Workaround?

[HadouKen24]

Like a lot of other people, I have a machine that won't take me past the load screen for the main menu. I have the exact same problem with Half-Life: Source, too. But I have no problems at all with Counterstrike: Source.

Could the problem be limited to the main menu? I know my machine will run the game; I managed to get well past the prison before I started running into problems.

If the problem is just with the main menu, there might be a workaround. Does anyone know of any command line-type options that allow you to skip the main menu and load directly to a level or save file?

 

[indyjones2131]

Man I am having the same problem. It worked for a while and now won't. Same thing.

Your idea sounds good to me. I jus twish we could get some help here.

It sucks to get a taste of the game and then have it taken from you.

I tried other fixes to find no success.

Please someone help.

 

[Jonny_Hermit]

Here's a possible fix. I found it took ages to load the menu, and the reason is because instead of just being a picture in te background like in CSS, it's a cinematic-type thing (Think similar to the looping movie on Far Cry's title screen). All it shows is a random city scene with people walking around, so I disabled it, and it now loads up the menu much faster.
To disable it:
1. Get into your Cfg folder in your HL2 folder in Steam.
2. There are two files in there: Config.cfg and Valve.RC
3. Open Valve.RC in notepad (Might want to back it up first)
4. The bottom option looks like this:

// Display the Startup level
startupmenu

5. Either delete "startupmenu" or put two slashes in front of it to disable the level. The game should now load. Works with HL:Source too, just do the same thing to the Valve.rc file in your source folder.

 

[HadouKen24]

it's a cinematic-type thing... All it shows is a random city scene with people walking around...

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

To disable it:
1. Get into your Cfg folder in your HL2 folder in Steam.
2. There are two files in there: Config.cfg and Valve.RC
3. Open Valve.RC in notepad (Might want to back it up first)
4. The bottom option looks like this:

// Display the Startup level
startupmenu

5. Either delete "startupmenu" or put two slashes in front of it to disable the level. The game should now load. Works with HL:Source too, just do the same thing to the Valve.rc file in your source folder.

Thanks, I'll try that. If it doesn't work, I'll be here to think you for crashing my computer again (j/k). If I don't reply for hours or days, on the other hand, that's because it did work, and I'll be once again gleefully failing classes and skipping meals because of my newly regained addiction.

 

[indyjones2131]

I only have one file (Valve) in the cfg dir. Is that normal?

Anyway, I tried the fix, but it never worked.

I am so damn aggravated.

 

[indyjones2131]

Please

 

[indyjones2131]

Anyone?

 

[HadouKen24]

Okay, I figured out what the problem was.

I foolishly thought that because I had alread told my firewall to not block it once, I wouldn't have to tell it again. It tried to pop up with a prompt to allow or block the program. But Half-Life 2 doesn't like that.

I discovered what the problem was when, as I futilely (I thought) pounded alt-tab, the cursor would reappear if it was on a particular square of the screen. I explored the area, and found it turned into the hand, so I clicked. I got a flash of my desktop, and the firewall prompt before it through me right back into the game--now fully functional once again.

The Moral: Check your firewall(s). If you have XP Service Pack 2, make sure it knows to allow your game. You probably want to check all your other programs that might give you pop-ups, too, like your anti-virus. And make sure you're logged out of any messenger programs; they'll probably crash it, too.