HL1 Crashes before menus

[Mooga]

I've been working on this problem for a while. I tried re-installing HL1 many times with no luck.

When I start HL1, I see the background image, but the menus never show up. instead, the game crashes.

Specs
Windows XP 64-bit
Intel Q9300 (Quad core 2.5)
4GB of Ram
nvidia 9800 GTX Black Edition

I know that people can run HL1 in 64-bit XP, so I don't think that's an issue. I have tried setting affinity, but it crashes before then. When trying to set affinity via a short cut, it doesn't work. I have also tried Compatibility mode with no luck.

Thanks in advanced!
~ Mooga

[Mooga]

It's been 3 days since I posted this thread.
Any ideas? I've been dying to play some of my favorite HL1 mods.

[Otto-Grainer]

Is it Half-Life on Steam? If so, are you using Half-Life: Source?

[Mooga]

Half-Life on steam. Not source. Just plain-old Half-Life, I want to play TFC and NS :)

[sweghead]

i had that exact problem but then steam client updated and now they work perfectly :D:):):D

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I've been working on this problem for a while. I tried re-installing HL1 many times with no luck.

When I start HL1, I see the background image, but the menus never show up. instead, the game crashes.

Specs
Windows XP 64-bit
Intel Q9300 (Quad core 2.5)
4GB of Ram
nvidia 9800 GTX Black Edition

I know that people can run HL1 in 64-bit XP, so I don't think that's an issue. I have tried setting affinity, but it crashes before then. When trying to set affinity via a short cut, it doesn't work. I have also tried Compatibility mode with no luck.

Thanks in advanced!
~ Mooga

Hello, I got the same problem :eek:

"Half-Life" as well as "Blue Shift" will startup in Steam, load up to the point where you see the background of the main menu and then crash silently. The main menu never shows up. And there is no error message. It will simply exit and disappear. This is 100% reproducible! My game data is up to date.

Any ideas? :confused:

(BTW: Counter Strike does still work...)


Specs:
WindowsXP Professional (64-bit), SP-2
Intel Core2 Quad (Q6600), 2400 MHz
4GB of RAM
ATI Radeon X1950 XTX

[LoRd_MuldeR]

There clearly is a bug that keeps people away from playing HL and BlueShift :mad:

Any comments on this please ???

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Okay, two weeks have passed since Mooga's initial post and still no efforts to fix or even investigate this bug have been made. This is a support forum for Steam customer's isn't it? So what else do we need to do to get support for the product we payed for? It's not like some "minor" problem. It's a really serious bug keeping people from even launching the games. I know that HL and BlueShift are rather old games, but I dislike the idea that old games get "disabled" on Steam by ignoring critical bugs. So please give us some instructions! I'll do what I can to help Valve track down the bug in their software...

Thanks for your reply, in advance!

[UncFester]

So what else do we need to do to get support for the product we payed for?

Have you clicked on the "Support" link at the very top of the page here?

There is a wealth of links for troubleshooting game issues as well as this:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1223-QROC-4460

People who frequent these forums, while very knowledgeable, cannot be expected to know the answer to every problem a user might experience -- a lot of things are unique and often specific to a user's hardware configuration and software.

Personally, if I had any inkling as to the source of your problem, I'd say as much.
Alas, I don't have a clue -- and I suspect that's the case for most people here.

But these are the things I would try:

1) - Verify game cache files.
2) - Disable anti-virus apps running in background.
3) - Check firewall settings or even disable the firewall.
4) - Open a support ticket.

Good luck! :)

[Suomis]

reinstall

10char

[LoRd_MuldeR]

People who frequent these forums, while very knowledgeable, cannot be expected to know the answer to every problem a user might experience -- a lot of things are unique and often specific to a user's hardware configuration and software.

Well, I don't expect to get the solution immediately. But since Steam is a commercial product and I'm a paying customer, I expect SOME reply from the support team at least. Some reply like "The problem is known, we are working on it" or "The problem is not known yet, we will investigate it" should be possible within the time of two weeks. Don't you think ???

But these are the things I would try:

1) - Verify game cache files.
2) - Disable anti-virus apps running in background.
3) - Check firewall settings or even disable the firewall.
4) - Open a support ticket.

1) I did that. Didn't help.
2) I tried that. Makes no difference.
3) I don't have any firewall installed.
4) It seems I need to do that now ...

Good luck! :)

Thanks ;)

[CatzEyes93]

Back up a second. These are community forums, not support forums. Any answers you see in here are 99% of the time going to be from other "paying customers" such as yourself. The only time you can guarantee help from technical support is by entering a ticket as suggested.

Hopefully this did not come across harsh, mean or rude. I truely have no intent on rubbing salt in your wounds. Just wanted to offer some information on who exactly your audience is in these forums.

[Silicon Vampire]

Sorry to tell you this but it's probably a combination of XP64 and the hardware/drivers you are running. XP64 has never been very good.

Vista HP64 on the other hand, runs the game flawlessly.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Sorry to tell you this but it's probably a combination of XP64 and the hardware/drivers you are running. XP64 has never been very good.

Vista HP64 on the other hand, runs the game flawlessly.

64-Bit Windows is fully backward-compatible to 32-Bit Windows. 32-Bit apps running on 64-Bit Windows will run in WOW64. The app won't even notice that it's running on 64-Bit Windows. So if a 32-Bit app suddenly doesn't work on 64-Bit Windows, then it was buggy from the very beginning. Maybe the bug just didn't exhibit on 32-Bit Windows for some reason. I can assure you that WinXP x64 runs rock stable - even more stable than WinXP did, as it uses a Server 2003 core. Also driver support has never been a problem (I'm using latest Cataylst). I run a lot of games here, including older ones. And they all work on WinXP x64 just like they did on WinXP. And most important: Other Half-Life Engine games, like CounterStrike or SvenCoop work just fine on my system! So it all goes for one conclusion: There's a bug in Half Life 1 at the moment.

Also I have filed a ticket now...

[Silicon Vampire]

Let us know what support says.

I never went to XP64 because of compatibility reasons... There are several issues with it that just don't show up on every machine and are not likely to be fixed.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Let us know what support says.

I never went to XP64 because of compatibility reasons... There are several issues with it that just don't show up on every machine and are not likely to be fixed.

Believe me, WinXP x64 is a good choice. I'm running XP x64 for more than a year now and I'm yet to see the first blue screen. Also drivers are not a problem at all, except for archaic or exotic hardware maybe. But you wouldn't find Vista drivers for such hardware either...

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Update: Half Life Decay runs fine too.

The "classic" Half Life still crashed at menus. My ticket remains "open" until today.
Will they ever look into it or just ignore it (so they don't have to fix it) ???

[ice age fire]

Same problem on my P4 3Gh XP home - so it's not your 64 OS. just wondering if it was a steam update -- ? If i could role back their updates! I'm in no hurry -- but would like to play a game I payed for -- once again

[LoRd_MuldeR]

@ice age fire:
Thanks for info. This is important to know!
You may want to file a support ticket and refer to my ticket ID, which is "[3103-FHBN-9171]".
Maybe they feel responsible to fix their bugs when MORE users complain...

@All:
Today I got reply from Steam support, but all they sent to me was an useless auto-generated mail with standard support instructions for Noobs (update your drivers, check your memory with Memtext86, etc). It seems they don't even read what you write in the ticket! They even sent my advices for AGP graphics-cards and for Source-Engine games, although I already made clear that I got a PCIe card and that the problem is in Half-Life 1. So I sent a more aggressive reply! I hope some human being at Valve will at least READ my bugreport, which obviously has not happened yet...

[ice age fire]

Don’t know if this will help or not – but - an update of my Navidia drivers at the request of Value prior to a download of Left4Dead – has given back life to (Half life) . Steam crashed once after the download ( w/ no surprise) but managed to stabilize on the second go-round. Half life seems to run fine once again. I can’t say why this would have made any difference – I’ll leave that to those who really need to get a life… But video drivers – go fig.
LoRd_MuldeR Good luck

[Themroc]

I have had the same problem with all the early games, but not the latest since I upgraded my Nvidia to 178.24

[fattymcblobicus]

Same exact problem here. Just downloaded steam and bought HL1 (for 98 cents!)

I start the app, the screen goes blank, the menu image flashes for a second, then it returns to my desktop without any error message. There isn't an error log either.

Running XP SP3 on a Core2Duo 2.0ghz, 4GB RAM.

[PhIxX]

I'm with y'all. Latest Nvidia drivers, tried compatibility options, even forcing the 640 x 480 resolution and 256 colors. Nothing seems to work.

[MisterMouser]

Yup, purchased and downloaded, same problem here. Crashes to desktop after a few seconds of loading.

Having a look at the dump files, (in my \steamapps\myname\half-life folder, with .mdmp extension) in notepad, about 2 thirds of the way through it mentions about half-life\valve\cl_dlls\client.dll, which incidentally doesn't exist. And if I try other client.dll's from the other valve games it sags can't load it, obviously as they are from another game, but still thought it was odd its not there.

Anyone got that dll file? Its possible its not anything to do with the problem though.

Integrity checks out ok. Cleared the cache files, downloaded again, same thing. CTD.

[d0ggie]

Running W2K3 x64 SP2 (all latest updated applied) with 6 GB RAM and 8800 GTS 320 MB (180.48); looks like everyone running in the problems with HL1 classic are using 64 bit system and more than 4 GB of RAM.

However, as I tested mods like Action HL and Firearms they both work just fine, so definitely not an issue with our configurations but a game bug. I also tried to apply -dev, -soft etc. command line switches to basically "disable anything that could cause the problem" without any luck.

(Btw, I *do* get an error message: "The exception unknown software exception (0xc0000005) occurred in the application at location [changes every now and then].")

Edit: Whoops, forgot to mention that I have an A64 X2 6000+ so I naturally tried to disable any multiprocessor settings, didn't help either (via nHancer and TaskAssign). But as I said, mods work fine.

[PhIxX]

I'm running 32 bit Vista Business with 2 Gb's of RAM, 8800 GTS G92, and 3200+ X2 at 2.5 Ghz.

[d0ggie]

Hm, so it's more general issue then :(

[PhIxX]

Unfortunately true. I'm beginning to wonder if it's a video card issue. A friend with similar setup to mine just installed and didn't have any problems, even with the latest Nvidia driver - but he's using an older 7900 GTO card.

[eAi]

Send me an mdmp file that is created when this crash happens - I'll have a look at it in a debugger and see if I can help. I doubt it, but I'm happy to try...

Either upload it somewhere and PM me a link, or PM me and I'll give you my email.

MisterMouser: The dll is inside the half-life.gcf file, you shouldn't expect to see it in the directory.

[THisisCarl]

I am encountering this error as well, just purchased the game and it wont go past the menus, i did the usual solutions but nothings helping.

[fattymcblobicus]

I don't have the 64 bit XP and I'm also using an Ati card (Radeon HD 2400 XT)

[Azirad]

I'm also having the problem in which it crashes before the menu.
I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP1 on a laptop with an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-64 (2.2Ghz dual-core), 3GBs of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD2400 Mobility. All of my drivers are up to date.

[PR!CK]

Getting rather annoyed with people assuming it's because of xp x64. I've had this OS for a while, and it use to run HL original and CS original and everything under the sun. Now, it's not working and doing the same as everyone else in here.

It's not the OS, trust me...

in windows task manager it clearly says HL.exe(32-bit) so the OS knows what it's doing...

The game doesn't.

Thanks steam...

How about fixing the issue now?



:::EDIT::::

By the way, I actually directly e-mailed Steam about this issue several months ago and they never e-mailed me back, I even took pictures, along with a real time video incase they wanted to see that.

Still no word from em...maybe they're as baffled as we are? Or maybe they just don't care :D

[Shinakuma2005]

Same Problem here too.
Vista Home Premium 32-bit on Laptop with ATI HD 3650 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo and 3 GB RAM.

I have also opened a Support-Ticket.

[Predator97]

Starting to think this is not our problem, but something with valve's end.

Have a 3.2 gig processor, 2 gigs ram, ati 9800pro 6.14 drivers DirectX9.0c, and have XP home edition SP2. Have the exact problem where it starts up fine goes to the main screen where I see gordon then boom. Looks like the computer tries to load the menu, but freezes up for some reason.

I've tried un-installing it and re-installing it, but to no avail. Have the old HL1 cd somewhere, but choose to buy it for .98c cause hey it's .98c . Maybe i'll try installing the original game to see if its the program, my machine, or possibly something getting lost in the download.

[Obeast]

Same thing here... :(

I'm running Vista Ultimate 32-bit w/SP 1 on a Athlon XP 3400+, 2.5 gigs of RAM, and a GeForce 7600 GS. I know the hardware is kinda dated, but it still runs just fine and it plays new stuff like Fallout 3. :)

I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling drivers, reinstalling the game, command line stuff, rebooting, turning off background applications, etc. The only thing I might try is reinstalling Steam itself and seeing if that does anything, but I'm not having any other big problems with it so I doubt that Steam is the issue.

I really hope it's Valve's problem and they can release a patch or something to fix it, because I've been craving to play some classic HL. :(

[Predator97]

Same thing here... :(

I'm running Vista Ultimate 32-bit w/SP 1 on a Athlon XP 3400+, 2.5 gigs of RAM, and a GeForce 7600 GS. I know the hardware is kinda dated, but it still runs just fine and it plays new stuff like Fallout 3. :)

I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling drivers, reinstalling the game, command line stuff, rebooting, turning off background applications, etc. The only thing I might try is reinstalling Steam itself and seeing if that does anything, but I'm not having any other big problems with it so I doubt that Steam is the issue.

I really hope it's Valve's problem and they can release a patch or something to fix it, because I've been craving to play some classic HL. :(

Well seeing what you've done i'm starting to get the feeling it is on valve's side. Have Star craft 1 and star craft 2 on this machine and if I remember correctly the specs for those games arn't too different from HL1s. I can run the games just fine on this machine.

[PR!CK]

Well seeing what you've done i'm starting to get the feeling it is on valve's side. Have Star craft 1 and star craft 2 on this machine and if I remember correctly the specs for those games arn't too different from HL1s. I can run the games just fine on this machine.

wait...star craft 2? unless it's brood war expansion, because i was about to say. HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THE RELEASE DATE!!

lol i've only been waiting for like 5 years...

damn you blizzard, i'm not sure who's worse...

[Obeast]

wait...star craft 2? unless it's brood war expansion, because i was about to say. HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THE RELEASE DATE!!

lol i've only been waiting for like 5 years...

damn you blizzard, i'm not sure who's worse...

I'm sure he meant Warcraft 2 or Diablo 2.

[PR!CK]

:( doom, i thought i just forgot about star craft 2 and it got released without me knowing it...

lol...

speaking of which whatever happened to star craft ghost?

AHH!! ok i'm getting off topic...

here's a picture, just to see if we're all on the same page (Which we probably are) of what mine is doing.

you may have to zoom in...

but yeah...


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v149/matt123/?action=view&current=confused.jpg

[Obeast]

:( doom, i thought i just forgot about star craft 2 and it got released without me knowing it...

lol...

speaking of which whatever happened to star craft ghost?

AHH!! ok i'm getting off topic...

here's a picture, just to see if we're all on the same page (Which we probably are) of what mine is doing.

you may have to zoom in...

but yeah...


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v149/matt123/?action=view&current=confused.jpg
Starcraft Ghost was canceled as far as anyone is aware. Blizzard hasn't talked about the game for a while, but they also haven't officially said it has been canned either. So, who knows...

ANYWAYS, back to the topic at hand...

I put my task manager on and ran the game. The 'hl.exe' entry showed up when I started the game, but it didn't stay on like on your computer.

[PR!CK]

Hm, that is strange, mine just stays on and does nothing, runs in the backround accomplishing nothing. This is indeed a very unusual problem we're dealing with...

i'm completely baffled as to what to do with it...

so, i'm just going to delete every little trace of HL then install in proper order from what i remember a long time ago.


HL
CS
CZ

then we'll see where it goes...

probably won't accomplish anything but a lot of wasted time seeing that i already tried this.

[Wugger]

I have this exact same problem of the game closing immediately. Why isn't there anyone fixing it or explaining the problem?

[MisterMouser]

I'm thinking this is vista related. My machine dual boots, so, from my vista (which gets the blank screen then desktop), restarted and booted into XP (on sp3).

Started Steam, verified the files integrity (using the same install of steam as under vista), just the way I have this PC setup, started half-life, ran with no problems. Didn't do any extra downloading from what is in my vista setup.

So at least I can play it.

It could be that its not fully vista compatible.

[Obeast]

I'm thinking this is vista related. My machine dual boots, so, from my vista (which gets the blank screen then desktop), restarted and booted into XP (on sp3).

Started Steam, verified the files integrity (using the same install of steam as under vista), just the way I have this PC setup, started half-life, ran with no problems. Didn't do any extra downloading from what is in my vista setup.

So at least I can play it.

It could be that its not fully vista compatible.

Some people in this thread who are running XP are having the same problem. I do have an extra partition, so I might just try dual booting XP and see if it works. I really hope I don't end up having to boot into XP every time I wanna play HL. :(

[Wugger]

Okay guys, I've found exactly how to fix this error. The program is DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Some reason it blocks the hl.exe file. Here are the steps on how to successfully run Half Life.

{{[STEPS TO FIX HALF-LIFE MENU CRASH]}}
1. Click Start
2. Open Control Panel
3. Click on System and Maintenance
4. Click on System
5. On the right, click on "Advanced System Settings"
6. Under Performance, click Settings.
7. Go to the last tab, Data Execution Prevention.
8. Check "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only"
9. Restart your computer.
10. Run Half-Life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me if this helped. I have 32-bit vista, but it should be the same for XP.

[Obeast]

Okay guys, I've found exactly how to fix this error. The program is DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Some reason it blocks the hl.exe file. Here are the steps on how to successfully run Half Life.

{{[STEPS TO FIX HALF-LIFE MENU CRASH]}}
1. Click Start
2. Open Control Panel
3. Click on System and Maintenance
4. Click on System
5. On the right, click on "Advanced System Settings"
6. Under Performance, click Settings.
7. Go to the last tab, Data Execution Prevention.
8. Check "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only"
9. Restart your computer.
10. Run Half-Life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me if this helped. I have 32-bit vista, but it should be the same for XP.

YES!!!! I love you! It works! :D

I added 'hl.exe' to the list of DEP exceptions, and I got to the menu. Also, you don't have to reboot your computer. Thank you, my good sir (or mam)! :)

[MisterMouser]

YES!!!! I love you! It works! :D

I added 'hl.exe' to the list of DEP exceptions, and I got to the menu. Also, you don't have to reboot your computer. Thank you, my good sir (or mam)! :)

Yay, works here too now under vista, I did the same, just excluding the HL exe from DEP. Nice one :)

[Azirad]

Okay guys, I've found exactly how to fix this error. The program is DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Some reason it blocks the hl.exe file. Here are the steps on how to successfully run Half Life.

{{[STEPS TO FIX HALF-LIFE MENU CRASH]}}
1. Click Start
2. Open Control Panel
3. Click on System and Maintenance
4. Click on System
5. On the right, click on "Advanced System Settings"
6. Under Performance, click Settings.
7. Go to the last tab, Data Execution Prevention.
8. Check "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only"
9. Restart your computer.
10. Run Half-Life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me if this helped. I have 32-bit vista, but it should be the same for XP.

It worked. Thanks.

[d0ggie]

Works on W2K3 x64, too! Excellent detective work, I highly appreciate!

[Wugger]

Yeah I'm glad it helped. I might just make this a thread so people won't have to search through these pages.

[eAi]

The reason this happens is due to the way half-life works. Half-life's client.dll is encrypted, and decrypted when you start the game. In this process it copies the contents of the dll into memory, but that memory is marked as data memory, so as soon as it jumps into the dll to start the game (at 0x19489A1, where you've been having the crash), the DEP goes "Hey, this looks like a virus is trying to run code where it shouldn't be!" and crashes it with an Access Violation error, as you've seen.

Turning off DEP obviously will fix it, but potentially opens your computer to more attacks from viruses etc... Ideally Valve can fix this - perhaps removing the encryption from the dll, as it's somewhat superfluous now (and there are decryptors out there (http://aluigi.altervista.org/papers/hldlldec.zip)).

[Wugger]

I tried that first too, but something kept putting it back on the list even when I disabled it and applied. So yeah, disabling it will work with people too.

[Predator97]

Hoping valve will release an update for this. Hate to go tinkering in my system since the dang thing has been finicky lately.

[DCtc]

I've been having this problem too.

Okay guys, I've found exactly how to fix this error. The program is DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Some reason it blocks the hl.exe file. Here are the steps on how to successfully run Half Life.

{{[STEPS TO FIX HALF-LIFE MENU CRASH]}}
1. Click Start
2. Open Control Panel
3. Click on System and Maintenance
4. Click on System
5. On the right, click on "Advanced System Settings"
6. Under Performance, click Settings.
7. Go to the last tab, Data Execution Prevention.
8. Check "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only"
9. Restart your computer.
10. Run Half-Life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me if this helped. I have 32-bit vista, but it should be the same for XP.

I followed these steps, Only to find Advanced System Settings doesn't have a Data Execution Prevention tab. I have a Windows XP. Help?

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u88/DCtcAqua/h.jpg

[eAi]

DEP was added in XP SP2. If you're running SP1, you won't see it. If you're running SP1, I'd advise upgrading anyway, if nothing else it might show you the tab!

[DCtc]

DEP was added in XP SP2. If you're running SP1, you won't see it. If you're running SP1, I'd advise upgrading anyway, if nothing else it might show you the tab!

Well I upgraded, and fixed the issue, but nothing really happened. Now, I can play the menu and all of it's options, but whenever I click on something it crashes. UGH.:mad:

[PR!CK]

Yeah, It still doesn't even launch for me, it just runs in the backround.

infact my computer was already set to that specific setting.

Hm, now I'm even more confused...


!!!!EDIT!!!!


Speaking of which...

I find it hilarious left 4 dead runs perfectly fine yet any game that requires hardly any recources or performance (CS,HL,CZ) just runs in the backround and won't ever launch.

strange >.< very very strange...

[Predator97]

Well something happened where a dev must have modified it. In 640x480 mode my menus finally popped up for me. Was all happy and excited, but decided "I don't like this". So I went in and changed the video setting to 1024x768 what i'm running at. Sadly i'm not back to square 1 where the menus refuse to pop up for some reason.

[DCtc]

Well something happened where a dev must have modified it. In 640x480 mode my menus finally popped up for me. Was all happy and excited, but decided "I don't like this". So I went in and changed the video setting to 1024x768 what i'm running at. Sadly i'm not back to square 1 where the menus refuse to pop up for some reason.

Is there a way to change the screen size without clicking on options?

[Predator97]

Unfortunately I have no clue about that. The game probably would have been fine, but when I selected the 1024x768 setting it restarted the game. This probably caused the whole mess and may have had a rare "Halaluja moment" or whatever it was when the game loaded correctly.

If my laptop was up and running I would be dang well tempted to decompile the .dll files for HL1 steam version compairing their coding to the original HL1. See what it is they changed then try to fix it.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Is there a way to change the screen size without clicking on options?

Windows Registry ;)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings

[Predator97]

Seem to encounter another problem when I tried to boot up HL1. My logitech mouse gets a malfunction up its butt. When I ctrl+alt+del out of it my mouse still seems messed up like it's going faster than it is programmed. Have the drivers installed and they are up to date currently.

[Otto-Grainer]

Windows Registry ;)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings


Hmmm, is that. . . . safe? :confused:

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Hmmm, is that. . . . safe? :confused:

As long as you know what you are doing :p

"ScreenWidth", "ScreenHeight" and "ScreenBPP" are simply DWORD's holding the corresponding number.
Shouldn't be too hard to edit, even for a newbie.

Anyways:
You can always delete the entire "Settings" reg key and you'll be back at factory settings...

[Predator97]

Well i'm still going to wait for valve to release a statement saying they looked at HL1 and fixed the possible problems.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Well i'm still going to wait for valve to release a statement saying they looked at HL1 and fixed the possible problems.

Me too, but I wouldn't be too optimistic ;)

[wh1terav3n]

valve still hasn't fixed this have they, I'm angry about this, because now, deathmatch classic and ricochet won't work either b/c HL1 won't I'm guessing. I'm on xp 32 bit, tablet edition with an intel graphics card, 2 1.6 ghz processors, and 2 gb of ram. I really want this problem fixed.

Edit 1: Mmmk...now Counter-strike won't work either, it has to be something with the engine or something. How did this not come up before??

[PR!CK]

:confused::confused::confused::confused::confused: :confused:


I don't know what's going on with the classic HL games.

I also don't know if we're all experiencing the same type of crash.

Mine crashes different from someone elses crash...

See, what mine does is, Steam says, "Launching counter strike (ect)" then it goes away, the hour glass stops and it does nothing...

then when I check windows task manager, it says, HL.exe(32B) so it just runs in the backround...

Very strange.

Also, Steam never contacted me back with this trouble ticket and it's been about 3 months now.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Also, Steam never contacted me back with this trouble ticket and it's been about 3 months now.

Same here! My ticket was filed at 2008-09-11, so it was three months ago at 2008-12-11.
Until now I never got a useful reply. Only those auto-generated nonsense mails :rolleyes:

I realized that Valve, while making excellent games, doesn't care about old games and they also don't care that customers payed hard money for them. If you are lucky and it still runs on your current system, then you are fine. If you got a problem, then you are lost. They obviously don't investigate and fix bugs anymore for GoldSrc. Support tickets for old games (maybe for all game?) are simply ignored.

So I gave up. Not being able to play HL is sad, but live goes on ;)
I really got more important stuff to do...

[joker23]

I don't know if this will help anyone or not.

I recently brought an old computer back into service and installed a second Steam account so I can play online with my son. When I set up Half Life, I turned on EAX and A3D (the computer is old and has an Aureal Vortex 2 that supports A3D). I could then never get past the initial splash screen. If the menu items did show up, I could not click on them.

I went into c:\program files\steam\steamapps\myaccountname\halflife\valve and found a file called config.cfg. I made sure s_eax = 0 and s_a3d = 0

Works better now.

No A3D support and stereo is reversed, but I can play.

[blargagarga]

I thought I'd keep this thread alive since I'm still having the problem despite trying everything suggested in support and in this thread.

[PR!CK]

I figured out my problem.

Disable forceware...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/matt123/force.jpg

then it'll run.

the FPS sucks now, down to like, 30-40 when CS:Source runs at 250 and while running 195. So, the game doesn't run smooth anymore and that was the 1 thing that kept me playing original cs.

Now it just feels god awful.

:(

oh well, back to CS:S for me.

[Kaixx]

This is happening with me as well.

Worked perfectly with Vista 32-bit. Now I have Windows 7 64-bit and it has the problems everyone else has said in here. I thought it might've just been Windows 7 at first but no one else has Windows 7 in here, so...

I have Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM and ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2.

[persechini]

Wow, 4 months old post and no one from valve figured it out...

well, here is my problem description (witch is the same as many here)

- half-life and half-life: blue shift crashes few seconds after the main screen background appear, before the menu shows up

- I have a xfx 9600gt nvidia graphic card

- I'm running windows vista business 32bit

- I actualy managed to play both of them a few days ago, after I bought them. I just set the resolution to mach my monitor, played a few minutes and exit, but the next time I tryed to run the game, they started presenting the problem

- I tryed deleting and redownloading, verifying the games cache, checkin in and out of steam beta client. so far nothing worked, te problem remain unchanged. no graphic drivers were updated recently

[Quillaina]

Have you tried the suggestion made by Wugger one page back? It fixed this problem for me. Only instead of setting it to "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only," I left it at "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select." Then I just added the "hl.exe" for each game I was having trouble with. That way it's still fully enabled, but it will ignore those games.

[melanzysta]

I've found the solution, which works on Vista Home Premium 32bit - you only have to start the game with "-d3d" parameter and everything will be all right, you will see the menu and the game will be playable. This way you force the game not to use the OpenGL rendering which is responsible for all the glitches

[BloodShed]

I have also begun having this problem too, but it causes my whole pc to freeze when the main menu starts to appear. -_-

you only have to start the game with "-d3d" parameter and everything will be all right, you will see the menu and the game will be playable. This way you force the game not to use the OpenGL rendering which is responsible for all the glitches

This all fine and dandy, but im limited to 640x480 and I get resolution unsupported if try to change it.

[persechini]

Have you tried the suggestion made by Wugger one page back? It fixed this problem for me. Only instead of setting it to "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only," I left it at "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select." Then I just added the "hl.exe" for each game I was having trouble with. That way it's still fully enabled, but it will ignore those games.

I've tryed it before I posted, at the time it didnt work, but after melanzysta post, I tryed both DEP and -d3d parameter, and it worked. now I can play, but should I take back either of them the game stop working again. so I guess I had 2 problems instead of 1

PS: darkstar one also needed to be listed in DEP exception, but now it seems to work withou it, maybe HL will work without fixes after reooting

[Adam Banman]

I've been working on this problem for a while. I tried re-installing HL1 many times with no luck.

When I start HL1, I see the background image, but the menus never show up. instead, the game crashes.

Specs
Windows XP 64-bit
Intel Q9300 (Quad core 2.5)
4GB of Ram
nvidia 9800 GTX Black Edition

I know that people can run HL1 in 64-bit XP, so I don't think that's an issue. I have tried setting affinity, but it crashes before then. When trying to set affinity via a short cut, it doesn't work. I have also tried Compatibility mode with no luck.

Thanks in advanced!
~ Mooga

Im having the exact same problem, i see the menu screen, andthen it just sends me back to my desktop and shuts the game down.

Odd thing is that it was working fine for about a week, then just stopped.

Luckily i also own half life source, but still, this is annoying

[BloodShed]

Just tried OpenGL Extensions Viewer and the latest Nvidia drivers (182.08 - March) and it seems everything is in order.
http://www.realtech-vr.com/glview/

I tested with Quake 1, Quake 2, Duke Nukem Manhattan Project and Half-Life

DNMP and HL freeze my system when using OpenGL in Fullscreen mode.
Kinda weird since they work flawlessly in window mode.

[BigDaddyOKC]

I just installed steam. I am having the same kinda issue.. I click launch game in steam.. It acts like its loading but nothing loads.. In task manager i see hl.exe *32.... I am running windows xp 64bit and cant get it to load.. Any ideas???

[chrisdglong]

It hardly surprises me that adding this game to the DEP exception list actually works. Thank you for the idea! Windows Vista is a horrible gaming OS. My list of DEP exceptions is huge now.

[chrisdglong]

I just installed steam. I am having the same kinda issue.. I click launch game in steam.. It acts like its loading but nothing loads.. In task manager i see hl.exe *32.... I am running windows xp 64bit and cant get it to load.. Any ideas???

Go to advanced system settings, advanced tab, performance settings, Data execution settings, then add the hl2 and Blue shift .exe's to the list.

btw, it wont hurt your system. It just tells windows vista that the program selected is able to access otherwise restricted areas of the memory.

[BigDaddyOKC]

I tried that with hl.exe and it didnt work.. I set it to steam.exe and hl.exe still cant get it to work in windows xp 64bit...

[mr_s]

I have EXACTLY same problem, only with Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

Has anyone found any fixes yet?

[BloodShed]

I have finally found the source for some of my OpenGL games freezing on me.

Just disable SLI

[CANADIANPIG]

Okay guys, I've found exactly how to fix this error. The program is DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Some reason it blocks the hl.exe file. Here are the steps on how to successfully run Half Life.

{{[STEPS TO FIX HALF-LIFE MENU CRASH]}}
1. Click Start
2. Open Control Panel
3. Click on System and Maintenance
4. Click on System
5. On the right, click on "Advanced System Settings"
6. Under Performance, click Settings.
7. Go to the last tab, Data Execution Prevention.
8. Check "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only"
9. Restart your computer.
10. Run Half-Life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me if this helped. I have 32-bit vista, but it should be the same for XP.

Thank you good sir. I now bestow upon you exactly one "internet." Use it wisely...:cool:

[um0123]

EDIT: Nevermind, follow the post above mine to fix it.

[witmoreluke]

This worked for me:

1. Go to games library
2. Right click on half life title in game list
3. Click properties
4. Click "SET LAUNCH OPTIONS..."
5. Type in without quotes "-d3d -gl -software"
6. Click OK
7. Close properties menu
8. Run game

I have to run all 3 -d3d -gl -software commands, it won't work properly without them all. Running it without the -software command makes the game appear with better graphics, but odd glitches occur such as:
-Rapidly dwindling health or instant death in elevators
-Doors don't open and close properly, or do so too fast
-Other minor things

Try all three first, and see if that doesn't help.

Thanks for reading, and I hope it helps!

[D!ffr@c+0r]

LoRd_MuldeR, thanks for UHARC GUI!

Has anyone tried disabling Microsoft's software implementation of DEP (data execution prevention) completely? I never use it... With it enabled Blue-Shift refuses to run.

[gorpie]

Bump for assistance.

Why are you bumping this thread?

Most people don't ever make it to page two, let alone know that they can display older threads in the forum, so this is never found. Instead, they post a new thread and we reply with many of the same suggestions that are presumably listed here.

We usually get them going within one, sometimes two pages, and they don't have to wade through 7 pages of posts. (I guess if there's a really odd, esoteric fix in here, that's one thing--I didn't read through all seven pages.)