Graphics Glitch: HL2 Freezing Repeatedly

[Spectre1337]

i have a very annoying graphics problem with half life 2, one that is pretty much ruining my game experience.

every minute or so the game completely freezes for about 5 seconds. the sound stops and the computer stops responding. after the lag the graphics mess up slightly sometimes. let me demonstrate:

http://www.planet1337.com/stuff/hl2bug.jpg

i took this screenshot directly after such a lag. as you can see, the shadow map didn't render for that wall anymore.

i've been playing the game at 1280x1024, max detail, max AA, max AF. i've tried disabling AA and AF, but it didn't fix the problem. i've even reverted back from the latest official nvidia driver to 61.77 but to no avail.

here are my system specs:

AMD Athlon64 FX-53 Socket 939 Processor
1 GB OCZ Dual Channel PC3700 RAM
XFX GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB Graphics Card
Hitachi 400GB S-ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive
Creative Audigy 2 Sound Card
Gigabyte nForce 3 Ultra Motherboard

any idea how to fix my problem?

 

[Varsity]

The only 'odd' hardware you have is the nForce mobo. Look around, see if there's any know issues with it and HL2.

 

[DarkSonic]

..What do you mean? nForce is one of the most popular chipset for a motherboard. I can assure you, go to a real hardware website for help like this. My personal favorite - http://www.sharkyforums.com/

 

[Washuu]

I get this problem also, but it is definately not as severe

 

[Wicked Girl]

It is apparently a serious problem for many of us. Steam's forums are logging a ton of people with all types of PC configurations having this issue. I do, and I have a P4 2.6C with 1Gig of Kingston Hyper-X RAM, a Gigabyte 8KNXP mobo, and an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro vid card. It is not us. It seems like something to do with the engine perhaps.

 

[shark]

http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cg...WdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1mcmVlemluZw**&p_li=

http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cg...WdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1mcmVlemluZw**&p_li=

these are in the support section.

 

[sltmag]

Seems like a memory leak. I have the problem as well. I save the game where I am at, exit the program and reload to fix it. Was at its worse duing the boat sequences. I am just at Ravenholm so not sure how many more times it will manifest itself.

 

[Spectre1337]

shark: the first one doesn't apply since the game doesn't crash, it just freezes for a couple of seconds

the second description seems accurate, but disabling wireless zero didn't fix the problem for me