HL2 "Black Screen" Problems

[Bmd3287]

Alright I need some help. Im trying to play Half-Life 2. I have a Compaq Presario 2500 2.9 ghz laptop with 1GB of Ram and a ATI Radeon Mobility 345M Graphics Card with 64MB of shared memory (I know, it sucks). I am running DirectX 7 hardware (which should STILL be able to play HL2 fine). Im running Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 1. I have the omega drivers downloaded. The game starts up fine, everything is working, it doesnt even lag. Loading is surprisingly fast and everything looks great. I get to the menu, hit new game and it starts. I get the "Half-Life 2" title and it fades. then the g-man starts talking but there is NO picture. its all black. I just get a black screen and I can hear the "Wake up mr. freeman" speech. Does anyone have any ideas on this specific issue. I've had no problems playing this game on my previous desktop (1.8 ghz, 256mb ram, and imbedded ATI graphics) so I dont know what the problem could be. I know my specs may seem acient, but this is actually an UPGRADE for me. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP. ;(

 

[Armoured-Fury]

Ok..

I suggest that first of all you go into "Options" and see what the game has set as your default game play capabilities.. All mine was set to High when i checked and mine plays fine i only get lag some times but only after a load screen...

Also i strongly reckomend that you install DirectX 9 or higher... Also make sure that the games resolution settings are set to be the same as your desktops.

I think the reason my game some times (rarely) lags is because i'm playing directly through Steam through the internet even though i do have a 10MB broadband connection lol

Hope this helps

Fury