Need some help with crashing....

[Nightmare415]

Now, the game gets past the logos for the game, starts loading the menu in the background (so I can faintly see HALF LIFE 2 & New Game, Load Game, Options, Exit) and then STOPS and a horrible screeching noise comes from the speakers. No error is there, and the only way out is to restart the computer. Every once and a while, if I keep trying to run it and restarting, I'll get into the game and can play, but it randomly does the STOP and SCREECH thing when I enter a new area. I tried Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines also, and it does the goddamn STOP and SCREECH thing too! I don't even know what causes this. I did however note that if I had the Sound Acceleration at Max in dxdiag, the screen would black out after the Stop n' Screech, whereas if it was at basic it would just stop and screech at the screen. Anyone else have this problem, or know what to do?

Windows XP Home Edition
Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
Sound Blaster Live! Value
1024 DDR Ram
DirectX 9.0c

 

[JimboC]

If DxDiag's tests aren't passing, I would guess that either the sound card is going bad or the drivers are borked up. Creative released a new version of drivers for most sound cards a few weeks ago. Hopefully updating the driver might take care of the problem.

You could also try moving the card to a PCI slot that has an empty PCI slot on each side. The older SB Live cards actually took 2 or 3 IRQs, but only reported that they had one.

 

[Nightmare415]

I haven't changed my hardware at all, and this didn't happen before I reformatted, so I don't think it's a PCI problem. I have all the new drivers, and I can post my DxDiag file if you wish.

 

[Dominant1]

i guess we will have to wait for the patch!

 

[hl2hl2hl2]

dont go through what everyone else has been going through since the 16th the source code for halflife2 vampire and other games is unfinished and buggier than a west texas cock roach motel dont EVER pay for a video game unless u have played tested and like it wait for a patch NOONE WILL HELP YOU ESPECIALLY FROM VALVE, ATI, OR HALFLIFE2.NET

 

[hl2hl2hl2]

the earth is scum waste all the time you can while you wait for death

 

[hl2hl2hl2]

the downloaded version of the game works better than the bought game, funny eh? its also legal to download a "backup" if you bought it
i wish i hadn't