Problems running Gmod and HL2

[GordonOfFreeman]

I just got these games yesterday and I was excited to play them. So, after a couple of hours of downloading, it's playable, however, they crash.

HL2: The game begins as usual: Valve's logo and Source. Then, black screen, returning me to the Desktop.
Gmod: Same thing as HL2, it brings me back to the Desktop.

Synergy: Starts up fine, I'm able to start a server and such. However, in spite of low res'd gameplay, if I were to pick up a weapon or whatever, my computer completely crashes and restarts itself.

Does anybody know how to fix this aside from putting the quality down (if I can do that with Gmod and HL2 without it crashing) or could it be my pre-historic computer?

[masterchef341]

Obviously, it could be your prehistoric computer. We have no way of making that assessment without the specifications of your computer.

[DinoCarbon]

This could be a variety of issues, did you mod your hl2, configure any options, set any parameters? If not then, seek google which is what I usually do. Hm. Strange when people didn't have good enough specs to play a game, it usually just gives them a message that this game isn't runnable when they run it or it freezes. crashing is usually corrupted files, wrong files, quite often if you tamper with the source engine files. verify the game cache, and post your computer specs here. on my old xp desktop running nvidia geforce fx 5200, the blood comes out as red scribbles, well like dots and lines and pretty often if there's too many particles. There'd be these slices of colors of the rainbow like slashing my fricken screen when i look around making it unplayable due to not being able to see where im going. lol. but yea show us your specs, update to the latest drivers n stuff.

[GordonOfFreeman]

Originally Posted by masterchef341

Obviously, it could be your prehistoric computer. We have no way of making that assessment without the specifications of your computer.

It's a Windows XP, for one. Version 2002 (although, I was able to run the demo quite smoothly with no problems at all)
Intel[R]
Pentium[R] 4 CPU 2.40GHz
2.39 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM

As for my laptop, which has the same problem only with Gmod, I'll post later.
But while I'm on the subject, my laptop does the same thing with Gmod (as said). With HL2, it tells me I don't have something that isn't on Steam's list of whatever it is. If I run it, it'll still crash.

However, I can run Synergy completely fine on it.

Originally Posted by DinoCarbon

This could be a variety of issues, did you mod your hl2, configure any options, set any parameters? If not then, seek google which is what I usually do. Hm. Strange when people didn't have good enough specs to play a game, it usually just gives them a message that this game isn't runnable when they run it or it freezes. crashing is usually corrupted files, wrong files, quite often if you tamper with the source engine files. verify the game cache, and post your computer specs here. on my old xp desktop running nvidia geforce fx 5200, the blood comes out as red scribbles, well like dots and lines and pretty often if there's too many particles. There'd be these slices of colors of the rainbow like slashing my fricken screen when i look around making it unplayable due to not being able to see where im going. lol. but yea show us your specs, update to the latest drivers n stuff.

I didn't tamper with anything. I just downloaded the game yesterday. The only 'tampering' I would be doing is adding maps/tools/weapons etc. to Gmod.

[HL2-4-Life]

Ymm, what vid card do you have in that P4 machine?

[GordonOfFreeman]

How do you check?

[HL2-4-Life]

Originally Posted by GordonOfFreeman

How do you check?

Just google GPUZ and download it, run it and you can see what card you have....

[GordonOfFreeman]

Erm... Too much time to do that :P

But I can tell you that I can run Synergy on this monster before picking something up and crashing. Also runs at about a 15FPS rate and low res'd quality.

[GordonOfFreeman]

First off, let me post my info for the things that I'm using/I used:

Dell Desktop:

Windows XP
Version 2002 (although, I was able to run the demo quite smoothly with no problems at all)
Intel[R]
Pentium[R] 4 CPU 2.40GHz
2.39 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM

HP Pavilion Notebook Laptop:

Windows Vista
Version 2007
Intel(R) Core 2 Duo CPU
T6500 2.10GHz
4.00 GB of RAM



Problems:

Desktop:

Whenever I run HL2 on my desktop, it'll start up, showing the Valve and Source logo and then crash, returning me to my desktop.
As with Gmod, does the same, however, it doesn't even have the chance to show the person with the G-tool (as I like to call it).
Synergy: Runs very slow (probably due to how big of a monster it is) with low res'd quality. Computer completely crashes and restarts when I pick a weapon up.

Laptop:

Running HL2, tells me that my drivers and such are not on Steams list. I've uploaded them to get it over with. I start the game, it goes through logos then crashes, however, my screen will act like the game is running in the background with a low res'd desktop and tab.
Gmod: Starts up and goes to the screen with the person, then crashes.
Synergy: Runs completely fine, little to no lag when playing.

Can anybody tell me what's going on? I've been hearing that it's the new update that's causing this and about 3 other posts having near the same problem as I am. Nonetheless, could anybody give me some advice or tell me what's going on?

[YahooElite]

Your desktop is extremely limited, as such that is most likely the cause of your problems, that isnt a gaming desktop by any means ESPECIALLY with only 1GB of RAM.

Laptop is somewhat better but still a little lacking.

All in all you could see if reformatting will resolve the issue as theres no telling whats wrong with your systems, but theres no guarentee that will help.

[seseorang]

No graphics card listed. Could be an old one that is not supported since Valve updated the game to Source 2009 engine

[Nekomancer]

The demo uses an older engine, HL2 and GMod have been updated to the newer Orange Box version of the Source engine which has higher requirements regarding the videocard. Probably both do not meet the system requirements.

But to be honest, that engine update didn't change much, if your hardware doesn't meet the requirements now, it must be from a digital stone age.

The games now require a DirectX 8.1 compatible Shader Model 1.4 capable video card.
DirectX8.1 was released 2001, ELEVEN YEARS AGO!
nVidia released their first DirectX8.1 capable videocard in 2003, that was NINE years ago.
ATI/AMD released their first DirectX8.1 capable videocard in 2001 (man, they were early to adopt that), that was ELEVEN years ago.

That means your hardware technology is more than a decade old if your videocard doesn't meet the requirements.

[GordonOfFreeman]

Originally Posted by Nekomancer

The demo uses an older engine, HL2 and GMod have been updated to the newer Orange Box version of the Source engine which has higher requirements regarding the videocard. Probably both do not meet the system requirements.

But to be honest, that engine update didn't change much, if your hardware doesn't meet the requirements now, it must be from a digital stone age.

The games now require a DirectX 8.1 compatible Shader Model 1.4 capable video card.
DirectX8.1 was released 2001, ELEVEN YEARS AGO!
nVidia released their first DirectX8.1 capable videocard in 2003, that was NINE years ago.
ATI/AMD released their first DirectX8.1 capable videocard in 2001 (man, they were early to adopt that), that was ELEVEN years ago.

That means your hardware technology is more than a decade old if your videocard doesn't meet the requirements.

If this is true, then why can I run Synergy fine on both?

One more thing for added info: Whenever I run HL2 on my laptop, it tells me that something isn't on Steam's database. However, if I were to upload the info (which I did) they'll be sure to add it their database.

Whenever I play HL2 on my Desktop, it doesn't tell me that message, but rather play the game.

[HybriDSawZ]

On my laptop I have now (getting an actual decent gaming rig in a couple of months. WOOT.) the same thing that happened to you on GMod happened to me. This was to due to just not being able to run it... I haven't tried HL2 on this computer but that sounds like your processor just isn't delivering. Therefore, you probably can't run that, either. I suggest you contact support and get a refund and get a game you actually can run. (I suggest Terarria or HL1) I did the same thing. They go easy on you if it's your first time. Good luck.

EDIT: http://systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/ Download that and see if you just straight up can't run it.

[Nekomancer]

Originally Posted by GordonOfFreeman

If this is true, then why can I run Synergy fine on both?

One more thing for added info: Whenever I run HL2 on my laptop, it tells me that something isn't on Steam's database. However, if I were to upload the info (which I did) they'll be sure to add it their database.

Whenever I play HL2 on my Desktop, it doesn't tell me that message, but rather play the game.

Would you please finally provide informations about the videocards used in both your setups?

@HybriDSawZ
That site is horrible. It provides inaccurate and sometimes plain wrong results. Especially regarding mobile and integrated chipsets. I strongly recommend not to use this site or even think about promoting it. The cherry on top is that it requires Java to run the extremely basic test. It only checks for simple things like CPU clock speed, RAM size and shader model support of the videocard. Which is no indicator for the real performance of that.

According to their site my integrated (now disabled) Radeon HD 4200 would run any DirectX10.1 game and would meet their recommended criteria for any game. Too bad it performs that bad it struggles in games that use Shader Model 3.0 since it's shader computing power is simply bad, very, very bad.