Half Life 2 Freezing

Hi,

I've installed half life 2 and steam engine has downloaded everything fine as far as I can tell. The game starts fine looks great but after a period of time (always the same I think: about 1-2 miutes) it freezes and I have to shut the game down from Windows.

I have a Dell 6400, Centrino dual-core (1.8), 1 Gig RAM, ATI X1400. As far as I can tell all my drivers are up to date and graphically it's running great (Catalyst drivers for the ATI).

Does the dual core cause it any problems? I read something about sounds but I have the latest drivers and turning off DirectX sounds didn't make any diference (as suggested in the help).

Help!

 

Make sure that any of your firewall or antivirus programs aren't blocking it. How hot does your laptop get while running it?

 

Hi Chazman,

I've turned off my anti-virus and firewall and it still happens - I don't think it's getting any hotter than usual (is there a way I can tell other than by touch?) - I've not overclocked the GPU or CPU at all - just standard Catalyst Drivers which I've used the Catalys util to optimise for performance rather than quality (runs fine with Oblivion).

How would i stop it getting hot - turn down the graphics options?

 

If you can't feel it getting too warm, then it probably isn't. I'm not really sure what the problem is at this point, I'll see if I can come up with something.

 

Have you tried a re-install? I know it's a pain in the butt, but perhaps the game is calling for a file that is corrupt or missing for one reason or another. A re-install often fixes that type of problem.

edit: Just thought of another thing that often causes freezes like that. Sound issues. See if there's an updated driver for your soundboard. Disable the sound completely and see if it still happens (it may still do it even with sound disabled in game, you might have to disable it in the device manager temporarily).

Good luck,

 

Thanks Chazman - it does get hot - how do I know if it's too hot? If I turn down all the graphics settings might that help?

 

winterymix - checked with Windows Update and it says I've got the latest driver (I think it's an in built sound - Sigmatel). I'll try disabling but the sound seems fine up until that point ... weird

... I'll try reinstalling as a lst resort - having to download all the games through Steam is a pain in the neck ...

 

I just had the same exact problem a few days ago with my x1600 and S96j. I solved the problem by turning down the graphics settings until it would no longer freeze.

 

Thanks sir waffle - I'll give that a go. I did reinstall the game and it didn't make any diference - I suspect it is the graphics. I might try it without sound too to see if that makes any diference.