I just loaded HL2 the other night and started playing Death Match. When i'm playing, the game will occasionally lock up. Sometimes it even crashes. The only time i've been able to recover enough from a crash to get back to the desktop, i had a memory error message.
So, i ran memtest for 12+ hours with no errors.
I've cleared the cmos and reset everything (just to make sure it wasn't user related...leftovers from my mild forays into overclocking).
All of my drivers are up to date.
I don't have a cooling issue (temps are well within the acceptable range).
My voltages look like they're good (monitored with software and Digidoc 5+ thermal monitor).
I don't have a single thing OC'd (other than the video card...factory OC'd).

The only time i see this problem is when i play HL2 DM. I occasionally get some squirrely behavior from CoH, but it's nothing that isn't also experienced by a ton of other users (IE: server side problems).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

My hardware:
Antec true control 550
DFI Lanparty UT nF3 250 GB
A64 3400+ (socket 754, Newcastle)
BFG 6800 GT OC
1 gig Corsair XMS pc 3200 (2 x 512)

Is your XMS XL-series? Mine does the exact same thing....

Quote: Originally Posted by j-dogg Is your XMS XL-series? Mine does the exact same thing....

It's not the XL. Mine has the 3 3 3 8 timings (hey, it's what i could afford )

Have you tried using different RAM in your gaming rig to see if that makes a difference?

I'm still not working (injury) and i don't have enough cash to buy another stick of RAM and see if it helps (although i am trying to borrow some ).

Thanks for the feedback, bro

Head over to steampowered.net and search their support forums. There is a huge topic on HL2 crashes that will troubleshoot for you.

Quote: Originally Posted by Shadowgate Head over to steampowered.net and search their support forums. There is a huge topic on HL2 crashes that will troubleshoot for you.

God bless you. I'm giving it a whirl, hopefully it turns up something simple

Quote: Originally Posted by droeblek9 God bless you. I'm giving it a whirl, hopefully it turns up something simple

Bump for the solution.

Lock ups can be twofold: Sound related and bug in HL2.

If you get occasional stutters (game freezes with repeating audio), try going to dxdiag (start button, run, dxdiag). From there, go to the sound tab and set your hardware sound acceleration level to it's lowest setting. HL2 has some issues with onboard sound as well as sound cards. It is also recommended that the user try completely disabling the sound as well (imo, that's retarded from a game play perspective...you can't hear footsteps and you will probably die frequently).

Memory errors: I spoke with 2 server admins last night and they both told me that a lot of players get memory error crashes. They said that it is a known bug in the game and told me not to worry about my RAM (at that point, everyone else who was playing on that server piped in and said that they also had the same problem occasionally).

So, at least it's not my hardware (thank heavens). The down side is that it will still happen. The upside is that the servers that i frequent keep ranking stats: so, even if the game crashes on me, my performance is not lost (although i wish it was at times ). It has been recorded in the ranking system on that server.

I really want to give a very heartfelt thank you to toebitus. This most awesome pimp PMed me and offered to let me borrow 2 sticks of RAM to test in my rig. That was beyond cool, toebitus. I deeply appreciate your kind offer and i've blinged you for it