Memory Crash

[walleyehawger]

This is killing me! I am new to HL2 and recently dl'd Orange Box through Steam. I have completed HL2 and episode one without a hitch. The games were great. I am now playing episode 2 and I am getting a crash at the same spot repeatedly. I am getting the message..."the instruction at"xxxxxxx" referenced memory at "xxxxxx". The memory could not be read". I have checked the game cache through steam and everything validated fine, 0% fragmented. I have disabled my antivirus to see, still nothing. I am stuck trying to lead the Antlion Guardian out. I dropdown through the wooden floor and proceed down the tunnel annd then it crashes. Any help is appreciated.

 

[aterimperator]

Same exact error, no exceptions.

I tried lowering my graphics (lowest possible settings), didn't help. I tried turning off sound completely, didn't help.

I read through 25 pages of that 75 page post about the errors in half life 2. None of those fixes worked.

I've crashed the game so many times in the exact same spot (at least 15 times). I know exactly where it is, down to the grain.

I am rather certain it's a loading error but have very little evidence to back this up, except little bits of intuition. I.e. it seems like an incredibly natural spot to load. I tend to know when it's going to load because I usually run with xfire, and xfire tends to cause these sorts of exceptions, so I learned to quicksave before a loading point. However this time around even if I disable xfire (and every other program) it crashes.

I'm quite certain (though I haven't checked) my drivers are updated (it was only a month ago that I was trying to figure out what was wrong with running bioshock (SM 2.0 b card)).

I run:
3.0ghz hyperthreading (2 logic, 1 physical processor)
1 gig of ram
radeon x700 SM2.0b
xp SP2


EDIT: this also seems to be related to the following error (which I also have):
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=625792

 

[Rapstah]

This is a possible solution.

 

[aterimperator]

Also, here's the sister to this thread at valve forums:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=625858

EDIT:

This is a possible solution.

From the Valve forums:

A lot of people have suggested changing the default size of the page pool, usually 4mb by default i believe. This is a big no no and can lead to major issues in memory wastage, leaking, dumping and general system buggery. It is not the easiest thing in the world to alter and i wouldnt suggest it. You shouldnt need to change a setting as obscure as this for the sake of a single game (i.e. it is something that should be addressed and patched, not modified by the end user). A combination of the fixes below should clean this up.

He's wrong on one bit, it's not "a lot of people' it's actually a valve recommended fix. Wtf are they thinknig? Changing how your system handles memory so you can play their game is like a clothing company telling you to cut off the bits of clothes that cause chafing: the solution for their error is to **** with your entire life.

EDIT2:
Furthermore, this isn't a page pool memory problem. If it were, it would not happen in only one spot consistently over a wide set of users in any set of settings.

This is a software problem on valve's part. My guess is we have to wait for a hotfix.

 

[Rapstah]

Furthermore, this isn't a page pool memory problem. If it were, it would not happen in only one spot consistently over a wide set of users in any set of settings.

It is. I had it before I changed my page pool memory and I didn't have it afterwards.

 

[aterimperator]

You couldn't pass the part right before the cobweb right after you fought the ant lion gaurd on the level "vortal coil" in EP2? Because unless it is that exact same error, there is very little reason to believe our error is connected with yours, and there is already a significant amount of reason to believe it is not connected with anything other than valve's coding.

Also, it appears that this error is new as of last night's patch.

Even IF it can be fixed by page pool memory, it is still a problem with valve's coding (namely this new patch).

 

[aterimperator]

Alright well, we haven't solved the problem on the steam forums, but we have managed to create a rather effective work around:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=625858&page=3

 

[illgibson]

I have had the exact same problem in the exact same place.

Athlon 64 3200+
2gb memory
GECUBE ATI x1950 Pro

 

[aterimperator]

Well then I recommend you use the workaround that we made on the steam forum (a load right after the error spot). Although the patch might have fixed it (I tried to check, but then xfire crashed it, and I didn't care enough to bother to close xfire and try to check it again).