Odd ANNOYING problem

[Mic]

By now you all have heard many n00bs of hl2 complain about problems, but I have a problem and I’m not a n00b so please help, lol. I have this problem where steam starts-fine good okay- click hl2 icon, or CS:source icon it says preparing the play...yadda yadda. bam, nothing happens. Ctrl+Alt+del shows its in my processes, but using no CPU power. So far I have uninstalled reinstalled four times, Downloaded hl2 directly from steam once, uninstalled my windowblinds, uninstalled norton(sometimes corrupts installations), updated my drivers with beta drivers from this link(listed on steampowered.com) http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_winxp_2k_78.05.html, updated with normal drivers, deleted my ClientRegistry.blob, Verified all my files, Contacted tech support(no luck, lol), started the game with -dxlevel 81, even tried -window – console, and now I finally come to the population of valve enthusiast for help! Pleassseee help me, I’ve spent far too much time trying to fix this minor problem to not actually fix it.:dozey:

Note: my rig owns the minimum requirements:
P4 3.6ghz processor
1024 MB ram @ 533Mhz
Geforce 6800 GT 256mb
Soundblaster ZS (something rather,lol)
160GB harddrive

 

[Snowden]

Sounds annoying. Have you tried quitting all other applications (and I mean all running processes that aren't needed + applications) and then launching steam? There could be something interfering with steam (faulty norton installation?).

The other thing you could try is making sure you have given steam, hl2.exe and so on access to the internet through the norton firewall (if you have it). Edit: or any other firewall you may have running.

 

[Mic]

Well currently I have norton uninstalled(had norton internet security pro)I've had lots of problems with my norton though, and I read its possible the firewall properties stay when you uninstalled norton improperly, and when i did uninstall it everything went smoothly so there is no way for me to tell. As for starting my system with certian app. disabled I am not sure what to uncheck in the msconfig-boot setup. Also in my fray to get this working I disabled SP2's firewall, lol. I could get utterly owned right now but if it gets hl2 running its worth it!

 

[Fliko]

This usually happens when 2 processes of the same process is happening.
My only thought.
EDIT: It will sometimes continue running after you run it once and quit.

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

what motherboard + chipset?

If you have overclocked ur machine this might be the issue

Hard to give good ideas when u have exhausted all the normal ones

You could try validating?

Hmmm did u install the different/newest mobo drivers?

Whats your page file set at?

Edit: Oh yeah check the bandwith monitor, if its downloading it doesnt start anything...

 

[Beerdude26]

Try removing the Soundblaster alltogether from your computer. If that doesn't work, try putting it in slot one or two, and check for IRQ conflicts. (Google that term if you don't understand it)

 

[^Ben]

Do you have something that locks refresh rates?

I'm positive there is some random sticky in the steam powered forums for this.

 

[Drackard]

Beerdude do you have something against the Audigy Soundblasters .... i've never had any problems with mine, or is it a rare thing or am i just missing something :|