Need Help with starting up HL2

[elvatoloco]

Alright this is the problem that I am having. I just bought the game about 3 days ago and I have installed HL2 and HL2 Deathmatch. They are both 100% updated. Now for some reason HL2 Deathmatch works fine and plays fine, but when I try to start up HL2 nothing happens. When I start HL2, I can see the process in the Task Manager, but it never loads up the game. And when I click on the icon again, an error message says, "This game is currently unavailable". I have tried everything from the troubleshooting on the Steam website to uninstalling other games to messing around with my firewall and anti-virus program to uninstalling and reinstalling HL2 many times already. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks in advance.

 

[Rapstah]

Okay, sorry if you tried this... but did you restart Steam? It works for me.

 

[elvatoloco]

yeah tried that many of times...as a matter of fact i just tried that again right now LOL...no luck

 

[elvatoloco]

Any other ideas anyone? Thanks.

 

[Mahalis]

Silly question, but might as well get it out of the way - have you verified game cache?

 

[elvatoloco]

Yeah did that a few times too...no luck as well right now i'm uninstalling it and reinstalling the game...lets see what happens...

 

[elvatoloco]

well that didn't work either...again...

 

[Tyguy]

give us ALL of your specs and we can try and fix this...

 

[ascendant87]

PROBLEM GUYS
I INSTALLED HL2 AND WHEN I double-click the icon in order to start the game
STEAM APPEARS AND UPDATE ITSELF,THEN A WINDOW APPEARS AGAIN AND ITS LIKE A WEBSITE TRYING TO SELL ME THIS GAME OR EPISODE ONE OR DAY OF DEFEAT AND MANY MORE...I INSTALLED THA GAME AND I WANT TO PLAY!!!!!!!!!WHAT SHOULD I DO?

 

[Rapstah]

It's called Steam.

 

[Xendance]

PROBLEM GUYS
I INSTALLED HL2 AND WHEN I double-click the icon in order to start the game
STEAM APPEARS AND UPDATE ITSELF,THEN A WINDOW APPEARS AGAIN AND ITS LIKE A WEBSITE TRYING TO SELL ME THIS GAME OR EPISODE ONE OR DAY OF DEFEAT AND MANY MORE...I INSTALLED THA GAME AND I WANT TO PLAY!!!!!!!!!WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Buy it.

 

[ascendant87]

I'm not buying it!!!!I do have the game!!!!what should i do in order to play??

 

[Tyguy]

dont pirate games

 

[elvatoloco]

give us ALL of your specs and we can try and fix this...

Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
1024MB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9100 w/ 128MB DDR RAM
Win XP Home w/ SP2
Direct X 9.0c
48x/16x DVD Player

Also I have the DVD retail version. I'm not sure if it could be my video card being that I bought it back in 2003, but how could it play HL2: Deathmatch and not HL2? The driver is updated as well. Thanks.

 

[Jintor]

I'm not buying it!!!!I do have the game!!!!what should i do in order to play??

The window that opens up? It's called Steam. It's the program that you run HL2 off. Just close the ad window, go to the games tab on steam, and double-click HL2.

 

[Laivasse]

Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
1024MB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9100 w/ 128MB DDR RAM
Win XP Home w/ SP2
Direct X 9.0c
48x/16x DVD Player

Also I have the DVD retail version. I'm not sure if it could be my video card being that I bought it back in 2003, but how could it play HL2: Deathmatch and not HL2? The driver is updated as well. Thanks.

Your card is a bit old, but you're right about it not making sense that it would work for HL2DM and not HL2.

This is a bit of a shot in the dark, but try starting HL2 from different shortcuts. That is, instead of just starting it through Steam, try making a shortcut from the desktop and start it from that. Another thing you might try is to mess around with the command line variables like '-heapsize 512000' to give it a bit more RAM, and '+map_backround none' so that it starts up without the 3d map background (actually I have weird feeling that the latter miiight work, since the only real difference between HL2DM and HL2 starting up is that HL2DM starts with no 3d map iirc).

For an explanation of that, and some further stuff you can do (like disable the Valve.avi video on start-up), check out http://www.hl2.jolt.co.uk/index.php?action=show&id=11922 and scroll down to 'Step 3: Instant Half-Life 2 loading'.

 

[ascendant87]

The window that opens up? It's called Steam. It's the program that you run HL2 off. Just close the ad window, go to the games tab on steam, and double-click HL2.

I did that and it tells me to buy the game...A friend of mine gave me the game so i want to play...Any suggestions?

 

[Frentzen]

Buy the game.

 

[Rapstah]

I did that and it tells me to buy the game...A friend of mine gave me the game so i want to play...Any suggestions?

Ask him for his Steam account as well, otherwise you won't play. :thumbs:

 

[CyberPitz]

Ask him for his Steam account as well, otherwise you won't play. :thumbs:

 

[elvatoloco]

Your card is a bit old, but you're right about it not making sense that it would work for HL2DM and not HL2.

This is a bit of a shot in the dark, but try starting HL2 from different shortcuts. That is, instead of just starting it through Steam, try making a shortcut from the desktop and start it from that. Another thing you might try is to mess around with the command line variables like '-heapsize 512000' to give it a bit more RAM, and '+map_backround none' so that it starts up without the 3d map background (actually I have weird feeling that the latter miiight work, since the only real difference between HL2DM and HL2 starting up is that HL2DM starts with no 3d map iirc).

For an explanation of that, and some further stuff you can do (like disable the Valve.avi video on start-up), check out http://www.hl2.jolt.co.uk/index.php?action=show&id=11922 and scroll down to 'Step 3: Instant Half-Life 2 loading'.

Hey well check this out...I know this is was probably stupid of me doing but today I bought HL2 Episode 1 and guess what....it started right up!! So now I really don't know about HL2. Maybe the game I bought is defected or something...I don't know. But i'll mess around with the launch options. I have tried before from lauching it from the desktop icon, but as usual, no luck. I'll start messing around with the launch options now and hopefully I can get it started like HL2DM and HL2 Episode 1. Thanks.

 

[Laivasse]

No worries, hope you get HL2 working since it'd be a shame to spoil the story of Ep1 without seeing what's gone before. I'd be particularly interested to know whether '+map_backround none' or the trick with the opening vid do any good or not.

Edit: Your problem sounds quite similar to one that quite a lot of people had way back when HL2 was first released, to do with Securom protection problems on the DVD. However, in subsequent updates I think Valve removed the CD check so that it doesn't matter any more. Just to make sure - do you fully update HL2 each time? Also take the DVD out of the drive for good measure.

 

[elvatoloco]

No worries, hope you get HL2 working since it'd be a shame to spoil the story of Ep1 without seeing what's gone before. I'd be particularly interested to know whether '+map_backround none' or the trick with the opening vid do any good or not.

Edit: Your problem sounds quite similar to one that quite a lot of people had way back when HL2 was first released, to do with Securom protection problems on the DVD. However, in subsequent updates I think Valve removed the CD check so that it doesn't matter any more. Just to make sure - do you fully update HL2 each time? Also take the DVD out of the drive for good measure.

Well tried it out and yep...no luck. Used that one UK website for some help and I tried it out but nothing happened. Also, I do fully update HL2 each time and it is also on Automatic Updates and I have been keeping the DVD out of the drive too. Thanks for the help.

 

[elvatoloco]

Any ideas on other ways I can get HL2 running? Thanks.

 

[elvatoloco]

Well I know this is stupid but I beat EP 1...since I could never get HL2 going...just decided to play EP 1 and beat it...so now I'm gonna have play it backwards but until that happens...i know longer have any ideas on how to get HL2 up and running...Any ideas anybody? Thanks.

 

[elvatoloco]

Say, does anybody know if maybe other installed games on a computer could interrupt gameplay of HL2? I'll name mine off and maybe someone would know if maybe one of my games that I have installed is preventing HL2 from working. Thanks.

GTA San Andreas, Max Payne 2, Red Faction 2, El Matador, C&C Generals, C&C Generals Zero Hour, Area 51, NFS Carbon, NFS Most Wanted, and NFS Underground 2

 

[Laivasse]

Hmm, don't mean to depress you but that sounds like a barrel being scraped to me. If there were incompatibility issues with certain software I'm pretty sure it would be documented in ReadMes and FAQ's (which could nevertheless be worth checking,....).

Sorry you're finding the game such a bitch to install. It still sounds for all the world to me like some Securom errors people used to get with HL2 and a lot of other Securom-protected games, but at the same time Valve's now-ancient nocd update should mean that that can't be the case.

I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think you should be able to delete your HL2 install and then re-download HL2 from Steam...? I could be way off the mark there. But if true it could be worth a try (after doublechecking that I'm not talking out of my arse).

Otherwise, pm me for a last ditch attempt to sort this.