Half Life 2 won't run but some other games do...help please

[abeal2]

Built a new comp. Booted up fine and ran WoW and 3Dmark just fine as well. Never tried playing Half Life 2. Worked for three days and all of the sudden the power supply dies on the 3rd day. I was using a 450 generic PS with 24 pins. The motherboard only needs 20 pins, so i'm not sure if this is the reason why my PS died (i left the 4 extra pins on the far right of the 24 pin strip hanging out not touching anything) . Anyways, i got a new generic 350W PS locally. plugged it in and everything worked like before. I finally install HL2 and try to play it and the comp reboots. Right after it gets into the initial screen with the "New Game" "Options", etc, it would reboot the comp.

I have tried running prime95 and 3dmark over night. zero errors. WoW still works fine. I haven't been able to install Doom3 or any other games yet. i have installed the latest Nforce and nvidia driver as well as the motherboard driver and windows updates. of course nothing is overclocked or modified. Before I start the painstaking task of disassembling every component in my comp to narrow down the problem, is there any component that for sure, is NOT causing the problem? also, any clue why my 450W PS died?


Sempron 3100+
ECS NFORCE3-A
Corsair 1gb valueram
geforce 6600 OC

 

[dguy6789]

You have stated that you have ran prime95 overnight with no errors. May I inquire as to what type of test you ran? For testing the cpu, I recommend running the Small FTTs test overnight. If you get no errors, then you know your cpu is not the problem.

Make sure you have the latest motherboard drivers and video card drivers. You can get both of them here:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Also, I recommend downloading memtest86. Download the iso, burn it to a cd, then boot off of the cd. Run the memtest program for 2-3 passes. If it has no errors, then you know your memory is not causing the problem.

http://www.memtest86.com/

While running Prime 95, I recommend running this program in the background:

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php


This will let you moniter temperatures of a few hardware components. When running Prime 95, your cpu should not go above 5C even in a case with no airflow. Also, moniter and take note of what temperatures your other components are.

Another thing you need to do: After Prime 95 has been on for around half an hour, open up speedfan to full view. Take note of what the 12, 5, and 3.3 Volt rails are at when your system is under full load. If the 12V is with 5% of 12, the 5V with 5% of 5, and the 3.3V with 5% of 3.3, then you know your power supply is not the problem.

Also, I suggest opening up Steam and checking to make sure your Half Life 2 is completely up to date in terms of patches/updates.

Finally, I recommend going to windows update and downloading every single update on there except for messenger 4.7(unless of course you use it). Even if you see something on there that you think you may not need, go ahead and download it anyway.

After doing the things listed above, you will know for sure that the problem is not caused by the cpu, memory, power supply, windows, drivers, or the game itself. Good Luck.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
You have stated that you have ran prime95 overnight with no errors. May I inquire as to what type of test you ran? For testing the cpu, I recommend running the Small FTTs test overnight. If you get no errors, then you know your cpu is not the problem.

Make sure you have the latest motherboard drivers and video card drivers. You can get both of them here:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Also, I recommend downloading memtest86. Download the iso, burn it to a cd, then boot off of the cd. Run the memtest program for 2-3 passes. If it has no errors, then you know your memory is not causing the problem.

http://www.memtest86.com/

While running Prime 95, I recommend running this program in the background:

http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php


This will let you moniter temperatures of a few hardware components. When running Prime 95, your cpu should not go above 5C even in a case with no airflow. Also, moniter and take note of what temperatures your other components are.

Another thing you need to do: After Prime 95 has been on for around half an hour, open up speedfan to full view. Take note of what the 12, 5, and 3.3 Volt rails are at when your system is under full load. If the 12V is with 5% of 12, the 5V with 5% of 5, and the 3.3V with 5% of 3.3, then you know your power supply is not the problem.

Also, I suggest opening up Steam and checking to make sure your Half Life 2 is completely up to date in terms of patches/updates.

Finally, I recommend going to windows update and downloading every single update on there except for messenger 4.7(unless of course you use it). Even if you see something on there that you think you may not need, go ahead and download it anyway.

After doing the things listed above, you will know for sure that the problem is not caused by the cpu, memory, power supply, windows, drivers, or the game itself. Good Luck.

Software readings are not accurate enough. To properly check a PSU you need to hook a digital volt-meter to a molex connector where you can check the +12v and +5v rails. If they're fine and you suspect the +3.3v rail, you'll need to check that by tapping the 20 pin connector with a pin or something. Don't poke through the insulated wires, slide it into the connector next to the wire where it goes in... check a diagram to make sure you're tapping the correct wire, and don't do this stuff with the computer running. Connect everything the way it needs to be to test it, then turn the computer on... and turn the computer off before disconnecting everything.

 

[dguy6789]

Generally they are not completely accurate, which is why I stated the 5% algorithm. Even a software app should not fluctuate too far beyond that.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Generally they are not completely accurate, which is why I stated the 5% algorithm. Even a software app should not fluctuate too far beyond that.

MSI's Core Cell reported the +5v rail of my old TruePower 430 at something like 4.85 volts, which is within spec. Actual voltage at a molex connector was 4.6 something, and it would drop to 4.3 something during a cold boot.

 

[OSX]

The only problem is that some DMM probes don't fit in the molex. For instance, mine has a very thick insulated probe that will only allow one to fit on.

 

[0roo0roo]

errg..don't buy generic psu's! penny wise pound foolish

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: OSX
The only problem is that some DMM probes don't fit in the molex. For instance, mine has a very thick insulated probe that will only allow one to fit on.

That is a problem, but so is a power supply that's not putting out the voltage that it should be. So uhhh... get new probes.