Problems starting Episode One...

[The Hat]

My computer is having trouble running Episode One, yet it ran Half-Life 2 fine. :| When it loads the game, and goes to the intro, it lags ALOT, and then freezes eventually. My computer is running a Windows XP Service Pack 2, with a Pentuim 4 2.80 GhZ processor, with a Radeon 9550 (256 MB) graphics card, and 512 MB RAM. Like I said, it ran Half-Life 2 PERFECTLY before, so I have no idea about what's going wrong here. Does anyone here know? So far I'm thinking I might need more RAM, or I just need to wait for an update through Steam, but I'm not quite sure...

 

[AfternoonLemon]

Were you prompted to update your video card drivers? In any case, make sure all drivers on your system are up to date

 

[The Hat]

I was, and I updated it, restarted the computer, and tried again. It loaded a bit faster, but there was still a TON of lag, and then it froze.

 

[Barney Fife]

512MB is barely enough for system files and HL2,,,,See if you can get another 512MB module, won't cost you much.
Seeing the graphic detail of E1, I think E1 is little heavier than HL2.

Good Luck.

 

[_Meitsi_]

Huh? 512 enough :O My comp has 1gb and it still keeps swapping sometimes, its now better when i killed all possible windows processes. 1.5 or 2gb would be good to run HL2E1 and all windows stuff.

 

[MaStA]

its lucky I have 2gb of ram then.

 

[The Hat]

OK, so I should try and get a bit more RAM then? Though, about EP1 being heavier than HL2... HDR is disabled, and it didn't work... I'll see if I can get some more RAM then.

 

[bryanf445]

OK, so I should try and get a bit more RAM then? Though, about EP1 being heavier than HL2... HDR is disabled, and it didn't work... I'll see if I can get some more RAM then.

yea 512 more would help and if you ran it in dual channel it would benefit you even more

 

[baron insig]

i found no swapping what so ever, i have 2 gb of ram

only got one random spiek (lock up) where it jsut did something so i went n took a slash and it unbroke!

imho 512mb is not enough for any new game now. and ep1 seemed alot more intense! but my 27 pound gfx card owned it

 

[Barney Fife]

I was being little nice, 512 is nowhere enough to play nowadays games to have full pleasure. Minimum is 1GB.

 

[The Hat]

Well, I may be getting another 512 MB of RAM tomorrow. I just hope to dear GOD that it gets the game to work... XP By the way, this is kinda a stupid question, but what's dual channel? XD

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Could i play it with 512 MB of ram? cause i could play HL2 fine with it, and if i cant i'll be so pissed off you wont believe

 

[The Hat]

OMG, I'm so angry right now... I tried to start it again, and everything was working PERFECTLY, and right when Dog started digging me out of the rubble in the intro, it crashed. :|

 

[MorganFreeman911]

im not too concerned about graphics, i jsut WANT ME HDR Which i am in love with now that i got a graphics card that can handle it

 

[freexbox360]

i have 2gbs of ram and 256 geforce6800 and everything is running smooth baby real smooth... i recommend u get more ram if u wanna handle source engine games... BUT ITS SWEET

 

[MorganFreeman911]

my dad is an asshat, he wont buy a new computer, and ram for computers that wer made in '02 is expensive

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Also, my dad wont buy new ram...

 

[freexbox360]

oh, well i bought my own laptop cost around 2600$ but i got it for 1600$ after hassling with dell. its a sweet laptop. inspiron 9300. i use it for film editing and animation... im a digital cinema student... but gaming is fun too hahaha... get a job buy ur own crap for gaming, its not ur dads job...lol jk

 

[Kadayi]

Maybe give your hard drive a good defragment, the game is probably trying to use HD space to as ram to make up for your lack of system and might be crashing because it can't find any decent place to write. Just a suggestion, long term though for newer games definitely go for more ram.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Okay, im defragging, disk cleanupping and deleteing old games on my harddrive. and then i have to wait till 2moro to play

 

[The Hat]

OMG, I've gotten it to work! I'm at the part where you get the Super Gravity Gun. It's great so far. All I had to do was set the sound settings to "Meduim".

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Thanks Hat!
You made me happyer!!!!

I have almost the same specs as you

EDIT: Would it work with whopper of crap: 1.7GHZ?

Cause a lot of games have that as their minimum, like BF2

 

[Barney Fife]

Let me give those of you who are little confused about “Why is memory equally important as video cards” little info about how games work:

When you launch windows, and you’re booting up the system, XP and all background running programs (Like Anti-virus, Firewall, Steam Etcetera) which hook the system registry, your windows prefetch system (Bits and pieces of frequently used programs), system and all user files will need system memory to reside, most likely permanent space in the memory that no other software uses.
When you select “Adjust for best performance” in the Visual effect of Windows performance option, your system will run somewhere between 250-350MB, depending on how many programs you have running in the background. So 512MB barely runs XP.
My system is running on (As I write this) 580MB of physical memory, 355MB of virtual memory, which is the usual Cookies, caches and favorite stuff.
Why is memory same important as Video card (people think that if they have 512MB of system memory and 512MB of video memory they’re good to go) Well, not exactly. I’ll explain.
When you launch Steam (If Steam isn’t already launched by Windows boot.ini and rams space already) it move from HDD and into your memory, were access is lot faster. Then you launch E1, E1 will move from HDD into your Rams, you can tell this from the main window of E1, if you look at the lower right corner, it says “Loading” Loading into where? Into your Rams. Then you start a new game, then the loading bar appears, loading what? Loading the actual game files your need to play E1, into your rams, where access is lot easier otherwise this will be a hell of a lag.
Now the game files moving into ram and operating from there is where the real ram and CPU intense begins. If you pause game and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and check the performance monitor of Windows Task manager, you will see your rams dropped hell of a way down, and your CPU Usage gone through the roof.
Check and see how much ram you have left and what your Virtual memory size is.

If you like me to explain why Video card is important, I’ll be glad to. But since we’re having ram discussion, I hope that helped.

In my opinion 1GB of ram is where you should start with to play games in decent frame rate, along with decent video card minimum 256MB V-ram and 300MHz core.

Well, I may be getting another 512 MB of RAM tomorrow. I just hope to dear GOD that it gets the game to work... XP By the way, this is kinda a stupid question, but what's dual channel? XD

Dual channel is just another line that's added to rams 64BIt line, if your motherboard does not support dual channel then single channel 64Bit memory is enough and not much difference in game play.
But it is something you have to ask your Board manufacturer if dual is supported.

OMG, I'm so angry right now... I tried to start it again, and everything was working PERFECTLY, and right when Dog started digging me out of the rubble in the intro, it crashed. :|

This could be something other than ram, if you post your system spec I can try to help.

Good Luck.

i have 2gbs of ram and 256 geforce6800 and everything is running smooth baby real smooth... i recommend u get more ram if u wanna handle source engine games... BUT ITS SWEET

Yeah I got the same Spec, and I'm averaging about 50FPS. I Didn't monitor it, but my guts tell me.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

Yes but the old ram from '02 is EXPENSIVE