Fade to white problem - start of game

[ironman2284]

Dell Inspiron 6000
128mb Radeon X300 video card
2ghz Intel 4M
1 gb DDR ram

I am having a problem with the game. I click start new game. It commences. After the main guy talks to me and he says "wake up, wake up and smell the ashes", I am on the train and it fades to white. There the game jams up and I can't alt tab out or control alt delete the program away. Help please.

 

[$kelet0r]

hmm - a low end laptop, that'll make trouble shooting trickier

edit first go to dell.com and download all the latest drivers etc.

first make sure you are only playing on medium settings and that your game is 100% updated (right click hl2 in steam games --> properties)
second if that doesnt help validate
third step - make sure you're computer is defragmented properly and test your ram (memtest86)

if those dont work report back and we'll try something else

 

[ironman2284]

All drivers are updated. Just got the laptop last week and updated everything.

Running all video on lowest settings (even though a lot of high settings are recommmended. Tried them first however)

All files validated.

Ram is good. HD defragged.

When it locks to white the whole computer locks and the music keeps playing the half second sound over and over.

 

[$kelet0r]

ahh a crash with looping sound -now we've got info
brb

Question = My Games Crash with Sounds looping over and over, usually no error message
Answer



SoundBlaster Problems
If you have a soundcard (not a chip on the motherboard) what PCI slot is your soundcard plugged into?

SoundBlaster soundcards are infamous for not performing well on the lower slots (beyond slot 3 on most PCI buses). Other cards may also have problems. Try moving the card closer to the graphics card, or if it's already as close as it can get, then try moving the card down a slot or two.

On-Board Soundchips
If you have an on-board soundchip, there are several web reports seem to indicate there are problems with some on-board sound chip drivers causing this problem, here is one:

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-34588.html

For both onboard and PCI soundcards there are a few things to try and eliminate this problem.

*
Get the latest drivers for your motherboard and for your sound card
*
Make sure you have all the latest O/S updates installed from Microsoft (windows update).
*
Be sure to get the latest DirectX version installed as well.

Don't Run Both
If you have a sound chip on your motherboard and you upgrade to new PCI audio card, you must uninstall the old drivers and then disable the on-board soundchip in your BIOS settings before installing the new card.

Try Turning off the Sound
Try disabling the sound card in the device manager: right-click on the sound card and select "disable", you can re-enable it later once we see if it helps or not. On-board soundchips can usually be disabled in the BIOS.

For HL2 games you can also add:

-nosound

In your game launch properties and see if that prevents the crash. Don't use this for HL1 games, it might cause a problem when you play online. You'll have to disable your soundcard(s) in the device manager for HL1 game troubleshooting.

I know it's no fun to play without sound, but try it for a while just to see if the problem is still there.

If the problem goes away then you know something related to your sound card or sound card drivers is causing the problem.

Phone Home
If after installing all the latest drivers and O/S updates you still have this problem, you might try contacting your motherboard manufacturer and see what their recommendations are, especially for on-board soundchips.

DirectX Acceleration
You can also turning down or disabling the DirectX Sound Acceleration.

You do this by going to your start button:
Start > Run > DXDIAG <enter>

Then go to the Sound Tab and turn off hardware acceleration, then exit and run the game and see if there
is any change. If the problem goes away then you can go back and move the acceleration up a step at a
time until the problem starts happening again .. then reduce the acceleration one step.


OR

Question = Crashing and Lock ups with Source-Engine Games
Answer

Below are known issues and fixes we have found so far:

If you try and start the game and end up at your desktop you should download and install the latest version of directx 9.0c found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en&categoryid=2

If you are locking up at the Loading screen you need to manually re-add the hl2.exe for each of your Steam games to your exceptions list. Once the game exe has been updated on your Firewall you should no longer lock up at the Loading screen.

On machines using nForce audio go to Options > Audio and switch to 2 speakers. This should stop you from crashing when joining your game.

There is also a crash that can happen with nVidia based video cards that is corrected with the following Beta drivers from nVidia:

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_winxp_2k_78.05.html

If you are still having crashes while playing your game please try the following steps:

Clean booting to free up memory on machines that have 512mb of ram.

When you start Windows, typically there are a number of programs that start automatically and run in the background that may interfere with the game. These programs may include antivirus and system utility programs. When you perform a clean boot, you prevent these programs from starting automatically. You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to complete this procedure.

1.
Click Start, and then click Run.
2.
In the Open box, type msconfig, and then click OK.
3.
On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
4.
Under Selective Startup, click to clear the following check boxes:
* Process SYSTEM.INI File
* Process WIN.INI File
* Load Startup Items
5.
On the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
6.
Click OK, and then click Restart.

Note: To restore your normal boot sequence re-open msconfig and place a check in the items you previously disabled.

For lag issues in game or if you're still not able to get to the main menu try specifying a different DXLevel in launch options. This update replaced any tweaks that may have been made to improve game performance. If you are crashing or locking up when starting your game go to the Launch Options for the game and add -dxlevel 81.

If you are able to play with -window - console, but crash without these two launch options try copying the avi.dll from:

Steam\SteamApps\accountname\counter-strike source\bin folder to the Steam\SteamApps\accountname\counter-strike source folder

This will also work for HL2 and DoD: S.

If after trying these steps you are still experiencing issues please re-open your ticket and update us with the steps you have taken so far.

 

[ironman2284]

tried it all. still nothing. Maybe could I have someone send me a saved game file from a minute or two into the game, transfer it to my folder and see if it will work then?

 

[$kelet0r]

well i dont see that working - it is a common problem but i'll do it if i can
pm your email

Last step - Try turning off FastWrites in bios, and if you get rivatuner(google it), turn off fastwrites with that too - if that doesnt work well i dunno?
where's beerdude?

 

[ironman2284]

Kind of off-topic, but do UK games work with US computers? Is it like DVDs where there are regions? Will a UK game work on a US computer when playing online? If I have to change the region to play it, how many times can I change it back to the US version to play others?

 

[Beerdude26]

Kind of off-topic, but do UK games work with US computers? Is it like DVDs where there are regions? Will a UK game work on a US computer when playing online? If I have to change the region to play it, how many times can I change it back to the US version to play others?

Well, to counter games that have been released in the US but not in other countries being deported overseas, there is indeed such a system. Some games have it, but not all of them. It's often said on the back of the game box/case.

EDIT: For your problem : General Troubleshooting Tips
Or : Link

 

[ironman2284]

The saved game files worked... for three minutes. Then it locked up again. I guess I will run through the check list again.

 

[$kelet0r]

well its run of 3 things becasue of the sound looping
1. onboard sound on the chipset incompatibilty
2. fastwtites in the BIOS being on instead of off
3. ram

its highly unlikely to be any other issue