Serious Discussion on Infamous CS:S Freezing

A

Andronimus2002

Guest
HELP SOLVE THE MOST ANNOYING PROBLEM OF ALL

Hey guys,

I have been examining posts in this forum for some time now, trying to figure out why CS:S isn't working on so many of our computers. I have experienced a problem that (I think) many of you have also. Details:

1) CS:S loads normally and seems to be working fine.
2) Game is playable for anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes (maybe longer, though I haven't been so lucky)
3) Game suddenly freezes, a looping/clicking sound is heard, and you are forced to hard reboot the computer to get a reset.

I have heard of alternative problems where you CTD or where Alt-Cntrl-Delete will get you out of it. Personally, my game will freeze and then I will get a blue screen while hearing the clicking noise. Either way, the general gist is that the game irrecoverably locks up very shortly after gameplay begins.

I upgraded my computer this summer and should have absolutely no problem running any game based on hardware issues. I have a P4 3.2 Ghz, 1.5 gig ram, and the X800 XT. I also have an Audigy 2 sound card (more system specs available upon request, but I believe that covers most of it). Drivers are fully updated for sound and video cards (Catalyst 4.10), BIOS is updated to latest version, all critical windows updates (except SP2, more on this later) are installed. Everything should be in working order and as others have reported, I have played many many new games without any crashes or freezes (notable exception is Rome: Total War, which occasionally locks for me in battles, but not very frequently at all). Either way, I am pretty confident that my system is in working order and should be able to handle the game.

I originally had SP2 installed and the game would crash and was unable to make it through the video stress test. I removed SP2 and amazingly, the game made it through the stress test just fine (repeated this several times). However, it still can't run CS:S. Others may disagree, but I am extremely convinced this is not a heat issue. I do not overclock any part of my system, and the fact that the game can crash within 5 seconds of starting suggests to me that the card is not heating up that fast. I even UNDERclocked the card and received the same crash. I think worrying about heat issues is the wrong way to attack this problem, especially if you have not made any modifications to your graphics card.

I have also tried numerous suggestions posted by people here, such as disabling Fastwrite or turning AGP down to 4X. None of this helps. I've gone as far as to try switching out my USB mouse, which crazy as it sounds, seemed to work for a short while. However, the game promptly resumed crashing only a few minutes later. In short I've tried every fix I can find on this board and nothing has helped me out.

I am not even 100% sure this is a video issue. I have noticed a lot of people with this problem have an Audigy 2 sound card. However, I have also tried downgrading the hardware acceleration on the card with no luck. I am not saying this is a sound issue (the looping sound is probably a red herring) but I think it is important to investigate all avenues. It is possible, as someone suggested, that we are looking at a video driver/windows/source conflict. Does anyone have any more information on this, or a set of drivers for ATI/NVIDIA cards that defininitely work for them?

I never got all that into Counterstrike so I can wait a few days if that's how long it takes to fix this. However, I am gravely worried that this may be a problem with the entire Source engine, and that Half Life 2 may not work on my computer (especially after putting down money for it). This is an important problem that needs fixing, especially if there is no patch forthcoming.

So I start this thread as an attempt to find a solution, or at least garner some information on what is causing this. Please, if you have had this problem or have any suggestions that are not immediately obvious (i.e., make sure to update drivers! etc.) post here and describe the exact nature of the crash (hard reboot, CTD, BSOD, etc.), your relevant system specifications, and any possible fixes you have.

I realize threads on this crash have already been posted but I wanted to make all the information accessible in one place. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out with this annoying crash.

-Andrew
 
I'm going over the basics.

Does this happen with any other graphically intensive games? How many watts and what brand is your power supply?

It doesn't sound like a heat issue. However, video cards heat up to near peak temperture within seconds of being used. It doesn't sound like a heat problem. If it was a heat problem, there would be other signs. What is the CPU and ambient case tempertures of you computer?

Also, try removing a stick of 512 MB of RAM. It looks like you have 3 sticks in your computer which can cause stability problems. If I was to choose the problem child with your setup, I would go with the RAM.

Other possible software solution is to make sure you have DX 9.0c installed, and temporarily turn off all unnecessary programs. Normally I don't suggest this, but turn off everything such as firewall, antivirus, etc. Then run CS:S and see what happens. Could be a program is interfering with CS:S and causing it to freeze. If a program is causing the problem, then we can find a solution to fix it.

A radical solution is to reformat and reinstall windows. There could be something interacting with windows. For instance, I spent the better part of tonight trouble shooting a problem with Java programs being displayed on my computer. It turns out it was the video card drivers, even though they have been on my computer for months (hey, I'm lazy :p). Programs have a way of conflicting with each other. If you can't locate the problem program (if it is a software issue), a reformat maybe in order.

PS - I hate having 2 hardware forums. I almost never check this forum.
 
Sorry, I have no idea on power supply -- it's just whatever comes with the Dell Dimension 8300 system. If there's an easy way to check it, let me know.

As for the other stuff...no, this doesn't happen on any other graphic-intensive games. They run perfectly, from Doom 3 to Farcry (those do seem to be the games to reference, don't they)and everything in between.

ATI diagnostics show the ambient temperature to be 52 degrees C. I have a heatsink, fan, and Arctic Silver thermal paste installed on the processor itself. I don't know what the temp of the case is, nor am I any hardware guru, but the room is decently cold and I've never experienced any sort of graphical artifacts or distortion that would seem to be indicative of an overheating problem.

Memory is installed in 4 cartridges, two pairs of two, 2 X 512 and 2 X 256 for a total of 1.5 gig. Dell asserts that the RAM should be installed in pairs. The computer game with 2 X 256 RAM cartridges, and eventually I got another set of 2 X 256 cartridges. These used up all four of my slots, and I eventually upgraded one of the pairs to a 2 X 512 pair. Again, I have had no problems with this configuration on any other game and the computer seems to be recognizing it alright.

I have DirectX 9.0C installed, and I have turned off every running process on the computer that I can find in order to make it as easy as possible on CS:S. Maybe there's something hidden running that I don't know about, but firewalls, anti-virus, etc. are definitely all off.

Just tried again, and I can confirm that all of the non-source based games on Steam that I got with the silver package work fine. I was just able to play regular counterstrike and condition zero without problem for an extended period of time. I'm convinced that this is some conflict between Source and something on people's computers because of the number of people I've read about with this problem.

As for reformatting, I realize this is an option, but one of last resort. It's just such a hassle, and I don't have all the driver CDs with me for everything, and I'm content that with the combined intelligence of this entire board a solution can be found ;)

Anyway, thanks for the help and let me know if you have any other ideas or questions.
 
Also

I just tried out CS:S again. Got about 2 minutes of playability before I was dumped unceremoniously to the desktop without any error messages. I heard the traditional sound loop before I got dumped, so I'm not sure if this is the exact same error but it also is one I've heard of people having and I'm pretty sure they are related problems if not one and the same.
 
In the other thread about this, I mentioned pretty much the same problem. I currently do not have SP2 running on my windows, as that was another buggy mess from the good folks at M$ that you should avoid. Try to remove IRQ conflicts, as this may free up what is causing the crashes. The best way to do this, is to uninstall the hardware such as your audigy 2, and video, and reinstall after a clean format. Hard to do, but seems to be the only way i know of removing IRQ and memory sharing conflicts.
 
I dont know if i got rid of this, but i was able to play CS for an hour in a half without any trouble. what i did was got rid of my video card drivers with Driver Cleaner 3, and DL'd SP2. I dont know if this will help any but it seams to have worked for me.
 
on the steam forums almost everybody found that it was the Nforce2 based motherboards, I have a a7nx8 delux asus, which is nforce2 and ive been having this problem since the day i got it, please tell me what yall have...
 
I'm not sure what kind of motherboard I have; it's a dimension 8300 from Dell and whatever motherboard came with the system is what I have. I have system monitoring software like SiSoftware Sandra but I don't know exactly where to get the motherboard model out of it. I generally only know the name/manufacturer/model of components that I have bought and put into my system, so anything that Dell installed (power supply, motherboard, etc.) I don't know. But if someone wants to tell me how to look it up I will do so.

Reformatting will probably produce the cleanest system, but it's just something I don't have the luxury or time to do right now. Furthermore, I've read about people on this and other boards who claim to have reformatteed 5 times without any help. So, again, it's something I'm going to save until an absolute last option.

I just find it suspicious that all other games work and this one doesn't. Is there anyway to resolve IRQ conflicts without deinstalling all the hardware, or at least to check if a shared IRQ is causing a problem? I've run msinfo32 from the Run menu and it shows that some IRQs/memory addresses are being shared, but again, it's never produced a problem before and msinfo32 doesn't find anything "wrong" with the sharing (no error messages or warnings, etc.)

Thanks for the Driver Cleaner tip; I'm about to run it and see if it does anything. I will keep you updated.

Keep ideas coming guys.
 
It definitely isn't an NForce issue as I don't have that type of MoBo and I have the lockup issues.

Dell 1.6Ghz
512MB Ram
GeForce4 440 MX
SB Live Value

Gio
 
llamaman01 said:
on the steam forums almost everybody found that it was the Nforce2 based motherboards, I have a a7nx8 delux asus, which is nforce2 and ive been having this problem since the day i got it, please tell me what yall have...

What sound card do you have?

I remember when Doom 3 came out there were some stability problems with Doom 3 and creative sounds cards. Both the source eginge and the Doom 3 are similar in that they both don't have support for hardware sound processing (EAX). If you get bored, try uninstalling your sound card drivers and see if that fixes your problems.
 
Just tried the Driver Cleaner utility and reinstalled all the latest drivers for the video card. I also reset all values back to factory defaults. No help; I crashed to desktop with one of those windows warning sounds (sort of a deeper beep noise) but no error message as soon as the map loaded.

I was just about to try uninstalling the Audio Drivers and see if I can play without sound for a more extended period of time. I'll tell you how it goes.
 
Possible Cause of Problem, At Least For Me

Well, I uninstalled all my sound card drivers, and amazingly enough, I was able to get about half an hour of crash-free playing in on CS:S. This doesn't 100% mean I have an audio related problem, but it's a good lead at least.

I'm going to give it some more testing before I declare this as the fix, but I have a good lead. Does anyone know of the "best" drivers to use for the Audigy 2? I had the most recent ones off the autoupdate feature on the Creative Labs site and those were the ones that seemed to be causing all the crashes. Anything better, or just install those and hope for the best?

For all the others with crashes, I would definitely recommend deinstalling your sound drivers or disabling your sound at the hardware level (not just in CS:S). See if it works for you, and at least you may be able to isolate down to either a video or sound problem.
 
...Or not

Well, scratch my previous optimism. I have left sound disabled and CS:S generally will dump me to the desktop in about 15-20 minutes. No error message, just a CTD.

It's not locking up and requiring a hard reboot though, so maybe this says something. Someone more knowledgeable than me will have to comment.
 
Further Investigations

Okay, more updates:

Found a "fix" on another website which said Source has some problem jumping between RAM chips and that causes it to crash if it exceeds it's memory allocation. I don't really understand the details, but the fix said to under Steam --> Counter Strike Source --> Properties --> Launch Options

Post the following:

-heapsize 458752

Apparantly the 458752 is 1/2 of the amount of 1 GB RAM - 64K. If you have less ram than 1 GB, you should take the amount you have and then subtract 64K. Supposedly this prevents the jumping between chips and prevents crashes.

I tested it out and was able to play an entire map without a single crash. The round ended and a new map loaded, and I crashed (blue screen, looping sound, hard reboot required) within about 10 seconds. I'm not optimistic that this is a final solution, but it might help some of you, and at least it suggests that maybe this is some sort of memory conflict that source brings about.
 
I don't have CS:S, so I don't follow this problem much. Can you tell me when this problem start and any other relevant information. In addition, getting the system specs from other users having the problem will be very useful.



redpoints said:
In the other thread about this, I mentioned pretty much the same problem. I currently do not have SP2 running on my windows, as that was another buggy mess from the good folks at M$ that you should avoid. Try to remove IRQ conflicts, as this may free up what is causing the crashes. The best way to do this, is to uninstall the hardware such as your audigy 2, and video, and reinstall after a clean format. Hard to do, but seems to be the only way i know of removing IRQ and memory sharing conflicts.

There should be a bios option to reassign (automatically) all IRQ's. Then again, Dell's aren't known for their customizable bios. I find it odd that HL2 will cause a problem.

~~~

I need to have consensus on what happens. Does the computer freeze, crash to desktop, or does the computer spontaneously restart? That makes a difference when diagnosing problems.

From taking a quick look at this thread, it appears the problem is not a hardware one. Simply to many different configurations with no similarity among them.

Remember, the better you can describe the problem, the better I can help.
 
I have the same problem, but it doesnt crash so often

Some times it comes a error that its the ATi driver that has problems.

Also have a Audigy 2 :imu:
And a Radeon 9700PRO
 
I to have the same problem, and It makes me so mad, paying 60 euro for this game, and not working like it should

No problems in other games, but same freeze and loop sound crash in CS source. tried everything, SP1 SP2, almost every driver, Omega and ATI, bios update, the Update 2 of CS source doesn't make any difference

Here are my system spec's: : Shuttle ST61G4, SB300 ATI chipset, 512Dual DDR 400MHz ram, 3Ghz P4 northwood, 160GB UATA Samsung, and ATI 9800XXL or MSI RX9800PRO (same card) and TFT display on DVI, windows XP SP2 and Half-life 2 silver and Sound: onboard sound, Disabled it in bios and installed other soundcard, same thing......


PLEASE help :) (I hope VALVE read's this)
 
Remove SP2. I really REALLY believe that this buggy update is the cause of alot of problems, in CS:S and windows OS in general. There is nothing useful in this patch, the security updates are not worth a damn, and many corporate network admins are not installing this patch on their systems because it has not been adequately tested. I realize SP2 comes with a firewall, but you can use Zonealarm for free, and as far as antivirus monitoring, each of your high end mainboards should have come with one, if not, but Trend micro PC Cillin, it's worth it in this day and age of computer stdizzles. I removed SP2 from my system, and i have these crasher Very Very seldom now.
 
have any of you tried another operating system
I tried Windows 2000 this morging, was just installing SP4 for win2K and will try later what the results are (working now)

I just hope it isn't a hardware problem, (and if it is, please let it be the RAM and not my 9800XT or the motherboard or CPU)
 
As I did try everything I thought I reïnstalled my pc AGAIN with Windows XP SP1 and then installed catalyst Drivers 4.7 and tried some other things that I read at the steampowered forum
took my Linksys router out (wireless B router), tried to disable fastwrite in bios (no option in my bios, no luck there), and then I put my usb mouse back to PS2 with the adaptor, then I put my AGP speed to 4X and....

now I managed to play for an hour yesterday night!!! so no problems any more, switched the AGP back to 8x and had a crash!!!!

this morning I risked it and installed catalyst 4.10 drivers and radlinker 1.4( overclocked my 9800XT a little bit) and that worked for 20minutes for sure (changed to other levels, still worked, AGP at 4x).

then I installed SP2 and tried just for 10minutes, so no definitive conclusion, but I think switching the AGP to 4x did the trick for me...

But still I think this problem should not exist, I hope they find a solution for this

I do not think this will work for everyone, as I read that other people tried the 4x agp setting with no positive result
 
Yeah, I have mine set at 4x and no luck there. Thanks for the post and info though!
 
I have the same problem, first under SP1 and then the same thing after I installed SP2.

I have tried different heapsizes to no avail along with increasing virtuall memory.

I have an Aopen sound card that was pretty cheap
AMD Athlon XP 2700+
geForce4 mx440 128mb
512 Ram (1 stick)
 
MY EXPERIENCE

only problem i used to have was sound lag (when a new sound loaded i would get some lag) - this is when i had 512 ram installed

i then bought another 512 stick and ran them both (1 gig total) in dual channel ddr mode

now i get a quick blue screen system reset (automatically) crashes - often after a new map is loaded

this is a memory managment error (swapping between the two sticks) - this is the job of the operating system, not the game, although there are programs that directly influence window's settings in regard to this

my best advice, be patient, the game, dx9, something will be patched soon

it is not your hardware, i assure you it is software

------

running

Athlon XP Barton 220 x 11.5 @ 2530 MHz
Corsair BH5 512 2-2-2-11
Kingston hyper x BH5 512 2-2-2-11
Radeon 9800 pro OC'd
Abit nf7-s
Windows SP1
 
Experiencing same bug

I have been sending the bug reports to Steam about this issue as I hope everyone else is too. I've never had any problems playing any games on my system until this one. I have been playing CS since version 1.0.0.1. I get the same memory read error from time to time and other times the game gets stuck in a loop and I call up task manager or reboot...I don't get the blue screen though.

I have a P4 2.4 Ghz
512meg pc-3200 ram
geForcwe FX 5700 Ultra w/ 128 meg DDR onboard running @ 8x agp
SoundBlaster 128 Digital
Aopen MB AX4SPE
T3 internet connection
XP Home w/ SP2
Norton Firewall and virus detection
Saitek PC Gamers Keyboard
Logitek MX 310 mouse

Like I said before, I play Americas Army, and BF 1942 along with CS 1.6 and experience NO problems. $60 and I am slightly displeased. I work hard for my money...don't we all

Chip temps never rise above 40C
:cool:
 
Improvement...but

I changed the following and never crashed during 3 hours of play:

cl_smooth 0
r_mmx 1
cl_allowupload 0
cl_allowdownload 0
cl_shadows 0

Everything was smoother and better overall. Still a bit jerky from time to time right after spawning.

Now for the bad news. When I "quit" playing, the game locked up. I have the letter "q" binded for "quit" and when I hit the key the game locked up. I was right in the middle of spawning again when I tried to quit. I had to pull up task mgr to close the program.
 
Without reading this entire post, let me share this:
I had a freezing problem as well, when the beta first came out, all the way until near the end of the beta period. Somewhere on these forums - Hardware & Software I think, there was a link to a MEMTESTER - it was free and tested your RAM. I downloaded it and viola' - my memory had errors. Went out and bought some new Corsair XMS memory and have not had a freezing problem since.
Here's the site to get that tester:
http://hcidesign.com/

Hope this helps at least one person...

Hulk
 
Mr.Freeze...

Well, for what it's worth:

I have the exact same problems as seen by the original poster.
I've tried everything I could find on the issue and nothing helped.
I have a gig of RAM (both modules identical), GeForce FX5600 Ultra, AC97 onboard sound and other stuff :)

I've updated every driver I could think of and I couldn't solve the problem either. At this point, I doubt it's the videocard, or the soundcard or the RAM because reading this thread we don't have any common nominator, unless I'm missing something.
 
Just another tidbit of info on this. The quality of connection may have something to do with the freezing. I have found that upon refreshing the servers list the ping rates are varying wildly. The variation is suprising, but it really shouldn't. I recall when 1.6 was released we had the same problems. I don't think our problems have anything to do with our systems. I was afraid my system setup was incompatible with source.
 
Freezes internet games only?

Hi there,

I am having the same happen to me. after about 30 mins of play, it just freezes. I can get back to windows to kill the process tho.

It doesnt happen on LAN games tho - only on internet games.

Specs:

P4 2.8c
Asus P4P800 mobo
3x256MB Ram
9800pro
Soundmax onboard sound
 
Sounds similiar to the COD hardlock. Maybe the 4.11 betas with/without CCC and try fastwrites off.
 
ok normally I'd have this in the HL2 forum but I have this EXACT same problem with HL2. I don't know what causes it... it will just lock up completely... I can't even get back to windows with anything. The game runs perfectly until it locks up. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to almost two hours to happen. I'm not sure if it's something to do with my connection with Steam here or not... but I can't seem to find any adjustments to make it work. I've tried all new drivers and everything so I'm not sure.
 
Folks I am completely convinced that the "memory could not be read" is a bug tha stem from steam. I was having the same problem with the game freezing and sound looping. Now I tried 2 different fixes which fixed the problem but I noticed the fixes only worked right after I did them and when I would turn off my computer and come back later to play (by the way after one fix I was able to play 3 and 1\2 hrs problem free with settings on high and 2x AA.} The game stuttered , looped and crashed. So this leads me to beleive it is an issue with steam and not hardware. I have not bothered to try and play the game in offline mode as I have been spending most of my time trying to fix the problem or the few times it was fixed playing.
 
Hello all,
I tried part of what 11Bravo suggested as listed below.
11Bravo said:
cl_allowupload 0
cl_allowdownload 0
The game ran fine for quite a while when I first set it this way, but then the second run of the game it hung with the sound loop
but it only seems to do it when a round is over and a new map is loaded, it won't crash on the first map it loads.
Also, if I run the server.. it will not crash.. online or offline.
HL2 its self has not crashed yet, and I've played for extended periods.
Anyone found any more info on this anywhere else?
 
I would like to say this... I have read every post on every forum (steampowered, halflife2.net, etc.) regarding this freeze issue. I too am having this issue. The bottom line is that it didn't exist on any of our systems prior to the recent updates and now we all suffer from it. Steam owns the fix for this and unfortunately until they are able to patch it - no amount of formatting, reinstalling or praying is going to correct this.

I love reading someones "I FIXED IT" posts only to see them back again a page or two later with "MY BAD, IT'S STILL BROKE". I'm thinking about returning the game altogether. I've been playing CS for nearly 4 years. This by far is the most irritating gaming experience I have ever had. Maybe ill be brave enough next time to buy the game post beta release (what they have considered live). That might be the only way to communicate our needs to the gaming industry.

Final point: I don't play too many console games anymore - but I find it interesting that they did a pretty good job making near flawless games in an enviroment where they did not have the option to patch. Gone are the days of plug and play - the true gamers experience.

I hope for all of you that a fix is upon us and I hope that my patience can ride this out.

-Sean (grafted_N)
 
ok hello all this is my first post but from the start i wish to lay waist to ideas that this issue is from graphics intense apps.

pc stats:athlon 2000+xp
512ddr
radeon 9800pro
asrock k7s8x
yes this is a humble machine but adicuate enough to play cs source and hl2 looking still very nice but with a couple of the minor details turned down a bit i had no problems like the lock up before hand and i am not joking in saying that i can play hl2 for 4 hours streight with no hitches yet 15 minutes of cs:s and my machine is like a complete waist of time.
further more doom3 is a far more graphics intense game than cs:s and yet again 4 or 5 hours streight i know this should be normal if i can pull 4 hours on hl2 as it is a far better game.
this seems to be confined to cs:s and cs (after the source install) we will bow down to him like a god (the man who solves this problem that is its so fu@£ing annoying)
 
StarBob said:
ok normally I'd have this in the HL2 forum but I have this EXACT same problem with HL2. I don't know what causes it... it will just lock up completely... I can't even get back to windows with anything. The game runs perfectly until it locks up. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to almost two hours to happen.

Yes, i have the same problem very annoying i get 5-10 mins play.....


Abit 5900FX
AthlonXP 2100
1.50GB Crucial DDR PC2700
Asus A7V333 - Raid VIA® KT333
 
Don't know why! but tryed again after steam took like forever to update and still geting the fo freeze & sound loop :(

steam said:
We hope everyone's enjoying the game.


laughable....
 
Ok, I think I MAY have some info. that will help some peoples. I was having the same problem, here's what worked for me.

First of my specs:
3200+ 754pin
asus a8v deluxe mb
couple of wd2000jb's
a wd800jb
lite-on dvd/cdrw drives
gainward vivo 5900fx ultra
256x2 pc3200 golden dragon
ect

I would also like to mention that it runs Doom3, and all the other newer games without a problem at all. I was really disapointed when HL2 kept crashing and/or locking up my computer. CSS was doing the same thing. I tried a lot of what has been posted here, nothing really worked. Everyone keeps hinting at a memory problem. So here's what I did:

1) turned of bank interleaving (in bios)
2) limited the memory to 333 mhz

I ran the game for about 2 hours, without a single crash/lock up. Then I tried just turning off the BI. The game crashed after about 1/2 hour. I havent tried just limiting the memory speed to 333mhz, but I think that might also work. Anyways I have been running hl2, and css for about 3 days now without a SINGLE crash/lockup. Let me know if this helps anyone. GL.
 
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