Weirdest crash Ever.. any suggestions?

[clarky003]

right, i really need some input... about 2 weeks ago, HL2 started to play up after being totally fine for 3 weeks. Its freezing the computer out totally, at random points in gameplay on a consistant basis.

Ive totally redone my computer, on the idea that it was some add ware.. or crap that was messing it up.

it starts off simple, I can play the game, but at random points (depending how much the machine likes me on a particular day :dozey: ) it will show signs of decreased framerates and eventually at a stutter point in the game (im sure we all get one occassionally or frequently, usually at the start of level sections)
it will just .... FREEZE .... and the only way of getting the computer to go. go. go again is to hit the reset button.

Im totally bamboozled... I checked my graphics card settings.. and the card is running at a nice temp of 34 C, normal. its a radeon 9600xt, I actually thought it could be the smartGart feature, but no setting changes make a difference ... it eventually freezes... now.. this is only happening to HL2. my other games work fine, although the suspicious thing is I cant get open GL to activate on the radeon .. but direct 3d should work fine.

so... is my processor overheating and bottlenecking the process when i play HL2..? (2.8 ghz, its working fine as far as i can tell)

could dodgy RAM cause the problem with the game? (1.5 gig, .5 added 2 weeks ago.?.. hmmm?)

do I need to chuck my graphics card in the fridge..? (is it on its way out..?)

should I ask Gordon and see what he has to say about it???

I just cant put my finger on it, and im kinda frustrated... and getting more so... its an odd problem... and although it seems to be centered around HL2, i cant bring myself to believe that the game just doesnt want to co-operate with my machine anymore..

Boo Hoo.. ;(

 

[Flyingbig]

Try -heapsize 512000 in launch properities and go into your config and enable sv_forcepreload and sv_forcepreload and also make an autoexec file and put in it sv_autosave 0. Also Go to your save files (not your quicksav ones) and make them all read only THEN start the game up and when you get to the menu screen Ctrl Alt delte and set your hl2.exe to low priority then go back to your game and load. Try that one for size lol. This is how i got the game in a playable state and with long periods of play the stuttering is pretty much refined to when the game trys to autosave. Remember if you make your autosave files read only then don't forget to use that quick save button alot depending on how good you are.

 

[RandomDan]

I had this when I got 75% through the game, kept crashing, reduced all my graphics settings to the lowest level, and it worked fine, and actually I didn't notice much decrease in graphic level.

 

[clarky003]

Try -heapsize 512000 in launch properities and go into your config and enable sv_forcepreload and sv_forcepreload and also make an autoexec file and put in it sv_autosave 0. Also Go to your save files (not your quicksav ones) and make them all read only THEN start the game up and when you get to the menu screen Ctrl Alt delte and set your hl2.exe to low priority then go back to your game and load. Try that one for size lol. This is how i got the game in a playable state and with long periods of play the stuttering is pretty much refined to when the game trys to autosave. Remember if you make your autosave files read only then don't forget to use that quick save button alot depending on how good you are.

thats fantastic.. ill try this immediately.. greatly appreciated... but one more favour.. could you make that a bit more digestable for me to follow

+ how do i set the HL2.exe to low priority

 

[clarky003]

ok..the heapsize doesnt work... it just stops the game from starting up... i tried the rest .. and there is marginal improvement, im still suffering from stuttering, although not as pronounced, and framerate decreases are still quite dramatic on more intense scenes, compared to how smooth those scenes were when i first bought and played it.

will there be an update to help prevent system slow down and stuttering ...? i have a feeling it was a past update that have made these problems occur . Because the game was running great 2 weeks ago.

 

[Danimal]

I get that with CoD after a powerout. I am yet to try it again after doing some tricky ninja kung fu stuff

 

[clarky003]

ive been testing other games, Doom III, Farcry... and they work perfectley for long periods of time... I can definately narrow this problem down to compatability issue's. :/ although how to correct it is still evading me.

but thanks for the help so far.

 

[Lazlow]

You said you added another .5 gig RAM 2 weeks ago - bad ram could easily cause the problems you describe. Try pulling out the new stick, see if that fixes it.