Team Fortress 2 and M1530.. does yours lock up?

All source games run fine EXCEPT TF2... I have two problems.

First one was when the game would minimize and maximize uncontrollably when it starts...i fixed it by turning off the valve intro video.

Second problem is the "HL2.EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING" message... annoying but not a major issue since it occurs only after when I am done playing.

THIRD AND BIGGEST PROBLEM only occurs when I join a server. Soon as I join a server most of the time the game locks up in a looping sound crash. I looked up the page file issue in STEAM forums but its not it and i cant figure out what is causing it.

Does anyone else have lock up issues only upon connecting to a server in TF2?

 

Sounds like driver issues to me

 

I have that problem when I have firefox open and logon to a server...

 

Are you running a firewall? If so some will cause TF2 to lock up, make sure you allow it in the permissions for your FW or try turning it off altogether before you play.

 

Second problem is the "HL2.EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING" message... annoying but not a major issue since it occurs only after when I am done playing.

This happens to me every time I play, I don't think there is a fix for it yet, at least not on Vista x64. I believe if you can run TF2 in administrator mode it will fix it. Your other issues sound like driver problems. Try reinstalling your sound and video drivers.

 

What drivers are you guys running? I am running the default Nvidia drivers that came from Dell.... I gotta admit I never tried any other drivers (from the fear of it screwing up the system) so I never tried the laptop2go or the windows update Nvidia driver recommendation. is there a particular laptop2go driver number you guys recommend?

My soundcard driver came from DELL as well and I DID update it from their website.... unless there is another website with even more recent sound drivers I think these sigma tel drivers are all I have access to.

As for the firewall, I have default windows firewall running.....

 

Well I have a 1520, and when I start TF2 it does sometimes not maximise, but usually it does.

Occasionally, I mean like once a week, I can be playing and it will just shut down immediately, and give me that error message you mentioned.

Sometimes I lose my connection to the server completely, for no reason, while my internet keeps running.

And again, when I first start up, and search for a server, none come up. I have to keep refreshing the list for a half dozen times or so before it does.

I've just attributed these problems to the game itself. They don't worry me too much anyway.

 

It's not the game so much as it is a incompatibility issue. Try turning off your sound card before you play. If it is not a FW issue it is very likely the sound card or DirectX...

Also you may want to use your launch options to limit DirectX in TF2:

-dxlevel 81 (81 for 8.1, 90 for 9 and 95 for 9.0+C)

This may solve some issues for you and increase FPS.

 

turn off soundcard as in disable it in device manager right ?

i wish i could have bought a m1530 with the sound blaster card instead of sigma tel.... i bought a refurb so i had no say in it unfortunately.

 

Try the DX level first, knock it down to 8.1 and see if that helps.

If that does not work you can try disabling sound, or do this first in a command prompt:

net localgroup Administrators /add Local Service

Reboot after.

 

For those of you having trouble with the "hl2.exe has stopped working message", I've found that disabling Data Execution Prevention for hl2.exe does solve that problem. I used to get the message about 50% of the time I joined a server, but I haven't had it since turning DEP off for hl2.exe.

I'm having this problem myself too, and it's VERY annoying. Refreshing the server list doesn't seem to work most of the time, but I have noticed that alt-tabbling out of the game and refreshing a site in my internet browser does solve the problem. I attribute this to a problem with Vista as I have a desktop running XP which has never had this issue. I have noticed that when using a wired connection on the laptop instead of wireless, this problem doesn't appear nearly as often. If anyone has experienced the same problem and/or has a solution, please post it. It would be much appreciated.

 

This became an issue for me. Fortunately I found the solution, unfortunately it seems I had to be the first to find it.

I just wanted to update this thread for anyone who is having TF2 lockup during the MOTD screen when joining a server. I'm not sure of the exact reasoning behind the lock up but I am sure it has something to do with loading the HTML.

So. To fix this I do 2 things, though to be honest only one of them may be necessary.

1. Disable IE by going to Tools > Internet Options > Connections / Lan Settings

Check the box 'Use a Proxy Server For Your Lan' and enter in 0.0.0.0

2. Work off line Tools > Work Offline (this MAY be the only thing you have to do)

I have not had this issue since doing this!

Hope that helps somebody.

 

Another quick update. RedBaronK Sent me a PM with a better solution, Thanks!

Under the Team Fortress 2 Folder (under your username) you'll find another folder called 'TF' In here is a file called TEXTWINDOW_TEMP.HTML This is the temp MOTD html file that is written to on each new server join.

Open it up, delete the entire contents, save it and set its properties to Read Only. Now you can enable IE without any issue!