HL2 Won't Start!

[dude]

Here's the deal...I preordered HL2 through Steam a while back, and recently downloaded it in hopes to play. Once the game was done downloading I clicked to play it, and I was able to see the Valve screen and hear music. When I got to the blurry cityscape screen that says "loading" in the bottom corner, nothing further happens. I was able to access the desktop while the game was running, and noticed in the Task Manager that HL2 was "Not Responding". After many attempts, I decided to try and update my video drivers, but it does nothing to help the game at this point. I am going to try and purchase the DVD version of the game as well to see if it will work. If I find out how to fix this I'll get it on here asap.

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Alienware Aurora
Asus k8vse deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
480w Alienware PS
1 gb Corsair extreme memory
120gb Barracuda hd
NVIDIA 5900xt 128mb
Sound Blaster Audigy ZS 7.1
Logitech Z680 5.1 spkrs
Samsung syncmaster 192n 19" LCD

 

[JimboC]

You might want to try this:

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=351

 

[lockdown571]

Wow, I have the exact same problem, except that I had a ati voucher instead of pre-ordering it. I just tried that verification thing too, and it didn't work. This is very disappointing.

 

[oldfaq]

rty this
goto options ,delete all HL2 contenta nd then redownload it all.. sounds like a bitrhc.,,. but wth
oldfaq

 

[Flyguy]

I deleted and re-downloaded the entire game. Ive updated to the latest stable and beta and a hacked version of ati radeon 9600 drivers. Ive updated every peice of hardware in my computer. Nothing works. I am stuck and want to play the game I own. The thing that pisses me off the most is that the damn game came with the video card !

 

[slatta]

i did all the verification stuff too, worked for 2 minutes I got off the train and was going thur some security, tried to save and I was done, I am realley pissed

NS

 

[Antic2]

I also have the same problem with the "Loading..." screen. It gets to the second blurry "Loading..." picture, then stops... no HD activity, nothing.

However, this is when trying to run HL1:Source, which is the ONLY game I have downloaded so far. HL2 isn't on my system yet. So it's probably a #$&%@ Steam-related issue, as opposed to a HL2 problem per se.

Have tried verifying the file as per Steam instructions, no luck. Tried running HL1:Source with various options, eg. -dxlevel 80, -dxlevel 70, -gl -w 640... nothing helps.

System:
Toshiba Tecra S1 (Centrino 1.5) 1GB RAM
ATI Mobility 9000 (Directx 8.1), 64MB dedicated RAM
SoundMax integrated sound.

Other games work well on this system, btw.

 

[JimboC]

rty this
goto options ,delete all HL2 contenta nd then redownload it all.. sounds like a bitrhc.,,. but wth
oldfaq

Well, I tried a crack for the game since official channels seem to be ignoring the problem for the most part. Turned out to be a virus and it whacked out my Windows installation. Guess that's what happens when you're an honest customer who doesn't download this stuff or know the reliable places to get it (apparently).

So I've formatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows. I loaded Steam and I'm downloading HL2 now through Steam. Been going to 3 hours and it's 16% done. At this rate I might have the game by Tuesday. I'm curious to see what happens with this as the DVD hasn't even touched the PC since I reinstalled.

 

[dude]

I did buy the DVD and installed it...no problems after this and game works perfectly. As it has been mentioned, an update for Steam has been released to help with this issue. The url is http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=351. I didn't bother with my downloaded version of HL2, so I'm not sure how many problems this will solve.

 

[chopper]

Same Starting Issue

I have had the same starting issue with HL2, I have reinstalled the game today and tried the file verify, but it still does not want to load.

I have the latest drivers for all of my hardware:-

Geforce FX5200 128MB
SB PCI 128
AMD Athlon xp2000+
512MB RAM

The game does not seem to have been well tested before release, and now you can't get a refund it if does not work. I think Steam and Valve have some explaining to do?

 

[ChronosWing]

well... you could always bypass the loading of the menu by adding -console to the shortcut target.

 

[Antic2]

Solution to "Loading" problem (?)

Well, I think I've found the solution to my loading problem... HL wasn't even fully loaded yet!

Here's what happened... I thought I'd "savour" the game, by downloading HL1:Source first - that's the ONLY thing I elected to download.

It downloaded overnight, which I thought was pretty quick, since Steam initially said it was about 3 Gigs' worth.

Anyway, that morning I tried launching HL1:Source, and kept getting the "Loading" screen problem.. it wouldn't go any further.

I uninstalled Steam and re-installed it, and suddenly now it says HL1:Source is only 35% downloaded! I think what happened, is that Steam d/loaded the HL1:Source main content, and "forgot" that it also had to download all the supporting files, eg. the Source engine itself, etc., which are common to all the Source games.

So now I've started HL2 downloading, and guess what - the more HL2 downloads, the greater the "% completed" number gets in HL1:Source! Makes sense, since it's probably busy downloading the common files.

It's also going take another 2 days to download.. which also makes selse, but also rightly sucks.

I really feel sorry for those who purchased the game over a 56k modem... woah.

Bottom line - if your game is stuck at the "loading" screen, then I'd suggest that there's still stuff that requires downloading over Steam. Try setting off a download of one of the other Source games and see what happens.

It seems that Steam may sometimes lose track of the download requirements for a game, and says it's ready when it's actually not.

Good one, Valve.... try employing some QC staff.

As an aside, if there's one thing I've learned in the IT industry, it's never get the programmers to do the testing!

 

[drosselli]

So Pissed Off!!!!

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=351

Tried this fix 5 times, deleted local content and re-downloaded,
not sure what else to do. I get the the subway opening cutscene, walk off the subway, hear some background window sounds, and then crash. Can't get back to the desktop to see what the errors are, all I can do is hold down my power switch to force restart. I want to thank Sierra for selling me a 30 second game for 56 bucks!

Pentium 4/ 2.4 ghz
1 gig ram
nvidia geforce4 go mobile

Doom 3 and Sims 2 work FINE!!! :afro:

 

[Antic2]

My problem was that it wasn't even getting past the loading screen...

However, I found that deleting the "clientregistry.blob" file, then starting Steam, forced Steam to re-asses what it has and hasn't finished downloading. Doing the integrity check also helped.

Not sure what may be the problem with crashing... I'm about to install it on my laptop too (Celeron 1.5 / ATI Raedon 9000 Dx8), so will see how that goes.

Laptop makers are renound for letting their drivers get out of date...

 

[JimboC]

My problem turned out to be SecuROM having a problem with the fact that I had Nero 5 installed. So it punished me by not starting the game. Well, I decided that I'm going to punish Vivendi by sending the whole package back to them. Copies sold -1

I'll decide if I want to try again via Steam when my refund check comes in.

 

[Antic2]

Oh god... now it's getting past the "loading..." screen and starting the game. Muted yay.

20 minutes of playing later, the game crashed with the infamous "can't read memory" error. So bye for now guys, it's time to start bitching on the other bug forum.

Nice facial animations on Barney, btw. Hopefully I'll get to see some more of the game in the next few weeks. No wonder Valve has no refund policy. Wankers.