Weird Medley of Errors

[Maronan]

Trying to get Episode 1 working, but my efforts have so far yielded no results.

Sometimes I get this error. Sometimes I get this error. Sometimes, I get an error which says something along the lines of: "Couldn't load lump (number, usually 8 or 29), allocation of (long number) bytes failed" or something like that. And that's not the only error.

Errors and subsequent crashes occur either during the loading screen when the game is starting up (before the main menu appears) or while I'm trying to load a new game (after the main menu).

HL2 worked perfectly fine, as did Portal; only Episode 1 has been giving me any trouble at all. (I haven't installed episode 2; hard drive space is currently at a premium.)

So, any suggestions?

 

[Laivasse]

Have you tried verifying game cache files (game Properties > Local Files tab)?

What are your system specs? What background processes are running?

Does adding the launch parameter '-dx8' (no quotes) do anything?

 

[TheCake Is A Lie]

Have you went to the steam support site?
Have a look here

 

[Laivasse]

One of his links is to Steam Support...

 

[Maronan]

Let's see...

I've gone to Steam support and found all of the various errors I've been encountering, but since there are so many of them (and at least one article has no explanation; just "verify your cache files" and something for Vista users) so I'm a bit overwhelmed and confused and I figure there's some big problem given the variety of error messages.

Adding "-dx8" doesn't do anything.

I don't see why I'd need to verify my cache since I didn't download the game from Steam. (Buying games on CD in a store... I must be old-fashioned!) I did that anyway, and it didn't tell me there were any problems.

I'm running Windows XP home edition (service pack 3, fully updated) on a MacBook. Memory and processor speed shouldn't be a problem. I don't think I have any background processes running except for the standard stuff from Windows and Boot Camp.

 

[Laivasse]

Verifying your game cache is always a necessary precaution since all versions of the game, retail included, download game patches through Steam which can get borked.

What's driving the graphics in your MacBook? Have you updated your graphics drivers, etc? Updated BootCamp?

Try '+mat_forcehardwaresync 0' in launch options.

Otherwise, errors may be par for the course as there is no 'real' mac version of the HL2 series.

 

[Maronan]

Ah, update Boot Camp. That solved it. Thanks.

Now, I don't have any technical issues. I just can't seem to make it even beyond the very beginning. Anybody know how to defeat the sister who is more or less permanently parked in front of my laptop now that Episode 1 is working?