you're running 128MB of ram, is always.

When your harddrive is being used as RAM you will notice performance issues because it is really not meant to be used as such. A HardDrive is used to store long term data, like a filing cabinet. Even the fastest harddrives are not fast enough to pull up data in the way that RAM is designed to do.

RAM could be compared to a literal desktop where files that are being used at the moment are placed for convenience. When the computer runs out of room there, than it has to use a portion of the Hard Drive to put data which is being used, which is not very convenient at all.

So yes, running HL2 or source anything will be a problem when running 128MB of ram. You should have at the very lease, 256.