HL2 -bsod, need to do a hard reboot

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Bumrush

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 23, 2004
Messages
307
Haven't seen this one yet, the game will just crash to various colors and my monitor shuts off.. Has happened 3 times, reset doesn't work, I have to switch my machine off to get back in to windows... I lowered my processor OC and it seems to be better. Does this sound like a memory problem or could it be a video card problem? Clocked down to 395/1.08 and still have the problem, I don't think it is the card because D3 and everything else I have thrown at it has been perfect... Should I relax my timings or is the game so CPU intensive that the OC needs to go?
 
There is a thread over at the Steam forums that has over 13,000 views & over 300 replies. I myself am experiencing this very problem, & have yet to be able to play either CS:S or HL2 (on Multibeast; spec's below).

Don't bother trying to follow the Steam forum link above, though, they've been down since yesterday... :mad:
 
the game will just crash to various colors and my monitor shuts off
Click to expand...

That makes me think your vid card is either going bad or it needs more juice.

EDIT: Try to back off your vid OC completely and see what happens.
 
I'm not o/c'ing my card, & neither are over 70% of the ppl in the thread that I linked above. Nor is temperature an issue, as I've removed the shim on my 9800pro & installed an Iceberq4 (using Arctic Alumina). Not only that, but it's the only card in my machine, & it's got a 92mm fan blowing directly onto the Iceberq.

Of course, all of this has been said, along with scores of suggested fixes, in the thread above... pity you can't read it atm...
 
t-readyroc said:
There is a thread over at the Steam forums that has over 13,000 views & over 300 replies. I myself am experiencing this very problem, & have yet to be able to play either CS:S or HL2 (on Multibeast; spec's below).

Don't bother trying to follow the Steam forum link above, though, they've been down since yesterday... :mad:
Click to expand...


Hmm, I'm wondering if this has anything to do with AMD 64 systems. I disabled DEP already for UT 2004, so I know its not related to DEP (DEP= Data Execution Prevention, built in to SP2 for AMD 64 processors).

I lowered my CPU bus from 210 to 205 and the problem is gone, at least for now. I do know my video card is taking a beating, since I did get a 5 second pause at one point last night which is a clear sign of overheating. On a final note, played last night for a few hours, shut down my machine thinking everything was perfect and got another "windows has recovered from a serious error" message when I turned my PC on 10 minutes ago.
 
Well, I just tried to play w/no sound device (disabled onboard in the BIOS) & got the same damn thing.... again. I'd really begun to think it was a sound problem. When it came back up, I re-enabled it in the BIOS, & turned my hardware acceleration (in dxdiag) down to "no acceleration & got the same thing.... Guess that tosses sound out the window...

Just to be absolutely sure it wasn't the vidcard overheating, I fired up Doom3 (which I actually do o/c the vidcard for), & everything was honky-dory... messed around on several levels with no problems whatsoever. Interestingly, though, I'd left my hardware acceleration on "none," & got no sound in D3 when I fired it up the 1st time. I turned it all the way back up before I played the level, though...

There was some speculation that it did have to do w/the A64 processors in that Steam thread (linked above), but then ppl w/Intel chips started replying with the same issue :( The best theory I'd heard of was it having to do w/the 4in1 drivers, but I reverted back to an earlier version, & it still didn't help...
 
t-ready, you are aware that the 4in1 AGP driver is no longer required if you have SP2 installed?

Remove the AGP driver, reboot and let windows install the driver.....

LINK
 
Aaaaaaahhhh crap. I really thought you'd got it with that one, Bumrush. Unfortunately, although I'm now using the MS driver for the AGP bus, I'm still getting the same error :(
 
LOL :( Got it again too when I decided to clock back to 2310...

I clocked back to 2250 and the problem has not happened again. Then again, it is so random I can't say for sure that it wont happen again.

Regardless of my core/mem clock on my 6800GT, the problem occurs. Until the game crashes again at 2250, I can assume that it is related to my CPU or memory timings.

BTW, just a suggestion, have you tried playing with you case open? Perhaps this is a heating issue....
Must suck to have a FX55 and deal with this, run the CPU at default speed and see if you still have the problem.
 
Problem solved. CPU @ default, 6800GT at stock. I'm not going to spend the next week messing with every setting to get an optimal overclock on my video card or CPU without having the game crash when there are other possibilities like memory timings or system instability due to no AGP/PCI lock on my motherboard. As it is now, I just enjoyed 2 hours of error free gaming and don't feel like having the game crash every 30 minutes, so sadly, I will let my expensive memory and video operate at default. :D
 
Last nite I re-applied the Arctic Alumina to my GPU HSF, & tried again w/no luck. The back of the card where the resistors for the core are was cool to the touch...

This is where it gets ridiculous:

This morning, I just finished re-formatting my C partition & did a FRESH install of Win2K, updated everything: fresh install of dot net, updated it, fresh install of DX9C, then ran Windows Update, so that everything's current. Newest drivers for everything, latest patches, etc...

I then pushed my Steam directory (which I'd backed up to my D partition) back to the C partition, ran steam, logged into my account, & tried to run HL2:

THE SAME DAMN THING HAPPENED AGAIN!!! :mad::mad:

The only reason I re-formatted at all was because after screwing w/the AGP driver the other day, Enemy Territory was screwing up as well. Same thing... everytime. It's not heat: my office is 68F, & the fans in my case are howling: the back of the vidcard is cold to the touch :(
 
OK, even wierder, seriously:

I just set the "AI overclocking" thing in the BIOS to "manual," not "auto," & set the CAS to 2.5, not auto. Booted up the game, got thru the intro, locked up, froze, looping sound, screen went white... back to the game, back to the white screen, sound still looping... couple more times of this, & the SOUND CAME BACK!!

The game is now running in the background, I can hear the subway announcer going on... but still a white screen!! WTF?!? What's more, I was just able to CTRL ALT DEL & close out the game.... ?!??! VPU recover had caught a crash, etc, etc...
 
**UPDATE**

I've just finished manually deleting all Steam-related local content & re-downloading the entire game(s). I'm still getting the same result with this "new" installation... :(
 
Take out a memory stick, or lower to CAS 3. If that doesn't work, run the memory slower than it is rated. I'm almost certain it is a memory problem at this point, a few people in the Anandtech forums came to the conclusion the memory problems were the culprit. Remember, AMD 64 systems are VERY picky when it comes to memory.
 
Trock, being that you reinstalled the game already, what are the odds that you have corruption twice?

If it happens again, try my suggestions related to memory issues, I'm pretty sure it is related to that. Take a stick out and retest.
 
Whelp, I got your PM, so I deleted the entire:
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\treadyroc\half-life 2\hl2\maps\soundcache
folder, then rebooted, disabled the sound in the BIOS, then booted up, & tried to play the game.... now I get a "Unable to init shader system" error, & the game never comes up at all... :( ET still works fine, tho'...

**EDIT**

I searched on the Steam site for that error, & it said to disable my 2nd monitor, so I did. The game then started, but once again, it went into the lockup/crazy colors/hard reboot thing (this is all w/the new soundcache & the onboard sound still disabled, mind you)...
 
Did you try any of the memory combinations I mentioned? I have been playing crash free since disabling my system overclocks, including vid card.
 
1stly: I never oc'ed my system... ever.

2ndly, I got the game working, albeit not well. Here's what I did:

ran 4.53 installer -> un-installed via agp driver
rebooted -> super-ridiculous choppiness... disabled 2nd monitor output
played for 40mins w/same level of occassional choppiness - no "via AGP device" visible in devmgr

ran 4.49 installer & installed all 4.49 drivers
rebooted -> "VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller" visible in devmgr
game did not run -> back to original symptoms: white screen, but game still running in background ran 4.49 installer again, & un-installed the AGP driver

rebooted -> no "via AGP device" visible in devmgr
game playable, but very choppy still - Is this the "hitching" that other posts have mentioned?

re-enabled my 2nd monitor -> "unable to init shader system" error returned...

SO... the game is "working," but still very choppy. I'm running it on my system at 12X10 w/2XAA & 4XAF. Going to try fooling w/those settings tomorrow to see if it improves gameplay.

What this all says, though, is that the issue that I was having had to do w/the way this game is talking to the AGP system driver. It seems to not work at all w/any of the VIA AGP drivers in the 4in1 packages w/my setup. Not only that, but the Windows version of the AGP driver that is installed by default under WinXP SP2 when the 4in1 driver is removed will also cause the issues described above (hard lock/force hard reboot). The only way my setup will play the game is under the default Win2K AGP driver with the 2nd monitor disabled.
 
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