So, I bought Half-Life 2 Game of the Year..

[LordBeer]

And I can't play it or any of the other Source Engine games. I'd really like to get CS:S running, but it keeps crashing back to desktop after showing the loading screen for about 10-20 seconds.

I've tried the suggestions on the Valve forums, but none of them worked.

My computer is a Athlon 3000 XP with an Abit NF-7S MoBo. I have 1 Gig of Dual channel RAM and an ATI Radeon x850 Pro. It also has a Audigy 2 for sound. My version of XP is fully patched/updated. I run Norton 2005 anti Virus and ZoneAlarm 6.0.

Things I have tried:
Update Video Driver to ATI latest (I was running the Omega drivers but removed them)
Onboard sound is disabled.
Tried to shut off ZoneAlarm.
Tried to Boot using the options on the Valve support forums.
Direct X is the latest.

I have not sent anything to Valve yet, but I'm doing that right after this post.

My system runs BF2 well and I figured I try out CS:S. I hope someone can give me some ideas to try.

Thank you in advance.

[Kev Kanos]

I had problems like that with Far cry. I tried everything and when I thought all was lost I updated my sound card drivers of all things. It playes fine now on all settings.

Just update all drivers for everything you have. It is always the thing you leaste expect.

[zilong]

hmmmm prehaps a reinstall is in order?

[LordBeer]

Soundcard drivers were updated right as you posted that Kev. It didn't fix it, but the surround sound in BF2 seems better.

I was trying to read every forum possible looking for a solution to this and I did come to your conclusion zilong. I'm tried the partial reinstall, but I'm going to DL the whole thing from Valve this time and start from scratch. :wallbash:

[LordBeer]

Reinstall didn't do it. :dunno:

[Kev Kanos]

Reinstall Windows :nuts:

[Blis]

Which loading screen is it crashing during?

Loading game,loading main menu or loading map?

[Kernel Error]

Which loading screen is it crashing during?

Loading game,loading main menu or loading map?

or Loading Steam?

[Kev Kanos]

but it keeps crashing back to desktop after showing the loading screen for about 10-20 seconds.

I think he already answered that.

I have never heard of this. Be sure you updated CSS through steam. After that I have no idea unless there is a hardware conflict.

[LordBeer]

Reinstall Windows :nuts:

Ugh.. Thats not funny! :hehehe: I'll only do that as an absolute last resort when fixing a clients computer. Sometimes that is what you gotta do though if only to save time.

As for the problem itself...

Steam seems to run fine. The last reinstall I did, I DLed all of it from Steam.

It's the initial game loading screen that it will display, but thats as far as I'll get. It crashes to desktop with no beeps or error messages. I did see a memory error message once, but I think that was because I hadn't cleaned up all of the Omega drivers. I haven't seen that message since that clean up.

Thank you for your assistance so far guys. At this point, I'll take any 'way out there ideas' any of you might have. I'm trying to work on some new theorys to run with.

Jeeze... I remember one game I had that would CTD like this. It was a problem unique to my exact model of Gateway computer. I had to disable the game port in order to make it run. :crazy:

I wanna play!! :cry:

[Drayu]

which ati drivers.....mobo drivers? make sure they are updated. Do the mobo ones first, then the ati

[Mad5cout]

What is your graphics card? Is it DirectX 9 compatible? Right now the game forces DirectX 9. I know there is a way to fix this they posted on the Steam forums but I think that was for when the game was already open and done in console. I would post your topic in Steam Forums or just browse their trouble shooting section and see if you can find the ansewr there. When you post your problem, be sure to post your system specs as it will reveal many possible issues and solutions. GL :thumbsup:

[karl_58sow]

What is your graphics card? Is it DirectX 9 compatible? Right now the game forces DirectX 9. I know there is a way to fix this they posted on the Steam forums but I think that was for when the game was already open and done in console. I would post your topic in Steam Forums or just browse their trouble shooting section and see if you can find the ansewr there. When you post your problem, be sure to post your system specs as it will reveal many possible issues and solutions. GL :thumbsup:

shut up and die

[Mad5cout]

:dunno:

karl :hump: Mad5cout

[karl_58sow]

:dunno:

karl :hump: Mad5cout

All day :hump:

[LordBeer]

which ati drivers.....mobo drivers? make sure they are updated. Do the mobo ones first, then the ati

ATI is the video card. A-Bit is the MoBo. (Way to many tech companies have a in their name Abit Asus Acer ATI ARGHGH!!)

Anyway, I did a check on the MoBo drivers and they are up to date. The ATI video card drivers are as up to date as they can get. Perhaps I should try an older driver. :dunno: Anyone having problems using the latest ATI video drivers?

I also tried a low level defrag of the hard drive and that changed nothing.

I was curious if anyone has Steam installed on a drive separate from the drive the OS is on. At the moment they are on different drives and I'm wondering if that could be what the problem is. Please let me know if that type of install works for any of you. I dont want to reconfigure them to be on the same drive if I dont have to.

Karl - :crazy: You ok man?

[Bonez]

ATI is the video card. A-Bit is the MoBo. (Way to many tech companies have a in their name Abit Asus Acer ATI ARGHGH!!)thats so when you do a manu list, it's in alpha and they're on the top.