ERROR: infinite loop & HL2 !

MousePotato

-ok, this is pissin me off!!

-the ati driver gets stuck in an infinite loop, and blah blah, THIS only happens when i try to play HL2, i cant even get off the dang train in first scene before it locks up!!

*no other game does it, hell even CSS plays fine? wtf ???

-i have tried other drivers, no difference, its not sound related, it still happens without sound card.

-tried clean HL2 install, validated files,

-used driver claener pro, did new driver install,

-tried disabling AI, AA AF , changing resolution, refresh rate, still it F*ing locks up, and recovers from the infinite loop error.

-not heat related, as i can play ut2k4 for many hours, not any issues

- no OCing

- my hardware is fine( a new build), and should walk through this game like butter, but its just frekin HL2 thats the trouble !!!

ANYONE HAVE ANY THOUGHTS PLEASE ! BEFORE I PULL MY HAIR OUT!!

thanks

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pc specs:

MSI Neo4 Platinum
AMD FX-53
Zalman 7000B-cu HSF
Radeon X850 XT PCI-E
2 gig PC4000 RAM
2X 36g Raptor SATA
Audigy 2 ZS
Enermax 600W Noisetaker PSU

micron

Just because you can play UT2K4 fine, doesnt mean that all other games will not cause you problems. UT2K4 uses hardly any shaders.....and the shaders it does use, are ps1.4(mostly to render terrain)


HL2 uses ps2.0 extensively, and other than Doom3's fragment shaders, and maybe Far Cry's use of multi-shaders across the board....I cant think of a better game to push your graphics card to it's limits.

You could simply have a bad stick of memory in your system, or have a weak power supply......is there a newer motherboard bios for you to download?.....are your chipset drivers current, and installed correctly?

You have a lot of ground to cover my friend....but thats what being a pc enthusiaste is all about....

MousePotato

Its a brand new custom pc i built, all hardware has been tested and show no errors or issues.All drivers and bios are current.

I can run whatever stress test ,3DMark,Prime, memtest or anything for hours without one problem.

Something related to HL2 ONLY is the issue here, and i'll track it down , or throw the game away LOL

ChoGGi

does this do anything for you?
http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...&enterthread=y

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specs
Common Problems and Fixes for your Radeon

Radiohead x800

I can't tell you how bad I feel for you because I had the same problem. You've got the best card known to man, so I can't say it's because you don't have enough horsepower. My infinite loop was with an X600, which I RMA'ed for an X800XL and the problem has not recurred since.

The first thing you should do is eliminate a heat issue. Take the side of your case off and even point a small fan at the GC. Then cross your fingers and hope you'll solve your problem with better cooling, even water cooling.

ATi tech support gave me this article to read. I tried a lot of the recommendations on the list. Remember, it could still always be simply the GC itself. If nothing else works, could you RMA? How long ago did you get it?

http://support.ati.com/ics/tt/getFil...770DD2A7945AD3

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ASUS P5GD2-Deluxe
(OC) 3.4Ghz P4 - Zalman cooled
1GB DDR2 533
Powercolor X800XL PCI-e

lewis_johnstone

Try catalyst 4.12

I have problems with HL2 crashing from cat 5.2 onwards.

I went back to cat 4.12 and it runs fine. (but i dont like havin to use old drivers)

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Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
4GB Corsair DDR3 1333MHz C9 Twin3X
Asus P5E3 Socket 775
4870 X2 2GB CrossfireX (Quad-GPU)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality
1000W PSU
Windows Vista Premium 64bit
3DMark Vantage : 15880 3DMark06 : 16652

MousePotato

thank you, HL2 does indeed run great with the 4.12 drivers.

lewis_johnstone

So what are we supposed to do when new games come out and we need new drivers?

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Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
4GB Corsair DDR3 1333MHz C9 Twin3X
Asus P5E3 Socket 775
4870 X2 2GB CrossfireX (Quad-GPU)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatality
1000W PSU
Windows Vista Premium 64bit
3DMark Vantage : 15880 3DMark06 : 16652

micron

You can get some approved drivers from Dell .......after all, you did just fork over a couple thousand to them for that computer.

The_Neon_Cowboy

FYI happens on ATI & NVIDIA cards... hers a nvidia forum with a buch of people haveing
said issues in all kinds of gmes http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=3425 . I
don't exactly know but I've read a few people fixed it useing diffrent chipset drivers.

6.53 is the latest
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp2k_6.53

But considering steam and hl2 and CS:s are more like "betas" being constantly changed things broken and fixed by vavle and thier beta testing things like "VAC" etc... It's more prone to problems then any other game. Most are just patched/updated every so often.
It's hard to tell... every time they monkey with it (all the time) they screw something up....

I would run a memory test, check your temps and all that.
I's try completely uninstalling steam, reinstalling stream and redownloading your games...

even as far as formating reinstalling windows and all your drivers and hl2 if you want to get extreme....

BTW: CS:S shares the HL2 executable and many of it files the game engine and all that.

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MousePotato

***update***thought maybe a new driver would help, but same thing with the latest 5.5 drivers!!!! LOCK UPs WITH HL2

------------>again, i go back to the 4.12 drivers to play HL2

gg ATI, luv this vid card, but c'mon, there has to be some thing u guys can do , a simple compare of the 4.12 and 5.5 to see whats causing the HL2 lock ups.

. maybe its only with rig/settings ?

FX-53
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
MSI Radeon X850XT PCI-E
2048 MB Crucial Ballistix PC4000
2X Western Digital 36g SATA Raptors
Audigy 2 ZS

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I run all games at 1280x1024 x32 @100Hz
16XAF
6XAA

------------- HL2 is the only game that locks up, not 30 seconds into playing it, and the vid card recovers from an error screen pops up.

The_Neon_Cowboy

Your about the only one I see having a problem with that on this forum.
Among the few of ATI & NVIDIA users with the issue. Its usually 1 game
among many that do it other may run ok.

The fact that it happens on more the 1 brand points to something in the game
or mostly the system environment many fixing it with chipset drivers, AGP voltage,
system memory, updateing bios, replacing motherboards, formatting / reinstalling, CPU/ GPU overheating (poor cooling or case airflow , high room temps), game patches updates among many other things. Just because its effected by what drivers your using doesn't necessary mean it has anything to do with the drivers them selfs. thier but one part in the massive and uniqe puzzle you call a system

for example salt and lemon juice on your arm does nothing, but if you already have have a open cut it a while other story, it would hurt like hell. It's not the salt and lemon juices fault for your cut already being there. some times it's other things.

A good practice is to format and reinstall windows every 30-90 days especially to
Seek a resolution to a strange problem that others are not having. With out writing
a book on the topic windows gets junked over a period of time. Unless you don't use
the system in any manner then as a "business only workstation”. Then it lives a long
time.Weather you see it or not windows leaves more junk behind the NASA. Performance
drops and all that....

Have you even formatted and reinstalled windows? Have your tried the other suggestions
I made in that thread like uninstalling steam and reinstalling + re-downloading your games?? Etc…

What exactly have you tried to resolve the issue?

Thats'd be nice if say many other people were haveing the problem. And it only happened with ati cards or a certain and exact config or a range. every system is VERY diffrent. Even at the smallest levels OEM machine that are all exacly the same are all slighly diffrent on a lower level. After the customer open it it become something totally diffrent. Drivers , windows updates, the program they use, the settings they monkey with, programs they load. What they do or don't do and how they use it.

Facts is it happens with ATI & Nvidia cards and aprears to commonly be fixed by means
other then haveing anything to do with the grahics card or driver itself.

Have you tried running it at other then at that RES and AA/AF and refresh rate?

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