Mysterious Blue Screen of Death in Half-Life 2

[weiv0004]

Hey folks, I'm hoping someone can offer a solution to this problem. I'm currently running a cheapo system (see below) and decided that I couldn't resist buying Half-life 2 the other day (20 at C*mpUSA) So I finally get everything up and running using dial-up to register and update source. I start playing the game, and everything is running just fine with acceptable video settings, but when I get to a certain area 10 minutes or so into the game, my system crashes to a lovely Blue Screen of Death. I tried several more times, with the same results at the same spot in the game. I've updated drivers, tried different Ram to ensure that it wasn't a Ram issue, tried in safe mode, checked the cpu temp. Nothing seems to work. My comp restarts too quickly for me to read the BSOD, so I'm not exactly sure what the error is. Does anyone have any suggestions? I do alot of graphics editing and other work on the comp, and this seems to be the only thing that causes the problem.

Biostar MotherBoard M7NCG 400
40 GB WD Harddrive
512 MB generic RAM (with 128 devoted to onboard graphics)
AMD athlon 2700xp
No graphics card as of yet (dropping all of my cash on tuition) so I'm running on the on-board graphics, supposed to be the equivalent of a Geforce 4 MX.

 

[Gravity]

Hmm...seems that your onboard graphics arrangement might be the culprit. On board graphics wasn't really meant for gaming. Consider dropping $35 on a card.

Otherwise, I'd say temps were crashing you. Heat to the graphics chip might be shuttng you down. Try running the game with the case open and some fans pointed at it, that will rule out heat.

Keep us posted.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: weiv0004
Hey folks, I'm hoping someone can offer a solution to this problem. I'm currently running a cheapo system (see below) and decided that I couldn't resist buying Half-life 2 the other day (20 at C*mpUSA) So I finally get everything up and running using dial-up to register and update source. I start playing the game, and everything is running just fine with acceptable video settings, but when I get to a certain area 10 minutes or so into the game, my system crashes to a lovely Blue Screen of Death. I tried several more times, with the same results at the same spot in the game. I've updated drivers, tried different Ram to ensure that it wasn't a Ram issue, tried in safe mode, checked the cpu temp. Nothing seems to work. My comp restarts too quickly for me to read the BSOD, so I'm not exactly sure what the error is. Does anyone have any suggestions? I do alot of graphics editing and other work on the comp, and this seems to be the only thing that causes the problem.

Biostar MotherBoard M7NCG 400
40 GB WD Harddrive
512 MB generic RAM (with 128 devoted to onboard graphics)
AMD athlon 2700xp
No graphics card as of yet (dropping all of my cash on tuition) so I'm running on the on-board graphics, supposed to be the equivalent of a Geforce 4 MX.

If you've already updated all of your drivers and updated your Windows installation (ie gone to Windows Update and downloaded EVERY update offered to you) then try this:

1. Run MPSReports (see link in my .sig) - and say yes to the prompts and send me the resulting computername.cab file.
2. Send me a few of the most recent (sort by date) minidumps found in c:\windows\minidump.

Hopefully I'll be able to tell you what the problem is.

Your system shouldn't bluescreen, regardless of whether it's got built in graphics or not. It might be slow, but it should never bluescreen.

 

[DaSaint]

u said it was a BSOD any chance that its visible to see what the Error was?? or what the file name was that caused the BSOD to happen or is it one of those Instant BSOD's that Reset the computer automatically?

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: DaSaint
u said it was a BSOD any chance that its visible to see what the Error was?? or what the file name was that caused the BSOD to happen or is it one of those Instant BSOD's that Reset the computer automatically?

There's an option in Windows OSs so the system isn't reset (or rather, so the BSOD screen stays up).

 

[LukeMan]

Disabling the Automatic Restart after receiving fatal errors/BSOD:

1/ Click Start Button

2/ On the Start Menu click Control Panel

3/ When the Control Panel window opens click on the System icon

4/ The system properties window opens

5/ Click the Advanced tab

6/ In the Advanced tab window locate the Start and Recovery section and press the Settings button

7/When the settings window opens look for the System failure section

8/ Remove the check mark from the Automatically Restart option

9/ Click OK to Exit


You will now be able to read what error it is. My guess is its not an overheating problem since it happens at the same spot everytime? I would guess its a bad install of the game. A corrupt file or something that your graphics just can't handle. Valve requires a good video card for their games, something like a Geforce fx 5200 or better. It can be run on weaker cards, but not well.

 

[dclive]

A BSOD is typically a driver issue or a hardware issue. The first thing to try is drivers - confirm the driver in question is completely updated. In any case, send me the minidump and, chances are, I can tell you why it crashed.

A game may run very slowly with an old card, but it should never BSOD because of that.