Half-Life 2 Crash on Vista

[fett8000]

Hello,
I bought the retail DVD version of Half-Life 2 recently, installed it [on Vista Home], as well as Steam, activated it, and tried to play. It will get me to the main menu, but once the intro cutscene plays, it freezes a few seconds in [with audio stuttering and a black screen], and then crashes. I've updated the game to the latest version, tried XP-compatibility, and minimized all graphics settings, but still the same result. I also get an IGFX driver error that apparently had stopped working and recovered. Admittedly I do only have integrated graphics, but seeing as how I've been able to run Doom 3, Far Cry, Unreal Tournament 2004, Elder Scrolls - Oblivion, Company of Heroes, GTR 2 and Medieval 2 Total War without problems, I figured that Half-Life 2 wouldn't give any such integrated graphics issues.

I tried locating this issue in the forums, but have been unable to find a resolution. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Dekstar]

Although from the other games you can play you should have no problems, could you post your computer specs anyway?
Also, try verifying your game cache. Right click the game in Steam, go to Properties, Local Files, and click "verify game cache".

 

[fett8000]

Do you mean the Dxdiag report? If so, the forum is giving me an error message regarding the maximum word count. I do have the text document of it inserted as an attachment in this post.

Also, I tried the game cache verification, but got the same result.

 

[Dekstar]

Have you made sure your drivers are updated? That could be causing problems. Graphics card drivers, mainly.

 

[Operational]

Do you have a 64 bit version of Vista (right click "Computer" -> Properties and see what it says under "System Type").
If so your problem is probably HL2's dodgy 64bit version. Right click on Half-Life 2 in Steam -> Properties -> Set Launch Options. Then add "-32bit" (no quotes).

 

[fett8000]

I tried updating the graphics drivers a few days ago, and was told that I have the latest drivers.

My version of Vista is 32 bit, so I guess the 64 bit issue wouldn't apply for me.

This is quite a concern for me, since it's a five-year old game we're talking about here with the latest updates and it still refuses to run. Therefore, even if I was to buy a separate video card down the road, I'm not sure that would fix the problem.

 

[Operational]

Steam Support has a few pages that might help

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5034-EIPV-6426
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5688-IFHZ-2170
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7169-TIAV-5361

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Don't use XP-compatibility mode that cause more issues when running Steam and HL2 on Vista.

 

[wisemanofhyrule]

I have the same problem with the demo of Hl2, but it worked once for me then it stopped working. I havent tried restarting my computer though.

Ps. Just to clear things up I have a 2.66 Ghz quad and 6g of ram using vista x64, ill have to try steam properties thing though.