hl2 crashes after new RAM is installed...

[phuket101]

Hi everyone. Luckily I've already had the chance to play through and beat HL2, but I just now installed an extra 512mb of Mushkin PC3200 RAM (totalling 1gb now). Now whenever I load a level, be it from a saved game or from 'new game' it crashes. It gets as far as 'initializing renderer' in the console then i see the mouse for a few seconds in game and then it quits to the desktop. Could this be the RAM? Kinda a pain to pull it back out, anyone think it could be something else?

Is there any way to get like a console/crash log or dump so I could see a little more of what is going on?

Thanks guys.

---
AMD Athlon XP +2500 (Barton)
SY-KT600 DRAGON Plus v.2.0
2x512mb Muskin RAM (one is PC2700, the new is PC3200 but slowed)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Windows XP Home

 

[phuket101]

well, ive tried pulling out the new piece of RAM now. the only problem I can see is that it is a PC3200 stick of 512mb, and the other in my motherboard is PC2700. otherwise the two are identical, right down to the brand.

some mobos/ram have problems slowing RAM (because both have to be the same speed for the system), but as far as i know both the RAM i have and the motherboard should have no problem doing this. i've been using the computer normally like i would and it has had no problems except with HL2.

ive gotten it to work for about 10 seconds, namely when i try it after its been off for a while. then the next time i try it it is even quicker to quit. the next time it is almost imediately after load.

what gives? any ideas? any way I could see a log of what is happening?

 

[Tytarian]

Try lower you latency in your BIOS to that of your slowest ram stick,since your computer will only run as fast as your slowest ram module ie:your slowest ram stick is ddr 2700 that means that BOTH will run at that speed.So just in case check to see wether or not lowering your mem settings in your BIOS to 2700 makes a difference,if it is allready set up right then I am not sure what the problem is,oh one more thing if your cpu is overclocked try lowering it 200mhz or so,or just test it at default speeds,hope this is of some help.

 

[Tytarian]

EDIT:If unsure about setting up latency try these settings
CAS LATENCY: 2.5T
RAS TO CAS DELAY:3.0T
RAS PRECHARGE TIME:3.0T
RS ACTIVE TIME:6T NOTE:These settings are geared towards your 2700 stick if you set them much lower than the above settings it could cause a crash or random or immediate resets of your pc,since you would obviously be forcing your slower ram to run at latency's it was not desighned to run at.

 

[phuket101]

Try lower you latency in your BIOS to that of your slowest ram stick,since your computer will only run as fast as your slowest ram module

i sorta assumed it would do this automatically or the computer wouldn't start up. i went into the bios and there is no setting that lets me change it like that. know of any program that can tell me detailed info on my memory so i can tell what speed it's running at and the CAS and RAS? maybe your right and it's running too fast...i just have no way of confirm if it isn't or not.

oh, and i tried it with CS:S and HL2M. both aren't as nice as HL2 -- they simply crash and force me to restart the comp. although CS:S lasted a good couple of rounds...

 

[Tytarian]

Could you please give me the complete name of your motherboard so that I can help you to troubleshoot your problem.

You are right that your motherboard should automatically detect the optimal settings,but sometimes it doesent detect all the settings properly,I know in my case it did not,I also have 1 stick 3200 and 1 stick 2700 and I was also getting crashes in HL2 almost as soon as it started,once I lowered my cpu overclock and set up my ram timings as I mentioned before, everything was very stable.

It is possible that those latency settings are hidden away from you somewhat under a setting such as "Advanced >"Chip configuration",please check your motherboard manual to make sure you are not missing it.As I said just give me the name of your mobo(motherboard)so that I may be able to help you out more,I am not an expert by any means but two heads are better than one,as for a program that can give you detailed readings of your memory,I will search around and post back if I find anything that may be of use to you.

 

[Sneaker]

Hi phucket101. Just thought i mention, i've had a good read through the thread entitle *CRASH the memory could not be read. There are several mentions of people having exactly the same prob as you (hl2 crashing) and some have fixed it my moving their memory sticks around. It sounds you may have stumbled across this problem by installing your new memory? I don't know the technical issues with it, but it all seems connected to me.

It seems odd that everyones machines work fine with all other games but no HL2. Hopefully the guys at valve may let give us some kind of update on the news site as to what they are doing and if we are all barking up the wrong tree. Surely they have to release some hint soon, if not a patch to cure it?

 

[CS2x]

Valve better sort this out. I have only began having this error message recently, and I have had no hardware or driver changes since it began occuring. So, I think it's definately an issue with the game, and not anybody's hardware setups (as the game used to work fine, and all other software on my PC runs with next to no problems.)

 

[homercles337]

No doubt about it, this is probably Valves "anti-piracy/steam/PITA working." Wait thats not a good word, since steam doesnt work for sheet. Well, actually it works well at aggravating the hell outta me.

 

[phuket101]

Could you please give me the complete name of your motherboard so that I can help you to troubleshoot your problem.

You are right that your motherboard should automatically detect the optimal settings,but sometimes it doesent detect all the settings properly,I know in my case it did not,I also have 1 stick 3200 and 1 stick 2700 and I was also getting crashes in HL2 almost as soon as it started,once I lowered my cpu overclock and set up my ram timings as I mentioned before, everything was very stable.

Thanks man. My motherbaord is a SY-KT600 DRAGON Plus v.2.0. The RAM I am trying to install is a stick of 512mb PC3200 Muskin RAM. At the time ironically the PC2700 at newegg was more expensive by about 10 bucks. I also figured if I ever wanted i could switch out the older PC2700 (as the motherboard can take PC3200 ram) for another PC3200 stick and get a little performance increase. bleh. didn't think there would be this kind of problem :/

the BIOS is called AMIBIOS for this motherboard. and I have windows XP SP1.


oh, and also i tried switching the RAM sticks, it leads to a blue screen at startup that says "PAGE_IN_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA". i switched them back and it was just fine starting up. i also tried it with just the new stick of RAM in the primary slot and nothing else and it works fine, even in HL2 it works fine.



thanks for the help guys, i really appreciate it. lot better than sitting in some phone tree with Mushkin or Soyo, and a lot better than praying an email to valve gets answered. :/

 

[Tytarian]

The fact that your new stick of ram works fine without the slower ram added means that the problem is DEFINITELY(in my opinion)your motherboard not liking the mix of speeds and latency's between your two ram sticks,and unfortunatly there may not be a way to adjust those settings on your particular motherboard.

The best advice I can give you is to buy another 512mb stick of Muskin RAM(3200)and sell your 2700 ram stick,I think that will solve your problem,and it will of course run quite a bit smoother than if you were to get the 2700 and 3200 working together,as that 2700 stick will be bottlenecking your (very good)high quality ram.I will continue to look into this problem on the asumption that you want to continue to try different methods to solve your problem,although I think the problem is what I mentioned.

 

[phuket101]

why would the two work in conjunction for all other system tasks then? i don't want to have to huck a 2 year old piece of slower-than-standard 512ram on ebay....

 

[Tytarian]

I think that is because those tasks are very simple and does not put much strain on your ram,that is it does not take much memory to do simple tasks such as surfing the net,old pc games ect..

Half-life 2 uses a lot of memory,thats probably why valves test machine(That some reviewed hl2 on)used 2gb of memory.

 

[Tytarian]

By the way the reason I don't think it is just an issue with hl2 in YOUR case is that you stated that it ran fine with just your new 512 3200 stick of ram inserted,I understand that you do not want to buy another stick of ram as you have just bought one but I am not sure what else I can suggest.

As I said before I had a very similar problem to your's and lowering my cpu overclock and increasing the latency's to match my slower ram was the only thing(besides geeting new ram)that fixed my problem,but if you are absolutely sure you do not have those settings available in your BIOS(after thourughly checking the manual)then there may not be too many other options you can try.

Just keep searching tech forums and threads such as this so you can eliminate other possibilities,good luck and please keep me up to date with your progress.