Half Life 2 Freeze Lock up

[bigChris!!!]

Hello everyone.

I built a new system about a day ago and first thing i installed was hl2. I ran all needed updates , im on xp pro sp2 amd 64 bit 3000+ processor with 2 gigs of ddr400 ram, gforce 6800 GT 256 mb ram graphics card. a DFI lap party mobo agp 8x.

my problem... after playing hl2 for just about 5 min the system freezes. It does not crash with a blue screen or even reboot, it just hangs locked up on the section of the game i was in, looping sound. Once it happens i have to hard reboot because i canot even access Alt+cltr+del to end the process.

i tried to over clock, under clock, re place my ram in slots 1 and 3 as aposed to slots 1 and 2 . i refreshed steam, updated cards driver.

still no solution can someone provide some info that may help me
any input will be greatly apreciated

 

[dogboy73]

I don't know about the 6800GT but there have been issue's reported with the 6800LE. The memory timings seems to be the problem. I've been experiencing this myself & your problem sounds very similar to mine. I've just upgraded my system but I retained my 6800LE & the problem is still exactly the same as on the old system. I used Coolbits2 (Downloaded from Guru of 3D) to underclock the cards memory clock speed (left the GPU speed as is) from 700MHZ to 500MHZ. So far so good. Got as far as 'Route Kanal' level without a crash. I need to do more testing. It's not an ideal solution but if the game plays okay it will do for now.

Have you tired any other games? After upgrading my mobo, CPU & RAM I was able to play Far Cry with everything maxed out even on my bottom of the range & apparently problematic 6800LE. I've heard from other people who havce the same type of problem when running HL2. It seems it's the one game that exposes problems with the card for some.

 

[dogboy73]

I outlined my prolem here on the Overclockers forum;

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17344937

Maybe some of the replies might be helpfull to your problem but the fact that it's very similar to mine suggests a gfx card problem. The rest of your system is certainly way, way above what's required. That's HL2 for you though :rolling:

 

[bigChris!!!]

ill check it out

Thanks for the input ill try to underclock my card as soon as i get home. Ill check the link you provided too.

thanks again for input.

 

[dogboy73]

Here's a link to Coolbits 2.0 on the Guru of 3D website;
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

This small download adds some extra options to your NVIDIA ForceWare control panel. From here you can unerclock the card. You can restore the default settings at any time. If it does work & your happy with the settings then be sure to check 'Apply these settings at start up' to retain each time you boot up.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

Also, register on the Guru of 3D forum & check for issue's with your card. It's worth trying other games as well to see if they have the same issue. You may have a faulty card. One other thing, Check the cards temp after running a game. My 6800LE runs at about 57 degress. This goes up to about 64 after playing a game.

 

[Beavis]

Hate to tell you guys this but my system has been doing the same thing ever since the last Steam update.

Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe
Chip: AMD64 3500+
RAM: 1 Gig Corsair PC3200
Video: Radeon 9800Pro

I have almost given up on ever playing again. PLEASE find a solution. I am begging you all!!

 

[dogboy73]

Is it definitely the same problem? i.e. Screen goes blank, PC locks up, Needs power off before restarting. Any problems with other games? Maybe you could try underclocking your gfx card's memory. Bit of a long shot as this is a fix for a problem with the 6800LE cards but might be worth a go if you've tried all the other 'fixes'.

Big Chris, Any joy with that 'fix' (I know, It's hardly a fix but if it works I'll go with it for now). I've got as far as the helicopter attacking you in the 'Route Kanal' level. Previously I'd never reached anywhere near this far before underclocking my card. I'm hoping this is the solution that will finally allow me to play this game! I'll see how it goes from here on in.

 

[Beavis]

I get the sound loop sometimes and a hard lock other times.

Here is another thing that is troubling me:

There are days when I can play for hours without an error. Seriously, I can play for hours (Half-life2 and CS:S). I shut down the machine for the night and the next day it starts to lock up again. After rebooting about 3 times and "talking" to the computer with "kind" words I am able to play again.

One observation that I have is that it seems to like it when I mess with the graphic options and then exit the game. Start it back up and it lets me play. If I shut down the machine and try to play with the previous settings there is a 90% chance that it will lock up on me.

Just thought I would throw that out for you guys to ponder.

 

[Kruel]

Yeah, same here... most of the time HL2 freezes within the first 10 minutes of play, but I have had a couple rare instances where it let me play for hours on end without a problem.

When mine freezes up, first there are graphical distortions, so I can usually shut down the game before it freezes up completely. Many times when it does freeze, if I wait about a minute I'll get a blue screen telling me I have an error with nv4_disp.dll (one of the Nvidia display drivers).

With the graphical distortions, it looks as if my video card is overheating... but I've tried underclocking the damn thing and I still get freezes. All my other games run fine.

System:
2.8 Intel
512 ram
GeForce 4600 ti (yes I know it's old but like I said my other games run fine)

 

[michaelsil1]

Hate to tell you guys this but my system has been doing the same thing ever since the last Steam update.

Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe
Chip: AMD64 3500+
RAM: 1 Gig Corsair PC3200
Video: Radeon 9800Pro

I have almost given up on ever playing again. PLEASE find a solution. I am begging you all!!

Just out of curiosity what Video Driver are you using XP or XP 64?
Also have you tried not loading the Startup Items and then trying to play?

 

[Beavis]

I am running Windows XP Pro. (As far as I know there isn't a 64 bit video driver for my card but I could be mistaken)

I am using the DNA 4.12 drivers for the video card.

If the lockups were consistant it would be easier to figure out. It seems like I try some of the tweaks and they "seem" to work for a day or two. Then it starts messing up again.

I am at a loss as to what is going on. It seems like a hardware problem but everyone has different hardware with the same results. That makes me think it is software. I may be wrong but I hope Valve comes up with something soon.

 

[michaelsil1]

I am running Windows XP Pro. (As far as I know there isn't a 64 bit video driver for my card but I could be mistaken)

I am using the DNA 4.12 drivers for the video card.

If the lockups were consistant it would be easier to figure out. It seems like I try some of the tweaks and they "seem" to work for a day or two. Then it starts messing up again.

I am at a loss as to what is going on. It seems like a hardware problem but everyone has different hardware with the same results. That makes me think it is software. I may be wrong but I hope Valve comes up with something soon.

There is a 64bit driver for your Card , but you should not be using it unless you are running Windows 64bit. Try doing a Selective Startup (for Trouble Shooting) and see if your Game works.

 

[Anti-Chav]

Hello ppl!

Exact same problem here. Total freeze with fast looping sounds from last output by the game.

My specs are:-

450 watt psu
Win Xp Pro Sp1(did have sp2 but got shut of it)
ATI Radeon 9600 XT bravo 256mb onboard
AMD 3200 Athlon Xp Barton (temp betwwen 60 and 70 degress)
768 mb pc2700 ddr (1 256 stick 1 512 stick in slots 1 and 3)
Asus A7V880 mobo
Sonic fury sound card
Soundblaster Live(disabled)
DVD writer (master)
Cd Burner (slave)
Gigabit onboard lan
40 gb seagate
120 gb maxtor
(drives need serious defragging)

I have tried alot of things to try and resolve this. Ive messed with my bios, tried different soundcards, played with the gfx settings. Ive been looking on many forums about this kind of problem but they have been NO help. Ive even gone as far as talking nicely to my pc(as someone else said) to almost braking my big toe when kicking the s**t out of it (not recommended).

Since the last Steam update yesterday, the freezing has been more serious then prior to the update. I had a similar problem when playing Farcry as well. Also ive had similar experiences when playing DVDs using WinDvd as well. I recently bought Psi Ops (not the best of games but still good fun) and i have had no problem with it at all.

I only recently changed the Dvd drive to the master so i have not tested the DVD issue yet.

However, i did not encounter any of these problems when i was running win2k (i can see me going back to it soon).

I had a look on the Steam FAQs as well and they suggested it was a soundcard problem with the PCI slots (prior to the last update, although this sounds like a fob off to me). Initially i did this and the problem appeared to be solved although it would freeze up occasionally.

i think this is down to either the steam or the CSS updates and like someone else said previously (or implied) Valve better do something about it soon as my anger iwith this problem is increasing by the second.