game keeps freezing! How do I fix?

[Trapper]

I just bought HL2 yesterday, so I'm not too sure what I'm doing. I've installed the game, and when it's running, even at the title screen, it will freeze for about 20 seconds, then go back to normal. This occurs about evey 45 seconds-1 min. Why is it doing this and how do I solve it?
And I will GUARENTEE anyone that its not my graphics card or anything like that. Under options in the game, everything is set to high and maxed out by default. It reccomends to leave these settings like this and not change them.
If anyone could help a poor newb trying to enjoy a game that would be great!

 

[The Monkey]

So you get to the menu(New Game etc.), and then it gets back to loading again?

 

[Trapper]

No, it also does it in game. And for some reason it seems to be doing it more frequently than ever now! Like around every 5-10 seconds! I need help with this.

 

[th3Phallex]

I think everyone's game has a small pause while playing, but only in AutoSave points.

There have been numerous reports of a "stuttering" problem with this game.

Do a search on this, and you might find out some more answers.

I personally have not noticed this, so I didn't investigated further.


Make sure you don't have any websites open in the background or don't record internet radio while playing. It makes my game jerky if I do any of those.

 

[Trapper]

Well I definetly know its not the save points. You almost explained it perfectly...its like a stuttering effect where the entire screen freezes, and the last sound that was played goes in a loop.
This happens VERY often during gameplay.

 

[jondy]

Atypical HL2 bug. No real fix - I had it until the updates kicked in. If you still have it, it's most likely that you have ingame settings up too high, hence the HD thrashing and thus stuttering. Nothing an extra stick of RAM won't fix

Other than that, tho', turn texture resolution down. It's the only way :O

What are your system specs?

 

[Trapper]

Well you know how it reccomends what to set the game at? Well mine reccomends it at all at high. I was really looking forward to playing HL2! IS THERE NO POSSIBLE SOLUTION?! :angry:

e-Ge-Force 6800 ultra
MSI K8-Neo 2
3500= processor
DDR2 memory
160GB seta drive

This computer is brand new. I just built it in January! I bought all the top-of-the line stuff for it too! You know how much that cost me? And now I cant even play HL2!

 

[JNightshade]

hmm... but how much memory? If you're only running 256, for instance, performance will be crap. Even 512 is iffy. 1 gig does it perfectly for me, though.

 

[Trapper]

Yes 1gig. I told you, I bought the best stuff as possible.
Where do I get these patches from? Cause they havent appeared yet.
But now that I think about it, there was these messages from staem that would pop up when I turned on my computer, but I havent got anymore of those. I just closed them when they appeared cause I thought it was advertising. Is there a site I can just go and download these patches?

 

[Trapper]

The Stupid Thing Is Worse Than Ever!!! It Freezes About Every 3 Seconds, And Stays Frozen For Ten!!! Whyyyyyy Cant I Stop This! I Turned Everything To Low!!!

 

[MTL]

did u try enabling/changing these in the console~?

cl_forcepreload "1"
sv_forcepreload "1"
mat_forcemanagedtextureintohardware "1"
sv_autosave "0"
autosave "0"

it seems to fix that problem.....but your loading time WILL be a little longer...anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute longer...but hey, as long as it fix the studders im happy...but its hell when u try to play online sometimes and u have to wait longer l;/

if its particularly a sound problem set sound quality to medium/low in option menu, then try these
sp_slow_cpu "1" lowers the MHz/sound quality of sounds apparently....i think, but hey it works...its barley noticable from high setting....
but then u can enable dsp_enhance_stereo "1" and you get better stereo sound quality with no sound loops or studdering *shrug works for me

i read that if you have a sound card installed....you get the sound problems? and you sould disable your sound card and use ur systems defualt sound drivers and the game will sound smoother....but i dont have that problem because i dont have a sound card...har har