HL2 and CS:S both crash before menu screen...

[Mathew]

Hello,

I just purchased Half-life 2 a few days ago and finally got around to installing it today. After hours of installation and updating, I clicked on the icon.....and I got NOTHING.

Here are my system specs:

Dell Inspiron 5160 Laptop
Pentium 4 - 3.2GHz
1024 mb RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go5200 64mb video card
DirectX 9.0c

So basically what happens is I'm on the Steam game menu screen, then I click on the HL2 and launch it. It thinks about it for a while, screen goes black...then i see my desktop in very poor resolution (as I would expect when loading a game)....except it just stays that way. I waited about 5 minutes, then alt-tabbed to desktop. Immediately I heard the Valve logo screen in the background (recognize the sound from HL1). Then the I try to click on the minimized game and it just dissappears.

When trying to launch CS:S, the screen goes black, then it has the picture of the two Counterterrorists and the "loading..." at the bottom. After a few seconds, it just crashes to desktop with no error messages.

The only thing I can add that may help, is that before launching either of the games, a warning comes up saying that my video card may be out of date. I click to update it, but it seems there aren't any updates for it.

Nvidia GeForce Go5200
Version 6.14.0010.6742
Last Updated 10/26/2004

There is only a generic GeForce update (to 81.94), but clicking this comes up with the message:

"The Nvidia setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."

I'm assuming this means that updates do not exist for my card, as otherwise they would be at the Nvidia website. I can easily play other games such as GTA: San Andreas, and the recent NFS: Most Wanted Demo.

So I really hope I posted enough information, if anyone has any ideas or knows any problems with compatibility with my video card, please let me know. Thanks in advance,

-Mathew

edit: sorry for the long post, I read a lot of threads where the first ten replies asked for way more information, so i thought we could skip that

 

[Quak_66]

Hello,

I clicked on the icon.....and I got NOTHING.

Click on the icon twice, lol. Just kidding. I have seriously no idea what to do.

 

[Blinxx]

Are you running a firewall/router?

If so try and manually add hl2.exe to the firewall's exceptions list.

 

[Drackard]

I don't see how that would force the game to crash .... plus surely it usually comes up saying it is blocked or something similar, well for me anyway.

 

[$kelet0r]

1.validate your files
2. run a ram diagnostic - memtest86
3. if none of those work then i guess it is your video driver in which case you're screwed neither ati or nvidia have any real support for drivers of mobile gfx cards so no updates exist - its not financial viable to spend time making them

 

[Blinxx]

I don't see how that would force the game to crash .... plus surely it usually comes up saying it is blocked or something similar, well for me anyway.

Well, it would ensure the game wouldn't load.

 

[Drackard]

Yes, but surely it wouldn't forcefully make the game crash, they usually stay on a black screen or at least start to load asking to be allowed and exception.

 

[Blinxx]

Yes, but surely it wouldn't forcefully make the game crash, they usually stay on a black screen or at least start to load asking to be allowed and exception.

Yeah that's true, it most likely will lock up on the loading screen. It sometimes depends although. Just thought it may have been worth asking =)

Regarding the driver error, I've just realised it is a Dell mobile device version, you'll need to get your drivers from Dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

 

[Barney Fife]

That 64MB 5200 is probably whats causing it try different better card. There is nothing wrong with driver and your PC is top notch.

 

[Mathew]

Yeah that's true, it most likely will lock up on the loading screen. It sometimes depends although. Just thought it may have been worth asking =)

Regarding the driver error, I've just realised it is a Dell mobile device version, you'll need to get your drivers from Dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

I already tried looking there, no luck either. I can't really try a different video card (as someone recommended), as I am not a regular gamer and I don't want to spend $200 on one game. I guess I'm screwed. Thanks a lot Valve.

 

[Double_Blade]

Well here is some specific requirements taken from Wikipedia,

1.2 GHz processor, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c or higher (included)

I had no problems playing Counter strike: Source but Half life 2, I played it on PC before and was sometimes lagging but on the Xbox? well, again, I had no worries playing it.

 

[Beerdude26]

I guess I'm screwed. Thanks a lot Valve.

Valve can't be held responsible for odd hardware behaviour :|

 

[Double_Blade]

Yeah, I had to agree, I cant understand why people blamed Valve for the crash that has caused.

Well, we are all humans so we cant just fault them.

 

[Jodokai]

Well the difference is, we are really screwed. You see we look on the game package to find the minimum requirements. Our mobile PC's meet those requirements so we shell out the $50 open the game and load it up, only to find out that it won't work on our computers, and we're totally out of luck. We can't take the game back because the retialer won't refund it, so now we have a choice:

We can blame ourselves for believing the side of the package is correct.

We can blame our Laptop manufacturer for not telling us about every program that has been created or will be created that won't work on our laptops.

We can blame the company that made the program that KNEW it had problems with certian video cards but didn't bother to put that on the box.

You tell me which sounds like the most reasonable place to lay the blame.

 

[Beerdude26]

We can blame the company that made the program that KNEW it had problems with certian video cards but didn't bother to put that on the box.

Actually, they don't. Almost all video cards work with Source. The problem would be RAM, the problem would be wiring, the problem would be cooling. Valve doesn't know the layout and internal structure of every computer. That's why they take surveys, so they can update their software to make it run on every system. Every update, another system becomes compatible. But some updates also give errors to others. It isn't as easy as it seems, you know.

 

[Jodokai]

Actually, they don't. Almost all video cards work with Source. The problem would be RAM, the problem would be wiring, the problem would be cooling. Valve doesn't know the layout and internal structure of every computer. That's why they take surveys, so they can update their software to make it run on every system. Every update, another system becomes compatible. But some updates also give errors to others. It isn't as easy as it seems, you know.

Actually the problem is Video, windows will even tell you about it. Then if you're not happy reading it there, you can go to the Known Issues and read it there. They knew certain laptop video cards had a problem with HL-2 and yet they released CS-Source without a warning knowing full well there were issues.

Don't think I'm just coming down on Sierra NO COMPANY does this, so I don't really expect it. I normally check out the games site prior to buying, this time I didn't (loved HL-1 so much I didn't bother) and got burned. So I realzie it's Buyer Beware, but don't try to defend them like they didn't do anything wrong. Just because it's common practice not to provide warnings, doesn't mean it's right.

 

[Steven]

Click on the icon twice, lol. Just kidding. I have seriously no idea what to do.

You bitch, you stole my old avatar.

 

[dream431ca]

It's the windows firewall. Add CS and HL2 to the exceptions list...that's all. It worked for me.