Couple of Half Life 2 issues

[Ruggerbugger]

OK, the first is load times. I completed the game ages ago on Normal, and am now playing through on Hard. The first time through, I had everything maxed out except AA/AF, and it ran fine, barring the stuttering sound on load that everyone talked about. Now, on Hard and with 2x AA (set in game menu), I get horrendous load times, i.e 2-3 minutes. This is understandably irritating - I actually went downstairs last night, got a beer and a snack, and came up to find it still loading Kleiner's lab!

I'm thinking about reducing everything to minimum, including the settings in the Catalyst Control Centre (using 5.1s) and ramping up to see if that has any effect.

BTW, I like to use 1280 x 1024. I can't understand why some people prefer 1280 x 960 (on a normal monitor), as it's even less "square" than my preferred resolution - perhaps someone can explain. The reason I mention this is that the only way you can select this resolution is to use 1280 x 1024 (LCD) in the menu. Why is that, and what difference does it make?

Secondly, I'm having problems in Counterstrike: Source (beyond the fact that I suck ). ZoneAlarm is blocking the polling of servers, but I can't get back to Windows to tell it to allow the connection. This is despite having all instances of HL2 with full privileges in ZA's program control. All that happens is the game hangs and plays a sound effect when I try and cancel the polling. I then have to reboot. I know it's ZA because I can connect fine if I disable ZA. Obviously this isn't a good long term solution, so is there anything I can do?

Let me know if there's any background I've missed.

[yamangman]

2-3 minutes is an extraordinary length in loading times, if its exactly the same setup as before when you were getting acceptable load times, try defragmenting your hard disk and check for runnng processes that could be stopped that consume a large amount of memory, make sure you have 10% of your total disk space free, and make sure your paging file is of an adequate size.

1280x960 IS the correct proportion for a monitor, 1280x1024 is NOT, it always pisses me off in a game when i see a setting for 1280x1024 and not the former.

1280x1024 (LCD) means exactly that, 1280x1024 is a native resolution for LCD's.

Last problem, not a clue, but I suggest using another piece of software entirely. An example of software that is not a bug-ridden masterpiece perhaps.

[jeNK^]

What programs have you set to "allow" on ZA?

You'll need:

Steam.exe
hl2.exe found in \Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\your@email.com\Counter Strike Source\
(might also have sub-folder of cstrike, not at home to check)

[Ruggerbugger]

Certainly hl2.exe, I'll have to check Steam though.

Yamangman, the disk was defragmented not so long ago, but it's something I'll definitely check. I only get these long times with the single player game, opening the multiplayer, etc is fine.

I know 1280 x 1024 is a native resolution for an LCD. So is 1600 x 1200 etc, but HL2 doesn't put (LCD) by those. That's what I was asking about.

Why are you so opposed to that res anyway? I'm not flaming, I'm just interested in your reasons. I'll try 1280 x 960 as an experiment tonight.

Lastly, what's so wrong with ZA? It might also help if you gave an example of another piece of software.

[Ruggerbugger]

At home now. Steam is allowed all rights by ZoneAlarm. I'm also trying 1280 x 960