Half life 2 won't start!!!

[chimpmunk]

Ok, so whenever I try to start half life 2, I get the Steam message box saying "preparing to start half life 2" and then I wait and...


...nothing happens.

I've already validated my game files.
What is wrong, anyone had this problem?

[chimpmunk]

So no one has this problem?
TFC still works perfectly and i'm guessing my other non-source games still do.

[-Psy-]

Specs?

[chimpmunk]

I'm at school right now but on the top of my head:
AMD semptron 1.8
1 gig of ram
gforce 5500fx
and my harddrive might be a maxtor (160gb)

I recently added 512 mb of ram BUT it stopped working before I upgraded.

[chimpmunk]

This deserves a bump, as it still does NOT work.

EDIT: just updated my drivers, still does not work.

[kacation_man]

hum... you have a pretty low end card... i would suggest upgrading, any how... did you restart your computer/steam before starting it... if this sill happens run this: steam://support/?Issues=* ( this will not work on your school computer enless it has steam installed, but wont fix your problem back home anyway ) there might be a background app that is causing it to not launch... I dont think I've ever heard of that happeing but you never know

[chimpmunk]

hum... you have a pretty low end card... i would suggest upgrading, any how... did you restart your computer/steam before starting it... if this sill happens run this: steam://support/?Issues=* ( this will not work on your school computer enless it has steam installed, but wont fix your problem back home anyway ) there might be a background app that is causing it to not launch... I dont think I've ever heard of that happeing but you never know

My card always played the game fine. Being a student in photography, I can't afford anything better when I spend mad money on photo stuff.

I tried restarting and everything, i'll check that link.

[chimpmunk]

General System Performance: Passed
Your system meets the requirements for the Source games.
Your CPU: AMD 1808 MHz
Minimum CPU: 1000 MHz
Recommended CPU: 1400 MHz

Total Memory: 1024 MB
Available Memory: 598 MB
Minimum Memory: 256 MB
Recommended Memory: 512 MB




Display drivers: Passed
There were no problems with the display drivers you are using.
You should still check for updated drivers, which are available here
Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
Display Version: 6.14.10.9147




DirectX: Passed
Your version of DirectX meets the minimum requirements




UDP Ports: Passed
The following UDP ports were reachable.
UDP Port: 27000 - 27040




TCP Ports: Passed
The following TCP ports were reachable.
TCP Port: 27020 - 27040




Background Processes: Failed
The following background processes were found on your system. Please try exiting or uninstalling them, and see if that resolves your issue
Process: vsmon.exe
ZoneLabs Firewall Monitor is running on this system. Make sure all required ports are open, and all instances of Steam.exe, hl.exe, and hl2.exe are allowed access to the internet.
Severity: Very High



Loaded Modules: Passed
There were no loaded modules found that conflict with Steam or the games.



Services: Passed
There were no services found that conflict with Steam or the games.



Layered Service Providers: Passed
There were no LSPs found that should conflict with Steam or the games.



Audio/Video Codecs: Passed
There were no audio/video codecs found that conflict with Steam or the games.


Possible Suggestions


If Steam continues to crash, try deleting all files and folders in the Steam directory except for steam.exe and the SteamApps folder




If you continue to have problems playing the games, try using the launch options -nosound and -windowed.

Open Steam, then Play games
Right click the Souce game, click properties, then Launch options
add -nosound -windowed, click ok, then close.




If you continue to have problems updating Steam, please exit from Steam, and then delete the following files from your Steam directory.

C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.dll
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamUI.dll
C:\Program Files\Steam\ClientRegistry.Blob




If you continue to have problems finding any servers, please exit from Steam, and then delete the following files from your Steam\config directory.

C:\Program Files\Steam\config\serverbrowser.vdf
C:\Program Files\Steam\config\masterservers.vdf




If you continue to have problems with your performance in game, try forcing a lower level DirectX version. Start at the lowest level and go up from there till you find a good level of FPS.

-dxlevel 70
-dxlevel 80
-dxlevel 81
-dxlevel 90

-Open Steam, then Play games
-Right click the Source game, click properties, then Launch options
-add -dxlevel XX, click ok, then close





Basic Information
[+] Team Fortress Classic

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched
[+] Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched
[+] Half-Life

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched
[+] Half-Life Deathmatch: Source

AutoConfigVersion - 1
ScreenWidth - 800
ScreenHeight - 600
ScreenWindowed - 0
ScreenMSAA - 0
ScreenMonitorGamma - 2.2
mat_forceaniso - 1
mat_picmip - 0
mat_trilinear - 1
mat_vsync - 0
mat_forcehardwaresync - 1
mat_parallaxmap - 0
mat_reducefillrate - 1
r_shadowrendertotexture - 1
r_rootlod - 0
r_waterforceexpensive - 0
r_waterforcereflectentities - 0
mat_antialias - 0
mat_specular - 1
mat_bumpmap - 1
mat_hdr_level - 0
VendorID - 4318
DeviceID - 806
DXLevel_V1 - 80
User Token 2 -
User Token 3 -
[+] Half-Life 2: Episode One

AutoConfigVersion - 1
ScreenWidth - 800
ScreenHeight - 600
ScreenWindowed - 0
ScreenMSAA - 0
ScreenMonitorGamma - 2.2
mat_forceaniso - 1
mat_picmip - 1
mat_trilinear - 1
mat_vsync - 0
mat_forcehardwaresync - 1
mat_parallaxmap - 0
mat_reducefillrate - 1
r_shadowrendertotexture - 1
r_rootlod - 1
r_waterforceexpensive - 0
r_waterforcereflectentities - 0
mat_antialias - 0
mat_specular - 1
mat_bumpmap - 1
mat_hdr_level - 0
mat_colorcorrection - 0
VendorID - 4318
DeviceID - 806
DXLevel_V1 - 80
User Token 2 -
User Token 3 -
key - 1234567890123
[+] Half-Life 2

AutoConfigVersion - 1
ScreenWidth - 800
ScreenHeight - 600
ScreenWindowed - 0
ScreenMonitorGamma - 2.2
mat_forceaniso - 1
mat_picmip - 1
mat_trilinear - 1
mat_vsync - 0
mat_forcehardwaresync - 1
mat_parallaxmap - 0
mat_reducefillrate - 1
r_shadowrendertotexture - 1
r_rootlod - 1
r_waterforceexpensive - 0
r_waterforcereflectentities - 0
mat_antialias - 0
mat_specular - 1
mat_bumpmap - 1
mat_hdr_level - 0
VendorID - 4318
DeviceID - 806
DXLevel_V1 - 80
User Token 2 -
User Token 3 -
key - 1234567890123
[+] Sven Co-op

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched

[chimpmunk]

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched
[+] Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched
[+] Half-Life

No settings could be found for this game. This may be a third-party game, or the game has not been launched
[+] Half-Life Deathmatch: Source

What does that mean?

Anyways, I tried to put my zonelab firewall in game mode and it didnt work, so i just closed it and still didnt work.

[kacation_man]

make sure its not running in the background, however a fire wall shouldnt be a problem in a single player game... make sure its not running in the background and try again.

[chimpmunk]

make sure its not running in the background, however a fire wall shouldnt be a problem in a single player game... make sure its not running in the background and try again.

Done.

I still get the "preparing to launch Half life 2" window. Then i hear my harddrive for one or two seconds and then... nothing.

I deleted my local files and re-downloaded them, still does not work, I reinstalled steam, everything!

[chimpmunk]

So far I:
verified the integrity of my games files
rebooted
updated direct x
updated my gfx card drivers
closed the firewall
used the selective startup
uninstalled steam and all steam games and reinstalled them

Still does not start.

[kacation_man]

wait... you said you have a maxtor correct? those things are so falty, if i shut my computer down for more then 5 min and restart it, XP wont even find the damn thing, its labled HD2... it picks it up as local disk (E), i have to reboot once or twice before it will work. Maxtor is bull shit. are you useing their crap ass "drivers" for it?

[chimpmunk]

My bad, it's a samsung sp1604n.

I assumed it was a maxtor, I was wrong.

[kacation_man]

oh... how do you assume that?

[chimpmunk]

I thought it was a maxtor.
Then, when you asked me, I realised i was not 100% sure so I checked, and realised I was way off.

[kacation_man]

well, its a good thing... cuz maxtor sucks, but i got mine for 50bux and didnt feel like takeing it back..

[605Scorpion]

When you say

"used the selective startup"

have you disabled all programs at start up? Even one's you trust?

[chimpmunk]

When you say

"used the selective startup"

have you disabled all programs at start up? Even one's you trust?


I disabeled pretty much everything.

Anyways, the games start again now, after a steam update that fixed it. I guess a lot of people had this problem.