Episode One locking up, reset required

[Przemek]

Yesterday, I bought HL2: Episode One and played it for a few hours. I managed to get to the surface and finished playing. Today, I started up Episode One to continue, but the game locked up after about 15 minutes. The game just froze, I could not do anything - CTRL+ALT+DEL, CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, ALT+TAB, WIN+D - only reset worked.

I thought "shit happens" and restarted playing after the reset.

After about 15-20 minutes, the same thing happened.

Reset and start playing again. Same thing happened after a few minutes of gameplay.

Here's what I did trying to solve the problem:
* ran with hardware monitor in background, monitoring CPU temperature. It never exceeded 52'C, which is normal on my computer (sometimes the temp reaches 60'C and all is fine)
* verify game files
* chkdsk d: /f
* updated my video drivers (Catalyst 6.4 -> 6.5)
* ran a Prime stress test for 30 minutes
* deleted clientregistry.blob and reupdated Steam
* turned off the computer for 20 minutes and turned back on
* scanned for viruses with NOD32, latest virus database

I simply tried everything possible. What's odd is that I ran the game flawlessly yesterday night

Any tips? Here is my computer configuration:
* Athlon XP 2000+ Thoroughbred A0 (133x12.5)
* 1GB RAM Kingston PC3200 (@166MHz - it always has been that way; never had errors in memtest86 or tests like Prime that stress memory)
* Sapphire Radeon 9800PRO 128MB 256bit
* SoundBlaster Audigy 2
* Windows XP SP2, English version, up to date

I have the latest mainboard driver (VIA Hyperion), the latest video driver and the latest, non-beta driver from Creative.

If nothing helps, I will be forced to reinstall Windows, but that would be pretty painful

 

[TheFathomist]

I've had the exact same problem. I tired just slugging through it, but it really has grown intolerable. It just crashes at seemingly random times. I also notice that when it does work, the load times are much longer than in HL2.

 

[Cunni]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:







I ran flawlessly through the first few chapters on June 1, the day it came out. Friday, it froze up a couple of times in the hospital, and then started freezing up right after Barney gets on the train. I've been able to just get to the wheel to open the door just around the corcer from when Barney gets on the train. While I was trying everything suggested at the Support site, I managed to get Alyx through the door and the Strider appear, then it froze. It was either that attempt or another one where I had DirectX Sound acceleration turned off, and instead of freezing it crashed to desktop. I tried disabling my Audigy2 sound card, and well it semed to be working fine but I didn't progress through the door as what fun would that be and how am I supposd to know it won't just freeze in the next area??

 

[Barney Fife]

Przemek my BIOS supposed to shut down my PC if temp reaches 60c and my CPU is OC-ed and it never passes 45c under load.
60c is not OK for AMDs to run. I think you experiencing heat problem.

Are you OC-ed? if yes try better sink.

 

[Przemek]

My heat sink is rather small, but I never had problems because of temperature. During a hot summer, the temp reaches 60' and the system remains stable.

Right now only Episode One freezes, my brother plays MS Flight Simulator every day for hours and has no problems with stability. I also played Quake 4 and Doom 3 a few days ago and both ran fine.

Prime 2004 can run for hours (CPU stress), the temp jumps to 53' but it's stable. The CPU and RAM stress can also run for hours. 3DMark2003 can run looped for an infinite amount of time.

Seems it's a problem with Episode One only

PS - my Duron 850 Spitfire overheated once (3 years ago or more) to 90', cause my cooler stopped - it ran fine until I smelled a specific smell of burned elecricity. I turned it off and found the problem, started the computer after 5 minutes and the processor still lives today

edit - my friend's AthlonXP 2000+ Thoroughbred B0 has a temperature of 60 degrees in idle (checked in BIOS), stable

 

[Barney Fife]

Wow man, 60c would really freak me out. hehe. Well I guess if nothing is broken why fix it.
You must understand Ep1 is a bigger hog than FS.

 

[Cunni]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:







I ran flawlessly through the first few chapters on June 1, the day it came out. Friday, it froze up a couple of times in the hospital, and then started freezing up right after Barney gets on the train. I've been able to just get to the wheel to open the door just around the corcer from when Barney gets on the train. While I was trying everything suggested at the Support site, I managed to get Alyx through the door and the Strider appear, then it froze. It was either that attempt or another one where I had DirectX Sound acceleration turned off, and instead of freezing it crashed to desktop. I tried disabling my Audigy2 sound card, and well it semed to be working fine but I didn't progress through the door as what fun would that be and how am I supposd to know it won't just freeze in the next area??

UPDATE: I was able to almost completely eliminate this by turning the music off. Shouldn't have to do that though, and it still froze a couple of times during the final battle.

 

[Przemek]

Later today I will try running the game on my integrated soundcard (CMedia) and see if it freezes or crashes. If it will work fine, Audigy2 will be the problem...
Does version 02.08.0004 of Creative's driver support OpenAL? I just found out that I use the pre-02.08.0002 beta driver, maybe updating it will help.
I'll get back here with info later today

 

[Shippi]

.

 

[Kornflake™]

Happened to me in Lost Coast, and now it started happening as soon as I tried running through the game with commentry track on, possible link? Not managed to narrow down the problem any more than that.

 

[theotherguy]

this is a very common problem. I expect valve to release a patch soon. It crashes for me on every load as well. To solve the problem I turned my resolution down to 800x600, turned off AA and AF as well as HDR, turned my sound settings on low. After all that I was able to get by all the load points, but my graphics looked like crap.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

1.Uninstall whole game.
2.After that check your computer for viruses with Norton Antivirus 2004.
3.After that check your computer for adwares and spywares with Ad-Aware SE Personal.
4.After that go in "MY COMPUTER",right click on disk C,"properties","TOOLS",
"CHECK NOW",and then in "CHECK DISK OPTIONS" put both:
--->"Automatically fix file system errors"
--->"Scan for attempt recovery of bad sectors"
and then click "START".You will probably need to restart your computer so
click yes.After computer is restarted,disk checking will start automatically.
5.After disk checking is complete,again go in "MY COMPUTER",disk C,right click
on it,"properties","TOOLS","DEFRAGMENT NOW",then the "Disk Defragmenter"
will turn ON.Then again click on "DEFRAGMENT",(which must be right of "ANALYZE").
6.Right click on desktop,"properties","settings",and then put on 32-bit color
and resolution 1024x768.After that click "APPLY" and then go on "APPEARANCE","EFFECTS" and then put like here on picture--->

After you have done that,click on "OK","APPLY" then again "OK".
7.Right click on "MY COMPUTER","PROPERTIES","ADVANCED",and then click on
first button "SETTINGS".I mean on this --->

After that put on "Adjust for best appearance".After that click "APPLY","OK"
then again "OK".
8.After that right click on desktop,"properties","Settings","Advanced",and you
should get something like this--->

There you can find options for your graphic card so PUT EVERYTHING ON
BEST QUALITY!!!
For example I have OpenGL and Direct3D.
OpenGL--->

Direct3D--->

But don't pay attention on my options for graphic.I didn't put everything on
best quality because my graphic card has 64 MB.But you put EVERYTHING on
best quality because you probably have much more MB in your graphic card!!

You can find a solution in my post on this link:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107385

 

[Cunni]

Later today I will try running the game on my integrated soundcard (CMedia) and see if it freezes or crashes. If it will work fine, Audigy2 will be the problem...
Does version 02.08.0004 of Creative's driver support OpenAL? I just found out that I use the pre-02.08.0002 beta driver, maybe updating it will help.
I'll get back here with info later today

I upgraded to the Audigy 2 driver : 5.12.8.1164

 

[Przemek]

S.T.A.R.S. - I reinstalled WindowsXP, it was dying anyway. Gonna check later today if it fixed any problems with Ep1. I hope Valve is aware of the problem.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

Just read my post at this link:
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107385
and you will know how you can play Half-Life: Episode 1.

 

[Przemek]

Reinstalling Windows helped

 

[mortiz]

Seems a bit extreme to start thinking about uninistalling windows and the like. I think I'll just wait for a patch. VALVe probably aren't that far away with one.