System Freeze w/ looping squelching sound

G-Dog said:
Hey all, FINALLY a thread describing EXACTLY my issue!
Sir_realist, we have nearly identical systems, save for the motherboard.

AMD 64 3000+
9800 Pro 128mb (6.14.10.6497 catalyst)
1 gig DDR SDRam
Seanix Tech MS-6741 board
Creative SB Audigy LS (mind you in PCI slot Furthest from AGP....Im lazy and will move on weekend)
Click to expand...

wow, that is actually the same as my system except for the motherboard.

also, can someone tell me how to change the ram bus? I looked in the BIOS but its not there..
 
i dont think its a PSU issue, at least not for me. HL2 is the ONLY game/app that has caused issues with my RAM at 400. You'd think that doom3 or COR would also cause this problem, since both max out my system. In addition to that, i have a 420w PSU which i believe is more than adaquate for my system. And, its not some no-name PSU, but a well known one (enlight, enermax or antec i think).

posted by JANGLE
also, can someone tell me how to change the ram bus? I looked in the BIOS but its not there..

i cant remmeber the exact place in my BIOS, but i think its under "Advanced chipset features". This, however, might not be the same in your BIOS. what mobo make/model do you have? ill see if i can find the manual online and find out where those settings are for you...
 
Maybe you need higher watt power supply? how many watts is your power supply?
 
sirRealist said:
In addition to that, i have a 420w PSU which i believe is more than adaquate for my system. And, its not some no-name PSU, but a well known one (enlight, enermax or antec i think).
Click to expand...

if you were asking me, i have a 420w PSU
 
Hey, I have the exact same problem. Nice to finally find a thread that's talking about it. At random points in the game (sometimes after 5 minutes of play, sometimes after 30 minutes of play), the game would just freeze and the sound would start looping. After a while (like 20-30 seconds) the looping gets more intense (shorter duration of one sample), and then after like 10 seconds the game resumes. This is driving me crazy because it is so random and totally ruins my gaming experience. And it doesn't happen with any other demanding games (Doom 3 1280x1024 High Quality 2xAA, Far Cry 1280x1024 all settings maxed out 2xAA). HL2 is updated with all the latest updates from Steam, my video drivers are the latest (I also tried the beta 71.xx), my BIOS is the latest (1004), and my nForce drivers are also the latest. This is a clean Windows XP SP2 installation with almost nothing installed, updated to latest from windows update. On the surface everything looks good... but alas this problems plagues me too.

My system specs:
Athlon64 3500+ Winchester
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Antec TruePower 430W PSU
Onboard Audio (Realtek ALC850)
1GB (2x512) PQI Turbo 2-2-2-5@400Mhz
XFX GeForce 6600GT PCI Express
WD Raptor 74GB 10kRPM
WD 200GB 7200RPM 8MB
 
not exactly the same problem, for me the sound wasnt a game sample but a horrible squelching sound. also, the game would not resume, it would require a hard reset. have you tried bumping down your ram bus timing? seems to have worked for the people who have the same problem as me, though it might not help your problem...
 
I tried reducing the timings to 3-3-3 but it still did not solve it.. I am suspecting it might have something to do with the PEG Link setting in my bios, although nothing came up from my experiments. If I find a solution I will post back here.
 
instead, try bumping the RAM bus down a setting. in my case, it was from 400 to 333. for me, toning down the RAM timings didnt do anything.
 
I had pretty much the same issue which popped up about halfway through the game with a radeon 9600 pro. After toying with ATITool, I found out that my memory appeared to be overheating so I just stuck a case fan next to my video card and it's been rock solid ever since. Manged to finish the game without a single crash. It's odd that my card would start to overheat halfway through the game like that though.
 
Well over the past month my mom has been downloading a torrent on her computer hooked up to the same network. I have also been experiencing lag spikes and these damn freezes with the looping sounds. Because BitTorrent produces LARGE lag spikes and bandwidth usage, that this may be the problem. Today, the SECOND my mom resumed her download, my game crashed, this may just be a coincidence, but before you play counter-strike make sure that nothing that surges bandwidth (especially BitTorrent) is open. And when your game crashes, check every computer thats hooked up to the same network as yours and check if there are any p2p programs or downloads going on. Get back to me on this if anything like that is opened when you crash.

Oh, and on a side note, I just purchased a 680 WAT PSU (upgrading from my 400 Wat.) I will keep you guys updated on it if this actually is a PSU related error.

I haven't messed with my RAM bus just yet though, if neither of these help I will try it.
 
Well, I got my new power supply today, did nothing. I crashed twice in 2 hours. Interestingly enough though, one of the crashes, it happened right when my mom picked up the phone (the phone is also connected to the internet or something). Whenever someone is on the phone, it causes me to get about twice the latency im use to, this also points in the direction that big bandwidth usage is causing these crashes.
 
It would seem....

It seems to me that the common thread of this problem is an AMD CPU. Is there anyone out there having this problem that runs an Intel? I like AMD so I'm not saying it's their problem per say, but rather that maybe something about the way AMD feeds info to video or sound buffers or something like that. My guess, by the rather rude way this bug crashes my system, is that the Source engine is mismanaging a video or sound buffer in RAM and is over writing important OS or BIOS info with garbage somehow. Or maybe AMD cpus are pushing data to the video or sound subsystems faster than the Source engine expects. I'm just guessing but there has to be a common thread to this problem somewhere.

My sys:
AMD FX55
Asus A8N Deluxe
Corsair value ram 2gig X 400 DDR
BFG 6800 GT (nvidia)
34gig 10k Raptors (Mirrored)
useing onboard sound and Ethernet

One thing I did that seemed to help a lot but not fix the problem. I downloaded Microsofts AntiSpyware beta and it found a lot of junk on my sys. It cleaned it out nicely too. Since then I've run fairly stable with the occasional dump.
 
You are using a new technology (AMD 64) that's very sensitive to RAM Timings. The North Bridge was eliminated from the Motherboard to have the CPU directly communicate with RAM.
 
good call Tenmen and michaelsil1. I am running an AMD64 and my problem is apparently linked to my ram bus, but ONLY with HL2. NO OTHER GAME OR APP has crashed my system... i had not one crash EVER before install HL2. Not only that, but the system is SUPPOSED to run at 400mhz ram bus, im not overclocking it at all. So apparently, the problem is with HL2 and my ram bus being at 400, and it might also have something to do with the amd/amd64 chip, since Tenmen and michaelsil1 pointed this out. too bad i havent been able to find a work around other than downclocking the ram bus. Oh well. i actually havent played HL2 in a long time now. Im only about half way through it, but now im playing prince of persia 2 a lot. its a really fun game (esp after smoking a bowl ;) ).
 
Alright here's what I've found out. I play CS 1.6 (although I did have this problem in CSS and occasionally in HL2:DM) and about 80-90% of the time I crash it is due to a smoke grenade. That's when I performed this test, I set up a LAN game and spammed about 20 smoke grenades and kept running through them, sure my FPS jumped from 100-60, but I didn't crash once. I performed that test about 4 times. So for some reason, the crash only occured on-line. Pretty much whenever someone throws a smoke grenade anywhere near me (at least 20 feet away), I'll crash on the same frame and looping sound. Sure I do occasionally crash when there isn't a smoke nade, but usually it always happens with a smoke grenade. When a smoke nade is thrown I know your video card works harder, but does it put more stress on your RAM also? Tell me if smoke grenades (in on-line or off-line mode) are the main (not ONLY source, but usual) source for your crashing.
 
for me the problem has nothign to do with smoke granades. granted ive only been play HL2 single player, but the game would crash 10-20 min into it no matter where in the game i was, and i havent found any smoke granades yet (dont know if they're even in HL2 single player, but i dont think so).
 
Woah, amazing how close we posted to each other sirRealistic. Did you ever play any other VALVe game (ie. CSS, CSCZ, HL1, CS1.6, 1.5, etc.)? And did you ever experience this crash with them before you downloaded HL2?
 
Ok, I set the RAM Bus thing down to 333 DDR or whatever. I'll keep you guys updated if it helps or not.
 
Ahhh, I still crashed, sirRealisic, should I push it down to a setting lower? I'll have to try it. Although at this point, it seems it's NOT my Video Card and NOT my PSU. The only possible things it could be at this point is
a.) Sound Card (on-board sound)
b.) RAM (1 gig)
c.) Internet Connection (highspeed cable)
I know that option c seems kind of weird, but I just noticed that when I restart my computer after a crash, their is the little symbol of the internet connection (2 computers connected to a network) and when I highlight over it it says trying to connect to 100 Megabyte connection or something and then it goes away. So the internet (or just the router) might also be the problem.
Here's what I'm gonna do right now though.
1. Turn the DDR in my RAM lower.
2. Move the position of my CAT 5 Cable to a higher slot in my router.
3. Buy a new sound card :( any recommendations?
I'll keep you guys updated.
 
Well my specs are:
P4 2.4 GHZ
1024 RAM
9800 Pro 128mb
SB 2 sound card.

I had counterstrike source since october and it (and hl2) worked flawlessly through January. Then all of a sudden, when I get back from xmas break, The January update downloads and I cant play any of the source games anymore. It has the crashing and sound looping as everyone else. I havent been able to play since December. ;( I think its just the update that messed everyone out and that valve should fixed it by now, but I guess they never will if it has been 3 months already.
 
It doesn't have to do only with AMD. I have a Pentium 4 2.8ghz and it happens for me and it has been screwed up since November when I bought it. Plus I have no idea on my HP laptop how to change my ram bus (I don't see the option in my bios). Can anyone please help? I am desperate to play it. It has been over 5 months!
 
4pac, i have played cs on my current computer, but not cs source. Since buying HL2 i have not played any source games from valve on my conputer, but i HAVE played vampire: the masquarade (which uses source engine) with no crashes. A friend suggested i try putting my ram back up to 400mhz and try bumping up the ram voltage by .1 or .2, which might add stability when playing HL2. Again, id liek to note that i built my computer a year ago and i HAVE NEVER HAD A CRASH with anything other than HL2. im gonna give that ram voltage bump a shot and see what happens. also 4pac, you asked in an earlier post if i thought that maybe bumping the ram bus down worked b/c it demands less from the PSU. i do not think this is true. The reason is that the ram pulls VERY little power from the PSU, and im not even sure if bumping the ram bus down decreases the voltages pulled. It probably does, but probably not by much. Im saying probably because i dont know for sure, but i doubt it. thoughts? prince of persia 2 rocks, but can be very hard at times when playing it on the Hard setting!
 
4pac said:
Ahhh, I still crashed, sirRealisic, should I push it down to a setting lower? I'll have to try it. Although at this point, it seems it's NOT my Video Card and NOT my PSU. The only possible things it could be at this point is
a.) Sound Card (on-board sound)
b.) RAM (1 gig)
c.) Internet Connection (highspeed cable)
I know that option c seems kind of weird, but I just noticed that when I restart my computer after a crash, their is the little symbol of the internet connection (2 computers connected to a network) and when I highlight over it it says trying to connect to 100 Megabyte connection or something and then it goes away. So the internet (or just the router) might also be the problem.
Here's what I'm gonna do right now though.
1. Turn the DDR in my RAM lower.
2. Move the position of my CAT 5 Cable to a higher slot in my router.
3. Buy a new sound card :( any recommendations?
I'll keep you guys updated.
Click to expand...


It's not the internet connection. i'm having similar problems as well and i've tried almost every fix on about 5 different forums. :(

I think it might have something to do with the power supply atm, but how long this revelation will last... i do not know.

There are a couple of fixes on this thread u mite want to try if u have not already done so :-

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=75098

Within that thread there is another link for a numerous number of fixes as well.
 
Ok.... i dunno if ive fixed it but i possibly have... fingers crossed.

My device manager has been showing up 2 unknown devices for quitre a while now and i've not had a clue what they are, but i never thought to look at where the driver location was did i. These unknown devices were the ATI WDM Rage Theater Video NSP and the ATI WDM Specialized MVD Codec, which will explain why my DVD playback was hanging and sometimes my DivX playback as well.

Alot of people have been formatting and reinstalling their OSs so have a look in device manager for any unknown devices as its possible these could be causing the freezing problem, i think its whats been causing mine as nothing as has fixed the problem for me. I shall keep thee posted as this could end up being complete and utter dog turd.
 
Guys, I'm positive It's NOT the PSU. I at first had a 550 WAT Power supply, one of the fans died so I had to buy a new one at some store, it was a 450 WAT. Then when my NEW PSU came in the mail, I took that 450 WAT back :rolleyes: and hooked up the new 680 WAT. Every Power Supply I had caused the crash, so it is DEFINITELY not the Power Supply.

Also, I've tried bumping my RAM Bus down AGAIN, didn't do anything o0.

EVERYONE, try to SPAM this thread at SteamPowered AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=266643
I'm hoping that if enough people complain at them about this problem, STEAM/VALVe will fix it.
 
If the problem is hardware related, i have narrowed it down to 1 of 3 devices on my pc:-

Mobo
cpu
stick of 512 pc2700 ddr ram

Im very relieved to find out its ot my gfx card causing the problem, as yesterday i tried with my old mx440se and i still froze. TOTAL HARD LOCK. If i was to se a BSD, or CTD, i would actually be happy.
 
FINALLY... it appears to be fixed :D

On my mobo there is a jumper for allowing the core voltage to be altered. Mine was set to allow over volt. ive disabled it and my system appears to be running fine.

Other things to make sure of:-

Clean the cpu using a piece of kitchen roll and mineralised methylated spirit
Clean the copper plate on your heatsink using the same stuff as on the cpu
Re-apply some silicon cooling solvent to the cpu

Hope this helps ;)
 
Which Operating System is everyone having the problem on? I've been reading on some other forums and have noticed that some people think that uninstalling Service Pack 2 (Which is what I have...) will fix the problem. Unfortunately, I got Windows XP with Service Pack 2 already in it, and I can't uninstall it. :( So, someone try uninstalling Service Pack 2 from Windows XP and tell me if it helps.
 
Why not uninstall sp2 neway. when i had sp2 it was a pain in the ass.
 
Microsoft are going to make it compulsory to install sp2 soon. Its not that bad.

Anyway yes I get this crash looping problem except for me my windows beeps but doesnt let me switch out of the game, doesnt let me press ctrl-alt-delete twice to reboot it just stops. Sometimes it just hangs and I get looping sound. Usually occurs while loading a css demo from a folder other than cstrike. It also has hanged before in an important match which was quite annoying, I wasnt recording then though.

Very strange crashes and hangs tbh.
 
im running xp SP 1, not SP2

i havent gotten around to trying upping my voltage yet, partly because computer engineering is a bitch of a major, and partly b/c ive lost intrest in hl2. but eventually ill try it out
 
xiphrex said:
Microsoft are going to make it compulsory to install sp2 soon. Its not that bad.

Anyway yes I get this crash looping problem except for me my windows beeps but doesnt let me switch out of the game, doesnt let me press ctrl-alt-delete twice to reboot it just stops. Sometimes it just hangs and I get looping sound. Usually occurs while loading a css demo from a folder other than cstrike. It also has hanged before in an important match which was quite annoying, I wasnt recording then though.

Very strange crashes and hangs tbh.
Click to expand...

Microsoft can suck my balls :naughty:
 
hmmm no more crashes for me ;]

i changed my 9600xt to gf6600gt and now i can play css as well as hl2 with my whole system oc'ed

gf@ 550/1100
2500+@3200+ / fsb200
dual channel 3x512mb ram / bus 400; timings 7;2;2;2,5


also i had stability issues with doom3 with cpu oced.. now all gone... nv ownz ati ^^
 
I only have this problem whenever I try to update my video settings. I change my graphics settings, hit apply or ok, and the game just starts looping, and i'm forced to force-close the game. Is this at all related to the sollutions presented before?
 
I fixed the system freeze w/looping squelching sound by removing one of my memory sticks. I went from 1gb > 512mb. I guess it was a faulty memory stick or a faulty memory slot on the mother board. The downside game is slower on graphic intensive maps.
 
If your game is freezing with looping sounds, try disabling AGP Fast Writes. It's easy, takes a only a few minutes.

You might have to use a tweak utility like RivaTuner or Rtool to access the setting within the driver panel.

Disabling this setting on my box fixed 95% of my HL2 issues.

Good luck...
 
After 6 months of these exact same problems...I have permanantly fixed the problem: WARNING! It could take lots of $$$.

I had been playing on an HP that I bought off the shelf, and then upgraded its power supply, video card, sound card and ram. As I had no other issues with any other games I was sure the issue was software related when it came to HL2. I now believe it was in fact a number of hardware errors that I have been able to correct by in essence rebuiling my machine.
The case that the HP came in, though I thought it was full sized was not, and so I believe one issue was the heat build up from the upgraded componants. I bought a full sized case.
Second I bought a full version of WindowsXP. This was necessary for two reasons...first the motherboard from the HP would not fit into the larger case as it did not line up with the holes configuration, perhaps HP had a custom size board and so I needed a new motherboard too. I did not have a real operating system, only an HP restore disk. I would want a bios that was fully accessable for tweaking anyway.
With all that...$400 worth, I had myself a rebuilt machine that I can really tweak.
Since my rebuild I have replayed HL2 completely through without one problem! I also changed my anti-virus software from Norton's to AVG, and turned off the background functions when running the game. It is truely a wonder. I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out, but it has been running so smooth I can hardly believe it.
I'm not saying all of you should run out and do the same, but my point is that hardware errors are out there, and you may be running yourself ragged trying to find the software solution that doesn't exist!

Good luck, I hope this helps someone out there.
 
I have had the same screen "freeze" with perpetual loop audio playback, like a half second clip repeating endlessly. I also use AVG (replaced RAM hungry Norton), and run HL2/CS:S without any background AV's or firewall to be sure it wasn't at fault.
I have run a 6 hr memtest, with no errors, and I am having no other gameplay issues anywhere but Steam. When it crashes, I had to manually do a hard power off to stop it, but today, I was able to stop it with the task manager for the first time. This is the error I got when the screen finally re-appeared:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/drwngflies/HL2Error.jpg
I have all the latest offered BIOS updates from Giga Byte, and I run 76.44 nVidia drivers 4 card. I do run an OC, but it will still crash at stock settings of 500/900. I also run my RAM ay 2.7v, up from 2.5v
I have tried the game without sound enabled, to no effect. My cooling is phenomenal, at a max temp on 6600 of 48'C, with CPU max at 42'C, with an ambient of 30'C.
Anyone else seen this error? where should I try to find out what this is? I have verified my files with Steam, and it reported no errors.
 
For what it's worth, I'd like to try and resurrect this thread. I've been having the exact same problem, sirRealist. Here are my specs:

eMachines T-3092 desktop
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
1 GB DDR SDRAM PC2700
160 GB HD
ATI Radeon X800 XL AGP
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Game settings:
everything is on high, AA is set to 4, AF is set to 8
The game runs smoothly, then the crash with the audio loop.
The longest I've been able to play before crashing is about an hour.

Obviously, it's the game, and I think it's ridculous that we should have to waste all this time making meaningless changes to our system while Valve sits on their laurels and does nothing. Somebody should start a petition. Oh well, if anybody has come across a solution in the past couple of months since this thread died, feel free to chime in.
 
Yes, it is all Valve's fault, let's ressurect a dead thread just to say it.
 
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