freeze up while playing HL2 episode 1

I played half life 2 and really enjoyed it, so after finishing the game I got half life 2 episode one. HL2 played with no probs, but episode one keeps locking up while I'm playing. It's not during graphic intensive areas, just at random times. Temp is good, so it's not an overheating prob. Computer is an asus s96j with a x1600 video card. Anyone have any suggestions? I really want to play this game! Please help. Thanks

 

gotta be a driver problem, download the latest from the direct link at top of page.

 

First turn HDR off, see if the problem continues. Just a hunch.

If problems continue, switch over to Omega drivers. Navigate to the ATI Radeon section, Win2K/XP downloads. Give that a try

 

Is it a Runtime error? If it is, think about buying a copy

 

I'm pretty new to computer gaming, so forgive my ignorance, but what is HDR and how do I shut it off? I would like to give that a try because my video driver is current, and the game is a legally purchased copy. Thanks the help.

 

Here's a screenshot of the options menu - have a look:

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll try shutting HDR off and see if that works. Fingers crossed.

 

ok, I shut off HDR, and am still having problems with freeze up. About 10 or 15 seconds after the game froze, display went back to desktop. An error popped up that said: Engine Error-Internal driver error in IDirect3DDevice9: ) Does this give anyone some evidence of the problem? My son has been playing HL2 on my laptop and not having any problems. I don't get it.

 

Yes redbearded i had that problem as well with older drivers (catalyst 6.9). now would you please go download the newest ones (6.12) instead of doing something like turning off HDR (x1000 series support HDR).

If your unsure which ones you have open up catalyst control center and open up the information tab.

 

Now I have bigger problems. I uninstalled old drivers(cat 6.9) and installed new driver.(cat 6.12). Played for about 1 to 2 minutes, then computer crashed. There was to much info on the error blue screen to share with you, but it basically said windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Ensure you have enough free disk space, disable bios memory options such as caching or shadowing. Try to update driver or change video adaptors. Computer dumped physical memory to disk. After memory dump computer restarted and a microsoft window opened that said Stop Error: Problem caused by device driver. What is my next step? I want to play the game, but I don't want to destroy my machine to do it! Any more thoughts or suggestions? Thanks all.

 

Anyone????

 

Please uninstall those drivers and give the Omega drivers (previously linked in my post) a try. I've never trusted the ATI driver releases, especially not after my little experiment with the 6.10's. And keep those fingers crossed

 

Well, first, you won't destroy your machine, no matter what. Yeah, it sounds a bit dramatic, but you're safe.

Basically, it just means that if Windows hadn't interfered (which it does, and will always do in these situations, so this is purely hypothetical), your computer would have crashed. The blue screen represents a "controlled crash", so to speak. It's Windows saying "Ok, I have no clue how to recover from this error, so I'm shutting down. If we're going to crash anyway, I'm at least going to make a controlled emergency landing".

Anyway, about fixing the problem, does it say *which* device driver was the problem? Or list a filename?

Also, in Steam, try updating the game, check that it has downloaded 100%, and as I recall, there is an option as well to verify the game data. Do that as well. If that doesn't turn up any problems, we can at least be sure the problem is with the OS or drivers.

Oh yeah, and which error number does it say after the STOP?

 

It shows that it is 100% downloaded in Steam. It's set to auto-update. I don't see anything about verifying data. Windows didn't list which device, it just says problem caused by device driver. The stop error looks something like this. Stop! 0X0000007E Then under that it had: Ativmag dll. Does that help at all? I am not against uninstalling cat drivers and going to omega driver, but alot of asus owners have had problems with omegas. But then again I'm having problems with cat so I really appreciate you guys(and gals) trying to help me out with this, I'm not a techie so I would be lost without you. Thank you, and anymore suggestions would be great.

 

Try reinstalling the drivers. If your error message has "Ativmag.dll" in it, then it sounds like there is some issue with your drivers. Use the Omega 6.9s.

Here's a link to our Graphics Card Update Guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64910

 

All right, I'll give the Omega drivers a shot and see what happens.

 

Well I unistalled Cat drivers and installed the latest Omega drivers. So far so good. I played HL2 episode one for about 20 or 30 minutes with no problems, and until now that wasn't possible. I was a bit worried about using the Omegas because of some negative reports I have heard about them, but they seem to be working. Now my son is gonna play HL2 which we have not had any problems at all with, and we'll see if that is still stable as well. I will monitor everything else to ensure I don't run into issues elsewhere. Once again you all have helped me out when I did't know what to do on my own. I thank you for your knowledge and skill, and your willingness to share it with those of us who don't have it. You people amaze me. Kudos to all who responded.

 

We were happy to help. I have been using the Omega drivers with my X700 for almost a year - several different versions - and they have been rock solid for me. There are a lot of members on this forum that also use them.

Cheers

 

Darn, I wish I could have caught this thread earlier and saved you the trouble, I had this EXACT same problem with my X700Pro a while back. The only solution is (as you did) find different drivers (different drivers work for different people for some reason). This happened to a LOT of people and still is, its starting to get under my skin because Valve REFUSES to acknowledge the problem in spite of the numerous threads on their support forums about it.

 

What, did you think this was a free service provided by people with nothing better to do? Send me money!

 

Checks in the mail gatordude123 . I have run into one problem since installing Omega drivers. My volume adjustment is not working(function 7 and function 8). Don't know if it's related or not, but they where working fine until new drivers installed. The brightness up and down works, but the little window that should pop up at the top left corner showing the values doesn't come up. How do I fix this?

 

Did you do this ingame or in the desktop?

 

Never mind, I got it now. Some of my other hardware drivers were somehow corrupted or disabled. I re-installed factory hardware drivers and now everything is working again. Whew, had me worried, but it seems that all is now well.