HL2 hangs during single player game

[pataz]

Hi, I have a new Dell XPS Inspiron M170 laptop:
2ghz processor (not over-clocked)
1gb ram
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go

Problem is every 5-10 mins the video and sound will hang for about 10 seconds, then it goes back to normal and I can keep playing but it is a bit distracting, especially in the heat of battle! I am playing the single player mode, not online, although my system's Internet connection is active and Steam is running.

I have changed all my video and sound to the lowest settings.
Resolution is set to 800x600.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
pataz

 

[pomegranate]

This is a very very old problem, please search rather than start a new thread. Search for 'stutter'

 

[Barney Fife]

This is a very very old problem, please search rather than start a new thread. Search for 'stutter'

Yeah we all talked about this stutter issue, many times. If you search this, I don't even think, “Stutter” is too far deep in the forum.

But to give you little bit of head start with this issue: Random stutters are usually caused by software (Including Steam News updater) trying to access Internet for updates, Lack of video memory (This means running Windows on high Video setting Above 1024x768), Overheating GPU/CPU, requests from the internet by pop-ups, Ad-ware/spy-ware in your system. The list goes on.

So go ahead and search.

Good Luck.

 

[$kelet0r]

it's more often related to the sound - the sound card, drivers etc.
It arises because Valve allocated too little RAM to the sound cache
as said above search for the word 'stutter' and be aware that there may be no solution to it - I still have it to this day although unlike many, it doesnt affect the game playability

 

[pataz]

Thanks for the replies. I had searched for other terms before asking but didn't think of stutter. I'll check it out and if/when I figure it out I'll post it back for others. I have tried stopping all non essential services and startup items via msconfig and that seems to minimize the frequency but not eliminate it entirely.

Just a bit frustrating that a relatively new and well powered machine won't run the game smoothly out of the box. We'll keep pluggin' away and let you know.

Thanks again
pataz