Arrrghh!! HL2 misbehaving!

[eUphoria]

Had hl2 since it came out - was running fine except for a few jerky bits at the beggining of levels, and now its jerking and looping sounds so much as to make playing it v v v annoying!!!!!! Ive tried lowering the res to 1024x768 from 1280x1024 and this made no difference. Its all at medium detail with no aa etc. Ive got a 9800p and 512mb ram with an A64 3200 all at stock speeds. Ive noticed the hdd goes crazy during the game but ive defragged it to no avail and am wondering if its a ram issue?? How much ram are you guys using with hl2? Would 1gb really really benefit me?

[yamangman]

Yes it would, although with 1GB and details on highest I still notice HD access. Try this however, instead of lowering graphics details, lower your sound quality and/or lower your sound hardware acceleration level.

[eUphoria]

Yes it would, although with 1GB and details on highest I still notice HD access. Try this however, instead of lowering graphics details, lower your sound quality and/or lower your sound hardware acceleration level.

Cheers yamangman - im using onboard sound atm (ac97 job) - you reckon id get benefit by getting an audigy 2 as well?

[yamangman]

That depends if your onboard sound is a type like MCP or MCP-T. If your onboard sound has it's own APU, then no, I don't think you would benefit.

[steve threlfall]

Are you using ctalyst 4.12's? becuase you really need to

I get the odd patch of major slowdown in outdoor sections but it dissapears quickly

[davidstone28]

You sure its not the stutter bug?

[chiyau]

its probably the bug, i completed HL2 with the bug which was annoying. when it begins to stutter i press F9 to Quick Load the game which solves the problem for about a few mins, so in all i have pressed quick save and quick load over 500 times throughout the game.

[johnnr892]

how do you find out if your sounds is MCP or MCP-T, i'm also using AC97 and wondering if performance would be increased if i had a soundcard. Thanks,

[eUphoria]

Are you using ctalyst 4.12's? becuase you really need to

I get the odd patch of major slowdown in outdoor sections but it dissapears quickly

Hmmm, i know that they're old catalysts, maybe i'll try newer ones

[steve threlfall]

Definately use the newer optimised drivers. I noticed a big performance increase.

[yamangman]

johnnr892

I should imagine the board in your sig has it's own APU. Check your manual perhaps.

I actually prefer the onboard sound of my motherboard to my Audigy 2 card that I have in another system. Plus it seems to work better with a larger portion of games, I get no stuttering, crackling or hissing like I do with the Audigy 2.

[steve threlfall]

euphoria mine has got the same prob as yours now... stutter bug

Didnt have it the first time, do now annoying

Dont know how to solve it really

[eUphoria]

euphoria mine has got the same prob as yours now... stutter bug

Didnt have it the first time, do now annoying

Dont know how to solve it really

Really weird isnt it! i didnt really get it when i played it the 1st time around either, grrrrr

[yamangman]

The same happend here too, the first time I fired up the game stuttering was at a minimum, the next time however it was back. It isn't unplayedable though.

Very odd.

[Ferral]

I would get ad aware se (done by lavasoft) from http://www.downloads.com and run that to make sure there is no spyware on the pc first off as that runs in the background and can cause major slowdown on the hard drive as it constantly tries to send info out regardless of being online or not and seeing as hl2 has to connect even before sp is started may help out a bit.

Secondly, the more shortcuts you have on the quickstart bar and desktop also slows the system down as all these shortcuts are loaded into the ram ready for instant use. Get rid of them and there isnt as much load on the ram.

Next try this little gem of a program, Its called GameXP, what it does is optimize you're system for gaming performance. I use this mysely and am running a 5700LE card and HL2 is in 1024x768 with everything set to high except the water. Its literally a 1 button command and it does the rest itself (click start or go, something like that !) then once its done restart.

http://www.tucows.com/preview/359811.html

Finally another good one is this :

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4070.html

This is Safe XP, this allows you to stop XP sending user stats etc to microsoft and allows you to select what you want running in the background.

Try this and see what happens then let me know

[eUphoria]

Thanks ferral!! Ive tried the game xp from http://www.tucows.com/preview/359811.html and it seems to make things a bit better, still getting stutter though, oh well i'll try putting some more ram in it and see if it makes things happier - that and newer cats