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ValveTime.co.uk | Valve News, Forums, Steam
i just bought HL2 yesterday, and went through all the installation/steam registration/authorization steps. took a while, but i knew it'd be worth it.
before i go any further, here are my basic system specs (dunno what else to include - let me know if any more info is needed):
P4 1.7 GHZ
512 MB RAM (mobo will not allow for more)
nVidia GeForce 5200 FX GFX card (128 MB) <--- with latest Forceware drivers (61.76) installed
so anyway, upon first starting up HL2, i go through the steam verification of files step, then i see the valve title screen. suddenly the game minimizes, and i'm back on the desktop. i click on HL2 in the taskbar, and the game comes back up (black screen only), only to minimize yet again with me staring at the desktop. i go through about 5 or 6 of these before i even see the main menu. so then i start up (or at this point load up) a game, and it minimizes AGAIN. get the game back 'up' and i'm ready to rock n roll. upon the first movement/animation/weapon firing/etc it minimizes for the bazillionth time. get back into the game, and it might happen 1 or 2 more times before things stabilize. but then i notice some very basic textures (i.e. those for rocks, ladders, electrical panels/boxes, etc) are not showing up, and instead look completely black.
i actually had one time last night where it started up flawlessly, i saw the blurred-out main menu which said "LOADING" at the bottom-right, then went into the main menu to see the 'water hazard' background with animations and helicopter fly-by. but i couldn't say what had been done differently that time than the other times.
i don't think it's necessarily a HL2 specific thing, as this also happens when i play UT2004. i'd speculate it has something to do with my video card, but i cannot be positively sure about that.