My Game HATES me

[Nighthawk3729]

When i started playing back last year everything worked fine, now it enjoys torturing me. For one thing, I cant change the resolution without locking up the game. iIt'l boot back into windows and shut down half life, says something about an index being locked. Another little pain, I have no to aiming reticle. It may sound like not a big thing, and it isnt, but it can be a pain, the game feels a little wrong. my last problem is the sound, i cant get a decent setting. I have 4 speakers and a subwoofer, i pick the 4 speaker option, and then i cant hear anything directly in front of me, WTF?
If anyone know anyway to fix any of these problems, please post.
p.s. - ive tried reinstalling half life 2, I think i did it wrong.

 

[Beerdude26]

Try this:
steam://runsafe/220

 

[Nighthawk3729]

Im guessing this is the safe mode?

 

[Beerdude26]

Yes. It resets your video mode.

 

[Nighthawk3729]

Ok, my reticule is back, thanks for that, nobody knew how to fix it. Now, as for the other problems, i tested my sound on the 4 speaker setting, and it seems the that everything in front of me and the front half of me worked fine, fading into nothing the farther it got back back past my sides. This is a MAJOR disadvantage for obvious reasons, I can't tell if anything is coming in back of me. I don't know why its doing that, My speakers are working fine. Now as for my other problem. I used to be able to go into windows while in half life no problem. Now whenever Im im dragged out of the game and try to go back in, I get a message telling me that there was an engine error and that the index failed to lock, something like that and something to do with DX8. Im guessing that it has to do with direct x8, but I use 9! any Ideas? This happens randomly, I know this because now im purposly going into windows and returning and its working fine. Does anyone know how to fix these problems?

 

[Nighthawk3729]

Turns out my reticle is back only in half life, anyone know how to bring it back in counter strike source?

 

[Beerdude26]

It's probably a cl_ command. Try typing in
find crosshair
into the console. It will search for every command that has 'crosshair' in the name or in the description. It's probably something like "cl_drawcrosshair" or something, and it should be set to 1.

For your sound problems, try typing in snd_restart in the console. (Wait, that doesn't work according to your reply in the other post )
Are you sure all your surround sound options are correct (You can actually set the options to sound like you're in a tube, and HL2 will recreate the tube-like sound if you are in a tube)?
And are you certain you are using DirectX 9? (You can check in the video options)

 

[Nighthawk3729]

My Bro updated my computer for me as a christmas present last year. I've basically been at the mercy of his knowledge. I've been to lazy to actually check it myself .
As for direct X9, Im pretty sure its set to that. actually, yea, im positive, i have direct x9.c

 

[Drackard]

I get the same problem when adjusting my resolution, it crashes to desktop going on about failure to lock vertex buffer dx8 or something yet i definatly use 9, it's rather annoying tbh.

 

[Nighthawk3729]

does anyone have any advice?

 

[Beerdude26]

Have you tried my advice?