Half Life 2: Episode Two Crash

Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Hello all!

I'm having a problem playing Half Life 2: Episode two. Every other Orange Box game has worked fine on my laptop (had to force DirectX 8.1 for HL2 & HL2: Ep. 1, but it was perfect after that), but for some reason my computer crashes at the beginning of episode two. As soon as I enter the second crashed train car and have to jump over a row of seats, the game freezes and I get a "violent" blue screen and have to restart (no actual error message, only shaking garbled white characters and looped sound). I've tried everything I can think of - running in a window, lowering every graphics setting, forcing lower versions of DirectX - and none of it has worked. I've loved every Half Life game and am dying to play and see the rest of the saga unfold. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

System Specs.
Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop
Windows XP S.P. 2
1.6 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology, TL-50, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs)
~1 GB RAM
DirectX 9.0c (although I have to force HL2 and ep. 1 to run in 8.1)
ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 (256 MB)
1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver: ati2dvag.dll version 6.14.0010.6631
 
Thanks for the advice and for the welcome!

I tried the registry fix and sadly it still crashed at the same location. I was able to get an error code upon reboot, with the "system has recovered from a serious error" message:

BCCode: 1000008e
BCP1: c0000005
BCP2: e89e2123
BCP3: b00ff8d4
BCP4: 00000000
OSVer: 5_1_2600
SP: 2_0
Product: 768_1

I have no idea what any of this means, but hopefully it contains some sort of secret message that can shed some light on my problem.

Any other advice or insight is greatly appreciated. =)
 
I was having a similar problem, and I too am running on a Radeon Xpress, though mine is 200M series (makes me want to kill myself).

First and foremost, check if your driver is updated fully. I updated mine and now I don't have it very often anymore. Though I still get it in a place or two, and the only way to avoid it is to noclip around the exact point it happens in (doesn't always work) or use the console command that unlocks the later levels (I don't remember the code).
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll have to give that noclip thing a try. I actually had a huge problem with updating the video drivers a few weeks back (long story), and I had to end up reformatting & installing Windows all over again.

Needless to say, I don't want to have to go through all of that again. =P
 
An "update" of sorts for those who are interested in helping me solve my problem:

So I tried to "noclip" around the part that gave me trouble. I was able to get outside the train car, where the gravity gun is lying on the ground, but after a turned noclip off I couldn't pick it up. I tried going back into the train car and wasn't able to open the door, and after noclipping back into the train I still couldn't open the door from the inside. All I could do in the way of interacting with the environment was to pick up some debris and throw it around. The game still crashed when I walked to that spot right in front of the row of seats you're supposed to jump over, even though I approached it from the other direction.

I've uploaded a video to youtube of the crash. I don't know if it'll help at all in diagnosing this issue, but I'm getting desperate.

(Sorry about the quality, all I have to record video is my cell phone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB9u7HsdlxY
 
I am having the exact same problem, and I have the exact same computer and hardware as enfant, and I even had to reformat and reinstall windows because of the hardware drivers and stuff. My game crashes at the exact same place as enfants, but there was one time I went further on it the game, after I lowered the graphics. I do know a little about blue screens though. They are almost always caused by infected, or corrupted files. The thing is, though, is I tried re-installing the game, and also downloading it fresh from steam, and it still crashes. And to tell the truth, it ticks me off GREATLY, so much, I feel like killing babies. I only bought the orange box because it has EP 2 in it, So, if someone could take the time to figure it out, I'd give them my dog
 
Um... not really 'bout the dog, just to make sure no lunatic out there tries to sue me because I'm not mailing him my dog
 
It worked! I am infinitely happy.

I added -dxlevel 80 +mat_forcehardwaresync 0 to the launch options, and it has so far worked without any problems - such a simple solution! I still have to turn the graphics settings down a few notches to make it run without stutter or slowdown, but it's been that way with all orange box games and I don't particularly care if the graphics aren't ultra-slick.

Thank you so much for finding this! I was seriously starting to consider buying a new computer, not just for this game but for future games as well. Now I can wait at least another year or so before I have to spend the money, and by then the specs I want will become cheaper, and newer, better hardware will be available in the same price range as today's top-of-the-line equipment.

Thanks again!
 
this doesnt work for me it says it doesnt exist i dont get it ive wrote all that at the end of the target line
 
Open Steam
Select My Games Tab
Highlight HL2
Right click and select properties
Click Set Launch Options button
In the Box enter -dxlevel 80 +mat_forcehardwaresync 0
Click OK
 
Back
Top