Problems loading the game

  • Thread starter Thread starter Baz63
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Baz63

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Installed the game yesterday with no probs and played for a couple of hours.
Today, the game won't load. I click on the Half life icon, it starts to load, picture of the bloke with the valve in his skull comes up, seems to be loading fine, and then a very blurred picture of what appears to be a swamp appears. Then, (this is the weird bit) I hear an alert from my McAffee firewall. I can't see it becasue of the swampy picture, but the firewall sounds as if its asking me to consent to some outward bound connection. The white arrow cursor appears on the screen, but disappears whenever u move it in a certain direction.
I'm not an expert but it seems the game initiates a firewall alert whene ver it's loaded.

I've disabled the steam instant messagingGame played foine yesterday

Specs:
1100 AMD
Radeaon 1500 pro
750 md DDR
 
Try doing a CTRL+ALT+DEL to see if you can see what applications are running. The pop-up is probably because HL2 is trying to connect to the Internet and your Firewall is trying to block it.
 
You can also try ALT+TAB, but I can't remember whether HL2 supports this Windows function.
 
Thanks.

I tried alt delete, but I could not leave the screen.

U say HL2 tries to communicate with the internet. Is this true? I'm suprised because I am playing single player not online. If so then I will have to configure my firewall to allow communication. Would the program be Steam of Half life 2?
 
In fact, my firewall is programmed to allow communication with steam. I have to turn off the PC and reboot to leave the screen.

I know the cause: its the game trying to communicate with the internet ( I don't know why it should in single player) . But I can't access the firewall panel because of this picture which freezes on upload.

Any ideas?
 
You can do two things, you can go to your firewall panel BEFORE starting the game and enable the .exe files for steam or HL2, im not sure which, but the firewall will tell you whats been blocking and you need to manually enable that, i can do it with mcafee, its pretty easy.

OR you could put steam in 'offline' mode where no connection over the net is required, simply stop it signing in on start up, or don't connect to the internet when the pc starts. Good luck
 
Okay make sure all your games are on 100% so they are playable in online mode and offline mode. The offline mode used to not work on steam but it does now. Make sure you don't have steam set on 'start on startup' in 'settings-interface, untick the box'. (if thats off and it still starts at startup go to 'run' then type msconfig and go onto 'startup' and find steam.exe and untick it)

If offline mode is DEFINATELY not working for you and thats not valves fault (its your side with the problem) then configure your firewall correctly as i said, make sure you have the CORRECT .exe files unblocked, so they go through. You need to thoroughly check the destinations to make sure you have the right ones enabled. Remember the problem is your end, its not valves fault. They have your money yes, as you bought it from them, its your responsibility to configure your computer correctly to allow things to work. Don't shift the blame.
 
im having the same problem the game starts but levels do not load, this only happened since the last update.
 
Hectic Glenn said:
You can do two things, you can go to your firewall panel BEFORE starting the game and enable the .exe files for steam or HL2, im not sure which, but the firewall will tell you whats been blocking and you need to manually enable that, i can do it with mcafee, its pretty easy.

OR you could put steam in 'offline' mode where no connection over the net is required, simply stop it signing in on start up, or don't connect to the internet when the pc starts. Good luck
Click to expand...
There's actually a third thing he can do, start the game up in windowed mode by adding the -sw function to the launch options. I had the same problem a while back and found that with windowed mode the firewall warning(s) will come up on top of the program, not behind it :)
 
Drkpwn3r said:
There's actually a third thing he can do, start the game up in windowed mode by adding the -sw function to the launch options. I had the same problem a while back and found that with windowed mode the firewall warning(s) will come up on top of the program, not behind it :)
Click to expand...

That sounds very technical-could you give me a step by step guide on how to do that.
 
[QUOTEThey have your money yes, as you bought it from them, its your responsibility to configure your computer correctly to allow things to work. Don't shift the blame.[/QUOTE]

Please read the thread I provided above: there are numerous people who are having problems using the offline mode. It's Valve's and Steam's responsibility to provide a product that works. I have spent the better part of two days trying to play the game and trying numerous work arounds.
 
that sucks Baz, but if you can't get offline mode to work then just make sure your firewall allows the aplication HL2.exe in, i think that's what it is.
My firewall asks me what to block or pass, so whenever it comes up that HL2 is trying to connect to the internet, I just let it pass through all filters....
 
Baz63 said:
That sounds very technical-could you give me a step by step guide on how to do that.
Click to expand...
Gladly :cool:

If you have a shortcut to the game on your desktop or in your start menu you can do the following:
Right click your shortcut to the game, go to Properties, there should be a tab titled "Shortcut" - click that.
Then, in the Target field add -sw to the end of the line.

If you do not have a shortcut on your desktop or would prefer this method, you can do this:
Open the Play Games list, right click the game, go to Properties, click Launch Options and then add -sw in the field :)

If you would like to force it to go to fullscreen every time you launch it after you have your firewall issue resolved, simply change -sw to -fullscreen

Hope this helped you out :cheers:
 
Drkpwn3r said:
Gladly :cool:

If you have a shortcut to the game on your desktop or in your start menu you can do the following:
Right click your shortcut to the game, go to Properties, there should be a tab titled "Shortcut" - click that.
Then, in the Target field add -sw to the end of the line.

If you do not have a shortcut on your desktop or would prefer this method, you can do this:
Open the Play Games list, right click the game, go to Properties, click Launch Options and then add -sw in the field :)

If you would like to force it to go to fullscreen every time you launch it after you have your firewall issue resolved, simply change -sw to -fullscreen

Hope this helped you out :cheers:
Click to expand...

Thanks for getting back-much appreciated.
The solution didn't work, but I'll keep on trying with others.
Problem is, I'm never offered playing offline as an option. The game is configured properly ( eg 'remember my passwaord' option is checked 'dont save info..' option is unchecked) buy when I start the game I'm never offered
the option.
I'll do some more research.

Thanks
 
Found the solution for me. Rang tech. people at valve.
Execute steam-Unplug broadband-disable firewall and adaware- and play. It works for me. Only problem whenever I come out of the game it converts my desk top icons to .lnk files so I can't use any progs. Found a solution for that .
 
Great to see that you got it solved, I moved the thread to the correct section so others with problems might have a higher chance of seeing this.
 
Hi

I'm having problems since last CS:S source update, everytime I click find servers in CS:S and HL2:dm my game freezes and I have to restart pc. I can get the server list up by using steam but not in game, also pc crashes when I try to join a game by all seeing eye , the loading bar goes dark and then freezes. I have narrowed it down to Zone alarm as it works with this off. All exe files are allowed to access internet and I have never had to open ports before the last update.

I have followed the advice of Drkpwn3r by starting game in windowed mode and the game works!! Firewall doesnt ask for any access, so then turned it back to fullscreen and it crashes again, I'm confused lol

Any more help would be apreciated!
 
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