Offline mode.. not working

[BossHogg]

Hello, I hope someone here can help me. We just bought our son HL2 yesterday and I spent 5 hours trying to get it to work. The install went fine. Then we registered the CD Key, and did all the updating.
We notice it was only updated 98%. So I went to the Monitor on the Steam icon and it kept showing 98% and not moving.
We deleted the clientregistry.blob thingy and it showed 100% but not ready for offline mode.
Then we logged back on the internet and it started updating again.. still not ready for offline play it said.

The last time we tried to start it, it gave us this error

Steamexe.(Main Exception) unable to start steam engine (0x12e890) failed with error 201: cannot perform operation while offline.

(I THINK I clicked the wrong Icon to get the game to load, I clicked on the STEAM icon when it gave this error, but it wouldnt' QUIT giving this error after that.

We unistalled it, removed all files that have to do with Valve, Steam or HL2.

We took the game back to the store thinking something was wrong with it. Now, I think it's not the game, we're just not understanding how this works.

I am going to upload the new game, re-register this one and see what happens. After the updating is done, if it ever gets done, I understand that I have to exit steam, go offline, unplug the internet connection and then try to play the game.... BUT, here is my important question.. do you have to insert any of the CD's to play the game, if so, which one? First one or 5th one? AND, What icon do we click on to play the game? the STEAM icon or the HL2 Icon?

Sorry if this makes no sense to anyone, It makes no sense to me, the way they have you start this game, but I'm doing it for my kid. So please, can someone help me and give me some pointers? It seems I have copied and pasted all possible solutions from this website onto a notepad to help as we try to get it to play with nothing working.

Thank you for your time in reading this, and if you help me get my kiddos game working, I will be forever grateful! He's waited so long to play and now all this trouble to get it to work.. maybe I'm just too old to understand this stuff.:rolling:

Thanks

 

[$kelet0r]

Hello, I hope someone here can help me. We just bought our son HL2 yesterday and I spent 5 hours trying to get it to work. The install went fine. Then we registered the CD Key, and did all the updating.
We notice it was only updated 98%. So I went to the Monitor on the Steam icon and it kept showing 98% and not moving.
We deleted the clientregistry.blob thingy and it showed 100% but not ready for offline mode.
Then we logged back on the internet and it started updating again.. still not ready for offline play it said.

you have to play it until it reaches 100% with the internet still on
its still updating at 98% - but cos the game is now playable it does it at a slower rate
so offline mode wont work until you reach 100% so be patience - it'll get there

once you have the game fully installed you no longer need any cds

and to play the game well either will do it - clicking steam opens an options menu in your taskbar

have patience - just do everything you've done and it'll all be worth it

 

[BossHogg]

Thank you! When I try to play it online, or click to play it online it shows I have 111 minutes to wait. So this is what I have to do? I will try this. I appreciate your anwers. I think patience was one thing I was out of last night. LOL

 

[$kelet0r]

that 111min is an estimate - if you have a high speed connection and your not using the internet it'll be done in about an hour
enjoy the game - its the best

 

[Mystery Squid]

Welcome to the wonderful world of STEAM. I spent an hour and a half yesterday installing the game. FIVE hours IS INSANE, and uncalled for.

So, not to say all I did was come here to rag on STEAM, I will say, after you cut through the seemingly endless installation turd tsunami, it does seem to be a pretty damn good game.

 

[$kelet0r]

the game should come with a warning - 5 hours of torture precede use of this product

 

[BossHogg]

I wanted to thank you all for helping me. I took your advice, and had a bit more patience with the process and my son is happily playing his game now. I do think he needs more memory and a new graphics card, but he wanted me to say THANKS! to all who helped me get it working!

What is really laughable is we live in the boonies and our connection speed is only 26 Kbps on a good day. But we got it downloaded and running thanks to all of you who helped!