Game freezes, no sound, no blue screen, cannot use mouse, keyboard, crtl alt delete

[jonarc124]

i got a new ati radeon all in wonder 9800 pro bundled with HL2. Setup was easy, no problems, but hl2 is my only game that freezes the entire system. i cannot use anything, and i have to manually reboot every time it happens. sometimes the freezes occurs after 10mins of gameplay, other times muliple hours.

 

[Beavis]

Falling on deaf ears.

A bunch of us are having the same problems and we haven't had a fix yet.


Well, back to playing Call of Duty.

 

[potatohead]

a LOT of people are having the same problems. Try lookin around before starting a new thread. Here's what worked for me:

in BIOS:
1) Turned off bank interleaving
2) Underclocked my memory from 400 mhz to 333 mhz

I have been playing hl2/css for over 2-3 weeks now, and not a single crash. SOOOO happy.

 

[TEDR]

have you got enough power what is your power supply . the new card may be over draining the PSU. Also have you got good cooling . like try leaving side panel off the case of your computer. do you get any send error reports when booting back up? if so what are they? also download latest drivers from ati.com. are you using direct x9c

you could also try setting the agp aperature size to a different value. say if its 64mb try 128mb, dont try less than 32mb

 

[jonarc124]

thanks for the responses.
i got no errors after rebooting, and my power supply if sufficient (350watt)

 

[Beavis]

a LOT of people are having the same problems. Try lookin around before starting a new thread. Here's what worked for me:

in BIOS:
1) Turned off bank interleaving
2) Underclocked my memory from 400 mhz to 333 mhz

I have been playing hl2/css for over 2-3 weeks now, and not a single crash. SOOOO happy.

I will have to give number 1 a try. As far as underclocking my memory goes: I don't think that will solve the problems. Why would you ever want to underclock your hardware? Maybe Valve should just fix their software?

Sorry if I sound a little harsh but I spent $55 on a game that I only got to play for a couple of weeks. I truelly appreciate any advice you guys have on fixing the issue and have tried everything on this forum. It would be nice to have some support from the company that made the game.

 

[TEDR]

thanks for the responses.
i got no errors after rebooting, and my power supply if sufficient (350watt)

350watt maybe not enough . i have 550watts for my computer 9800xt, 400watts was not enough to supply my system. i've asked a lot of computer supply shops and they say recommend to me 500watts to be safe.
a lot of computer companies put in cheap low power PSU to save money.

 

[jonarc124]

thats a good idea but i dont think i need anything over 450watts. my processor is normally clocked, and i dont have high speed ram. if you still think i need an upgraded power supply though i could chekc it out.

 

[jonarc124]

also, i havent been able to figure out how to turn off bank interleaving

 

[Dumb Dude]

350watt maybe not enough . i have 550watts for my computer 9800xt, 400watts was not enough to supply my system. i've asked a lot of computer supply shops and they say recommend to me 500watts to be safe.
a lot of computer companies put in cheap low power PSU to save money.

I have a 350w power supply and it powers 2 HDDs, 2 Optical drives (CD/RW and DVD-ROM) and a 6600gt and I get really good frames and no freezeing what-so-ever. I don't think the power supply is the problem in this case.

 

[philage]

Firstly, a 350w power supply will not be a problem, i recently killed my 500w power supply and had to replace it with a spare 350w and it is fine, running a 3200+, 6800gt @ ultra speeds, 1 gig ram, 3 x hd, dvd writer, tv card, and 2 fans. No problems at all.

Secondly, I have found the only fix for the memory error to be lowering the fsb of my system, like potatohead mentioned. It runs at 400mhz normaly, but to make hl2/css crash free, I need to lower it. I tried other relaxed setting for memory, ie cas, tras etc, but only lowering the fsb worked, and believe me, ive tried everything. Now, although this is far from ideal, having to underclock my system which is otherwise as stable as a rock, I can live with it to play hl2/css without it crashing.

 

[Beavis]

I'm sorry, but crippling my system to play a game is not an acceptable answer. There should never be a reason to "underclock" your machine to compensate for programming errors.

I do not overclock anything in my rig. Everything is stock. I can play every game known to man on it except for Half-Life2. Doom3, Call of Duty, and Painkiller all play smooth as silk without "tweaking" any hardware. There is no reason why Half-Life2 shouldn't run just as well.

I have tried everything in this thread hoping to find the magic combination to make this game run. Nothing has worked. Most people can play the game without any errors (I finished the game before the Dec 22nd patch without any problems) but for some the frustration level is rising.

 

[TEDR]

Firstly, a 350w power supply will not be a problem, i recently killed my 500w power supply and had to replace it with a spare 350w and it is fine, running a 3200+, 6800gt @ ultra speeds, 1 gig ram, 3 x hd, dvd writer, tv card, and 2 fans. No problems at all.

Secondly, I have found the only fix for the memory error to be lowering the fsb of my system, like potatohead mentioned. It runs at 400mhz normaly, but to make hl2/css crash free, I need to lower it. I tried other relaxed setting for memory, ie cas, tras etc, but only lowering the fsb worked, and believe me, ive tried everything. Now, although this is far from ideal, having to underclock my system which is otherwise as stable as a rock, I can live with it to play hl2/css without it crashing.

you are lowering you fsb thus drawing less power as the system is lowered the power is less .
That indeed says that your power is not sufficent .

and look what u got in your system each device is drawing power and any thing usb drawing power too.

underclock you cpu draws less power. overclock any thing like cpu or graphics card that will consume more power .

this smacks me in the face of not having enough power!!!!!

 

[Troika]

I will have to give number 1 a try. As far as underclocking my memory goes: I don't think that will solve the problems. Why would you ever want to underclock your hardware? Maybe Valve should just fix their software?

Since it's been a long time since the game has been released there's not much hope for that. You can't sell the game because of Steam either. So you are not given any other option but to make it work by yourself. Think positive! After a couple of months of reading forums, tweaking everything possible and endless reboots you'll be a computer guru.

On a serious note, any game that requires you to go to BIOS and play with memory settings must have been screwed up big time. A lot of people play on retail machines with proprietary boards and BIOSes and their options to tweak something like that are limited to say the least.

 

[jonarc124]

ok i know it is not a bios aspect, and i am pretty sure my 350watt power supply is adequate, therefore i think there is a glitch in the Source engine, or just some incompatibility with HL2/HL2M/CSS and my comp config.

 

[jonarc124]

(that was not a smily, i meant to type "HL2 : DM"

 

[philage]

you are lowering you fsb thus drawing less power as the system is lowered the power is less .
That indeed says that your power is not sufficent .

and look what u got in your system each device is drawing power and any thing usb drawing power too.

underclock you cpu draws less power. overclock any thing like cpu or graphics card that will consume more power .

this smacks me in the face of not having enough power!!!!!

Let me explain more, I have lowered the fsb, but raised the multipler to a speed that was greater than before, and guess what, the voltage to the cpu is the same !!!! so no, it is not using less power at all, also the ram voltage is the same, even though it is a lower fsb. Also, before I changed anything, the system was rock solid for everything except HL2. Which is where I was at with a 500w power supply. and when I mentioned my 3200+, it is a 2600+ overclocked to 3200+, trust me, changing to a 350w power supply hasnt changed anything in my system.

 

[TEDR]

if my system was doing this its one of the things i would check out be changing the PSU to higher rated one. 350 watts isnt sufficient for that kind of system.
the system can be rock solid in a low use state but nothing tests a computer like a game does.

 

[TEDR]

Let me explain more, I have lowered the fsb, but raised the multipler to a speed that was greater than before, and guess what, the voltage to the cpu is the same !!!! so no, it is not using less power at all, also the ram voltage is the same, even though it is a lower fsb. Also, before I changed anything, the system was rock solid for everything except HL2. Which is where I was at with a 500w power supply. and when I mentioned my 3200+, it is a 2600+ overclocked to 3200+, trust me, changing to a 350w power supply hasnt changed anything in my system.

lowering fsb is lowering your power of system even if you THINK u have increase the frequency or cpu to make power same WHY?

the system is WORKING LESS with fsb lowered. it is doing LESS work.
REMEMBER a higher FSB on lower clocked cpu can be doing more work than a lower FSB and high clocked cpu.

 

[jonarc124]

ok so if i am getting this straight, i shouldnt lower my fsb or underclock, i should just opt to get a better power supply

 

[TEDR]

Could be but u can never be too sure with these things.
You should never have to lower fsb to play a game. If anyone tells u that it isnt correct.
also have a look at your gpu temperature with
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

it may be high, better cooling may be necessary.maybe leave side panel off computer, use a mains fan to keep cool just to see if its heat problem.
You could get a higher power PSU and u could still have the problem. just one thing u should look at thats all. do please make sure u have cataylst drivers 4.12 is latest and direct x9c.
http://www.atitech.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html

 

[jonarc124]

ok i updated my catalyst drivers, and i havent experienced any total system freezes, or blue screens in a while. hopefully this pattern will continue :sniper: :bounce:

 

[Jangle]

I get the same prblem but i dont want to change my bios settings in case it messes up my computer..

might as well try, actually

 

[billy269]

having same problems, freezes constantly.