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bgbuck7

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Half-Life 2 Crashing

Finally I got a new computer and I thought I would be able to play Half-life 2... I was wrong. After starting a new game, my computer crashed r ight after showing The Half Life 2 logo.  Restarted several times, and it got a little farther... I was able to see the G-man talking to me for a few seconds, but it keeps crashing and the last half second of audio repeats over and over again.

AMD Athlon X2 3800+
Asus A8N-E
PNY 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS
1 GB PNY DDR 400 PC3200 RAM
160GB SATA HD
Running Windows XP x64 Professional

I thought it might have been a dual core issue, but manually setting the affinity did nothing to help... (I did download the x64 drivers from AMD)

It may be an Nvidia driver issue, as their driver's online show no support for the 7600 GS...? odd...

I've just managed to upgrade the bios, but I doubt that will help... My only other idea now is to get a new video card... Any other suggestions?
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twolves21
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bgbuck7

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Brand new install, so no spyware/virus... latest patch seems to have been downloaded automatically... I don't think anything else in running in the background, but with 2 cores, i don't think that's the problem.
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Also, I can play HL2 Deathmatch and CS:Source online for almost an hour before I have the same problem.
I found some forceware drivers here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1377 

Hopefully will help if it is a driver issue...
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I did see that the same day I posted this question, and I was hopeful when I saw 7600. But it only had the 7600GT, and mine is a GS :-? But today I have returned the video card, so for now, this thread will be on hold until I get the money for a 7900GT.
I think they use the same drivers though,

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_7600.html
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I suppose it's possible, but why would they say support was added for 7600GT and not just 7600 in general? Well, either way that driver didn't work... I hope when I get my 7900GT, I'm not having the same problem... If so, what is the next likely problem? Dual-core processor, motherboard, memory, operating system?
Hopefully none, but you will have a better card :)
You should probabl take a look at the fact that you are running the X64 edition of windows :) HL2 doesn't like the 64bit version of XP.. there are known issues with it at the moment.
Try to go to their website and get some useful tool, upgrader or so...else, visit this website: www.megagames.com

Here you will find eveyrthing for every game: cheats, patches and some other thigns that might help you get rid of that bug.

Hope it helps,

Peace,

Freebuddy
Hi,

Does your 7600 GS come with any game profiles? I remember a friend of mine having problems with his and he said he used specific settings for specific games (provided as profiles) and it worked okay afterwards.  Just a thought... you've probably tried this already.  Anyway, thought it might help.
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Here's the 7600GS x64 driver (nVidia ForceWare 84.56 x64 mod)
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1386
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My 7900GT should be here tomorrow, so I am hopeful :)
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7900GT is a no go. I ran HL2 after installing, and I was hopefull... I actually got about 5 seconds further into the game than I had before, then BAM! crashed... I'll try reinstalling windows tomorrow :-\
Not convinced this is an issue with the nVidia card(s)

Have you tried both these fixes from AMD? http://tinyurl.com/zr7h5

There is also a fix which is used for Source games in XP64 which is to manually change the priorities in Task Manager to set Steam.exe to low and HL2.exe to high.

There are other X2 issues with timing diferences between the cores see: http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t60070.html

Check out especially the single processor fix (Search the first page for 'affinity' and the second for 'ROPE')
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By a stroke of luck, I have figured out what the problem was. Running the game with -nosound performed wonderfully :) Upon further research, it appears to be a known problem with some audio devices.  Now I just need to find the correct drivers for my Asus A8N-E onboard sound, because the ones that came in the box are no good... Worst case scenario, I'll just have to take the motherboard back for an A8N-SLI or just get a sound card.
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After uninstalling the nForce audio drivers that came with my motherboard, and installing the Realtek A3.86 audio drivers, I have success! :) Points go to twolves21 for bringing up the possibility of a sound issue.